On this episode of The Shape of Work podcast, our guest is Abhinav Ramesh, a tech entrepreneur focused on Blockchain. 

Having been recognized as one of the top 100 Blockchain influencers in Asia, Abhinav currently brings that expertise as the Founder of Chainflux, a blockchain-based company helping enterprises make their products and services more reliable, transparent and secure. 

He leads a passionate team that builds applications on public and private blockchains- including Shine Blockchain, a SaaS-based traceability solution that enables any supply chain to incorporate product traceability and source verification metrics. The other product is called Shine-Green which is India's first Green bonds issuance, trading, and monitoring platform built entirely on the back of a Blockchain platform.

In this episode, we discuss with Abhinav:

• His journey from being a Consultant at EY to building Blockchain products
• The strategic lessons he’s learned over his many years of experience launching products 
• Interesting use cases of Blockchain
• Tech hiring challenges in web3 
• How to set up the right culture in a distributed workplace: from communication to engagement

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:

Abhinav's Journey From Consultant To Entrepreneur

In the beginning, companies and technological giants essentially stumbled upon blockchain. There was a lot of awareness for employing hackathons and reading material on the subject. Right now, the crypto side of blockchains is the most popular. However, here the idea is to explore the applications even further to create a new base and satisfy demand in the blockchain.


When should one pursue a full-time startup? What role does an investor play in this?
Individuals are not immediately confident if their use case or product and service are sustainable in the market. In this case, inventors generally work on their use case part-time, with the support of full-time employment (essentially a backup).

Blockchain Applications
There are many applications of blockchain technology with many potential applications that haven't been explored, like:
NFT marketplaces
Music royalties tracking
Supply chain and logistics monitoring
Sustainability tracking and transparency
Secure sharing of medical data ( private and permissioned blockchains) etc.

Hiring challenges for funded startups:
After being funded, the hiring depends on the aspects in Chainflux.
The clients who are already present and their needs.
The future clients and expectations they can have from the projects.
The need for web3 in building certain products or use cases that can float in the market.

How does Chainflux create a good work culture?
Chainflux has recently become a seed-funded company; hence, there has been more hiring and clientele. To maintain a good work culture Chainflux hosts weekly meetings and discussions with its employees to create normalcy in remote working conditions. Abhinav also promotes holistic hiring processes that include looking at personality traits and characteristics along with skills and competence. 


Follow Abhinav on LinkedIn

Produced by: Priya Bhatt
Podcast Host: Aditya Sreekumar