In this episode we speak with Joydip Gupta who is the APAC head of Scienaptic Systems. Joydip talks about the evolution of the business rule engine in banking and how algorithms today are intelligent to understand an individual's banking needs faster than in the past. Algorithms today allow a risk officer's team to look at the credit history of an individual and customise a financial product.

00:00 - Introduction
02:12 - Scienaptic - what is it?
03:43 - Enabling a bank's revenues.
07:55 - Using data to build intelligence.
14:40 - The journey with technology in banks.
18:00 - Understanding the end customer.
22:22 - The business of co-op banks
26:21 - Deploying the BRE and its components
32:40 - Understanding the needs of a business owner.
44:44 - How CROs work with AI

Thanks for Listening! Follow Us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

00:00 - Introduction to Ambee.
00:30 - Maddy’s vision of starting Ambee.
05:00 - The early days: air quality monitoring and scaling the solution.
07:41 -  Building a data first climate intelligence platform.
09:20 - The NASA moment.
10:00 - The science of Ambee and its impact.
16:00 - The business of Ambee - sales, product market fit.
20:30 - The short term, mid term and long term plans of business.
22:50 - The business of trust in monitoring air quality.
25:02 - The core is the data in this business.
26:38 - Being married as “founders” for eight years.
32:00 - Why hedge funds want Ambee’s data.

Thanks for Listening! Follow Us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

In this episode I talk with Sujatha S Iyer, the head of AI Security  @manageengine . ManageEngine enables enterprises to be future ready when it comes to their critical IT, where security is a critical aspect while scaling an organisation. Sujatha paints a wonderful story on how CIOs and CTOs should look at security in the era of AI and the evolution of an enterprise's defences against malware.

00:00 - Introduction to Sujatha
03:00 - Early security, which were rule based.
05:10 - Proactiveness of malware these days.
07:32 - Ensuring digital maturity
09:20 - After being digitally mature, security has several use cases.
12:35 - Combating AI attacks with AI defences.
15:00 - Being a proactive security manager today.
19:09 - LLMs in the large Enterprise world - traditional and new methods.
20:30 - LLMs, agentic AI - beyond the hype.
23:20 - Reactive to productive security and how AI helps.
29:20 - The future of the security stack - the ManageEngine advantage.
32:49 - Training LLMs within your network.
35:30 - It is all about compliance when it comes to security.
37:00 - Research and rapid learning at ManageEngine.
39:14 - Developer productivity with AI is going to shoot up.
40:58 - Your understanding of math should be good even while using AI. 
41:41 - Sujatha's love for Maths and her love for continuous learning.

Thanks for Listening! Follow Us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

In this episode we talk to Vijay Arisetty, the founder of Aurm, who went from being in the Airforce to becoming the co-founder of MyGate. Aurm is a special project with a special purpose because a majority of urban Indians are living in a gated community and these communities don't have access to safe-deposit lockers. Aurm is a new age safe deposit company and Vijay explains to us about the market size for this business. There is also a lot of technology behind it. Enjoy this episode.

00:00 - Introduction to Aurm
04:20 - Gated communities need lockers.
09:58 - Bank's cannot scale lockers.
14:55 - Why Aurm works for the customer?
19:30 - Aurm's security protocols to protect customer assets.
26:00 - Behaviour of people in gated-communities in storing gold/jewellery.
33:31 - Aurm's pricing and its users.
38:42 - Insuring lockers - a different way to look at the service.
43:00 - The market opportunity and the team.
43:40 - Transforming oneself to becoming a better entrepreneur.

Thanks for Listening! Follow Us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

In this episode we have Naganand Doraswamy, the founder of Ideaspring Capital who interviews Parithi Govindaraju about the future of made-in-India drones and the technology that powers them. 

Parithi comes from the field of deep science and his interest in aerospace has enabled him to build Okulo Aerospace to capture the High Altitude Pseudo-Satellite space. He has thoughts on long-endurance drones and you will love this podcast because the government of India has launched a deep tech fund and has increased the size of funding for startups through the fund-of-funds program.

00:30 - Introduction to Parithi of Okulo.
04:20 - Okulo Aerospace - its genesis.
06:15 - Building Okulo to the future.
09:20 - The market that Okulo is after - the opportunities, the challenges.
14:10 - Okulo's focus in the market.
19:10 - Listening to customers - solar electric hybrids & HAPS.
22:49 - Talent management in this industry.

Thanks for Listening! Follow Us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

In this episode of theUpStreamLife.com we have Sriniketh Chakravarthi, the CEO of Apexon who talks about new age IT Services and how the world of industry is changing with technology.

00:00 - Introduction
02:00 - Engineering, data and experience.
07:00 - Managing the entire cycle of technology.
10:27 - Mapping the old and new.
20:00 - Complete transformation, failures and making it work for CTOs.
25:00 - AI agents and Saas transformation.
35:44 - Working with startups and the Apexon journey.
41:35 - Why change is difficult, but why change is important.
49:32 - Being in the CEO role.

Thanks for Listening! Follow Us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

In this episode of theUpStreamLife.com we talk about AI and ethics. The conversation is led by Padmashree Shagrithaya, one of the leading proponents of ethical AI from India. As EVP and MD of Insights & Data GBL at Capgemini, she is preparing organisations to understand how AI should be built around the foundation of ethical principles. Listen to this podcast as we start the year 2025 with these difficult questions of AI, accountability and ethics.

00:00 - Introduction to the subject.
01:30 - What is AI? Building a context.
09:23 - Ethical AI in its foundation.
14:00 - Ethical layer applies to infrastructure, algorithms and use cases.
18:23 - Infringements while using AI.
22:40 - Energy utilisation in AI and can compute be standardised.
28:00 - Responsibilities of the ecosystem towards ethical AI
33:00 - Trust, generative AI and Small Language Models.
35:35 - Implementations of ethical AI.
45:50 - Can AI help children learn.
49:16 - Conversations around ethical practicals.
52:11 - Padmashree's reading list.

Thanks for Listening! Follow Us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

In this episode of theUpStreamLife.com we talk with Abhimanyu Saxena, the co-founder of Scaler about how corporations and nations will manage the future of productivity. This episode focuses  how organisations in India, Global Capability Centres, are focusing on building transformative talent.

02:00 - Being in a nervous planet: people and technology.
06:46 - Many technology revolutions that created jobs.
10:10 - Managing youth and energy, making them productive.
15:30 - Selling to CHROs in GCCs, transforming the talent pool.
22:00 - Large companies on training talent.
24:20 - Governments and their role in managing talent.
26:00 - Being relevant as an entrepreneur - journey of Abhimanyu.
32:00 - Building a business in tech-education in India.
37:06 - Managing the marketing of great content.
39:22 - Managing scale.
42:03 - Keeping the story of a business alive with the right goals.
44:30 - Being an avid reader and being a fan of Russian and Hindi literature.

Thanks for Listening! Follow Us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

In this episode of theUpStreamLife we talk with Ben Goodman, SVP and GM APJ, at Okta. He talks about identity management and security in the era of collaboration where corporations work with thousands of vendors or freelancers. 

We also talk about cricket and sports as an enabler to being resilient to daily challenges. 

00:00 - Introduction
01:33 - What is Okta?
04:50 - Identity becoming important.
08:30 - Working with people outside the system.
10:38 - Convincing CTOs of working with creative collaboration.
19:00 - Security evolving with AI.
21:30 - Industry standards for customer identity management.
26:00 - Why should startups be on Okta?
26:55 - Being a cricketer and a cyclist - Ben's influences and advice.

Thanks for Listening! Follow Us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

In this episode we talk to Jagdish, the founder of MM-Activ, who is the OG of the Indian events and exhibitions industry. He talks about how India is changing with events.

00:00 - Introduction
01:29 - Waking up to mega events
05:32 - What does a mega-event do to a city?
11:16 - Organising the event industry.
15:50 - Every Indian who went to America wants to give back.
16:05 - TIE Global as an event and other large events in India.
21:29 - The Bengaluru Tech Summit.
27:10 - Being influenced by ideology as an youngster.
29:20 - Working in a magazine in the early days.
33:44 - Starting up in the events industry.
42:06 - Being in the media business to deliver value.
46:54 - Building intellectual property.
51:22 - Being inspired by theatre.

Thanks for Listening! Follow Us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

In this episode we talk to Anup Jain, an ace early stage investor and believer in the next billion story. He is a VC investor who wants to work with 12 startups a year, and runs a startup knowledge series called the "LP Series" on LinkedIn.

00:00 - Introduction
04:10 - India's 2.0 story of VCs
09:00 - LPs are asking for returns from the startup word and here is why
14:52 - Investing in VC spin-offs.
21:30 - Having a fund that is institutional.
26:08 - India's VC 2.0 needs one change - be institutional.
31:39 - Boardroom battles of the Indian startup ecosystems, which everyone misses and why it killed value.
35:00 - The new fund thesis and India needs new ideas.
44:00 - Changing consumer mindsets.

Thanks for Listening! Follow Us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

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's talent and opportunities.
07:11 - The summit at Bengaluru and Mysuru.
11:00 - Nanopreneurs today.
16:00 - The impact of family offices.
17:50 - Nano-networks and their impact.
21:40 - The pace of change in the global south.
22:43 - TiE for the new age entrepreneur.
26:55 - TiE's college/university play.
28:30 - Mysuru and TiE 
31:35 - The sessions in the Summit.
36:27 - India's policy changes and Karnataka's support for entrepreneurs
38:19 - Having fun at the event.

Thanks for Listening! Follow Us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

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.
37:00 - The Brillio focus on global markets.
42:00 - Looking at new tech and inspirations.

Thanks for Listening! Follow Us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

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 Shakir, who was always interested in automobiles and technology. His entry into the family business and rise happened with sheer grit.

00:00 - Introduction
01:51 - Bengaluru means so much to the Empire brand  
03:40 - Scaling the brand.
08:08 - Blending experience with technology, especially the old chefs.
11:30 - The operations of the stores.
14:00 - Experimenting and scaling in the era of technology.
16:00 - Joining the company as a management trainee
21:00 - Firing a senior manager & garnering support from a team.
25:00 - Managing consistency of taste and challenges many brands face.
29:00 - Experiments that worked, failed and the evolution of Empire.
32:00 - Going to the central kitchen concept.
38:40 - Standing apart in the business.
44:00 - Working towards a farm to fork linkage
47:23 - Accelerating new brands.
49:28 - Being bootstrapped even as a lot of PE Funds want a piece.
53:00 - Retaining workers in the Blue Collar segment.
56:00 - The need for grooming those who work part time.
01:03:57 - Being inspired by Dad and handling COVID-19
01:08:05 - Learning to run a professional business.
01:11:50 - Family first

Thanks for Listening! Follow Us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

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 that works for them. Rather than getting stuck with clunky software G2's authentic reviews ensures a safe and secure way of buying software for many businesses. Enjoy this podcast.

00:00 - Introduction to G2
02:23 - "Unicorn" : Godard's thoughts on the early days of G2.
04:08 - Software eating the world, buffet of products for companies.
06:26 - Going beyond recommendations of friends to buy products.
07:29 - Building a system of "trust" for software reviews.
08:25 - The product story behind the "trust."
09:59 - Creating a community for new software products 
11:38 - The objective of G2's research team.
12:50 - Listing products for free on G2 for a young startup.
15:05 - Community of G2 is growing in India.
15:39 - Gartner & G2, a comparison: the user knows more than the analyst.
17:18 - Meeting the Gartner founder and learning.
21:10 - Technology on "Ruby on Rails" and the AI play.
22:22 - G2's AI "Monty" to find the software that works for a company. 
24:42 - Listening to customers to grow.
26:00 - Generative AI: its applications.
26:52 - AI is important theme for everyone to make sense of data.
27:56 - A global company, but will focus on India as well.
29:00 - APAC and the south-Asia region.
30:41 - The early days of starting and its lessons.
31:35 - Getting past failure, being persistent for seven years.
34:30 - The support system that mattered for Godard.
35:40 - The learning from Godard Sr., and why it mattered.
36:50 - Building a team on grit and values.
38:00 - Marty Cagan's "Transformed"
38:35 - "Inner Engineering" by Sadhguru.

Thanks for Listening! Follow Us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

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 evolution from the Sabre India perspective.
24:00 - The dynamic play of tech
34:36 - Making customer experience a success.
42:18 - The modern tech stack
54:00 - Being inspired by sport.

Thanks for Listening! Follow Us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

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 decade.
06:15 - Looking at India's consumer brand opportunity.
12:50 - Building a brand where there is little wastage.
21:00 - Being disciplined and focused to build a new India
29:00 - Investing as India evolved with tech.
36:36 - Investing is about helping the entrepreneur.
42:00 - Thinking about starting up, working with complexity
45:12 - Operating differently from other VCs
53:25 - Options for liquidity in the market.
01:04:35 - Being inspired by EDM

Thanks for Listening! Follow Us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

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 boom in India, a great run.
04:56 - Corporate expectations in India and the optimism backing the markets.
06:52 - Is India over priced - a realistic view.
09:46 - Could a global recession hit us, even with India being business friendly.
11:20 - Indian talent and the business friendly policies that India needs to maintain.
16:16 - India is creating a system of accountability and transparency.
18:12 - Family offices investing and retail “young” investors view of the market.
22:10 - Difference between trading and investing
23:15 - Rs 63000 crore went to large investing institutions, individual traders lost money.
30:23 - Influencers being regulated.
33:40 - Global fissures in economy and how Indian economy is resilient.
39:18 - An entire generation of Indians have not faced a recession.
42:15 - Indian entrepreneurs encouraged to new heights and inspiring new ideas.
45:00 - Having good regulations that support business.
46:00 - What can hurt India - jobs/skills/investing.
51:00 - India’s population edge or a tough thing to manage.
56:12 - India needs new cities.
58:00 - Talking about our companies

Thanks for Listening! Follow Us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

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 done in order to make the world a sustainable place with modern day manufacturing.

00:00 - Introduction to the podcast.
02:00 - Steerworld: a quick introduction.
06:53 - Building world class products with technology.
12:00 - Building a sustainable world with sustainable food production.
17:40 - Building an in-house accelerator for ideas "Applications Labs."
17:58 - How care is changing? The importance of Ayurveda.
21:31 - Playing with multiple materials and verticals.
43:17 - Company is built around materials technology, circular economy
50:00 - Being a design led company and inspirations.

Thanks for Listening! Follow Us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

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 corporations. In this episode he talks about how to stay resilient as a founder in times of a funding crunch and how to focus on the business.

00:00 - Introduction
01:03 - The journey of Simpliearn during Covid-19 and today.
05:25 - The business in the USA for individuals and corporations.
09:00 - The difference between course learning in India and the USA.
17:40 - Why corporations must fund learning and enable career paths.
22:00 - Building learning for corporations.
29:25 - Companies looking at training their staff in an ever changing world.
31:30 - Making Indian engineering cool with training.
34:00 - India's complex problem of education, making engineers relevant
38:00 - India should become the software hub for the world.
42:16 - How Indian companies in quick commerce can help delivery boys to learn and become relevant?
44:30 - Is India's talent expensive - how can we be competitive?
45:27 - Why there are a lot of jobs even after Generative AI comes in
48:00 - The personal story of raising money.

Thanks for Listening! Follow Us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

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 also has a consumer play.

The fund's new investments include Pivot Robots (www.pivotrobots.com) , Raga AI (www.raga.ai) , Mantys (www.mantys.io) and Zigment (www.zigment.ai), which define NuVentures and its current thesis. In the current thesis startups will have access to customers, in the USA, with NuVentures sister firm NuWare, an IT services company with 40 customers in Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) industry and in healthcare.

Venk and the fund believe in backing founders that are mature and have industry experience. Just as curve ball Venk also invests in direct to consumer businesses such as Adukale (www.adukale.com) and Foxtale (www.foxtale.in).

Venk Krishnan breaks down the new approach with Vishal Krishna in the first episode of NuVenture's new podcast series NuPod. Enjoy the podcast.

00:00 - Introduction to NuPod

00:46 - Setting the context to NuVentures new thesis.

01:03 - A quick history of NuVentures

01:59 - A coffee chain that started this love for a focus on India.

03:22 - Being a sector agnostic fund, but with a focus on AI & SaaS.

04:42 - The dual play of NuVentures with IT services firm NuWare

07:07 - An influencer who enables Saas & AI startups with customers

09:07 - Startups in the NuVentures current thesis.

14:47 - Validating startup ideas with customers

16:18 - Startup founders who love this model of working with NuWare's customers

27:26 - Helping startups in its GTM and working with mature founders

34:30 - Looking at problems from the customer's pain point

39:27 - Being in the box office business of D2C (direct-to-customer)

42:47 - The Indian consumption story

43:47 - Trends of tech and the surge of AI

45:49 - Startup founders must be closer to the customer in the USA

48:53 - The

Thanks for Listening! Follow Us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

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. 

00:00 - Introduction
01:36 - What is Oxbow and what does it intend to do?
03:06 - 70 years of business legacy
09:00 - The offline experience and why brands need it
12:59 - Why offline distribution derisks your business
20:16 - The fun of modern shopping
23:40 - The business of Oxbow and nurturing brands
31:05 - The excitement of being a business in India.
34:10 - Working with distributors
36:40 - Why tech is necessary to blend with distribution and experience.
40:20 - Retailers supporting smaller brands is important
44:56 - Expansion plans
46:00 - Rahul's inspiration

Thanks for Listening! Follow Us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

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 why farming is life
01:30 - Why Shashi came back to farming.
10:00 - Why is farming difficult in India, what should change.
17:30 - Making farming viable
27:15 - People who came back to farming.
33:40 - Agro ecology being critical.
38:48 - Surviving nine years of hardship before the business took off.
43:40 - The business model that farming needs.
48:38 - Building systems of transparency.
53:24 - Working with the community that loves farming.
57:00 - Inspired by family, father and Dr G N S Reddy.

Thanks for Listening! Follow Us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

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.

Thanks for Listening! Follow Us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

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. Its COO and co-founder Prashant Singh tells a story of why it's the era for Indian technology businesses.

00:45 - The meaning of LeadSquared.
07:35 - The first customer and the stakeholder you have to address.
11:00 - Why USA will remain a big business opportunity in years to come.
17:00 - Serving Indian businesses.
23:26 - Building without capital before signing VCs.
29:40 - Traditional businesses going into the digital era.
35:00 - Focusing on the mid-market customer.
42:10 - Building an experience with technology.
47:00 - Using AI and what should India do to lead the #AI story.
50:45 - Lessons of building a product company versus IT services.
53:00 - Prashant's inspirations.

Thanks for Listening! Follow Us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube