Soul Searching

More features don't automatically make a better business. Vivian Gomez, co-founder and CEO of Scoop and a former product and growth leader at Truecaller, joins Ryan Dsouza to talk about building products that create real business value. We discuss Truecaller's fintech journey, scaling with lean teams, starting again from zero, knowing when to kill a product, and growing on a tight budget....

Prof Santosh Mehrotra challenges India's headline growth story and argues that the economy is not creating enough jobs. Drawing on labour-force data, he examines youth unemployment, workers returning to agriculture, and the risk of missing India's demographic dividend. A co-author of India Out of Work, Mehrotra discusses manufacturing, services and the employment effects of recent economic...

Bhavik Vasa argues that India's AI opportunity lies in specialised models built around proprietary data and practical business problems. The conversation explores where he sees value in applied AI, why a digital footprint is not the same as a credit decision, and what faster underwriting could mean for small businesses. We discuss UPI, GST and the India Stack, the economics of large language m...

Physicist M. V. Ramana makes the case against nuclear power as a climate solution. We discuss India’s early nuclear ambitions, reactor costs, safety and waste, and whether AI data centres and small modular reactors change the economics. Ramana is the author of Nuclear Is Not the Solution. This conversation examines his argument and what it could mean for India’s energy choices. Follow the Ryan Dso...

India’s path to prosperity may look very different from China’s. Arjun Ramani joins Ryan Dsouza to discuss manufacturing, services and jobs, and how AI could change the opportunities available to India. We explore premature deindustrialisation, India’s ambition to become a developed economy by 2047, and what factories and services can each deliver. Arjun also discusses writing and how large langua...

AI is changing software engineering, including the work through which junior developers learn. Indranil Tiwary joins Ryan Dsouza to discuss what those changes could mean for people entering the profession and for employers deciding whom to hire. The conversation examines the place of junior developers, what employers look for now, and whether the familiar advice to “learn to code” still holds as s...

Timestamps00:00 Claude Fable gets blocked03:26 Does the ban actually help Anthropic?08:49 AI becomes a national security issue09:28 Why countries want sovereign AI13:30 NVIDIA, Taiwan, and the AI supply chain17:04 Who should fund AI infrastructure?18:28 Are AI models actually profitable?21:27 What went wrong with GPT-4.5?24:20 Can India build its own frontier model?28:27 RL environments and the ne...

In this episode, I sit down with Ravi Handa — ex teacher turned edtech founder (his business was acquired by Unacademy), who FIRE'd at 40 and now lives in Jaipur — to make the case for why most ambitious young Indians should seriously consider leaving the country. We cover two big things. First, the move-abroad argument: why he thinks you should take a decade-plus view rather than a 2–5 year o...

At Mumbai Tech Week 2026, the conversation around “AI in Action” is shifting from hype to real-world execution. In this deep-dive conversation, GetVantage Founder Bhavik Vasa joins Ryan to discuss why India’s biggest AI opportunity isn’t in building trillion-parameter LLMs — but in Applied AI powered by proprietary enterprise data, digital infrastructure, and embedded finance. From MSME lending an...

In this episode, I sit down with Aditya Karanam — part of the Effective Altruism community in India and an animal advocate working with Electric Sheep and Animal Ethics — to figure out what it actually means to "do good" well. We cover two big things. First, the basics of Effective Altruism: what it is, where it came from, and the three things the community uses to decide which problems...

Subhash Choudhary | Impact of AI in development

Diganth Jagadish is the Co-founder of Incentiv, where he works on private market equity, secondaries, and ESOP design and management. EPISODE LINKS:Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/diganth_jagadish?igsh=MWo4NnZhYTljN25haw==Podcast Socials :Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/decentmakeoverTwitter : https://twitter.com/decentmakeovrLinkedin : https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-dsouza-74542b295...

Parsuram Venkatesh is a PhD candidate in Mathematics at TIFR-CAM (Tata Institute of Fundamental Research) in Bengaluru, a vegan advocate, and an activist with the Bengaluru Brigade for Animal Liberation (BBAL). EPISODE LINKS: Substack: https://dabchick.substack.com Twitter: https://x.com/dab_chick Podcast Socials : Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/decentmakeover Twitter : https://twitter.com/...

Ranjith Menon is Partner and Managing Director at Chiratae Ventures . EPISODE LINKS: Chiratae Profile : https://www.chiratae.com/team/ Linkedin : https://www.linkedin.com/in/ranjith-menon-30715b4/ Twitter : https://twitter.com/ranjith_menon Podcast Socials : Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/decentmakeover Twitter : https://twitter.com/decentmakeovr Linkedin : https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-...

Vikram Gawande is the Director of Growth Investments at Blume Ventures EPISODE LINKS: Blume Profile : https://blume.vc/team/vikram-gawandeLinkedin : https://in.linkedin.com/in/vikramgawande Twitter : https://x.com/vikramg05Podcast Socials :Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/decentmakeover Twitter : https://twitter.com/decentmakeovr Linkedin : https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-dsouza-74542b295/ P...

Marmik Mankodi is Associate Vice President at Blume VenturesEPISODE LINKS:Linkedin : https://www.linkedin.com/in/marmik-mankodi/Twitter : https://x.com/mar_kodiPodcast Socials :Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/decentmakeoverTwitter : https://twitter.com/decentmakeovrLinkedin : https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-dsouza-74542b295/PODCAST INFO:Podcast website: https://anchor.fm/ryandsouzaApple Pod...

Bhanu Chopra is the founder & MD of RateGain. EPISODE LINKS:Linkedin : https://www.linkedin.com/in/bhanurategainTwitter : https://x.com/@bhanuchopra Blog : bhanuchopra.com Podcast Socials :Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/decentmakeoverTwitter : https://twitter.com/decentmakeovrLinkedin : https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-dsouza-74542b295/PODCAST INFO:Podcast website: https://anchor.fm/rya...

Alan Dsouza is the founder & CEO at Outbox LabsEPISODE LINKS:Linkedin : https://www.linkedin.com/in/dsouza-alan/Twitter : https://x.com/dsouzaalan?lang=enPodcast Socials :Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/decentmakeoverTwitter : https://twitter.com/decentmakeovrLinkedin : https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-dsouza-74542b295/PODCAST INFO:Podcast website: https://anchor.fm/ryandsouzaApple Podca...

Suthirth Vaidya is Director of Product Management at nference and Director of Product at AnumanaEPISODE LINKS:Linkedin : https://in.linkedin.com/in/suthirthHomepage : https://suthirth.github.io/Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/suthirth/ Podcast Socials :Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/decentmakeovrTwitter : https://twitter.com/decentmakeovrLinkedin : https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-dsouz...

Pranav Srinivasan is a co-founder @ accio robotics . EPISODE LINKS: Accio Website : https://acciorobotics.com/Linkedin : https://www.linkedin.com/in/pranav-srinivasan-b8a989114/ Podcast Socials :Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/decentmakeovrTwitter : https://twitter.com/decentmakeovrLinkedin : https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-dsouza-74542b295/PODCAST INFO:Podcast website: https://anchor.fm/ry...

Anant Jain is a software engineer at BharatPe .EPISODE LINKS:Anant's Personal Webpage : https://anantpatni.com/Linkedin : https://www.linkedin.com/in/anantpatni1/Github : https://github.com/geekanantYouTube : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCba8EopBAXKZKpmkgHWtOxwPodcast Socials :Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/decentmakeovrTwitter : https://twitter.com/decentmakeovrLinkedin : https://www.l...

feedback @ decentmakeover13@gmail.com    EPISODE LINKS:  Deedy's Website : http://debarghyadas.com/ Linkedin : https://www.linkedin.com/in/debarghyadas Twitter : https://twitter.com/debarghya_das Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/deedydas/?hl=en  PODCAST INFO:  Podcast website: https://anchor.fm/ryandsouza Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3NQhg6S Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3qJ3tWJ Amazon Music:...

Rishabh Goel is founder and CEO @ Dodo Payments . feedback @ ryan@soulsearching.in EPISODE LINKS:Twitter : https://x.com/garGoel91Linkedin : https://in.linkedin.com/in/goelrishPodcast Socials :Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/decentmakeovrTwitter : https://twitter.com/decentmakeovrPODCAST INFO:Podcast website: https://anchor.fm/ryandsouzaApple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3NQhg6SSpotify: https:...

Sasank Chilamkurthy is the co-founder of qure.ai and founder @ JOHNAICfeedback : ryan@soulsearching.inEPISODE LINKS:Vinay's Linkedin : https://www.linkedin.com/in/sasank-chilamkurthy/PODCAST INFO:Podcast website: https://anchor.fm/ryandsouzaApple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3NQhg6SSpotify: https://spoti.fi/3qJ3tWJAmazon Music: https://amzn.to/3P66j2BGoogle Podcasts: https://bit.ly/3am7rQcGaana: htt...

Vinay Dubey is the Co-founder & CMO at wintwealth feedback : ryan@soulsearching.inEPISODE LINKS:Vinay's Linkedin :   / vinay-dubey   PODCAST INFO:Podcast website: https://anchor.fm/ryandsouza Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3NQhg6S Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3qJ3tWJ Amazon Music: https://amzn.to/3P66j2B Google Podcasts: https://bit.ly/3am7rQc Gaana: https://bit.ly/3ANS4v1 RSS: https://anch...