Forbes India - Tech Conversations

In this episode, Howard Wolk, an American entrepreneur, who was also an advisor to the US government under President Bill Clinton, and John Landry, an economics and business historian and former editor at Harvard Business Review, talk about their new book, Launchpad Republic: America’s Entrepreneurial Edge and Why It Matters that will be released tomorrow. They also talk about how upstarts always tend to come in and reset the balance, no matter how powerful the incumbents might seem.

Our guest today is Vanya Seth, a principal consultant and head of technology in India at Thoughtworks, widely known in the software world as one of the companies that pioneered the ‘agile’ way of writing software. In this episode, Vanya talks about the approach to software and products at Thoughtworks, and some of the work that the company has been doing out of India, where it has been present for some 20 years.

Our guests today are Aniket Bajpai and Nikhil Gupta, co-founders of Limechat, a Bengaluru startup that offers conversational AI tech to growing ecommerce businesses. In this episode, Aniket and Nikhil, who met at IIT Delhi and chose the entrepreneurial route straight out of college, talk about what makes Limechat stand out in a segment that has larger, better-funded rivals.

Our guest today is Ketan Patel, CEO of Mswipe Technologies, a point-of-sale tech company that wants to take on Paytm with its soundbox. In this episode, Ketan talks about how Mswipe will become a platform that will add opportunities like facilitating a large number of pay-later transactions. He also talks about why he thinks credit on UPI will be a real game changer in India.

Our guest today is Karthik Rajaram, vice president for India and ASEAN at Freshworks, one of the country’s top software product companies, which has recently been empanelled as a vendor on India’s Government e-Marketplace. In this episode, Karthik talks about his reasons for joining Freshworks, his mandate to add many more customers in this market, including from among the larger established enterprises and the nascent, but growing trend of category-creating global enterprise software being developed from India.

Our guests today are Neha Singh and Abhishek Goyal, co-founders of Tracxn Technologies, which over the last eight odd years has become a sought-after provider of private market intelligence to investment firms and corporate businesses customers in 50 countries. In this episode, Neha and Abhishek talk about the counter-intuitive play in starting Tracxn in the US but then shifting base to India. They also talk about the longer-term aspiration for Tracxn, which they expect to take public as well.

Our guest today is Alok Goyal, a partner at Stellaris Venture Partners, an early-stage VC firm in Bengaluru. In this episode, Alok—who focuses on SaaS companies—talks about the opportunities and challenges for such ventures, presented by the current downturn that many expect will last for a while. He also talks about how the Indian SaaS ecosystem is moving from me-too software to cutting-edge solutions.

Our guest today is Bipin Preet Singh co-founder and CEO of One MobiKwik Systems, better known for its eponymous app, MobiKwik. In this episode, Bipin talks about how the company is emerging as a leader in the buy-now-pay-later category, how MobiKwik aims to build on that, the bigger picture vision for the future, and also what lies ahead in 2022 and 2023.

Our guests today are Saji Varghese, an associate professor of English at Christ University, co-founder of Brown Reed Agri-Waste Innovations, and Shailesh Vickram Singh, founder of Massive Mobility and Climate Angels. In this episode, Saji and Shailesh talk about innovations that could replace single-use plastic, including Saji’s idea of making straws from coconut leaves. That idea is now a reality, with the brand name sunbird straws, with some top food and beverage and hospitality businesses as customers.

Our guests today are Prasanta Sarkar and Rochan Sinha, co-founders of NewTrace, where they’ve just raised some funding to develop a new class of ‘membraneless’ electrolysers, largely built with locally available materials and components in India. The aim is to make a dent in the ‘green hydrogen’ market. In this episode, Prasanta and Rochan talk about their efforts to get to the commercialisation of their product starting next year.