#DamaniTalks

As #DamaniTalks completes its 50th episode, we bring you a leading personality from the Fintech industry -   Shinjini Kumar, Co-Founder of SALT (mysaltapp) She had a 17-year stint with the RBI,  Paytm Bank, and later led Citibank's consumer bank for India – each role would make the holder proud – a position that one would retire from. Yet, she found herself a challenge that got her jumpi...

Luck is when hard work, preparation, and perseverance meet with opportunity. Most founders get the hard work and perseverance right, but very few achieve all 3… On the XLix (49th) episode of #DamaniTalks, we had 1 such rare founder! Founder & CEO of WealthDesk , Ujjwal Jain 's life journey is a series of forward-looking decisions that got him to founding a top-level fintech startup! Key takeaw...

As the heath-tech startup ecosystem sees increasing interest, funding, and valuations in India, We delved deep into a conversation with a Doctor turned VC investor for a refreshing perspective on the space! Our guest Pankaj Jethwani, Executive Vice President of W Health Ventures , sheds light on the following: What motivated Pankaj to become a doctor? What was his trigger to change from being a do...

Most people believe that an affluent entrepreneurial family provides one a leg up in the entrepreneurial journey. But like any star-kid will tell you, these comparisons are for the outsiders who are looking in. The reality for someone like Dhruv Toshniwal , scion to the Banswara Syntex family and now the founder of The Pant Project , is vastly different. Watch this episode to learn: Why did Dhruv...

In 2020, the pandemic resulted in a 55% dip in students traveling overseas to study. How did this university admissions platform grow by 4x even during these trying times? Our guest  Akshay Chaturved i, Founder and CEO of Leverage Edu has done it all!  Today, Leverage Edu has over 3 Mn monthly users, 75,000+ 1:1 counseling sessions & 2000+ admission applicants, every month. Key takea...

Vivek Bajaj, co-founder of StockEdge impressed and convinced the crème de la crème of the VC universe to invest in his company, which was bootstrapped for a decade while charting impressive growth! Today StockEdge is India's fastest-growing equity market and mutual fund research platform! Key takeaways from the episode: What was Vivek's role in JM financials? What was it like being the first commo...

#DamaniTalks XLiv features Dharmil Sheth , co-founder of PharmEasy Dharmil Sheth is a serial entrepreneur, who has built India's first health tech unicorn with a valuation of $4 billion – PharmEasy. Prior to PharmEasy, he founded BoxPlay Sports, 91streets and Ekagrata. Dharmil holds an MBA from the Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad. The foundation of India's largest medicine delivery p...

In this week's episode of #DamaniTalks I spoke to Kailash Katkar , Founder of Quick Heal a man who built a ₹1800 crore IT security company without a college degree! Kailash created a global empire spread across 60+ countries starting from a small one-room bootstrapped computer repair services company – He has been an inspiration to many! Key takeaways from the episode: Why did Kailash drop out of...

Episode XLii of #DamaniTalks featured Prashant Pitti, co-founder of EaseMyTrip . Prashant graduated from IIT Madras worked with HSBC and Capital One in the United States before coming back to India and co-founding EaseMyTrip in 2008.   Initially, a B2B travel brand, EaseMyTrip became a household name in the mid-2010s with its no-fee pricing and superior customer service. EaseMyTrip went publi...

Arcatron Mobility builds the next generation of innovative physical aid devices to enhance people's lives with limited mobility and elderly care needs. Last year Arcatron launched a premium range of products to COVID-protect its customers. The success of this new line has wholly revolutionized the trajectory of the company, with its product consistently featuring at the top of eCommerce store prod...

#DamaniTalks has completed a glorious year! In last week's #AskMeAnything episode, I answered your queries on the journey of fundraising. From inception to the ups and downs to the teamwork and the moment when it all comes together! Key takeaway's from the episode: What should be the exact time of fundraising? Does the team size matter to the investors? Is it ok to approach seed round before launc...

In this week's episode of #DamaniTalks we had Dr. Srikanth Sundararajan , General Partner at VenturEast. With over 33+ years of entrepreneurial and investor experience, he has had an impressive journey! VenturEast is one of the longest-standing venture capital fund managers in India, investing since 1997 and managing close to $325+ million. They have 100+ investments in Technology, Healthcare, and...

This week on the Damani Talks episode, we had Munaf Kapadia joining us. Munaf is an entrepreneur, writer, digital marketing maverick, and the founder and “Chief Eating Officer” (CEO) at The Bohri Kitchen. Munaf and Nafisa Kapadia have been instrumental in making The Bohri Kitchen a household name. This mother-son duo made Bohri cuisine famous by inviting patrons to their home on weekends, to enjoy...

In these trying times, entrepreneurs are eagerly trying to define the "new normal" for their respective businesses. We have come across numerous queries on the fundamentals of maintaining business continuity in such uncertain times. In this week's #DamaniTalks #AskMeAnything special episode, I tried to answer as many questions as possible on "How to maintain business continuity amidst the global p...

HobSpace is a platform for extracurricular activities (online and offline) for kids between 3-14 years. The brand has partnered with schools and specialist trainers to provide training and conduct lessons based on children's hobbies and sports requirements. Priya is the Co-founder of Hobspace and has over six years of experience working with corporate giants such as Goldman Sachs and S&P Capit...

Founders of early-stage startups face many financial constraints at the onset. Mismanagement of personal finance is a common reason why many companies are forced to wind up their businesses. So, I'm here to help you out! In this special episode, I covered the topic of 'Personal Finance for founders'  Takeaways from this episode: Why did I choose this particular topic? What are some financial...

Abhishek Agarwal is an angel investor-turned-fund manager with 13+ years in the Indian Financial Market and Start-up Ecosystem. He started his career as a research analyst and is now the Founder of Rockstud Capital. He has a proven track record of successfully investing in both Startups and Listed Equities space. Rockstud Capital is India's first hybrid fund that invests in early-stage startups an...

Anindya Datta is a PHD turned professor turned founder turned upcoming producer. He is a serial entrepreneur and the founder of Mobilewalla, a global leader in consumer intelligence solutions. Mobilewalla provides innovative data solutions that help data and marketing professionals better understand their customers. The offering enables their clients to build precise AI models that better analyse...

Pawan Raj Kumar is the co-founder of Hoi Foods and a serial entrepreneur with over 25 years of solid experience as an entrepreneur. With Pawan at the helm, Hoi Foods is building a strong network of cloud kitchens using a highly scalable and disruptive model of standardized food supply chain Since its inception in 2017, Hoi Foods has come a long way - with over 150 active cloud-kitchens serving 5,0...

Sevamob is an AI-enabled mobile-based platform that provides comprehensive primary healthcare to organizations in India and the US. Sevamob's care includes general health, vision, dental, nutrition, cardio-metabolic, infectious disease and ENT. Shelley , an MBA degree holder from Cornell, is the Founder and CEO of Sevamob. He has previously worked with IBM and co-founded the profitable mobile tech...

To mark International Women’s Day 2020, we had some incredible women entrepreneurs on #DamaniTalks. This episode features Mahima Kaul - Co-founder of Coutloot , Priya Goel Sheth - Co-founder of HobSpace , Ankita Sheth - Co-founder of Vista Rooms and Prerna Kalra - Co-founder of Daalchini . Key takeaways from the episode: What were the 2 biggest challenges that they faced in becoming the founder th...

ConfirmTkt is an online train ticket discovery and booking engine that delivers a seamless search and booking experience to travelers. They are now acquired by an online travel aggregator ixigo for an undisclosed amount.  Dinesh Kumar Kotha is the Co-founder & CEO of ConfirmTkt. Before starting ConfirmTkt he was a Software Development Engineer in a company known as o9. He also worked as a...

Vahanalytics is a data analytics startup that allows organizations to track their vehicle fleet operations. The startup aimed to promote safe driving behavior among drivers and fleet owners by utilizing sensor data from smartphones and from tracking hardware in-built into vehicles. In 2019 Bike taxi app Rapido acqui-hired Mumbai-based Vahanalytics. The entire tech team of Vahanalytics had been mov...

Kratikal  is one of the leading cybersecurity companies known for its state-of-the-art security solutions which includes cyber-attack simulation and awareness tool, email authentication and anti-spoofing solution; anti-phishing, fraud monitoring & take-down solution; phishing incident response, risk detection & threat analysis and code risk review. Pavan Kushwaha  is the co-found...

Mumbai-based Karza Technologies is a banking and business intelligence solution provider, set out to create products that empower lending institutions and corporates with cloud-based solutions for informed and intelligent decisions. Omkar Shirhatti is the co-founder of Karza Technologies. Before co-founding Karza Technologies, he served as a senior consultant at Ernst and Young, a global leader in...