Startup Garage
By Startup Garage
Hosted by Vaibhav Gogia.
Startup GarageFeb 05, 2021
#54 Luxury On The Hour Ft. Khaled El Sayed & Ismail Al Ghussein
In this episode of Startup Garage, dive into the opulent world of luxury watches as we bring you an hour of wit, wisdom, and wrist candy magic with Khaled, the visionary founder of Timepiece360, and Ismail, a passionate luxury watch enthusiast and a friend of the brand.
Episode Highlights:
Origins of Timepiece360: Discover the captivating tale of how Khaled turned the ticking dreams of luxury watches into reality, all with a touch of humor and entrepreneurial flair.
Luxury Market Laughs: Uncover the quirks, challenges, and sheer joy associated with buying and owning luxury timepieces. Spoiler alert: It involves more than just telling time!
Wristful Thinking: Ismail shares his personal journey into the world of luxury watches, spills the beans on his favorite pieces, and regales us with anecdotes of being a Timepiece360 aficionado.
Time Traveling Trends: Get a front-row seat to the latest trends in the luxury watch market, the quartz crisis, from moon-phases to the art of balancing tradition and innovation.
#53 Sports, Investing and Impact Ft. Florent de Gantès
In this episode of Startup Garage, we dive into the world of venture capital and startup success with our guest Florent, a General Partner at Teampact Ventures. With 20 years of experience in entrepreneurship, product management, and executive leadership, Florent brings a unique perspective to the world of investing in startups that are tackling critical challenges in climate and health.
At Teampact, they're not just your typical venture capital firm. They're pioneers of a new kind of investing, one that's high-impact, operator-run, and founder-centric. But what sets them apart even more is their use of principles borrowed from elite sports to help their portfolio companies deliver exceptional results.
Florent shares insights into how the team building approach used in sports can be a game-changer for startups. We explore how the competitive spirit, discipline, and collaboration found in the world of sports can be applied to building and scaling successful businesses.
Additionally, Florent leads Tremplin Capital, a pre-seed vehicle that empowers French entrepreneurs from underrepresented and under-networked backgrounds. He also coaches and mentors CEOs and CPOs, helping them excel at product leadership.
Tune in to gain valuable perspectives on impact investing, the sports mindset in business, and the essential ingredients for startup success. If you're an entrepreneur or investor looking to make a real impact, this episode is a must-listen.
Co-hosted by Surabhi Verma
#52 Charging Forward With EVs Ft. Adam Ridgway, Founder, One Moto
For the premiere episode of the third season of Startup Garage, we explore how this British expat turned his passion for bikes into a global success story, with One Moto headquartered in Dubai and spreading its influence across 10 countries. From his early career in the UAE's media industry to his bold entrepreneurial pursuits, Adam's path to autonomy and creativity is a testament to the power of perseverance and innovation.
Get ready to be inspired by Adam's incredible journey from branding and publishing to pioneering the electric vehicle industry.
#StartupGarage #EVInnovation #OneMoto #Entrepreneurship #EVRevolution #DubaiStartups #AdamRidgway #GlobalSuccess #InnovationStory
In less than two years, One Moto is already producing a remarkable ~10,000 fully modular electric bikes and vans every month. Their recent $150 million financing deal is a testament to their potential. Visit One Moto's website (www.one-moto.com) to witness their groundbreaking products and innovations firsthand!
Join us on this electrifying journey by watching the full episode, and don't forget to like, share, and subscribe to keep up with the latest stories of success in the startup world!
Listen to more than 50 episodes of Startup Garage on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts:
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3kpqY1B
iTunes: https://apple.co/32IBWcN
Google Podcast: https://bit.ly/3igRASy
#51 Design & Thinking Ft. Sarah Toukan, Co-Founder, Ziina
In this episode, we speak with Sarah about design thinking, conducting user-interviews, the beginning of Ziina and among many other things about how fin-tech founders should think about blockchain and the concepts of decentralized finance.
#50 The Mindset Ft. Joy Ajlouny, Co-Founder, Fetchr
In this episode, Joy talks about the mindset required for being a successful founder, to raise money and the various facets of managing investor expectations.
#49 Shoe Maker Ft. Joe Foster, Founder, Reebok
In 1958, Joe and Jeff left the Foster business to set up a new sports shoe company in an old brewery building in the UK and 30 years later it became the biggest sports brand in the world, Reebok, grossing over $4BN USD in revenues.
This is a special episode where we had the honor of hosting the legendary, Joseph William Foster, the founder of Reebok (1958). Joe lives and breathes Reebok. His stories, anecdotes, the thrill and the lessons are timeless and wisdom in its purest form. Joe has recently also released his life story as a book, Shoe Maker, and is also doing university tours talking about his life.
The episode is co-hosted by Pankaj Rai, Chief Data Analytics Officer, Aditya Birla Group who also is an athlete, a marathon runner and loves sports (and sports shoes!). In this episode, Pankaj and Joe talk about Joe's family, childhood, the beginning of Reebok, the scaling to a multi-billion dollar business and about the lessons to bring to the contemporary business.
Recently, Aditya Birla Group acquired the distribution license for Reebok India and South East Asia and hence Joe is excited to impart history and love to the next generation carrying the legacy forward.
#48 Year In Fin-Tech Ft. Tal Sharon, Managing Partner, Equitech
In this episode, we first look at the broad trends of the year 2021 in fin-tech, the year marking a huge funding appetite for startups and investors. The second segment of the podcast takes a quick dip into various sub-segments of fin-tech: digital banking, lending, payments (B2B and B2C) and wealth management.
Equitech's YouTube channel has in-depth sessions on each of these sub-segments and more that you can refer to.
#47 Travel, Food & YouTubing Ft. Harish Bali, Founder, Visa2Explore
After spending over 18 years in the corporate, leading large sales teams at HUL, Airtel and Vodafone, Harish Bali started experimenting with travel and food vlogging. At the age of 42! Used up his life-long savings to document his travels, barely breaking even and worked hard to understand his target audience. Today, Visa2Explore has over 1.2M subscribers and more than 300 videos.
His story is simple yet truly inspiring, a story of sheer persistence! Listen to Harish Bali on this episode of Startup Garage, a first in our mini-series of Hinglish episodes.
#46 Corporate Innovation 101 Ft. Karin Gabriel
Karen Gabriel has had a fantastic career working with high impact teams across the world. She was a part of the team that launched the Windows phone at Microsoft, she lead program design, development and execution at Dubai Future Foundation, ran 7 cohorts with over 150 startups from around the globe with one of the most ambitious governments in the world, the UAE government.
In this episode, Karin talks about why large organisations are moving towards innovation as the driving agenda for transformation, what should they consider before getting into these waters, how should they think about and work with startups and also talks about designing founder friendly innovation programs.
#45 Education & Entrepreneurship Ft. Alaa Bakhit, Founder, B12
Alaa is also a professor of practice at the Al Hussein Technical University (HTU) where he teaches programming and mentors young entrepreneurs.
B12 has been a part of the Microsoft For Startups, Middle East ecosystem.
Learn more about Microsoft For Startups, Middle East: GrowthX Accelerator and Highway To 100 Unicorns Series
#44 AI, Consulting & Diversity Ft. Paula Newby, Founder, Predixa
Paula Newby is the Founder of Predixa, an AI tool for corporations to quickly evaluate the key issues and solve for them using a data driven, objective approach. Paula started her first business in textile e-commerce back in the late-nineties and has been an entrepreneur since. She moved to the UAE and started Predixa, and has been working with some of the leading change programs in the region. Paula is long on diversity and inclusion for companies to succeed.
In this episode, we speak with her about consulting, about solving business problems using AI and data analytics and also about how and why diversity and inclusion are important!
Predixa.AI has been a part of the Microsoft For Startups, Middle East ecosystem.
Learn more about Microsoft For Startups, Middle East: GrowthX Accelerator and Highway To 100 Unicorns Series
Trailer: Innovators Unplugged, Startup Garage & Microsoft For Startups, Middle East
The official trailer of Innovators Unplugged by Startup Garage & Microsoft For Startups, Middle East
#43 Buy Now Pay Later Ft. Anuscha Iqbal, Co-Founder, Spotii
Anuscha Iqbal is the co-founder of Spotii, a Buy Now Pay Later startup based in Dubai, UAE. Anuscha has been working in the investments and private equity space for over a decade with The Abraaj Group.
Spotii has grown tremendously in the past one and a half year and recently has been acquired by Zip, a global BNPL leader from Australia.
In this episode, we speak with Anuscha about moving into fintech from a traditional finance background, about the initial days of setting up Spotii, the BNPL ecosystem and how it's evolving and finally the big news, the acquisition!
Anuscha and Spotii are a part of the Microsoft For Startups Middle East family!
#42 Turkish SaaS & e-Commerce Ft. Gulsah Gulser
In this second episode, we have with us Gülşah Gülser, Founder, Quin AI. Gulsah is a strategy consultant with over 10 years of experience mainly in customer and deal strategy. She has worked in retail, e-commerce and travel & leisure and has engaged with leading local and global companies.
In this episode, we talk to her about e-commerce and the emerging small seller segment in developing economies, about how Quin is solving for them using AI and about the Turkish ecosystem.
#41 Digital Inclusion & Impact Ft. Jose Rubinger, Founder, Key2Enable
Jose Rubinger worked in the computer-sales industry in Brazil when he identified a global problem: lack of accessible technology for specially-abled children. A few years of research and many MVPs later, he founded Key2Enable, a technology startup that empowers children with disabilities, their parents, caretakers and teachers to accelerate the child's communication, assessment, monitoring, and learning process.
In this first episode of Innovators Unplugged, powered by Microsoft For Startups, Middle East, we talk to Jose about building his impact startup from Brazil to UAE, managing talent, capital and metrics and about the support he has received from various corporate programs.
Jose and Key2Enable are a part of the Microsoft For Startups, Middle East
#40 Simplifying Deal Discovery Ft. Abhishek Goyal, Founder, Tracxn
Abhishek Goyal has worked at Yahoo and Amazon, joined Accel Partners and led Flipkart's first investment round in 2009. He then became an entrepreneur and started Tracxn in 2013, one of the largest private-market data and deal services platform, globally. Today, Tracxn is used by governments, corporates and VCs across the globe to track innovative companies and access data.
In this episode, co-hosted by Vaibhav and Gaurav, Abhishek talks about his journey from corporate to VC and then to entrepreneurship. He talks about the famous Flipkart-Accel deal that made history in the country, about Tracxn and about the SaaS play in India.
#39 Think & Talk Smart Ft. Peter Hopwood, Speaking Coach
Peter Hopwood is an international speaking coach. He travels the world and coaches TEDx speakers, entrepreneurs and corporates on building smart habits for impactful communication and thinking.
In this episode, he talks about the foundational aspects of communication, insights on how to share powerful stories and build acute speaking and presence and about how charming founders sway deals!
#38 The Wellness Conversation Ft. Rohit Shah, Co-Founder, Health Horizons
The hemp industry in India is one of the fastest growing industries with more states legalising cultivation of industrial hemp. There are a lot of myths and taboos around hemp, cannabis and marijuana in India. For this episode, we invited Rohit Shah, Co-Founder & CEO of Health Horizons, a vertically integrated hemp startup from India. Rohit came to India after working in US real estate and has pioneered hemp product manufacturing and distribution in India.
In this episode, we talk about this fast growing, highly regulated and misunderstood sector, about the cultivation of the hemp plant, production and benefits of these products.
#Breakdown8: Inside Saudi's PIF
Saudi Arabia's PIF - Public Investment Fund is a $347B sovereign wealth fund. It is headed by Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman and has been an investor in Softbank's Vision Fund. In this episode, Vidit Khendry talks about PIF and the gray areas around it.
#37 Middle East, Investing & Crypto Ft. Dr. Marc Nassim, Awad Capital
Dr. Marc Nassim is the Partner & Managing Director at Awad Capital, one of the top investment banks in the Middle-East region. Dr. Nassim holds a PhD. in Finance and has spent about two decades working and investing across sectors for family offices, sovereign funds and HNIs.
In this episode, Kushal and Vaibhav talk to him about the middle east investment landscape, the IB process of evaluating new deals, about getting into IB and crypto-currency.
To follow Dr. Marc Nassim: Twitter | LinkedIn
#Breakdown7: Network Effects & WhatsApp
#36 What Winning Looks Like (Part 2) Ft. Robert Hussey
In this episode, we chat with him regarding the hostile takeover attempt and life after the acquisition.
#Breakdown6: Mayhem On Wall Street - Archegos Capital
#35 Philosophy & Capital Ft. Cathy Guo, Antler India
#Breakdown5: NFTs Explained
#34 Of VCs & Technology Ft. Dr. Srikanth Sundararajan, General Partner, Ventureast
Dr. Srikanth is currently a General Partner at Ventureast, one of the oldest venture capital firms in India (started around 1997), and has raised and deployed about $400 Million USD. In the past, he has held the post of CTO for HCL and Cognizant and prior to that he was an entrepreneur. Srikanth also is a visiting professor at Indian School of Business and IIT Bhubaneshwar among a few other universities.
In this episode, we speak to him about the transition from being the CTO of large enterprise-tech businesses to being a venture investor, about the SaaS market in India and a bunch of other things he is passionate about (cricket!).
#Breakdown4: Domino's Pizza Turnaround
The Domino's Pizza turnaround is a legendary corporate tale of customer centricity. The company's share, after IPOing in 2004, went down to $3/share in 2008 and currently trades levels of $360/share.
In this short episode, let's look at how Patrick Doyle turned the pizza company around.
#33 The Partying Polymath Ft. Shaun Gold
Shaun Gold, is a former nightlife ninja, where his business was creating and promoting the some of the most exclusive parties and events in Miami. He is a true polymath, has written 4 books, lectures at universities and currently, is starting up again, this time in the mental health space: The Youtopian Journey.
In this episode, we talk to Shaun about starting a nightclub in the pre-social media era, building relationships with some of the top celebrities and entrepreneurs in the US and about mental health (for entrepreneurs and millennials).
Check out Shaun's books here.
#32 VC For Everyone Ft. Jesse Randall, Founder, Sweater
Jesse has started companies in the past and also works with various startups on their fundraising and growth at Deviant Strategy. He is a brilliant marketing mind and hence we try to understand from him, marketing in the venture capital industry.
#31 What Winning Looks Like (Part 1) Ft. Robert Hussey, Co-Founder, POP Radio
#30 Ethical Leadership Ft. Roberto Croci, Managing Director, Microsoft For Startups
Roberto is one of those leaders who has worked at the cusp of startups and corporates for years, and has been driving innovation in the emerging markets. He often talks about ethical leadership, human-centred approach to development and the power of humility, and so in this episode, we explore these topics, along with how these are practiced at Microsoft.
#29 Out-Innovating Ft. Alex Lazarow, VC, Cathay Innovation
Alexandre Lazarow is a venture capitalist with Cathay Innovation, a global firm that invests across Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America in a range of startups including Chime, Neon, Terminal, FinAccel, Zola, Rensource, Paga among others.
Previously, Alex worked with Omidyar Network, a philanthropic investment firm. He is also the author of 'Out-Innovate' published by Harvard Business Review Press in April 2020, where he talks about how global entrepreneurs are re-writing the rules of starting up.
In this episode, we dive deeper into Alex's experiences of investing in global startups, we talk about building unicorns vs. camels and some facets of how entrepreneurs can "out-innovate".
#Breakdown3: The Marshmallow Challenge
#28 Raising Money As VCs Ft. Charlie O'Donnell, Brooklyn Bridge Ventures
Our guest for this episode is Charlie O'Donnell. Charlie is the sole Partner and Founder at Brooklyn Bridge Ventures. The fund makes seed and pre-seed investments and was the first venture firm located in Brooklyn - where Charlie was born and raised. Brooklyn Bridge invested in the first rounds of The Wing, Canary, Hungryroot, Ample Hills, Clubhouse, Imagen, and goTenna among others. Charlie has a reputation for picking out great companies really early on, as he did with Twitter and Foursquare. He is one of only a dozen individuals to be named to Business Insider's 100 Most Influential People in NY Tech five or more times.
In this episode we talk to him about early 2000s, the dotcom crash, his experiences of raising money as a first-time fund manager and how he pitched to Limited Partners (LPs). This episode can be a great resource to listeners looking to break into the VC industry.
You can read more about Charlie, here and also read his blog: This Is Going To Be Big.
#Breakdown2: First Mover (Dis)Advantage
#27 Fund Of Funds Ft. Mohammad Mustafa, Chairman, SIDBI
#Breakdown1: Vanity Metrics & Sanity Metrics
#26 The CEO Factory Ft. Sudhir Sitapati, Executive Director, HUL
For the pilot episode of season 2, we have invited over Sudhir Sitapati, Executive Director, Hindustan Unilever.
Sudhir has spent over 20 years at HUL, wearing multiple hats across categories, functions and regions and has recently distilled his knowledge and observations of all these years into 'The CEO Factory', his first book.
In this episode, Ayush and Vaibhav co-host Sudhir and talk about his book, HUL's culture of building CEOs, about decision making and leadership. Tune in to hear the full episode.
#25 Investing in SE Asia Ft. Jeffrey Paine, Partner, Golden Gate Ventures
#24 Connections Count Ft. Heidi Roizen, Partner, Threshold Ventures
Heidi Roizen is a venture capitalist, a Stanford University lecturer, and an entrepreneur. She co-founded the software company T/Maker, served as VP of Worldwide Developer Relations at Apple, entered the VC industry with Softbank, and currently is a partner at Silicon Valley-based Threshold Ventures. She is a corporate director for a bunch of public and private companies such as Memphis Meats, Lumity and Polarr. Heidi has been known in the tech industry for her relationships and her principles to building them.
In this episode we talk to her about her journey first as an entrepreneur, then as a VC in the valley. She talks about building meaningful relations not just for a fulfilling career but for a fulfilling life, and about the venture capital industry.
#23 Recession Proof Leadership Ft. Victor Cheng
"The world is no more the same", is probably going to be the most overused phrase of the decade. Or is it? Our guest for this episode is Victor Cheng, a celebrated business coach to Inc. 500 CEOs and a bestselling author. Victor is a Stanford University graduate, a former McKinsey consultant, and also serves as an expert source for media outlets including TIME, Forbes, Fortune and The Wall Street Journal. In this episode, we talk about navigating through the crisis, about mental models of problem solving, about growth in SaaS companies and a lot more. Here is a link to Victor's blogs: SaasCEO | CaseInterview and his business books.
#22 Growth Stage Investing Ft. Ashish Kumar, Partner, Fundamentum
Ashish Kumar is a partner at Fundamentum Partnership - a Series B/C focused VC Fund based out of India. Prior to this, he was a serial technology entrepreneur and had started multiple tech companies with successful exits including one to a publicly listed entity. At Fundamentum, Ashish invests $10M-$25M, alongside Nandan Nilekani (Founder, Infosys) and Sanjeev Aggarwal (Founder, Helion), across sectors.
Some of their portfolio companies: PharmEasy, Spinny, FarEye.
In this episode, we chat with him about his acquisition story, growth stage investing, how things change at a B-round of investment and deal-sourcing.
#21 Alpha Portfolio Ft. Saurabh Mukherjea, Founder, Marcellus
In this episode, we talk about retail investing in India, about cutting through financial noise, the concept of coffee-can investing and a lot more.
#20 Pitching 101 Ft. Serap Ipek, RocketX Group
In Remembrance - Steve Jobs - Bonus Episode
#19 The Business Of Wealth Ft. Varun Sridhar, CEO, PayTM Money
Listen to him talk about PayTM's aggressive growth, different emerging investor segments and the evolution of the wealth management industry.
#18 Carrying The Fire Ft. Srinath Ravichandran, Agnikul Cosmos
Well, our guest for this episode is Srinath Ravichandran, Former Director at AXA and AIG, US, and now the co-founder of Agnikul Cosmos, an aerospace engineering startup which designs, manufactures and launches orbital vehicles for satellites. In this episode, we chat about his fascinating journey, how he built a team of engineers, scientists and professors, Agnikul's pathbreaking 3D printed engines, and changing regulatory environment in the defense and space sector.
Tune in to learn more. Follow our Instagram page to get updates on new episodes.
#17 Digital Logistics Ft. Gautam Kumar, Co-Founder & COO, FarEye
#16 Of Deals & Diversification Ft. Anurag Ramdasan, 3one4 Capital
#15 Scaling Impact Ft. Prerna Mukharya, Founder, Outline India
In this episode, we talk to her about her journey spanning 8 years in the development sector, the key challenges in the sector, the changing face of impact-funding and scaling up this impact.
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