The Takeaway Club

In the latest episode, I sat down with Sahiba Sethi, Founder, and CEO of HelloMeets to get the story on how the HelloMeets platform came to be, life lessons she’s learned in the five years running HelloMeets, mistakes to avoid as a new founder and more.

Episode Guide:-

In a hurry? Jump straight to your favorite part of the conversation 

03:45 – Growing up in Kashmir

08:40 – Birth of HelloMeets

20:35 – That eery Netflix coincidence

21:25 – First few months between HelloMeets the idea and the first meet-up

26:00 – Mentors: Offline and Online

28:40 – Scaling the platform

31:50 – Why HelloMeets is a paid platform?

36:25 – Bootstrapped vs. Funding

40:00 – Misc: Dream dinner, Favorite books, Transformational habits

45:10 – What is one piece of advise for new founders?

49:45 – The Billboard message

50:50 – Reversing the tables: What is the Takeaway Club™ ‘s niche?

P.S: Show notes available at the Takeaway Club™ website.

When asked what was the mission of Quora, Adam D’Angelo wrote a post explaining how the vast majority of human knowledge is trapped as experiences in people’s heads and that is what Quora aims to bring to the general public – I don’t know if it’s incidental or rather influenced by it, I started The Takeaway Club™ for the same purpose –  bringing interesting life experiences to the townhall for everyone to benefit from.

But my Quora connection goes way beyond the shared mission of our respective platforms.

I got introduced to the Quora platform way back when I was in high school and it has been one of my favorite platforms to date – a lot of what I know, and what I don’t know – Quora bridged that gap one answer at a time. I’ve learned more about the ways of life or the laws of science and every topic under the sun from there more than any textbooks.

With vivid stories and wonderful life lessons along with it, from teachers like GV, Balaji V, Deepak Mehta, to Samantha Kannan, Sean Kernan, it is less a Q&A platform and more an online school that would define my ideas, interests, and the kind of person I want to be.

When Quora announced that it is going to bring in several regional languages into the platform including my mother tongue Tamil, I was incredibly happy – because out of all things, language should never be the obstacle that comes in the way of knowledge.

Years later, I now have a chance to repay the wonderful community – by bringing its quality answers and amazing writers to the broader audience in a rapidly growing medium, podcasts.

Listen to my chat with Selva Ganapathy, Head of Community, Quora Tamil on kickstarting an enlightening ‘Summer of Quora Tamil’.

About the guest:

Apart from work, she’s the co-lead and Marketing Head for Team Lonepack which is a Non-Profit that aims to shatter the stigma around mental issues and help spread the awareness. As part of the organization, she spearheads a lot of amazing initiatives, including LonePack conversations a podcast focused on mental health. 

She’s also on the founding team of The Prodcast, discussing product management and tech w.r.t to the Indian eco-system. 

She’s also a co-lead for Women in Product Chennai that aims to empower women in the product & tech space.

She’s also a member of the Harvard Business Review advisory council which is an opt-in research community of business professionals who provide insights to shape HBR's content. 

What do we discuss?

- > Some of the initiatives taken by Team Lonepack to dealing with the turbulent emotions during the quarantine. 

-> How to pick up reading as a habit for non-readers and 3 game-changing books that Aishwarya would love to gift people. 

-> Her admiration for one of the most underrated CEOs in the world at present.

and more!

In the latest episode, I got to talk with the "Marvelous Mrs. Maisal" in the making - Kovai Sandhya a.k.a Sandhya Chandrasekaran.

They say throw a stone in B'lore, it either hits a street dog or an IT professional - creating a halo that the IT folks are as normal as it gets in the silicon valley of India. 

Here's Sandhya standing out - Tamil at heart, coffee on her hand. And stupid lego blocks all over her floor. 

If this conversation were a movie, here's how Roger Ebert would have felt about this.

"It starts off awkward, takes the turn to funny, and leaves you reassessing your stance on important issues in the current setup."

And me?

I think she should get her own sitcom.

28 years.

That's how much experience (and stories) Krishna and Surya have been between them when it comes to football. 

Coincidentally, for both of them, the love affair for the sport began with heartbreak in 2006 - when Zinedine Zidane did the unthinkable in the World Cup. 

Since then, they've trodden different paths - one toward the unforgiving Premier league and another to the unchartered Spanish league. 

But both have had their fair share of miracles, upsets, and so many unfiltered emotions. 

Here's to their journey and that of billions across the world.

#ForTheLoveofFootball  

In today’s episode, I have one of my close friends Mukil Ganesan - to share his learnings as a Marketer in the SaaS industry.

Mukil takes care of growth at Facilio, an enterprise startup focusing on the property management industry.

He's one of those people, even in a 2-minute conversation will make sure you walk out learning something useful. 

In this chat, we talk at length about:

-> Growth Marketing in SaaS and how it has evolved over time - and the skills you need to excel at it.

-> His time at Zoho - from being a nervous fresher to evolving into a kickass growth professional. 

-> Why the 'service' centric Indian educational system is obsolete and how institutions can change it. 

If you are a SaaS professional, particularly from Sales or Marketing this conversation is a gem! 

I met Karthee Vidhya only a few months ago - a brief 2-minute encounter at a networking event.

Honestly, at that time I had little idea of what Team Everest was doing.

Later, after some browsing I realized the magnitude of their life-changing volunteering efforts - since then, I’ve wanted to have this conversation.

In this episode, we discuss at length, Team Everest's volunteering initiatives, how the life of someone who has devoted their entire life to others look like, and how easy it is to change someone's life if we have the heart. 

There’s more.

Inspired by Karthee's efforts, we are running an impromptu fundraiser. 

For every person who listens to the episode, The Takeaway Club™ will make a fixed contribution to Team Everest’s volunteering programs upto a sum of Rs.10,000.

In the latest episode, Krishna talks to Kruti Pathak who has 17 years of experience in managing corporate talents – in this chat, they discuss the current job scenario amidst the COVID-19 outbreak, the life of working women, and the importance of having mentors in your career.

In the second and final part of my conversation with Kaushik Kannan from Chargebee, we get to the bottom of the (in)famous 21 days rule and whether it really works. Kaushik also talks about his mistakes, what he has learned from them, and his north star metric that has shaped up his every action.

In the second and final part of my conversation with Kaushik Kannan from Chargebee, we get to the bottom of the (in)famous 21 days rule and whether it really works. Kaushik also talks about his mistakes, what he has learned from them and his north star metric that has shaped up his every action.