The Startup Operator

Prukalpa Sankar is the Co-founder of Atlan a hub for various data teams to socialise and collaborate on their work. Prior to co-founding Atlan Prukalpa co-founded Socialcops. In this episode she spoke about the nuances of building a collaboration software, the nuances of being a global company from day 1 and more.

Highlights:

00:00 Introduction

01:14 Founding Story of Atlan

04:54 Building a platform for different personas

08:25 Nuances of building collaboration software

13:38 The Product v/s Platform debate

16:20 Being early in a category 

20:22 Popular use cases for Atlan's product

21:35 Buyer persona 

23:47 How and When to build a data team

28:08 Nuances of being a global company from day 1

31:54 High level Challenges right now 

34:53 Learnings from being a serial entrepreneur

37:27 Optimism for the Future

-------------------------------------

Connect with Prukalpa:

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prukalpa/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/prukalpa

-------------------------------------

Connect with Us: 

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/startupoperator

​Twitter: https://twitter.com/OperatorStartup​​

-------------------------------------

If you liked this episode, let us know by hitting the like button and share with your friends and family. Please also remember to subscribe to our channel and switch on the notifications to never miss an episode!

Welcome to another episode of The Startup Operator Roundup, where Roshan Cariappa and Gunjan Saha discuss - 

Amit is the founder and CEO of iMocha, a skills assessment solution API platform that helps organizations with their hiring. Previously he was the founder of Radix Business Models, an IT services and outsourcing company. In this interview Amit spoke about his journey as a founder, transitioning from services to products company, the nuances of building an assessment product and more with Roshan Cariappa.

Key highlights of this conversation:

00:00 Introduction

00:53 Founding journey and key milestones 

11:53 Transitioning from Services to products

18:02 Nuances of achieving product market fit

24:08 Standing out in the crowded recruitment space 

29:07 Nuances of building an assessment product

37:58 Closing the loop on quality of hire 

41:08 Pros v/s Cons of working with the HR function

44:22 High level Challenges Amit is solving now 

48:03 Nuances of going from $1-10M in SaaS 

51:01 Improving ACV and Customer Marketing

54:57 The Indian SaaS ecosystem

57:27 Optimism for the future

-------------------------------------

Connect with Amit:

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amitdmishra/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/amitdmishra

-------------------------------------

Connect with Us: 

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/startupoperator

​Twitter: https://twitter.com/OperatorStartup​​

-------------------------------------

If you liked this episode, let us know by hitting the like button and share with your friends and family. Please also remember to subscribe to our channel and switch on the notifications to never miss an episode!

Rahul is the founder and CEO of Flobiz, a company that primarily builds billing and inventory management softwares for Indian SMBs and works towards digitizing the SMB space. Rahul is a serial entrepreneur whose previous startups were Zaaika and Koinex. In this interview he spoke about building for SMBs, building trust with SMBs and more!

Key highlights of this conversation:

00:00 Introduction

01:23 Rahul's entrepreneurial journey so far

03:58 Market to Idea to Company

07:16 Building for SMBs

11:35 SMBs' perception of software

14:20 Flobiz's popular use cases

18:16 Building for the Bharat User 

23:49 Pricing a SaaS product

28:27 Building Trust with SMBs

34:13 Digitizing SMBs through covid

37:37 Flobiz's opportunities for expansion

39:28 Rahul's take on Atmanirbhar Bharat 

43:08 Learnings from being a serial entrepreneur

48:00 Lessons from Operating through Covid

--------------------------------

Connect with Rahul: 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/startupkesari/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/startupkesari

--------------------------------

Connect with us:

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/startupoperator

​Twitter: https://twitter.com/OperatorStartup​​

--------------------------------

If you liked this episode, let us know by hitting the like button and share with your friends and family. Please also remember to subscribe to our channel and switch on the notifications to never miss an episode!

Welcome to another episode of The Startup Operator Roundup, where Roshan Cariappa and Gunjan Saha discuss - 

Rishi Agrawal is the CEO of Avantis Regtech, a regulatory technology startup that offers a multi-tenant, SAAS solution on its web and mobile platforms, enabling a transparent, accountable and efficient risk and compliance management. Rishi spoke about Incentivising compliance, Making compliance data accessible through APIs and more in his interview with Roshan Cariappa.

Highlights of this conversation:

00:00 Simplifying Compliance 

01:23 Building an application for Compliance

05:32 Key milestones in the Avantis journey

10:12 Principles for navigating compliance in India & Building good governance practices

14:50 How has the compliance process changed?

18:41 Incentivising compliance

21:46 Changes needed to improve Compliance in India

30:55 Keeping up with ever changing compliance laws

34:32 What differentiates Avantis from the rest

37:49 Scaling & productising compliance workflows

44:09 Making compliance data accessible through APIs

45:57 How services business has helped Avantis 

49:35 Building a culture of compliance

55:30 Advice to founders about compliance

59:52 Lessons from operating during Covid

1:02:14 Compliance structure required to enable a $5T Economy

--------------------------------

Connect with Rishi:

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/agrawal-rishi/

​Twitter: https://twitter.com/rishiagraw

--------------------------------

Connect with us:

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/startupoperator

​Twitter: https://twitter.com/OperatorStartup​​

--------------------------------

If you liked this episode, let us know by hitting the like button and share with your friends and family. Please also remember to subscribe to our channel and switch on the notifications to never miss an episode!

Utrkarsh Roy(@utkarsh_roy) and Divyaansh Anuj(@divyaanshanuj) are the founders of Introbot(@introbotAI), a WhatsApp chabot providing instant help for verified Oxygen, Hospital Beds, Ambulance and other medical supplies to help fight the second wave of the pandemic. In this episode they spoke with Roshan Cariappa about Introbot's impact, how they verified the data of leads for supplies and the originally intended use case for Introbot and more.

NOTE: Below are the links for more information and contact for Introbot for anyone who may need it. 

Introbot Contacts:

WhatsApp ChatBot: https://api.whatsapp.com/send/?phone=12345178991&text=COVID&app_absent=0

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/introbotai/about/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/IntrobotAI

Here are a few keyhighlights from the episdoe:

00:00 Introduction

01:01 Fighting Covid with Introbot

03:30 Introbot's impact during the 2nd Wave

05:46 Verifying data of leads and sources

08:18 Introbot's original use case

12:52 Traction for business use cases

17:03 How to run a successful  community

21:50 Nuances of Building Conversational AI

27:03 Working with the WhatsApp platform

33:23 What the future holds for Introbot

38:31 Being an Indian founder in 2021

40:50 Lessons from operating during COVID

Connect with Utkarsh

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/utkarshroy/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/utkarsh_roy

Connect with Divyaansh:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/divyaansh/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/divyaanshanuj 

Connect with Us:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/startup-operator

Twitter: https://twitter.com/OperatorStartup

If you liked this episode, let us know by hitting the like button and share with your friends and family. Please also remember to subscribe to our channel and switch on the notifications to never miss an episode!

Aakriti is the Co-founder and COO at Wizikey,  a SaaS-based, data-driven communications suite for PR for startups. Prior to Co-founding Wizikey, she founded Boring Brands, a branding agency. In her early career she has held positions at Info Edge, Naukri.com and the like. In this interview Roshan and Aakriti talk about PR and branding for startups and more:

Highlights

Turning service into product

Founding a startup: 2009 v/s 2018

Data Driven PR 

Why startups should prioritise PR early

Steps to invest in PR

How can founders amplify Brand statement 

Aligning priorities across different teams

Democratizing reach for brands

Building for bharat

Nuances of being a COO

Opportunities in the Indian SaaS ecosystem

Pivoting from an agency to a product company

Connect with Aakriti:

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aakritibhargava/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/aakriti

Connect with us:

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/startup-operator

​Twitter: https://twitter.com/OperatorStartup​​

​

If you liked this conversation, let us know by hitting the like button and share with your friends and family. Please also remember to subscribe to our channel and switch on the notifications to never miss an episode!

Ravi is a co-founder and CEO of Qapita, a digital equity management platform. Ravi is an angel investor in several startups. He has previously worked in investment banking and corporate development in Asia Pacific region for nearly 2 decades and has expertise in capital raising, corporate finance advisory, mergers & acquisitions, principal investments and the like. In this interview Ravi and Roshan spoke about managing captables and various stakeholders and more!

Founding story of Qapita

Common misconceptions about Termsheets

Key operational constraints and challenges in fundraising 

Managing various stakeholders on your captable

Best practices to issue ESOPs

Prioritising Finance as a function in Startups

How should founders view valuation?

Connect with Ravi:

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/raviravulaparthi/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Ravi_Qapita

Connect with us: 

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/startup-operator​

Twitter: https://twitter.com/OperatorStartup​​

If you liked this conversation, let us know by hitting the like button and share with your friends and family. Please also remember to subscribe to our channel and switch on the notifications to never miss an episode!

Welcome to another episode of The Startup Operator Roundup, where Roshan Cariappa and Gunjan Saha discuss -