Outliers

Outliers

By FactorDailyTechnology
Download on the App Store

Outliers episodes

  • Inside the Zoho apps: Rajendran Dandapani
    “There was a time when Zoho was talked about as an engineering company, even today it’s an engineering company. User interface design was done by engineers, too. But over time, things changed,” Dandapani says.
    “Today, we started realising that individual brilliance isn’t enough. … a couple of months ago, one of our customers said, 'Every one of your interface is good, but why do they look different?’”
    “So now we are back on the drawing boards.”
    19 min
  • Inside the Zoho apps: Rajendran Dandapani
    “There was a time when Zoho was talked about as an engineering company, even today it’s an engineering company. User interface design was done by engineers, too. But over time, things changed,” Dandapani says.
    “Today, we started realising that individual brilliance isn’t enough. … a couple of months ago, one of our customers said, 'Every one of your interface is good, but why do they look different?’”
    “So now we are back on the drawing boards.”
    19 min
  • Inside Zoho University: Revathy Durairajan
    “When the six of us joined, we knew where a computer keyboard is and mouse is, that’s all. Later we were taught programming here as part of 18 months training,” she says.
    “I come from a very poor family,” Durairajan adds.
    Durairajan now leads iOS development for some of Zoho’s software products including Zoho Recruit.
    “My professor in school used to tell us you should aim to work at Google and Yahoo. But Zoho is now competing with Google, so why to go there?”
    7 min
  • Inside Zoho University: Revathy Durairajan
    “When the six of us joined, we knew where a computer keyboard is and mouse is, that’s all. Later we were taught programming here as part of 18 months training,” she says.
    “I come from a very poor family,” Durairajan adds.
    Durairajan now leads iOS development for some of Zoho’s software products including Zoho Recruit.
    “My professor in school used to tell us you should aim to work at Google and Yahoo. But Zoho is now competing with Google, so why to go there?”
    7 min
  • Inside Zoho University: Revathy Durairajan
    “When the six of us joined, we knew where a computer keyboard is and mouse is, that’s all. Later we were taught programming here as part of 18 months training,” she says.
    “I come from a very poor family,” Durairajan adds.
    Durairajan now leads iOS development for some of Zoho’s software products including Zoho Recruit.
    “My professor in school used to tell us you should aim to work at Google and Yahoo. But Zoho is now competing with Google, so why to go there?”
    7 min
  • How Zoho builds products: Shailesh Kumar Davey
    “Our engineering department is like Rahul Dravid -- scores slow but steady. I even call this a Dravidian phase of development, not because we are based in south India -- I dedicate it to Rahul Dravid. The engineering is more tuned towards that approach,’ he says.
    “All of us agree that making products is like preparing for a movie release. So, out of the ten movies you make, two of them will be superhit and others not so successful. Success of a product is based on how many people pay for it. Each of our service teams across 40 product lines are aware of the monthly revenues.”
    “At the engineering level, we are now tracking usage. Over past 15 years we have been revenue focused, but now we are looking at feature usage. How many customers are using a product, and within that a particular feature, and so on.”
    “One of the good things about Zoho is that most of our hires are freshers, and they stay through. More than 90% of our managers are homegrown. Because we have had people working for long terms, we can do knowledge transfer just by sitting next to each other. Working together for long reduces friction.”
    37 min
  • How Zoho builds products: Shailesh Kumar Davey
    “Our engineering department is like Rahul Dravid -- scores slow but steady. I even call this a Dravidian phase of development, not because we are based in south India -- I dedicate it to Rahul Dravid. The engineering is more tuned towards that approach,’ he says.
    “All of us agree that making products is like preparing for a movie release. So, out of the ten movies you make, two of them will be superhit and others not so successful. Success of a product is based on how many people pay for it. Each of our service teams across 40 product lines are aware of the monthly revenues.”
    “At the engineering level, we are now tracking usage. Over past 15 years we have been revenue focused, but now we are looking at feature usage. How many customers are using a product, and within that a particular feature, and so on.”
    “One of the good things about Zoho is that most of our hires are freshers, and they stay through. More than 90% of our managers are homegrown. Because we have had people working for long terms, we can do knowledge transfer just by sitting next to each other. Working together for long reduces friction.”
    37 min
  • How Zoho builds products: Shailesh Kumar Davey
    “Our engineering department is like Rahul Dravid -- scores slow but steady. I even call this a Dravidian phase of development, not because we are based in south India -- I dedicate it to Rahul Dravid. The engineering is more tuned towards that approach,’ he says.
    “All of us agree that making products is like preparing for a movie release. So, out of the ten movies you make, two of them will be superhit and others not so successful. Success of a product is based on how many people pay for it. Each of our service teams across 40 product lines are aware of the monthly revenues.”
    “At the engineering level, we are now tracking usage. Over past 15 years we have been revenue focused, but now we are looking at feature usage. How many customers are using a product, and within that a particular feature, and so on.”
    “One of the good things about Zoho is that most of our hires are freshers, and they stay through. More than 90% of our managers are homegrown. Because we have had people working for long terms, we can do knowledge transfer just by sitting next to each other. Working together for long reduces friction.”
    37 min
  • Ep 65: Nikhil Pahwa on fighting India’s internet battles, being an angry young man
    Nikhil Pahwa is an angry young man.
    But that doesn’t make him an outlier. Pahwa, 37, channelises that anger to build and scale mainstream movements such as the net neutrality campaign against Facebook’s FreeBasics in India more than two years ago.
    So what’s the source of all the anger and sense of activism? It’s Pahwa’s deep need for freedom of the internet.
    “The need for freedom led me to activism, entrepreneurship...I don’t know where it will take me next but freedom is central to everything I do,” he says.
    “My mission is to build an internet ecosystem which is open, fair and competitive.”
    Pahwa’s journey as a media entrepreneur has been filled with existential crisis because of the battle he fights. But then, those battles are also the reason why his venture, Medianama, lives today.
    “I’m what I’m today because of the fact that internet is open and this freedom exists. Medianama has turned 10 today because of that. I want that for everyone.”
    Before he committed fully to the net neutrality campaign, he knew it could mean a near death experience for Medianama.
    “I told the Medianama team that we could die because of what I’m going to do, but this is worth fighting for because we wouldn’t exist if internet wasn’t free and open.”
    There are some great lessons in this podcast with Pahwa. These lessons aren’t just about rightful activism but also offer insights on fighting battles larger than your own, personal existence.
    The net neutrality campaign, for instance, had its own moments of existential crisis.
    “Nothing was budging, no one was participating. And Facebook simultaneously began this massive “support Free Basics” campaign, putting hoardings all over the country. And we were losing.”
    Pahwa is next readying for another challenge in his life: his wedding is coming up soon.
    58 min
  • Ep 65: Nikhil Pahwa on fighting India’s internet battles, being an angry young man
    Nikhil Pahwa is an angry young man.
    But that doesn’t make him an outlier. Pahwa, 37, channelises that anger to build and scale mainstream movements such as the net neutrality campaign against Facebook’s FreeBasics in India more than two years ago.
    So what’s the source of all the anger and sense of activism? It’s Pahwa’s deep need for freedom of the internet.
    “The need for freedom led me to activism, entrepreneurship...I don’t know where it will take me next but freedom is central to everything I do,” he says.
    “My mission is to build an internet ecosystem which is open, fair and competitive.”
    Pahwa’s journey as a media entrepreneur has been filled with existential crisis because of the battle he fights. But then, those battles are also the reason why his venture, Medianama, lives today.
    “I’m what I’m today because of the fact that internet is open and this freedom exists. Medianama has turned 10 today because of that. I want that for everyone.”
    Before he committed fully to the net neutrality campaign, he knew it could mean a near death experience for Medianama.
    “I told the Medianama team that we could die because of what I’m going to do, but this is worth fighting for because we wouldn’t exist if internet wasn’t free and open.”
    There are some great lessons in this podcast with Pahwa. These lessons aren’t just about rightful activism but also offer insights on fighting battles larger than your own, personal existence.
    The net neutrality campaign, for instance, had its own moments of existential crisis.
    “Nothing was budging, no one was participating. And Facebook simultaneously began this massive “support Free Basics” campaign, putting hoardings all over the country. And we were losing.”
    Pahwa is next readying for another challenge in his life: his wedding is coming up soon.
    58 min

About Outliers

From the publisher's feed

A podcast about the ones who chose to take the road not taken often. It’s about the crazy and the curious. Those that dared to stand out, and stand alone. It’s about their journey through hope and disillusionment, failures and pitfalls, joy and success, pain and bliss. It’s a candid exploration of experiences and ideas that have driven some of the shining stars, told as is.