The Spotlight

“Nothing was more satisfying than passing on one’s knowledge and wisdom to the future generation and contributing towards a better tomorrow.” In this edition of The Spotlight, Akshay Datt speaks with Achin Bhattacharya, Founder and CEO, Notebook, a mobile-first digital learning product that combines video and text content to deliver best-in-class education according to Board curricula. Achin has h...

If anything has become omnipresent in recent years, it is using technology to simplify businesses. In this edition of The Spotlight, Akshay Datt speaks with Dhaval Udani, Founder and CEO, DanaMojo , India’s first exclusive online payments solution platform for NGOs. Dhaval is an alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad and has previously worked with Give India, both as a volunteer and the CEO. Banking on this exp...

E-commerce disrupted the way we shopped by moving countless people away from physical stores in favour of shopping online. Live commerce takes us a step further by combining online shopping with live streaming. In this edition of The Spotlight, Akshay Datt speaks with Vipul Jain, Founder and CEO, Degpeg . Vipul is a seasoned marketer who has worked with numerous companies before starting his entre...

In this edition of The Spotlight, Akshay Datt talks with Kartik Mandaville, Founder and CEO, Springworks , a Bengaluru-based HR Tech start-up that is simplifying the HR function. An alumnus of Carnegie Mellon University, Kartik worked for Science, a US-based venture capitalist and private equity firm, before starting Springworks in 2014. Springworks is a unique Blockchain portfolio company, which...

It’s the worst nightmare for an enterprise if its systems are hacked. With more than 3000 cases of hacking per day, it becomes a huge business opportunity in India. In this edition of The Spotlight, Akshay Datt speaks with Pankit Desai, Co-founder and CEO, Sequretek , a Mumbai-based start-up that offers cybersecurity solutions for enterprises. In this digital era where any system is prone to hacki...

The last two years have brought a lot of disruption that has led to massive innovation, especially in the education sector. We can definitely say that, what demonetisation did to FinTech, COVID did to EdTech.  In this edition of The Spotlight, Akshay Datt speaks with Sarvesh Shrivastava, Founder and Managing Director, Eupheus Learning , a Delhi-based start-up that is helping students to gain...

In India, managing corporate treasuries is a task and many organizations still rely on heavy paperwork to reconcile their financial statements. In this week’s edition of The Spotlight, Akshay Datt talks with Mohan Krishnan, Founder, Global PayEX , a Mumbai-based company whose AI-powered cloud platform aids organizations towards optimizing the working capital. Mohan is an alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad a...

In India, 90% of students study in colleges in tier 2 and tier 3 cities and unfortunately, most of them do not have access to updated study material. This week’s edition of The Spotlight brings to you the journey of  Bhanu Pattajoshi, Founder, Goseeko , a start-up that is on a mission to change the way students gain knowledge. After working for the country’s leading media companies for almost...

Senior citizens are the fastest-growing population segment in India and the COVID crisis has exposed the gaps in our medical infrastructure, putting a huge question mark on the access of health for the elderly. In this episode of The Spotlight, Akshay Datt speaks with  Saumyajit Roy  who with Emoha Elder Care is aiming to create a lifeline for India’s elderly. He is an alumnus of the Ind...

“Once an entrepreneur, always an entrepreneur.” – Varun Khurana, Crofarm In this edition of The Spotlight, Akshay Datt speaks with Varun Khurana, Founder and CEO, Crofarm , who has been on a quest to identify industry niches and build businesses in them. Varun is a graduate of IIT Delhi and is a three-time entrepreneur. His previous ventures, Wirkle Technologies and Mygreenbox were acquired by Loc...

With many platforms entering the Indian market, investing in stocks has become easy. But, what about, if one wants to diversify their portfolios and invest in the global stock market? This struck as an area of potential to our guest on this week’s edition of The Spotlight. In a candid conversation with Akshay Datt, Viram Shah, Co-founder and CEO, Vested Finance , outlines his journey of simplifyin...

Career planning is a tough nut to crack. Had it been easy, there would have been lesser dropouts, career gaps and restarts. In this episode of The Spotlight, Akshay Datt speaks with Prateek Bhargava, Founder and CEO, Mindler , a Delhi-based start-up that has developed a tech-enabled ecosystem for school students to plan their careers and seek mentorship. Prateek is an alumnus of ISB, Hyderabad and...

Nature has always been a solution to all our problems. Be it personal care or medicines, nature always has an answer. As far as we can go back in time, people in India have always relied on Ayurveda. In this episode of The Spotlight, Akshay Datt speaks with  Dhruv Bhasin and Dhruv Madhok , Founders, Arata. They have worked in the corporate sector before setting off their entrepreneurial...

What letters were in the 20th century, emails are in the present day. It has become the backbone of communicating at work or otherwise. In this episode of The Spotlight, Akshay Datt speaks with  Niraj Ranjan Rout, Founder, and CEO, Hiver , a Bengaluru-based company, whose SaaS product enhances Gmail’s features to help its users manage their business processes from their inbox. Niraj is an alu...

In this episode of The Spotlight, we have the amazing journey of a company that started with the idea to give India its first video streaming platform, but ended up helping its clients to unlock the real potential of their video content. In a candid conversation with Akshay Datt,  Vinayak Shrivastav, CEO and Co-founder, Toch.ai , takes us through his journey. He is a graduate of London Busine...

In this episode of The Spotlight, we have a founder who is on a mission to improve the quality of air we breathe. In a candid conversation with Akshay Datt,  Dr. Srikanth Sola, CEO, Devic Earth , takes us through his amazing journey. He is a graduate of Stanford University and a former cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic. It was the love for his country and the will to serve people that brou...

In today’s episode of The Spotlight, we have a founder who is on a mission to bring healthcare to your doorstep. In a candid conversation with Akshay Datt, Shyatto Raha, Founder and CEO, MyHealthcare , recalls his 23-year journey at a prominent media house, which groomed the entrepreneur he is today. From starting as a research intern to heading the e-commerce business unit, Shyatto has been there...

For years, Sathvik Vishwanath lost 7-8% of his earnings from a virtual world business to high transaction fees. His search for a cheaper alternative led him to discover Bitcoin and ultimately build Unocoin, India's very first cryptocurrency exchange, turning a personal frustration into a pioneering venture. Dr. Sathvik Vishwanath is the Co-founder and CEO of Unocoin. A technologist-entrepreneur wi...

“ When you teach, you learn.” Staying true to his love for academics and teaching for nearly 2 decades of his career, our guest on The Spotlight is a retired professor, angel investor, startup mentor and co-author of the book ‘ Funding Your Start-Up and Other Nightmares ’. In this episode, we are in conversation with Dhruv Nath who wears many hats. After serving as a professor at MDI, Gurgaon, he...

Our guests today, yes you heard it right. In today’s episode of The Spotlight, we have not one but two co-founders who are on a mission to solve the problem of lack of accessibility and awareness for healthcare in Bharat, on the other hand, making it affordable for the Bharat user.  Rajat Garg and Dr Manuj Garg are the co-founders of India’s largest Healthcare Content company, myUpchar.com ,...

We are in conversation with Prithvijit Roy - CEO and Co-founder at BRIDGEi2i Analytics Solutions. BRIDGEi2i is a rapidly growing analytics solution firm based out of India and USA.  In this episode host Akshay Datt talks to Prithvijit about his early childhood days growing up in Calcutta and then later studying at ISI Delhi as a student of quantitative economics. Prithivijit also shares about...

“A global event changes the way people live, behave and consume.” Our guest today on The Spotlight, Ratnesh Verma, founder of Pidge , is someone who reinvented himself after reaching the peaks of the corporate world. Pidge is an on-demand, safe & secure, delivery ecosystem.  Ratnesh grew up in an academically oriented atmosphere, with a lot of emphasis on education. He graduated from Univ...

"A viral video changed everything for us." This single event took Bhanu Harish Gurram and his co-founders from the brink of running out of money to securing their first funding check from Zerodha. It's a powerful reminder for every founder that a breakthrough can come from the most unexpected places when you are consistently creating value. Bhanu Harish Gurram is the co-founder of Finshots, Fincep...

Someone who quit his well paying job at a billion-dollar company in order to make the heartland of India a financially stable place. Our guest today on The Spotlight is Manish Kothari, the man on a mission to create an investment mindset in the people of India. His venture, Zfunds , is successfully selling financial services.  Growing up in a Marwari family hailing from the city of Kolkata, h...

Well, we all have been confused at one point or the other, when it comes to making career choices. A commerce student, our guest today was, in his own words, an average student at school. The freedom from his parents, of making his own choices and paving his own path, shaped him as an individual. Like any other commerce student, he had applied for the CA exam but ended up with the realisation that...