Vivek Bajaj is a third generation Financial Markets participant and co-founder of StockEdge, a research and analytics platform aiming to become the 'Bloomberg' for retail investors in India. 

We talk about the wide range of things like: 

- How Indian stock markets have been technology challenged

- How price is as good as the quality of data backing it 

- High conviction themes / sectors when it comes to buying Indian equities post Covid

- The importance of 'selling' discipline

- Why investors prefer stocks with high promoter holdings

...and more...

...a lot more.

Hope you enjoy the banter!

Avinash Godkhindi comes from an interesting vantage point overlooking both traditional Finance and modern Technologies. 

The former probably got ingrained during his stint heading product for Citi's PremierMiles credit cards. The latter most definitely came from his present tenure as CEO of Zaggle, a B2B fintech company digitising spends.

We started with a conversation on the evolution of his business, but quickly segued into a wider chat on the contemporary evolution and challenges within fintech.

From mis-aligned perceptions of Venture Capitalists to what makes spends, payments and credit super interesting in digital India...hope you enjoy the banter. 

In this one we talk with Kinner, CEO at Knorish, an online education platform to create your own online store to sell courses and content.

Before the lockdown, Knorish had around 500 content creators, a number which has now skyrocketed by over 12x to 6,500, illustrating how Covid has accelerated the transition of content monetisation away from the offline world to online.

Kinner shares fascinating case studies on several "academies" created on Knorish, be it by chefs, yoga instructors, psychotherapists, and even fishermen. On the way we discuss how the wider shift of learning, teaching and training to the online world will disrupt the status quo in legacy education-driven business models, as well as market perceptions when it comes to talent or qualification.

This isn't Kinner's first podcast with us. Here's the link to our previous conversation: http://bit.ly/LongShorts65 

The embrace of technology by fields of learning and education has transpired on an accelerated basis during COVID-19, allowing startups in India with a strong edtech core, including equipment for virtual online classes and smart classrooms, to be well positioned to benefit from this behavioural shift. 

Testbook.com - an end-to-end learning platform with a focus on Government job entrance exams, is one such company. Luckily we had a chance to catch up with Testbook's Co-Founder and CEO Ashutosh Kumar, whose unique vantage point makes him naturally appreciative of the dichotomy between tremendous potential and significant complexity, when it comes to cracking solutions for education problems in India.

Listen in to hear his thoughts on how edtech has fundamentally changed over the last six months...and how he views this evolution in the education startup ecosystem.

Mukul Malik runs Asset Yogi, a Finance focused YouTube channel with over 1.45 million subscribers. We try to understand his secret sauce to crack video content on finance and his take on the Indian markets in a post-COVID world through this fascinating chat.

Mukul talks about his journey to-date, his strategy on content and business, the market pain points when it comes to financial awareness, and the commitment it takes to figure out one's audience.

As fellow content creators, we loved every second of this conversation! Hope you like it too. 

Aneesh Jain runs an agricultural value chain services business which serves over 150,000 Indian farmers across six states.

With a front row seat to the impact of recent agriculture reforms announced by the Government...he's a credible sounding board to talk of the so-called rural revival narrative resonating in mainstream business media in the months after the coronavirus pandemic struck. Aneesh brings to light the complex undercurrents making agriculture in India what it is, thus preferring a cautiously optimistic take. 

We talk of the Government's interventions during COVID to ensure food supply chain continuity, reforms in agriculture marketing in India, financial inclusion, pricing challenges, and the layered role played by APMC mandis. 

Abhijeet Awasthi's LinkedIn page describes him as a Corporate Dealer (FX & Interest Rates) at FirstRand Bank...but it is his ability to write great emails that got us in touch. 

He sends a fascinating email to his clients each morning, with commentary and his take on significant happenings affecting world markets. Wanting to put a differentiated spin to this rather tedious morning ritual, he took an unconventional approach when it came to structuring and positioning his content. Over time, the humble emailer helped him engage with his clients more effectively plus gain additional business. 

Serendipity...as he puts it.

In an age of information overload and content clutter, we catch up with him to understand his philosophy when it comes to financial writing...on the way making expected segues to learn his views on post pandemic market trends playing in India and the United States.

Before you plan to kick off your next email or content marketing project, listen in to catch some pearls.

Bonus: If you'd like to get on Abhijeet's rather selective Global Markets Update Email List, share your details here.

Baptiste Robert (aka Elliot Alderson aka @fs0c131y) has developed somewhat of a cult personality and following in India i.e. ever since he flagged data security and privacy issues within COVID-19 contact tracing Aarogya Setu app and the much wider Aadhaar ecosystem.  

We catch up with Baptiste to learn his take on the Government's tricky relationship with citizens' data, the philosophy (and process) behind his work as an ethical hacker, and his thoughts on the privacy debate raging within India and the world.

We definitely enjoyed having a conversation on this much important subject. 

Hope you find it insightful as well. Listen in.

In the latest "work-from-home" episode of LongShorts, we catch up with "serial entrepreneur" Yatin Thakur, probably one of the most positive speakers we've ever had on our Podcast!

As the Managing Director of Global Entrepreneurship Network India and Founder of coworking office space startup CoworkIn (which incidentally happens to be where we at TRANSFIN. have set shop), Yatin is no stranger to startup ventures.

He began his entrepreneurial journey when he was only 16. So, back in 2003 when the words "entrepreneurship" and "startup" were still alien in India and the business psyche was still dominated by the desire to join and work for big companies instead of starting your own thing. Yatin charts his professional growth and trajectory of the startup ecosystem since then, from India being a startup "dust bowl" to today, when there seems to be a new independent venture or idea in every nook and corner of the country.

Well...at least before COVID hit.

Speaking of the pandemic...of course we speak of the pandemic and how it might impact the business ecosystem (interestingly, Yatin has a positive take on this).

We catch up with Professor Madhu Viswanathan, Assistant Professor of Marketing from ISB Hyderabad to discuss his journey - starting as an engineer to a gig as a CAT/GMAT instructor to working in software to becoming a B-School Prof! On the way we touch upon the ever changing shades of News and Entertainment content through the lens of product, brand building, business models, and pricing. 

Madhu was previously an Assistant Professor at the University of Arizona, and has a Phd from the University of Minnesota. He has done a fair bit of work on B2B relationships and strategies, pricing models and sales mix, distribution channels across a range of verticals.

Clearly a marketing & strategy person, he brings his unique insight and authority to this conversation - which comes at a ripe time when there's a paradigm shift in content be it through shrinking theatrical windows or cord-cutting users away from subscription Television to video-on-demand with the likes of Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Hotstar. 

Who would win, and who'll miss the boat? Listen in.