The Startup Operator

Shruti is an engineer and a data and ML enthusiast and is currently a general partner at Array VC. Previously she was an early stage venture capital investor at True Ventures, Samsung Electronics, Lightbank, HighBAR Partners, and the i2A Fund. While at IBM she worked on self learning algorithms that detected user location based on IP addresses, which she later incorporated into the Lotus Sametime product. Later, her company Penseev helped users make better connections with their friends based on social data. Shruti also has an MBA from the University of Chicago, where she polished her finance skills before making the switch from engineer/founder to investor.

Shruti and Roshan spoke about investing in enterprise SaaS and the challenges in the space and more; Key highlights below: 

Advantages of being a techie in a world of venture capital 

Investing in the enterprise  

Challenges in enterprise SaaS space 

Balancing Build before market vs build with market 

How founders can Iterate to find Product Market Fit

Navigating through changes in enterprise tech deployment 1

What makes great founders great? 

Connect with Shruti: 

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

Twitter: https://twitter.com/atShruti

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!

Eshwar is the co-founder and the CEO of Mukunda foods, a cutting edge food tech company with inhouse R&D, that automates kitchens and is used in several cloud kitchens across the country. Eshwar spoke about the nuances of building a food tech company and more in this interview.

Highlights:

- Pivoting from a Quick Serve Restaurant to Kitchen Automation

- Achieving product market fit in Automation

- Nuances of Iterating in food tech

- Calculating ROI and justifying value to customers

- Nuances of Building a food business

- Operating a food business through the pandemic

Connect with Eshwar:

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

Twitter: https://twitter.com/eshwar_mf

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 -   

Ritu is one of the co-founders at Ankur. She worked on bringing innovation from lab to the market for a decade in Unilever and Philips. She has also worked globally investing in IP led renewable technologies. She has a PhD in physics from University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from INSEAD. In this interview with Roshan Cariappa she spoke about Investing in businesses that focus on the next billion internet users and more!

Some key Highlights:

Story behind Ankur Capital 

Taking innovations from labs to market 

Seeking out innovation in the market 

26:31 Current Trends in Evolution of Healthcare and Agritech Sectors 

Building for Bharat 

Evolution of the startup ecosystem

Connect with Ritu 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ritu-verma 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/rituverma01

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!

Meeta is the founder of The Hard Copy, a resource for building a modern-day, digital-first, design-led brand. She has helped to create some of India’s biggest consumer and financial services brands, from Airtel to Kotak Bank, Bru Coffee to Vistara Airlines. She was one of two partners at Ray+Keshavan, a consultancy that was acquired by media conglomerate WPP. Meeta then co-founded a SaaS enterprise product that was acquired by BMC Software.

In this conversation Meeta talks about branding for startups and more: 

Builders to Sellers mindset  

Brand Building 1-0-1  

Framing a brand statement 

Why branding is essetial 

Advice for building a category 

Going about building a brand 

Prioritising traget audience 

Dynamics of being a challenger brand 

Importance of personal branding 

Evolution of the Indian Startup Ecosystem

Connect with Meeta  

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

Twitter: https://twitter.com/meetamalhotra 

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!

Rory is the Vice Chairman of Ogilvy, he has co-founded a behavioral science practice within the agency. Prior to becoming the Vice Chairman, Rory was a copywriter and creative director at Ogilvy for over 20 years, having joined as a graduate trainee in 1988. He is a speaker at TED Global. He is the author of two book: The Wiki Man and Alchemy. One of marketing's most original thinkers and influential speakers, Rory is hailed as an advertising guru.

Some highlights from this conversation:

Change in perception about marketing

Making lateral decisions

Importance of Brand

Alchemy's Basic premise

Building a culture of Alchemy

How does Alchemy work in the real world

Creative utilization of fixed assets

Connect with Rory:

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

Twitter: https://twitter.com/rorysutherland

Connect with us:

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

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!

Jo Aggarwal is the co-founder and CEO of Wysa, a mental health app improvement app company. Prior to founding Wysa, she was the head of technology and innovation at Silatech and managing director at Pearson learning solutions. In the past she has worked on Employability and youth empowerment during Middle east conflict for which she won a Stevie / Global Telecom Business Innovation Awards for her tech for dev work.  

 Highlights: 

Permissionless impact 

What is Wysa 

Studying User behaviour 

Dealing with Stigma and inspiring confidence in users 

Integration with the broader ecosystem 

Preparing for the future 

 Connect with Jo: 

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

Twitter: https://twitter.com/jo4dev  

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!  

In this episode of The Startup Operator Roundup, Roshan Cariappa and Gunjan Saha recapped last week's episodes with Satya Prabhakar and Kashyap Deorah, and spoke about 

Qualcomm ventures' investment in BoAt audio 

Amazon India's $250Mn Venture fund to take Indian SMBs online 

Byju's Series F fundraise

Swiggy's Fundraise 

Cleartrip's Acquisition by Flipkart and 

Tiger Global's $100Mn investment in Dealshare

Episodes mentioned in this roundup

Anchor : https://anchor.fm/startup-operator/episodes/EP-93--Helping-Indian-SMEs--Satya-Prabhakar-Founder--Sulekha-euql4p

Being a 4x Entrepreneur | Kashyap Deorah

Youtube: https://youtu.be/OONme7zutTY

Anchor: https://anchor.fm/startup-operator/episodes/EP-94--Being-a-4x-Entrepreneur--Kashyap-Deorah-Founder--Hypertrack-eutg4q

Building in EdTech | Pooja Goyal

Youtube: https://youtu.be/Qwrz07FS838

Anchor: https://anchor.fm/startup-operator/episodes/EP-85--Building-in-EdTech--Pooja-Goyal-Co-founder--Avishkaar-eslke9

Being a travel startup during covid | Hari G.

Youtube: https://youtu.be/ez4JRUEYlZw

Anchor: https://anchor.fm/startup-operator/episodes/EP-77--Being-a-travel-startup-during-covid--Hari-Ganapathy-Co-Founder--PickYourTrail-eq4m61

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Kashyap is a serial entrepreneur. He has successfully built and sold 3 companies and is currently the CEO of his fourth startup, Hypertrack. Prior to founding Hypertrack, Kashyap founded righthalf.com, Chaupaati Bazaar and Chalo. In this interview he spoke about his process of going from idea to product to company, what metrics entrepreneurs should chase and more.  

Key highlights from this conversation 

Idea to product to company 

Being a 4x Entrepreneur  

Key principles of building a startup 

Pivoting from the first failure 

Nuances of building a Global company 

Building Businesses in India and US 

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Connect with Kashyap 

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

Twitter: https://twitter.com/righthalf  

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You can also connect with us on our social media 

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

Twitter: https://twitter.com/OperatorStartup