The UpstreamLife

In this episode we bring you Madan Padaki, veteran entrepreneur and TiE Bangalore - President. He talks about why the TiE Global Summit is not just going to be an event, but a large networking session where ideas such as deep tech, hard tech and sustainability will play a major role in the future of business. 00:00 - Introduction 01:46 - India has come a long way with entrepreneurs. 04:41 - India&...

In this episode I talk with Chander Damodraran, the MD and CTO of Brillio about how AI led transformation is possible at scale. 00:00 - What is Brillio? 03:35 - Matching the old with the new. 11:41 - Tech transitions for customers. 21:05 - New age technology in retail. 25:15 - Why customers want Indian talent. 29:23 - The future of enhancing talent in India. 34:34 - Managing time as a leader. 37:0...

In this episode we bring you a piece of Bengaluru's modern history. No other restaurant chain is so well known as Empire. Its young CEO, Shakir Haq talks about all the decisions that he took to make this multi-million dollar business remain family first and still be a company that runs on sound management principles. It's a fascinating journey of transformation and perseverance for Shaki...

In this episode of theUpStreamLife.com we talk Godard Abel, the CEO and co-founder of G2 who talks about why the G2.com platform is far better, and trusted, than Gartner in guiding people towards buying software. Gartner serves Fortune500 CIOs/CTOs, but what about an entire universe of business; this is where G2 enables small companies and SMBs, or even large corporations, to search for software t...

In this episode of theUpStreamLife.com, we speak with Sabre India's managing director Sriram Gopalswamy. Sriram talks about the evolution of the travel industry from mainframes to Saas; powering online travel agents, and customer experiences. 00:00 - Introduction 02:00 - Sriram talks about what happens at Sabre worldwide. 11:15 - Creating a seamless experience. 17:12 - Technology and evolutio...

In this episode we bring you Sandeep Murthy of Light Box. The venture fund has only invested in a dozen plus Indian startups and has been a partner to several startups by enabling their operations to scale. Sandeep talks about the growth of the India story and beyond in this podcast. 00:00 - Introduction to Light Box and the Indian venture opportunity 02:13 - India having changed in the last decad...

How should corporations & aspiring youth look at Indian markets and its political economy. Look no further than this podcast with Pavan Sharma, partner at BCL India, Saketh R, founder of QuickAlpha and senior journalist Vishal Krishna.  00:00 - Introduction to the guests, setting the context of discussing India’s economic future & aspirations of youth. 01:40 - The post COVID-19 investing b...

In this episode we host Dr Babu Padmanabhan, who is a first generation entrepreneur who went from being a scientist to becoming a businessman. He has built a sizeable organisation around manufacturing machines and digitising manufacturing for three industries. Steerworld is a bonafide made-in-India success story with plants all over the world. Babu loves physics and he talks about what should be d...

In this episode I speak with a founder whose business I have tracked for over 12 years. Krishna Kumar, the founder of Simplilearn was one of the early proponents of digital learning with curated programs specific to individual career needs. His company has grown while many learning companies have slowed. He has now moved to the USA to build a new line of learning business for individuals and corpo...

In this episode of theUpStreamLife we bring you a series that defines the veteran venture capitalist, Venk Krishnan. In the past, Venk, has backed the likes of MuSigma, Daily Ninja, Acko, Pocket Aces, Third Wave Coffee & Geist. NuVentures is now renewing its India strategy, the startups that the fund will bet on will have to have a global thesis with their technology. Interestingly, the fund a...

In this episode I talk with Rahul Johar who has literally scaled brands in India across several retail formats. What is true is that Indian e-commerce brands are now moving offline and they need all the nurturing to understand how distribution works. Distribution is hard, it eats into margins and is a question of having the right eye-balls at retail outlet. This is where Oxbow Brands steps in.  00...

In this episode we explore the many facets of Shashi Kumar and his wonderful journey to make farming viable. He is an engineer who stepped into the world of business without a business plan and he tried blending ancient and modern techniques that could save the soil, and bring money to the farmer by organising the supply chain with the food value chain. Here is his story. 00:00 - Introduction to w...

In this episode we speak with Srividya, the founder of Avaali. Her company reduces procurement cycle times using digital practices. She talks about how her company has scaled over the years and how digital services are so important for companies going through transformation into the era of generative-AI. Support the show Thanks for Listening! Follow Us on  Facebook , Instagram , Twitter , LinkedIn...

In this episode of theUpStreamLife.com we talk about how an enterprise grade CRM can be built from India. LeadSquared as you all know is well known for its story of going from India to the world. The founders are IT professionals who sold that business before delving into building a product for India. As opportunity would have it, they have scaled to the USA and are betting big on Indian talent. I...

In this interview we talk to Deepthi Muthuraman who is a senior brand manager at Ascendion, a company that transforms businesses in the digital age. She paints a wonderful story of how Ascendion was able to scale up fast and win clients. She talks about the impact of Generative AI and why a services businesses that is AI led can transform several businesses. 00:00 - Introduction. 01:10 - The story...

In this episode with Pavan Sharma, partner at BCL India, a compliance and tax advisory firm, we compare why the #Budget2024 has to be looked at along with the Economic Survey of India. The economic survey showcases the challenges of India with AI, the end of globalisation and menace of climate change. The first thirty minutes we analyse the survey and then we look at the budget and the fiscal posi...

In this episode we talk to Mitesh Shah, co-founder of Inflection Point Ventures (IPV), about how investing is shaping up in the Indian startup ecosystem in 2024, and in the context of the next 18-months. Support the show Thanks for Listening! Follow Us on  Facebook , Instagram , Twitter , LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

In this episode I talk with India's brain-enhancer Kumaar Bagrodia who is also the founder of Neuroleap and Arkni PhotoBioLife. Many of you listening to or watching this podcast would have pondered over the question "how does one punch above your weight mentally?"  As science proves it, you need to understand the subconscious mind before you want to further enhance your potential. M...

In this episode of theUpStreamLife.com we will talk with Sandeep Hodkasia the founder of AppSecure. Security tells us about how modern brands can secure themselves at very low cost and how Corporations can use white-hats to build new age security. 00:00 - Introduction. 01:30 - Sandeep's love for security. 06:00 - AppSecure's view of security in modern corporations. 10:24 - Working with l...

In this episode of theUpStreamLife we speak with veteran startup enabler and co-founder of Monet, Abhay Tandon. He talks about why blockchain works for interoperability of loyalty points and the opportunities to get brands to work together in order to win loyal customers in the long run. 00:00 - Introduction. 01:26 - Abhay making the transition back to a startup. 04:28 - Monetising loyalty points...

In this episode we talk with Ragu Rajaram, EY’s Global Cloud Consulting Leader. Ragu talks about how EY GDS is helping organisations transform in the era of data and AI. 00:00 - Introduction to EY GDS 01:18 - What does EY GDS do? 02:56 - Board room to server conversations. 04:56 - Compliances and technology: blending the two 10:16 - Transformative nature of cloud  15:06 - Conversations with the C-...

In this episode we talk with Naganand Doraswamy the founder of Ideaspring Capital. He has been a champion of product innovation and deep tech in India for over eight years now. He talks about his journey and learning. He also believes that the deep tech India story has just begun and tells every founder to focus on the sales for success. 00:00 - Introduction to Ideaspring 02:00 - Differentiating b...

In this episode we speak with Akash Sinha, the CEO and co-founder of Cashfree Payments. We discover how India is changing with digital payments and how the smart phone generation loves easy checkout experiences.  00:00 - Introduction of Cashfree Payments. 01:05 - The early journey as a developer. 04:42 - Scaling up a company and a product. 05:50 - Transitions in the payment economy in India. 13:27...

In this episode of the India Deep Tech Series, we host the MD of TDK Ventures, Anil Achyuta. Born and raised in Bengaluru, Anil went from being a sportsman to falling in love with deep tech - firstly as an academic and then as an investor. In this podcast he talks about an ever changing world with deep technology, what are the risks and rewards for startups in this community. The interview is a mu...

In this episode with Pavan Sharma, the partner of BCL India, an advisory and audit firm, we decode India by the numbers just as the elections are underway. Please download the report (https://tinyurl.com/yxykv3pv) for you to understand what Pavan is analyzing. All data sources mentioned in the PDF. We analyze the Centre versus State tax conflicts, climate change, income growth, rise of the middle-...