Balaji Viswanathan is the founder and CEO of Invento Robotics. Balaji began Invento in 2016 with a vision to make robots accessible to a wide audience, democratizing this elusive technology to more practical applications while focusing on customer experiences. The robots, Mitra, Mitri, mini-Mitra which his company has developed are utilized in several use-cases including healthcare, banks, showrooms, retail, events, airports, factories, etc., They have been extensively featured and recognized by various local, national, and international news media. They have been featured in prestigious conferences such as the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Their robots have shaken hands and met with notable personalities and leaders. They have distributed and sold their robots to various markets including India, United States, and many others. 

Balaji is a top writer on Quora for over six straight years. His answers on Quora cover a swath of topics including history, cricket, startups, robots, and politics. He is a published author, having written articles for various international news media as well as authored the book, 'From Tryst to Tendulkar'. 

Earlier to his entrepreneurial journey at Invento Robotics, Balaji had successful exits through other startups he began or was a part of. He began his career as a Software Design Engineer with Microsoft. He is an alumnus of Babson Graduate School of Business and University of Baltimore at Maryland.

In this episode, we cover several topics including Balaji's inclination to entrepreneurship, Invento's design process, his advice to budding entrepreneurs, his advice to youth looking for a role in a startup like Invento, and his future goals.