The Offline Network

Episode 23 of The Offline Network connects three rails shaping 2025 — frontier AI, travel monetization, and on-chain payments. From Grok’s product feel and falling inference costs to airlines turning ancillaries into profit engines and stablecoins moving into everyday spend, we sit down with three operators building what’s next from India. We open with Deepinder Goyal’s new book — and why “India w...

Episode 22 of The Offline Network — hosted by Utsav Somani and Dhruv Sharma — in conversation with two builders re-shaping India’s equity and health-tech infrastructure. 🎙 Deep-Dive Conversations 1/ Kashish Sharma (CEO, EquityList) on how Indian startups can make global ESOPs work, what founders should fix before IPO, and why fair pricing matters for both employees and retail investors. Dhruv and...

Episode 21 of The Offline Network — hosted by Utsav and Dhruv — decodes the week’s biggest tech stories and two builders reshaping India’s AI and manufacturing future. 📰 This Week’s News Rundown Microsoft × OpenAI Deal Values OpenAI at $500 Billion Microsoft’s 27 % stake (~$135 B) marks a 10× return since 2019. The PBC shift unlocks independent funding and a $250 B Azure commitment, while ChatGPT...

Episode 20 of The Offline Network — hosted by Utsav and Dhruv — brings together India’s biggest startup headlines and two founders building for the next decade of commerce and consumers. 📰 This Week’s News Rundown 1/ Deepinder Goyal’s $25M Aging Fund: Launches Continue Research to back open-source science in longevity and biology; first bet on LAT Aerospace’s indigenous gas-turbine engines for re...

Episode 19 of The Offline Network — hosted by Utsav and Dhruv — dives into India’s festive-season consumption spree, AI’s dominance in venture capital, browser wars shaping the internet, and two founders rewriting playbooks in education and personal finance. 📰 This Week’s News Rundown 1/ India’s Festive Spend Surges: ₹5.4 lakh cr in goods + ₹65,000 cr in services; UPI touches ₹1 L cr/day as GST c...

In Episode 18 of The Offline Network , hosts Utsav and Dhruv sit down with two builders solving two very different but equally hard problems — how founders finance their growth, and how patients cross borders for better healthcare. Eklavya Gupta , Founder of Recur Club , joins fresh off a $50M Series A , to talk about his mission to make credit accessible and fast for founders. With over ₹3,000+ c...

Episode 17 of The Offline Network , hosts Utsav and Dhruv are joined by two builders from opposite sides of the table. Two perspectives. One question: what separates the outliers from everyone else in this new AI age? This episode brings together Anand Chandrasekaran , now building HiOctave with Khosla Ventures , reimagining customer experience for small businesses. Anand’s new chapter is about gi...

In Episode 16 of The Offline Network , hosts Utsav and Dhruv break down a massive week for AI, fintech, and consumer tech — where the lines between innovation and aspiration are blurring faster than ever. 📰 This Week’s Top Stories • The AI arms race heats up — OpenAI’s DevDay rolls out GPT-5 Pro, Sora 2, and the new Agent Kit; Anthropic doubles down with an India expansion; AMD inks a 6 GW GPU de...

Episode 15 of The Offline Network — hosted by Utsav and Dhruv — breaks down India’s biggest startup and business stories of the week, and brings you unfiltered founder conversations from the trenches. 📰 This Week’s News Rundown • Ather Energy beats Ola Electric – For the first time, Ather surpassed Ola in monthly EV sales. TVS and Bajaj still lead the charts, while Ola struggles with a 50% YoY de...

Episode 14 of The Offline Network — hosted by Utsav and Dhruv — dives into India’s hottest startup and tech stories: WeWork India’s IPO, Zerodha’s pivot moment, founders upping stakes ahead of listings, Chamath’s comeback SPAC, OpenAI’s Sora 2 + app, and ChatGPT’s instant checkout.  📰 This Week’s News Rundown WeWork India IPO-bound – Q1 FY26: net loss narrows 51% to ₹14.14 Cr; revenue up 19% to ₹...

Episode 13 of The Offline Network — hosted by Utsav and Dhruv — explores how India is shaping the future of consumer brands and venture capital. From Ayurveda going global to AI’s India push, this unfiltered conversation dives into how Indian founders and global investors are rewriting the playbook. Anthropic Eyes India – Hiring a Country Head as part of its Asia expansion. India’s $10.4B AI marke...

Episode 12 of The Offline Network — hosted by Utsav and Dhruv — breaks down India’s biggest startup & business stories of the week, from new SaaS growth benchmarks to record-breaking festive sales. We also sit down with founders reshaping deeply personal markets — love and homes — and unpack how trust is built in both.📰 This Week’s News Rundown T2D3 vs Q2T3 — Bessemer declares SaaS growth ben...

Episode 11 of The Offline Network — hosted by Utsav and Dhruv — breaks down India’s biggest startup & business stories of the week, from surprise profitability to billion-dollar bets. We also bring you raw founder conversations — straight from the trenches of India’s next wave of entrepreneurship. 📰 This Week’s News Rundown Rocket’s $15M Seed Round — The rebranded DhiWise (now Rocket) lands S...

Episode 10 of The Offline Network — hosted by Utsav and Dhruv, breaks down India’s biggest startup & business stories of the week, from game-changing policy reforms to shifting investor dynamics. We also bring you unfiltered founder conversations — straight from the trenches of India’s next wave of entrepreneurship. 📰 𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝑾𝒆𝒆𝒌’𝒔 𝑵𝒆𝒘𝒔 𝑹𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒐𝒘𝒏 US H-1B Visa Fee Hike – From 2026, a one-time $100...

Episode 9 of The Offline Network – Utsav and Dhruv are back with fresh perspectives — this week we’re reacting to viral memes, and diving deep with two leaders reshaping India’s consumer and fintech landscape. 📰 This Week’s Meme Collision • Meme Time – From Inc42’s World Laughter Day thread to the Internet, we’re unpacking what India laughed about this week. • A light take on the business of meme...

𝗘𝗽𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗱𝗲 𝟴 𝗼𝗳 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗢𝗳𝗳𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗡𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 — 𝗨𝘁𝘀𝗮𝘃 and 𝗗𝗵𝗿𝘂𝘃 break down a blockbuster week in tech & startups, from TikTok’s US split to Urban Company’s IPO frenzy — plus, two founders redefining health & wellness for India. 📰 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗪𝗲𝗲𝗸’𝘀 𝗡𝗲𝘄𝘀 𝗛𝗶𝗴𝗵𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀 • 𝗧𝗶𝗸𝗧𝗼𝗸’𝘀 𝗨𝗦 𝗦𝗽𝗹𝗶𝘁 – Oracle, Silver Lake & a16z take 80% control of TikTok’s US ops; ByteDance keeps 20%. A new US-only app with a separate a...

Episode 7 of The Offline Network — Utsav and Dhruv bring you powerful insights from an investor shaping India’s frontier alliances, and a founder building globally competitive products from scratch. 📰 This Week’s News Highlights Eight New Deeptech Startups Join IndiaAI Mission – Expanding the sovereign stack to build India’s full AI value chain: chips → compute → models → apps. BharatGen, Fractal...

Episode 6 of The Offline Network — hosted by Utsav and Dhruv, takes a deep dive into India’s green and digital spirituality sectors, spotlighting structural shifts and bold contrarian bets driving the next economy. 📰 This Week’s News Rundown NASA’s Mars Rover discovers a potential biosignature – a hint toward ancient life requiring further validation. 🎙️ Deep-Dive Conversations Carbon activity &a...

Episode 5 of The Offline Network — hosted by Utsav and Dhruv, dives into India’s critical gaming ecosystem inflection point: regulation hurdles, global ambitions, and the rise of the creator economy. This unfiltered conversation features two visionary leaders building India’s gaming future — from ecosystem infrastructure and AI labelling to creator monetization and sustainable platform strategies....

𝗘𝗽𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗱𝗲 𝟰 𝗼𝗳 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗢𝗳𝗳𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗡𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 — hosted by Utsav and Dhruv, explores how India’s capital stack is evolving beyond billion-dollar funds. Micro VCs, Solo GPs, operator-investors, and new models are seeding the next generation of founders, solving structural gaps in India’s startup ecosystem. This unfiltered conversation brings you insights straight from the frontlines — as capital evolves to meet...

𝗘𝗽𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗱𝗲 𝟯 𝗼𝗳 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗢𝗳𝗳𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗡𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 — hosted by Utsav and Dhruv, dives into India’s three most debated frontiers: crypto’s search for legitimacy, retail investors’ need for clarity, and deeptech’s demand for patience. This unfiltered conversation features India’s boldest voices cutting through hype, scams, and short-termism — asking what it really takes to build structural depth in India’s tech + sta...

Episode 2 of The Offline Network — hosted by Utsav and Dhruv — explores how India is no longer just consuming tech, but building satellites, reshaping wealth, and exporting culture. This unfiltered conversation brings together India’s boldest founders and leaders redefining space, wealth, and culture for the next decade. 📰 This Week’s News Rundown boAt & Urban Company Get SEBI Nod – SEBI appr...

Episode 1 of The Offline Network — hosted by Utsav and Dhruv — dives deep into the biggest questions shaping India’s startup and tech future. Unlike polished LinkedIn posts or PR-filtered panels, this is an unfiltered newsroom-meets-coffee conversation with some of the sharpest voices in the ecosystem. 📰 This Week’s News Rundown Gaming Ban Shockwave – India outlaws real-money gaming. What happens...

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