The Takeaway Club

In the latest episode of The Takeaway Club, I speak to Tanvi Dessai, founder of Filter Coffee, which is one of the fastest growing and favorite newsletters for millennials and gen-z to stay up-to-date on the Indian startup and financial ecosystem. 

Tanvi did her undergrad in Biology and went on study LLB. Still in law school, Tanvi started Filter Coffee as a way to scratch her own itch when she realized that the news coverage when it comes to finance and startups was very outdated for the new-age audience.

Inspired by media powerhouses like the Morning Brew and The Hustle, who catered to the American audience Tanvi started out by writing a summary of the daily happenings in the Indian ecosystem for her friends and family in May 20'. 

With a funky tone, filled with humor and GIFs, it didn't take long for Filter Coffee to be a hit among startups founders and operators. In less than 18 months, Tanvi has scaled the brand to 14,000+ subscribers and added a team of writers.

Best part? She is only just getting started. 

In today's episode, I have Srikrishnan Ganesan, who is a two-time entrepreneur currently building Rocketlane. Srikrishnan graduated from IIM-Bangalore in mid 200's and embarked on a product management career when it was not the obvious choice for MBA graduates.

From there on, he has taken up multiple product roles in companies like Rediff, Verizon, and Jigsee before deciding to build Konotor with his friends. After seeing great traction and success, the company got acquired by Freshworks where he went on to build Freshchat.

After four and a half years at Freshworks, Srikrishnan has come back for round 2 with his old pals to build Rocketlane, a customer onboarding platform for customer success teams.

In this conversation, Srikrishnan candidly shares his journey touching upon product management, the acquisition experience with Freshworks, what motivates him to do the whole startup journey for the second time, and how things are different this time around with more spotlight on the team.

Whether you are a founder, or someone interested in the startup ecosystem keen on learning what it is like to have been and done that, on all things startup you will love this conversation.

In the latest episode of The Takeaway Club, I am absolutely chuffed to speak with Ranjani Krishnakumar who is a writer, editor, and marketer with nearly 15 years of experience.

Ranjani runs Emdash, a content consulting firm in Chennai that specializes in B2B tech writing.

She is also a popular film critic with multiple columns on Film, Television, and culture for various publications including Huffington Post and FirstPost.

Ranjani also runs The Whole Works, a platform for learning about writing, productivity, freelancing, small business management and work in general.

If you are someone who is interested in the Indian movie landscape, film critiquing, and writing, you'll love this conversation!

In today's episode, I chat with Vineet Patawari - Co-Founder & CEO of StockEdge, and E-Learn Markets; two premier platforms for learning and getting better at financial trading in India.

Vineet started off his career with a license in Chartered Accountancy and then went on to do his Masters at IIM-Indore in the mid-2000's.

Foreseeing the boom of internet and the digital landscape in India, he ventured into Edtech with various ventures and eventually building and scaling two successful companies in E-learn markets which is a financial literacy platform with hundreds of courses, and StockEdge, which is an Equity markets analytics and research platform for retail investors.

In 2020, Vineet was recognized by BusinessWorld as one of the 40 under 40 leaders in the Edtech industry.

In this conversation, Vivek and I talk about how the pandemic has impacted Gen Z's mindset on finance and savings, insights on company building from his unique position in scaling two ventures in parallel and how he is tackling the Dunbar Number problem, and how over emphasis on user feedback paid back rich dividends for his product among other interesting tidbits.

Without further ado, let's jump into the conversation.

In today’s episode I have Jivraj Singh Sachar, Host of the Indian Silicon Valley Podcast.

Jivraj graduated from St. Xavier's College (Honours), Kolkata with a B.Com honors in 2020 and started the Indian Silicon Valley podcast when he saw a whitespace within the startup ecosystem to learn from founders' experiences in building and scaling world-class brands in India.

Indian Silicon Valley podcast has since grown into a household name with past guests from companies like Zerodha, Dunzo, Growww, Finshots among others.

Jivraj is also part of the Venture Operations team at AngelList and also founded ACE Humans, a storytelling platform featuring stories of diverse unique accomplished individuals where he has interacted with over 250 extraordinary individuals across different walks of life.

In this episode, I had the absolute delight of talking to Vanshika Mehta, a freelancer who’s creating all kinds of waves on LinkedIn.

Vanshika has been freelancing for close to a couple of years now and is incredibly good and successful at what she does - and that has flawlessly translated into our chat as well.

We break down the ABCs of freelancing, and go all the way upto Z - where Vanshi breaks down everything one needs to know about a freelancing journey.

We talk about processes, pricing, red flags, tools, getting your first project… pretty much everything under the sun when it comes to freelancing.

Whether you are someone looking to pick up freelancing, or already freelancing, I guarantee there’s something new for you to learn from this episode.

In the latest episode of The Takeaway Club™ podcast, I chat with the inimitable Tejasvita Apte, a couple’s coach, legal and relationship consultant, and a TEDx speaker.

She is also one of the Top Writers on Quora, with over 120,000 followers and has written over 2000 answers across law, relationships, spirituality and other topics.

To quote a fellow popular Quoran, Nagarajan Srinivasan, ‘Teja is a true polymath who knows law, politics, neuroscience, psychology, philosophy, movies, spirituality, yoga, art, poetry, literature and the epic Mahabharata”.

If you like conversations around law, politics, or relationships, this is a must-listen.

In today’s episode, I talk with Ganesh Balakrishnan, co-founder Flatheads.

Ganesh is part of the famous IIT-IIM mafia and after several years in the corporate world, he built his first company Momoe, a mobile payments product with his friend Utkarsh, which got acquired by ShopClues. 

After joining Shopclues as part of the acquisition Ganesh is now back again on the startup road, this time building Flatheads - a D2C footwear brand that is kicking ass.

If you are into startups, or building products, or a lifestyle enthusiast, this one is a must-listen!

There is an easter egg in the last 3 minutes of the episode!

In the latest episode of The Takeaway Club™, I speak with the one of the best storytellers in the Indian SaaS ecosystem, and a personal favorite. the one and only Sairam Krishnan.

Sairam Krishnan started his career is SaaS ~10 years ago when he joined Freshworks (Freshdesk back then) as only the #2 Marketing hire at a time when you could fit in the entire company into a Toyota Innova!  

Over the years he has successfully lead/implemented world-class marketing campaigns including the Failsforce blimp that flew over the Dreamforce conference and has led the marketing efforts for companies like Wingify, Imocha. 

In his current stint, he crafts beautiful startup stories for Accel as Marketer in Residence.

Apart from this he also authors two Substack publications, the CMO journal where he writes about marketing, growth, and strategy and the East Coast Road where he talks about his personal experiences, travel, and his love for tea.

In this conversation we get candid about Sairam's time at Freshworks as an early employee, and what it was like working directly under Girish, how Sairam has evolved as a marketer and a writer over the years, the current state of the SaaS ecosystem among other pieces of timeless insights.  

This is one of the most important episodes for myself and the podcast - for both what it means personally and what it represents at a broader level. Mental health is a delicate topic that I've been passionate about and I got a chance to sit down with a subject expert to get their perspective on what it means to study minds for a living. 

About the guest:

Indumati is a psychology professional specializing in therapy and counselling; her clientele includes Wipro, Cure.fit among other companies. 

Note: For Episode guide and Show Notes, visit: https://www.thetakeaway.club/podcast/psychology-101/