The UpstreamLife

In this episode meet Gagana Ganesh, the founder of Grab Me, who has defied conventional wisdom. She has expanded to modern retail first even while others go for a D2C concept. Don't get us wrong she has also built a "brand".com D2C store, but has expanded to over 100-retail stores. This podcast covers her journey and her efforts to build India's first long lasting brownies and more.

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Incentives in the world of Web3: Ketan Jog of Absinthe Labs bets on a new age of loyalty management

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In this episode we talk with Esha Tiwary, the founder of Furrl, a proprietary platform to discover new age brands. She has in the past worked with Entrepreneur First, Myntra, CloudNine and ITC. She is a graduate of IIT-Kanpur and Harvard Business School. Her marketing techniques along with blending technology and data has led her to scale up Furrl, which supports several new age brands to be discovered by customers. This has led many an entrepreneur to scale up their brands on Furrl.

00:00 - Introduction.
01:48 - Zero to One journey and the beginning of Furrl.
06:37 - Building a community on Furrl.
10:57 - Communities are moving online.
15:31 - Curating Furrl’s partners.
24:42 - Furrl follows a brand first strategy and is content first.
31:42 - Men! They are impulsive shoppers too.
35:25 - The search versus discovery analogy
36:21 - Discovery using hashtags
37:40 - Balancing business and life.
41:09 - The influence of parents on Esha
43:00 - Books and music

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In this episode of theUpStreamLife.com we talk to Shauraya Bhutani, the co-founder of Breathe Capital and Capital Connect Advisors. Shauraya has been the bridge in the movement of capital betweenIndia and South-East Asia. In this podcast he talks about the new age of Indian business and what they are going to do in South East Asia.

00:00 - Introduction
01:25 - Starting out as an I-banker.
05:38 - The bridge: South-East Asia and Indian startups
10:15 - Indian startup influence in South-East Asia
16:25 - Growth of ideas in the region.
21:00 - The future of edtech.
30:54 - Geo politics and the business of managing LPs.
34:37 - Debt versus Equity for early founders.
42:20 - The rise of brands in South-East Asia and India.

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In this episode we talk with the President of TDK Ventures, Nicolas Sauvage, who has been at the forefront of discovering entrepreneurs making impact in the climate-tech industry with the power of hardtech and deeptech. In this episode discover what TDK Ventures intends to do for India's deeptech community. 

Deeptech is combining the hard work at the atoms level with the power of algorithms and software to help humanity in a new journey towards energy storage, battery recycling, air-taxis, green hydrogen, electric vehicles and digital transformation. Their investments in AutoFlight (https://autoflight.com/en/), pH7 Technologies (https://ph7technologies.ca), Verdagy (https://verdagy.com), AM Batteries (https://am-batteries.com), Ascend Elements (https://ascendelements.com) and many others is testimony to their commitment to the global deeptech community of entrepreneurs.

In India they have invested in Exponent Energy (https://www.exponent.energy), Fasal (https://fasal.co) and (https://www.infinite-uptime.com/). 

If you are a scientist or a deeptech business in India you must not miss this episode with Nicolas if you want to understand the TDK Goodness. 

00:00 - Introduction to the TDK Goodness.
00:50 - Investing in deeptech - innovations in materials science.
01:41 - Atoms level innovation combined with software.
02:55 - Nicolas love for deeptech - the TDK Ventures thought process.
04:39 - Scaling deeptech businesses and the role of VCs & CVCs.
05:36 - TDK & TDK Ventures - the history of a deeptech enterprise.
06:35 - Investing in entrepreneurs contributing to the future of humanity.
11:00 - Challenger Technologies and the business of deeptech. 
13:30 - Green energy and energy storage in the years to come.
16:03 - Green hydrogen and its opportunities in India.
17:17 - TDK Ventures mission in India & it wants to meet scientists.
19:55 - Backing scientists and scaling a deeptech venture.
24:10 - What are a Challenger Technologies?
27:10 - Generative AI and its impact.
27:30 - Investing in Groq,  https://chat.groq.com/ [chat.groq.com]
28:26 - Entrepreneurs going beyond the "Jugaad" mindset.
30:03 - Needing those exits in deeptech to inspire people.
32:09 - Nicolas and the TDK Ventures team.
33:33 - https://www.tablegroup.com/product/dysfunctions/

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In this episode we bring you BCL India's partner Pavan Sharma who will talk about the interim #Budget2024. He will tell us about taxes, money, tech and the performance of the economy while we balance to support the poor and support the exuberance of a youthful nation. BCL India is an audit, compliance and financial transformation firm based in Bengaluru.

00:00 - Introduction to the episode
03:12 - What is the interim budget?
04:46 - Your taxes remain the same & availing benefits.
06:44 - Rationalising taxes to protect the poor & support business.
09:00 - High taxes versus govt services delivered, private services being expensive.
11:37 - India does not have a lot of money to play with.
12:01 - Fiscal deficit to govt debt - how India is moving to the future.
14:00 - MSME recovery and economy’s revenue and expenditure.
20:36 - The corpus of Rs 1 lakh crore for innovation & R&D
22:00 - The reason for using words like Deep Tech in the budget.
25:00 - The dilemma of running India with subsidies - good and bad.
28:00 - Individual taxes , old regime versus the new regime.
32:10 - Looking at the Prime Minister’s Yojana schemes.
33:00 - Analyzing the government’s performance in direct transfer of subsidies and managing Covid-19.
34:58 - Analysing the last ten years.
37:34 - Managing automation and technology while uplifting the poor and the salaried.
38:29 - We should manage our education better, only 40 percent of rural school kids can read.
41:15 - Why communities are important in India?
42:14 - The rise of the startup community.
44:50 - Rise in EPF payments, which means new companies are being created.
47:03 - India will grow on a smaller base with very little money to play with.

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In this interview we bring you a company that is well known in the Indian startup ecosystem. We are talking to Tracxn, a company whose novel way of collecting data has brought it a lot of respect. We speak to its co-founder Neha Singh. 

00:00 - Introduction to Tracxn.
03:05 - The first version of Tracxn was coded by Neha.
06:47 - Early lessons in the USA when Tracxn was launched a decade ago. 
13:45 - Winning early customers.
19:22 - Sales cycles in India vis-a-vis the world.
26:18 - USA being a deeper market for Corporate.
34:18 - Sitting in earning calls after the IPO and the questions on tech.
44:06 - Being organised as an entrepreneur.

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In this interview we deep dive into the battery ecosystem and the bike "Mantis" which is being built by Orxa Energies. The founders Ranjitha and Prajwal have been in the industry for two decades and they know a thing or two about deep tech. They are bonafide experts who also work with the defence and aerospace industry. Discover their trials and tribulations in this interview.

00:00 - Introduction to Orxa Energies
01:30 - Orxa's beginnings 
05:20 - Starting up after many years in Corporate
11:15 - The rigour of becoming an OEM and a brand
26:40 - Battery chemistries 
31:50 - Choosing the performance segment.
34:57 - The importance of battery recycling
38:00 - Managing the data from the bike and the Orxa tech stack.
43:00 - The importance of customer service
47:00 - Connected mobility and the customer
51:00 - Closing thoughts

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In this interview we bring you a senior technocrat Narendra Bhandari who has in the past worked with the likes of Intel and Microsoft. He has been advising startups for more than a decade and is now a partner at "seafund" - a deep tech fund. 

00:00 - Moving from Corporate Venturing to become part of a fund.
05:54 - Building the startup network.
07:07 - Deeptech and software - moving from IT services to products.
15:00 - Building moats around tech.
26:27 - Building digital "highways", large language models for India.
36:00 - Monetising data.
42:30 - The colour of the LPs in "seafund".
47:29 - The AI story is never going away.
50:33 - The chip wars are here.

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In this episode of theUpStreamLife.com we bring you Elektrobit, an automotive software company, which has pioneered connected mobility for three decades in the industry. We have Elektrobit’s VP Strategy and Country Manager - India, Satish S, discuss mobility in India and the role of engineers globally in the automotive industry.

00:00 - Introduction.
01:17 - How Satish entered the automotive industry. 
05:52 - Elektrobit, Autosar and Mobility.
14:07 - Electronics, software, and the cost of the vehicle.
28:00 - Data in a car and how it is used.
37:00 - Making the car secure in a connected era
42:18 - The use cases in mobility
47:30 - The Chip wars are here to stay.
54:00 - Unwinding as a CEO or a country

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In this episode of theUpStreamLife we explore how Arjun Vaidya went from being an operator to becoming a VC. He celebrates India's new age brands, modern marketing and the future of consumption led sustainable growth.

00:00 - Introduction
02:00 - The mythical term called D2C in 2018.
08:00 - The omnichannel world or digital commerce.
16:20 - Brands & customers collaborating with digital experiences.
23:00 - Digital micro-cultures and communities.
30:00 - The journey to the world of Venture Capital.
36:00 - Working with entrepreneurs who understand digital culture.
43:00 - Living in a completely digital world.

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In this interview we speak with multi-talented personality Karan Javaji who has been an RBI Officer, a rugby player and an equestrian. Karan also serves as a Colonel in the territorial army of India. He is also involved in public policy research. 

00:00 - Introduction
01:40 - Karan and his multi-faceted career.
05:00 - Origin of the name Boni
10:00 - Boni for SMBs
15:00 - Focusing on solving problems Indian businesses 
23:00 - ONDC and why it is built for Indian SMBs to thrive.
30:08 - Generative AI and the future of technologies for SMBs
35:48 - Leaving the RBI and starting up
41:00 - Equestrian training and hobbies

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In this episode we talk with Mustafa Al-Bassam of Celestia Labs who talks to us about a consensus based data networks and the practical uses cases of decentralised technology. This episode is brought to you by Lumos Labs and Builders Tribe.

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In this episode we talk with Rinka Banerjee who has built a practice around food and everything food tech. She had been with HUL for two decades before she started up Thinking Forks a decade earlier. She discusses the opportunity in food brands from India for the world.

00:00 - Introduction
01:07 - Journey of Thinking Forks
05:10 - How large food companies experiment?
09:50 - Getting the food supply chain right.
16:00 - The opportunity for startups in food.
22:19 - Indians consuming food and the experience.
29:26 - Global food companies coming into India.
35:36 - Figuring out customer service.
41:05 - Income segments and consumption in food.
45:00 - Serving safe food, future of food consumption and food tech.
52:00 - Rinka's hobbies beyond Thinking Forks

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In this episode of theUpStreamLife we talk about the benefits of cannabis as a medicinal plant and how it is sold in India under the aegis of the Ministry of Ayush. Richa Jaggi, the co-founder of Awshad explains why this plant is now mainstream for its ancient medicinal purpose.

00:00 - Introduction.
01:06 - Cultural relevance of cannabis in India.
04:40 - Why Richa started up?
06:06 - The Vijaya territory and what is it?
14:46 - Testing Awshad's formulations.
18:00 - Marketing Awshad today through its own e-commerce channel.
25:54 - Managing sleep and stress with Ayurveda

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In this second episode of the India Deep Tech Series brought to you by TDK Ventures, theUpStreamLife brings you how Indian universities are shaping the Deep Tech ecosystem. Siddharth Mehta, Director of TDK Ventures India, talks to Prof. Krishnan Balasubramanian from IIT Madras about the journey of the Indian deep tech community. The professor himself predicts that innovations from India's deep tech community will become successful globally.

00:00 - Introduction.
00:34 - The journey of Professor Krishnan.
05:45 - The importance of the 2011 time frame for India's deep tech
08:56 - Comparing the quality of Indian deep tech to the West.
13:29 - The student mindset to take innovations to the startup world.
18:35 - Changing culture in Indian universities to support startups.
28:50 - Taking Indian innovations global
30:50 - Importance of frugal innovation.

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In this episode of theUpStreamLife.com we speak with Balaji Renukumar, the founder of Sensfix who is a scientist building an AI company which makes maintenance of a machine faster and the work of a servicing team efficient. The company targets facility management.

00:00 - Introduction.
01:15 - Balaji's journey as a scientist and Sensfix
06:00 - Sensfix work in AI and its business
11:53 - Working with industries
26:58 - The B2B customer metrics.
35:00 - Sensfix in India
41:00 - Managing to unwind away from business

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In this episode of theUpStreamLife we talk with Simran Alphonso from Bitget about the $10 million grant for developers and startups in India. We spoke to her on the sidelines of the #BuidlforWeb3 Summit 2023. This episode is brought to you by LumosLabs.

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In this episode we talk with Kaavya Prasad, the founder of LumosLabs, she talks about how the Web3 and blockchain community is looking at India and how the talent for good engineers is only growing. She caught up with us at the sidelines of the #BuidlforWeb3 summit 2023 in Bengaluru.

00:00 - Introduction
00:34 - The BuidlforWeb3 Summit
02:44 - Working from India and building for the global Web3 community.
04:40 - The community of Web3 at the summit.
09:59 - The evolution of Web3 builders.
15:00 - Kaavya talks about LumosLabs and BuildersTribe
19:00 - Real world use cases of blockchain

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In this episode of theUpStreamLife.com we talk to the founder of Nethermind, Tomasz Stañzack, who was an ex-Investment Banker who fell in love with decentralised technology and its impact the world over. Here is why he believes it is going to be a significant technology going forward. This episode is brought to you by LumosLabs and BuildersTribe.

00:00 - Introduction.
01:50 - From an i-banker to falling in love with Web3.
02:50 - Becoming an entrepreneur in the Web3 industry.
04:00 - Blockchain and the business of convincing banks.
09:00 - Blockchain helps in bringing stability in financial downturns.
12:32 - Practical and not so practical applications of blockchain.
17:00 - Blockchain is all about the digital asset.
23:00 - Being dedicated to work

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