In the latest episode of The Big Picture Podcast by @Iron Pillar, I had the pleasure of speaking with @Anand Natampalli, a seasoned sales and business development leader at @sagility and a valued member of the Iron Pillar Network.

With decades of experience in sales, strategy, and scaling businesses, Anand shared powerful insights on what it takes to build and grow companies in today's evolving landscape.

🔥 Key Takeaways from the Conversation:
✅ Sales is like dating & marriage – Anand draws an intriguing analogy, emphasizing that selling isn’t a transaction; it’s a relationship. Just like in dating, the early stages require trust-building, mutual understanding, and patience. And when done right, it evolves into a long-term partnership—much like a strong marriage. 💍 🤝

✅ Entrepreneurship is climbing a mountain with sherpas – Founders don’t climb alone; they need trusted guides, experienced mentors, and the right partners to reach the summit. It’s about preparation, resilience, and the team you build around you. A key point is that it's not just about reaching the summit. It's about having the energy to make it back and enjoy the milestones! 🏔️🧗

✅ I always learn something new about my guests on these episodes. Anand, for example, started his passion for sales at an early age through door to door selling of old wallpaper that had been converted into coasters. Sales was his destiny:)

This episode is packed with wisdom, humor, and real-world lessons for founders, sales leaders, and anyone navigating the journey of business building. 🚀

The team at Iron Pillar is incredibly thankful for Anand's guidance and mentorship to our portfolio companies. 

🎧 Tune in to the full conversation here

#IronPillar #TheBigPicturePodcast #Entrepreneurship #Sales #BusinessGrowth #wisdom #community

In the latest episode of the @IronPillar Big Picture Podcast, I had the pleasure of having a fascinating in-depth conversation with @AnkurShah, a prolific investor, startup advisor, company builder, former CFO at @careem and @weee, and esteemed member of the Iron Pillar Network.

Ankur and I focus on his philosophy of engaging with entrepreneurs and the role that impact plays in his decision making. While he is not a prototypical impact investor, his belief that every company can indeed “do good and do well” is insightful. Do have a listen.

In the second part of this conversation, Ankur and I focus more on his role and journey at @careem from the early days as a new generation taxi company to eventually a super app with a global presence and the @Uber acquisition.

To build an institution like Careem in the Middle East was a non-trivial exercise on multiple levels – disrupting the status quo, dealing with governments and taxi unions, and of course constantly raising capital. Ironically, in a part of the world that has ample capital (think all the sovereign wealth funds), there simply wasn’t the appetite or comfort to invest in companies like Careem. As a result, each subsequent series of financing was just as difficult as the previous.

 This is a fascinating, in the trenches, “play by play” of creation, challenges, eventual scale and exit of one of the most iconiq companies in the Middle East. Told, of course, from the vantage point of someone who was there spearheading much of the strategy and financing.

I hope you all enjoy this interaction as much as I did.

We, at Iron Pillar, are eternally grateful to Ankur for his mentorship and guidance. Thank you!

#grit #persistence #leadership #thinkbig #innovation #growthcapital #venturecapital #VC

#mentorship #community #Indiarising

Building financial discipline matters!In the latest Big Picture podcast by @ironpillar, I had the pleasure of speaking with @ashish jain, a friend, LP, member of the Iron Pillar Network and currently the CFO of @careem, based out of #Dubai.

His journey from product marketing in Silicon Valley to McKinsey, investment banking and eventually to senior finance roles at Unicorn companies has been full of ups and downs, lessons learned and milestones achieved. He shares his nuggets of wisdom around #focus, #resilience, understanding business fundamentals, unit economics, need for financial systems and processes, business expansion, fundraising and the power of company #culture. 

By the way, every employee at Careem can recite the company’s mission on demand. The notion of simplifying and improving people’s lives is in the DNA of every member of the Careem family. That North Star has guided the company from a ride hailing giant to a super app with customer-centric business adjacencies. This is definitely worth a listen.

We are honored and humbled to have Ashish as member of the Iron Pillar family. Thank you!

Dr. Jansen in the house!!!
In this version of the @Iron Pillar Big Picture Podcast, it was an absolute delight to speak with @Mark Jansen, who has had an incredible journey from @massachusetts institute of technology trained chemical engineer (where he and I were classmates) to professor of finance at the @university of utah, with tenures as an entrepreneur, investor, advisor, and for good measure...a triathlete:) We, at Iron Pillar, are also delighted to have Mark as an LP and member of the Iron Pillar Network.In the episode, Mark talks not only about his passion for teaching and research, especially in the area of #venturecapital and #privateequity, but also the concept of a founder-startup fit -- something that we, at Iron Pillar, refer to as the ideal combination of #aptitude and #attitude for a founder. Mark's own path and his candid advice are worth listening to.

Doing good and doing well!In the latest episode of @ironpillar's Big Picture podcast, I had the honor of speaking with @cyrus wadia, a dear friend and one of the most gifted (in the mind and the heart) people I have known for over 25 years! Cyrus is a tech entrepreneur turned sustainability guru. His journey has been nothing short of phenomenal - from multiple degrees from MIT and UC Berkeley, to Silicon Valley tech entrepreneurship, to the White House helping forge sustainability policy, to heading sustainable product at Nike and Amazon, to becoming CEO of @Activate.org, the leading platform for fostering scientist-entrepreneurs.It's the combination of passion, wisdom and action around the topic of sustainability that makes Cyrus so special. The conversation was inspiring and energizing, as Cyrus highlighted critical aspects that are key for large and small companies alike -- leadership, culture, incentives, values and the fact that companies can deliver value for shareholders and the planet! And boy, does the world need that right now:) I hope you enjoy watching this episode as much as I did creating it. We at Iron Pillar are humbled to have Cyrus as part of our prolific Iron Pillar Network. 

In this most recent episode of @ironpillar's Big Picture Podcast, I had the pleasure of speaking with @Kamal Ahluwalia, President of @ikigailabs, serial entrepreneur, seasoned technology executive, sports fanatic and esteemed member of the Iron Pillar Network. Kamal has spent over 20 years scaling companies like @apttus and @eightfold.ai, so when he speaks about Product-Market Fit and Go To Market motions, one should pay attention!The conversation was free-flowing and full of incredible "nuggets of wisdom", especially around scaling businesses, focusing on outcomes, and as described eloquently in this snippet, how to think and act like the Navy Seals. It was fun to have another Sikh for the first time on the podcast! Enjoy and, as always, comments and feedback are welcome:)

Here is a comprehensive conversation with @Nitin Jayakrishnan, co-founder and CEO of @pando, leader in Logistics Cloud SaaS. Nitin is one of the most authentic, humble and visionary entrepreneurs I have met. His journey to founding Pando is absolutely fascinating. One of the lines from the conversation that stood out for me --  "For the brands that we love and live with, for them to keep their promises to us (customers), fulfillment and supply chain technology is the foundation".  We had a wonderful conversation around various topics that should be very helpful to entrepreneurs building world class product companies -- finding product-market fit, refining the go to market motion, going global, scaling the team and constant experimentation. From naming the company to fundraising and scaling the team, @Nitin Jayakrishnan, @Abhijeet Manohar and the entire Pando leadership have been thoughtful and analytical in their approach. The @ironpillar team is absolutely thrilled to be associated with this phenomenal company. 

#logistics #cloud #supplychain #saas #venturecapital #vc #growthcapital #thinkbig #goingglobal #visionary #leadership

Another fun podcast (despite the shaky start, a ton of pearls of wisdom for startup journeys were tossed up during the conversation:))
In the latest edition of @Iron Pillar Big Picture Podcast, I had the pleasure of speaking with @Alan Boehme, the former CTO of @P&G, @Coca-Cola and @H&M, a prolific angel investor and an esteemed member of the Iron Pillar Network (#IPN). We talked about his remarkable journey in tech, his philosophy behind investing, the mistakes he sees entrepreneurs make and the proliferation of global startups. Alan is a wealth of knowledge, as a technologist, operator and investor. From flying cars and agri-tech to selling to large enterprises, this free flowing conversation was fun and enlightening. We at Iron Pillar are fortunate to have Alan as part of the extended family! Thank you Alan!!!

The art and science of business development!

In the latest version of @ironpillar's Big Picture Podcast, I had the pleasure of speaking with @Jonathan Flesher, my dear friend, business school classmate, LP, an esteemed member of the Iron Pillar Network and currently the head of business development at @Reddit.Jonathan is a philosophy major turned media and content-centric business development guru, having spent time at legendary companies including @electronic arts, @zynga, and @discord. He discusses the difference between #sales and #businessdevelopment, Jonathan's rules of business development, various BD business models and best practices for #startups. Of course, we had to weave in a bit of #generativeAI for good measure. I hope you enjoy listening to this fun interaction!@Anand Prasanna @Ashok Ananthakrishnan @Ashish Shah @Pavan A. Gupte @Raj Chinai @Sajid Fazalbhoy @Devavrat Jatia @Sanjna Tulsiani @Kyung Baatenburg @Shanthi Pavan @Saleha Osmani @Khalil Al-Awadhi 
#community #IPN #BD #partnership #thoughtleadership #growthcapital #vc #mentorship

Here is the next episode of @iron pillar Big Picture podcast. In this episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with @Stephen Ciesinski, an LP, technologist, entrepreneur, professor, former President of @SRI and a distinguished member of the Iron Pillar Network (IPN). In this free flowing conversation, Steve takes us through his prolific professional and academic journey, but most importantly provides his own "nuggets of wisdom" for entrepreneurs:

- The long term vision

- The first product offering (getting out of the blocks)

- Don't confuse 'product' with your 'vision'

- Creating true product-market fit while thinking Big

- Culture trumps Strategy. Choose the early hires very carefully

- Understanding cultures and sales processes for selling into different geographies

There is a reason why Steve has been an admired member of the faculty at @Stanford Graduate School of Business for many years. And we, at Iron Pillar, are truly humbled and honored to have him as part of our family!

@Anand Prasanna @Ashok Ananthakrishnan @Ashish Shah @Pavan A. Gupte @Raj Chinai @Sajid Fazalbhoy

#venture capital #vc #entrepreneurship #startups #growthcapital #community #wisdom #thinkbig #indiarising