Network Capital

In this podcast we cover -  1. The evolution of tech platforms from utopian marketplaces to cloud empires  2. Lessons from history of economic power and collective action for democratisation 3. The role of entrepreneurs and small business in making tech platforms democratic and accountable.  Vili Lehdonvirta is Professor of Economic Sociology and Digital Social Research at the Oxfor...

Simon Munzert  is Professor of Data Science and Public Policy at the Hertie School and part of the Hertie School Data Science Lab . His research interests include opinion formation in the digital age, public opinion, and the use of online data in social research. He is the principal investigator of an international cooperation project funded by the VolkswagenStiftung entitled "Paying Attentio...

In this podcast we cover -  1. Framework for understanding the evolving web3 landspace 2. Insights on value distribution on the internet 3. Experience as an investor in the web3 and crypto ecosystem Stefano Bury has over fifteen years of experience in the business world. Stefano started their career as a Sales & Trading at BHP and then moved on to various boutique consulting firms before...

In this podcast, we cover -  1. Dr. Prasad’s global career in International Relations and the importance of interdisciplinary thinking.  2. The Hertie School experience and pedagogy of discussion for a cohort of global students. 3. The art of debate and engaging with diverse ideas Shubha Kamala Prasad is an Assistant Professor of International Relations at the Hertie School. Her research...

In this podcast we cover -  1. Insights from the Indian technological revolution of 1990s and 2000s. 2. Nurturing talent and building anti-fragile profitable businesses for the long-term. 3. Happy accidents and finding meaningful partnerships This is the story of a young man who steps out of the precincts of IIT Kanpur in 1974 with a dream in his heart – to become an entrepreneur and contribu...

In this podcast, we cover - 1. Interpreting Ambedkar for India today and in 2050 2. Understanding Ambedkar on gender, caste and his relationship with Gandhi 3. The intellectual history and multitudes of Ambedkar’s work and writings Babasaheb Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, MA, MSc, PhD, DSc, DLitt, Bar-at-Law, is today among the most revered of Indians, his statues across the country second only in number...

In this podcast we cover -  1. The art and science of building no-code products 2. Business models and monetisation strategies for online products and software  3. Louis' journey of becoming an internet entrepreneur  Louis in his own words -  "I live a dual life. During the day, I work with my family to run an offline-first business in my hometown – the coastal state of Goa, lo...

Mark-Anthony Falzon is a social anthropologist. He is a professor at the University of Malta and a life member of Clare Hall, Cambridge. His books include Cosmopolitan Connections (Oxford, 2005), Multi-Sited Ethnography (Ashgate, 2009), The Examined Life (2019), The University of Malta (2020) and Birds of Passage (Berghahn, 2020). His book examines the social and cultural infrastructure that susta...

In this podcast we cover - 1. Mental models on bad jobs and great careers. 2. Nuances of ethnographic study when you are both the subject and the researcher. 3. The experience economy and bodily capital in the world of night clubs. Dr. Ashley Mears in her own words -  "Working primarily at the intersections of economic and cultural sociology and gender, I study how societies value people and...

In this podcast we cover - 1. Mental models for career pivots 2. The art of thinking like a contrarian  3. Navigating the investment spectrum and breaking into private equity. Sahil Bloom in his own words -  "Every week, I create content that reaches over 1 million people around the world across Twitter (@SahilBloom), a newsletter (The Curiosity Chronicle), a podcast (Where It Happens),...

Prateek Jain, is our friendly Network Capital Rocket Scientist. He designed Business jets for years before, two tech startups and an MBA at Columbia Business School led him to Product Management. He now lives in San Francisco, and does Product Management at the Hypergrowth company - Twilio. Prateek is passionate about building technology, writing, and simplifying complex ideas to make an...

Catherine Yeo is a creator, entrepreneur, and investor studying Computer Science and English at Harvard University. By the age of fifteen, she accumulated a following of hundreds of thousands for her online content and turned content creation into a business. Over the years, her writing has spanned fiction, technical blog posts, personal essays and, now, The Creator Revolution: How Today’s Creativ...

Manjari Jaruhar  is one of the first five women police officers in India and the first from the state of Bihar. Manjari Jaruhar was selected for the Indian Police Service (IPS), the elite crime prevention and law enforcement cadre of the Indian Civil Service, in 1976 and has held positions in the State Governments of Bihar and Jharkhand, the National Police Academy (NPA), the CISF and the Cen...

Srikant Gopal joined ETS in February 2018 as the new Senior Director for TOEFL Brand Marketing and was appointed to the position of Executive Director of the TOEFL Program in October 2018, in which he is responsible for the strategy, performance and growth of the TOEFL portfolio of products. His team, based in Princeton, NJ, USA and around the world, is focused on understanding and meeting the nee...

Saumya Saxena’s research focused on family law and religion in India. She is interested in the interface between law, policy, and society and was part of the Law Commission of India (2016-2018) where she researched on amendments to religious personal laws in India. She was part of the research team that assisted the Justice Verma Committee (2013) on amendments to rape laws in India. She has t...

Tripurdaman Singh is a historian of South Asia and currently a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London. Born in Agra, India, Tripurdaman read politics and international studies at the University of Warwick, and subsequently earned an MPhil in modern South Asian studies and a PhD in history from the University of Cambridge. He has been a Vi...

Director of Research , Cambridge Central Asia Forum; Lecturer in Development Studies , and Fellow of Jesus College at University of Cambridge Dr. Shailaja Fennell is Director of Research at Cambridge Central Asia Forum and a University Lecturer in Development Studies. She is also a Fellow of Jesus College at the University of Cambridge. Since 2004, Dr. Fennell has been researching the linkages bet...

D. Shivakumar, or Shiv as he is popularly known, is a Bangalore born leader and a management thinker. He is currently the Group Executive President, Corporate Strategy at Aditya Birla Group. Previously, Shiv was the Chairperson & Chief Executive Officer at PepsiCo Holdings Private Limited, India. Prior to that he was CEO for emerging markets at Nokia. Shiv started his career as a management tr...

Stefan Dercon is Professor of Economic Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government and the Economics Department, and a Fellow of Jesus College. He is also Director of the Centre for the Study of African Economies. He combines his academic career with work as a policy advisor, providing strategic economic and development advice, and promoting the use of evidence in decision making. Between 2011 an...

Sanjay Deshpande Sanjay Deshpande is a Learning Designer who currently leads L&D at Pride Circle. He has previously worked as a part of the Founding Team of Harappa Education and the skilling team of NASSCOM Foundation. He is passionate about mental health, queer rights and cancer advocacy. He got diagnosed with incurable brain cancer at the age of 29 the day he landed on Harvard University's...

Johnathan Bi is on the founding team of Lonsdale Investment Technology, a financial technology startup. He is launching a 7-part lecture series on René Girard, a French philosopher who posited a theory that rivalry, imitation (mimesis), and scapegoating mechanism govern human interaction and history, and how Girard’s Mimetic Theory impacts the contemporary world. A recent graduate of Columbia Univ...

Over 200 million women and girls in India, and millions more across the world, cannot access a safe way to manage their period. This prevents them from participating in essential daily activities like going to school and work. My social enterprise Asan (www.asancup.com) has designed an innovative menstrual cup that is extremely easy to use. A single Asan cup can be safely reused for 10 years, aver...

Vikram Aditya is the Co-Founder & CEO of DAOLens which is in the DAOTech space. DAOLens is focused on the four-step journey in the lifecycle starting from DAO discovery -> onboarding to reduce churn -> meaningful contribution -> effective DAO infrastructure. Previously, he was heading the Product at Merkle Science (Crypto Forensics and Compliance). They were creating the infrastructur...

Sathya MokkapatiSathya is the Co-founder & President of Kheyti, an enterprise which reduces income variability and increases climate resilience for Indian small farmers. Kheyti offers a solution called “Greenhouse in a box” which comprises an affordable greenhouse bundled with access to training and advisory. It currently signed up 1000 farmers for its program. Prior to Kheyti, Sathya co found...

Rahul Sanghi most recently served as Fintech Lead for Visa in India & South Asia. He began his career as a consultant with KPMG in London, spending a majority of his time helping the firm set up its global enterprise blockchain and crypto asset advisory practice. He moved back to India in 2018 and joined Koinex (then India’s largest cryptocurrency exchange) as Director of Business and Strategy...