UpStreamVoice

In this episode of theUpStreamLife.com we have Sriniketh Chakravarthi, the CEO of Apexon who talks about new age IT Services and how the world of industry is changing with technology.

00:00 - Introduction
02:00 - Engineering, data and experience.
07:00 - Managing the entire cycle of technology.
10:27 - Mapping the old and new.
20:00 - Complete transformation, failures and making it work for CTOs.
25:00 - AI agents and Saas transformation.
35:44 - Working with startups and the Apexon journey.
41:35 - Why change is difficult, but why change is important.
49:32 - Being in the CEO role.

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In this episode of theUpStreamLife.com we talk about AI and ethics. The conversation is led by Padmashree Shagrithaya, one of the leading proponents of ethical AI from India. As EVP and MD of Insights & Data GBL at Capgemini, she is preparing organisations to understand how AI should be built around the foundation of ethical principles. Listen to this podcast as we start the year 2025 with these difficult questions of AI, accountability and ethics.

00:00 - Introduction to the subject.
01:30 - What is AI? Building a context.
09:23 - Ethical AI in its foundation.
14:00 - Ethical layer applies to infrastructure, algorithms and use cases.
18:23 - Infringements while using AI.
22:40 - Energy utilisation in AI and can compute be standardised.
28:00 - Responsibilities of the ecosystem towards ethical AI
33:00 - Trust, generative AI and Small Language Models.
35:35 - Implementations of ethical AI.
45:50 - Can AI help children learn.
49:16 - Conversations around ethical practicals.
52:11 - Padmashree's reading list.

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In this episode of theUpStreamLife.com we talk with Abhimanyu Saxena, the co-founder of Scaler about how corporations and nations will manage the future of productivity. This episode focuses  how organisations in India, Global Capability Centres, are focusing on building transformative talent.

02:00 - Being in a nervous planet: people and technology.
06:46 - Many technology revolutions that created jobs.
10:10 - Managing youth and energy, making them productive.
15:30 - Selling to CHROs in GCCs, transforming the talent pool.
22:00 - Large companies on training talent.
24:20 - Governments and their role in managing talent.
26:00 - Being relevant as an entrepreneur - journey of Abhimanyu.
32:00 - Building a business in tech-education in India.
37:06 - Managing the marketing of great content.
39:22 - Managing scale.
42:03 - Keeping the story of a business alive with the right goals.
44:30 - Being an avid reader and being a fan of Russian and Hindi literature.

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In this episode of theUpStreamLife we talk with Ben Goodman, SVP and GM APJ, at Okta. He talks about identity management and security in the era of collaboration where corporations work with thousands of vendors or freelancers. 

We also talk about cricket and sports as an enabler to being resilient to daily challenges. 

00:00 - Introduction
01:33 - What is Okta?
04:50 - Identity becoming important.
08:30 - Working with people outside the system.
10:38 - Convincing CTOs of working with creative collaboration.
19:00 - Security evolving with AI.
21:30 - Industry standards for customer identity management.
26:00 - Why should startups be on Okta?
26:55 - Being a cricketer and a cyclist - Ben's influences and advice.

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In this episode we talk to Jagdish, the founder of MM-Activ, who is the OG of the Indian events and exhibitions industry. He talks about how India is changing with events.

00:00 - Introduction
01:29 - Waking up to mega events
05:32 - What does a mega-event do to a city?
11:16 - Organising the event industry.
15:50 - Every Indian who went to America wants to give back.
16:05 - TIE Global as an event and other large events in India.
21:29 - The Bengaluru Tech Summit.
27:10 - Being influenced by ideology as an youngster.
29:20 - Working in a magazine in the early days.
33:44 - Starting up in the events industry.
42:06 - Being in the media business to deliver value.
46:54 - Building intellectual property.
51:22 - Being inspired by theatre.

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In this episode we talk to Anup Jain, an ace early stage investor and believer in the next billion story. He is a VC investor who wants to work with 12 startups a year, and runs a startup knowledge series called the "LP Series" on LinkedIn.

00:00 - Introduction
04:10 - India's 2.0 story of VCs
09:00 - LPs are asking for returns from the startup word and here is why
14:52 - Investing in VC spin-offs.
21:30 - Having a fund that is institutional.
26:08 - India's VC 2.0 needs one change - be institutional.
31:39 - Boardroom battles of the Indian startup ecosystems, which everyone misses and why it killed value.
35:00 - The new fund thesis and India needs new ideas.
44:00 - Changing consumer mindsets.

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In this episode we bring you Madan Padaki, veteran entrepreneur and TiE Bangalore - President. He talks about why the TiE Global Summit is not just going to be an event, but a large networking session where ideas such as deep tech, hard tech and sustainability will play a major role in the future of business.

00:00 - Introduction
01:46 - India has come a long way with entrepreneurs.
04:41 - India's talent and opportunities.
07:11 - The summit at Bengaluru and Mysuru.
11:00 - Nanopreneurs today.
16:00 - The impact of family offices.
17:50 - Nano-networks and their impact.
21:40 - The pace of change in the global south.
22:43 - TiE for the new age entrepreneur.
26:55 - TiE's college/university play.
28:30 - Mysuru and TiE 
31:35 - The sessions in the Summit.
36:27 - India's policy changes and Karnataka's support for entrepreneurs
38:19 - Having fun at the event.

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In this episode I talk with Chander Damodraran, the MD and CTO of Brillio about how AI led transformation is possible at scale.

00:00 - What is Brillio?
03:35 - Matching the old with the new.
11:41 - Tech transitions for customers.
21:05 - New age technology in retail.
25:15 - Why customers want Indian talent.
29:23 - The future of enhancing talent in India.
34:34 - Managing time as a leader.
37:00 - The Brillio focus on global markets.
42:00 - Looking at new tech and inspirations.

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In this episode we bring you a piece of Bengaluru's modern history. No other restaurant chain is so well known as Empire. Its young CEO, Shakir Haq talks about all the decisions that he took to make this multi-million dollar business remain family first and still be a company that runs on sound management principles. It's a fascinating journey of transformation and perseverance for Shakir, who was always interested in automobiles and technology. His entry into the family business and rise happened with sheer grit.

00:00 - Introduction
01:51 - Bengaluru means so much to the Empire brand  
03:40 - Scaling the brand.
08:08 - Blending experience with technology, especially the old chefs.
11:30 - The operations of the stores.
14:00 - Experimenting and scaling in the era of technology.
16:00 - Joining the company as a management trainee
21:00 - Firing a senior manager & garnering support from a team.
25:00 - Managing consistency of taste and challenges many brands face.
29:00 - Experiments that worked, failed and the evolution of Empire.
32:00 - Going to the central kitchen concept.
38:40 - Standing apart in the business.
44:00 - Working towards a farm to fork linkage
47:23 - Accelerating new brands.
49:28 - Being bootstrapped even as a lot of PE Funds want a piece.
53:00 - Retaining workers in the Blue Collar segment.
56:00 - The need for grooming those who work part time.
01:03:57 - Being inspired by Dad and handling COVID-19
01:08:05 - Learning to run a professional business.
01:11:50 - Family first

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In this episode of theUpStreamLife.com we talk Godard Abel, the CEO and co-founder of G2 who talks about why the G2.com platform is far better, and trusted, than Gartner in guiding people towards buying software. Gartner serves Fortune500 CIOs/CTOs, but what about an entire universe of business; this is where G2 enables small companies and SMBs, or even large corporations, to search for software that works for them. Rather than getting stuck with clunky software G2's authentic reviews ensures a safe and secure way of buying software for many businesses. Enjoy this podcast.

00:00 - Introduction to G2
02:23 - "Unicorn" : Godard's thoughts on the early days of G2.
04:08 - Software eating the world, buffet of products for companies.
06:26 - Going beyond recommendations of friends to buy products.
07:29 - Building a system of "trust" for software reviews.
08:25 - The product story behind the "trust."
09:59 - Creating a community for new software products 
11:38 - The objective of G2's research team.
12:50 - Listing products for free on G2 for a young startup.
15:05 - Community of G2 is growing in India.
15:39 - Gartner & G2, a comparison: the user knows more than the analyst.
17:18 - Meeting the Gartner founder and learning.
21:10 - Technology on "Ruby on Rails" and the AI play.
22:22 - G2's AI "Monty" to find the software that works for a company. 
24:42 - Listening to customers to grow.
26:00 - Generative AI: its applications.
26:52 - AI is important theme for everyone to make sense of data.
27:56 - A global company, but will focus on India as well.
29:00 - APAC and the south-Asia region.
30:41 - The early days of starting and its lessons.
31:35 - Getting past failure, being persistent for seven years.
34:30 - The support system that mattered for Godard.
35:40 - The learning from Godard Sr., and why it mattered.
36:50 - Building a team on grit and values.
38:00 - Marty Cagan's "Transformed"
38:35 - "Inner Engineering" by Sadhguru.

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