Lockdown With Kumar

Christina MacDonald Sikand is the Director of Communications and Public Relations at Toronto-based cross-border fintech startup Remitr.

Before this, Christina worked as the head of community for Toffee Insurance in India, and in public relations with fintech unicorn Transferwise. 

She's based out of New York, loves story-telling, building brands, and creating community.

Key themes:

1:03 Growing up in Maine, and discovering a fintech career

4:42 All things Remitr

8:00 On Remitr's highly successful Product Hunt Launch -- recognize the value of network

12:20 Journey from Maine to NYC to Delhi back to NYC

17:40 Being an early stage employee in Insurtech

27:40 Consulting brands on community building and PR

29:00 Working globally and adapting to a new culture in India -- find that foundation that will let you blossom

34:30 How can founders leverage PR better?

40:49 Bringing a PR team to help in early stage startups

41:52 Christina's morning ritual 

Douglas Shinsato is the managing director of Anthill Ventures and a member of the advisory board of Via Equity, one of Northern Europe's most successful investment firms. 

Currently based out of Hawaii, Doug has been a member of the Board of Regents of the University of Hawaii and has served in senior leadership roles at many leading technology companies including IBM, Xerox, as well as on the board of Mphasis and Deloitte Japan.

I love seeking Doug's mentorship around leadership and venture building, and he has been kind enough to advise me on my journey towards tech and entrepreneurship.

Here are some key themes we talked about on this episode:

Background:

Anecdotes:

Advice on venture building:

Tech Trends:

Advice to students and professionals:

On Innovation and change management:

Productivity and Rituals:

Our guest Pranav Deshpande started working with Twilio when they were a growth stage company with 300 employees. He has since worked in sales and product marketing and seen Twilio become a public company with 3300 employees.

On Twilio:

1:57 Impact of COVID-19 on Twilio's business

3:56 How Twillio's valuation doubled during lockdown?

5:27 Pranav's journey to working with Twilio

13:25 Twilio's evolution from 300 to 3300 employees

7:27 Recruiting challenges as a foreign graduate student in the US

8:06 Pranav's approach when searching for jobs

9:17 Advice for recent Master's graduates

9:49 On wanting to come work in the Bay Area

11:19 Pranav's perception about Silicon Valley when he was in India and why he wanted to go there

12:40 Breaking into tech

19:44 How Pranav ended in Product Marketing and how it compares to Product Management 

24:47 Is a Master's degree today worth it?

28:10 Understanding global context gives you an edge when you go back to India

On the Stock Market, SAAS ecosystem, API Infrastructure Companies

16:41 Stock market's on steroids

17:55 SAAS is where the opportunity lies ahead

18:42 BVP Nasdaq Emerging Cloud Index

30:36 Bullish on API Infrastructure companies including Postman

On Learning on the Internet, Writing & Lifehacks

36:11 Learning on the internet

38:56 Abhineet's focus on building a second brain

41:37 Pranav's approach to writing online

43:46 Thoughts on India tech

47:19 Culture of buying software isn't there yet

48:41 Building from India from the world

49:39 One habit that has changed Pranav's life

Our guest Eric Martin has a background in software sales having worked for Swiftype (acquired by Elastic), DataFox (acquired by Oracle), and now at fast-growing cyber-security startup Vanta where he was the first sales employee. Eric has also been an entrepreneur having brought products to market in underwater hardware and fantasy sports markets. 

Eric and I talk about:

2:20 His story growing up in Stockton

3:06 Studying in California & Saudi Arabia 

5:18 Early entrepreneurial journey

6:51 Takeaways on building startups

9:22 Advice to entrepreneurs

11:22 Eric's journey into software sales -- Swiftype and DataFox

15:26 Software sales basics

18:49 How Eric landed his gig at Vanta?

19:58 Vanta

21:58 How Vanta saves time and $ for companies selling software to enterprise?

23:26 Who should get a SOC 2 certification in enterprise SAAS?

24:48 Takeaways for companies undergoing a SOC 2 certification

26:52 Building a sales team at Vanta -- how CRM (Salesforce, Hubspot etc) and thinking about an outbound engine is key from the start?

30:42 San Joaquin Soccer Alliance

33:24 Eric's daily habit or ritual taught by his dad that has changed his life

Our guest Aditya Narvekar has a background in investment management and financial services in both India and the US. He joins us to share his views on emerging investment tech platforms in both countries and how they are making retail investing mainstream:

Welcome to the first episode of Lockdown With Kumar