“Culture ke naam pe dresscode chipkana - is not something I am a big fan off!” - Pranay Prakash. From a student who had to drop out of his military training due to an injury, to starting his first job as a field recruiter and the journey that he took to becoming the Head of Supply Chain HR at Delhivery (India’s leading fulfilment platform for digital commerce). Here is Pranay Prakash’s success story captured through a candid interview on The Spotlight. Here are the key takeaways from this episode: How young graduates & freshers can shape their careers Using technology as an enabler to empower existing workforce & systemsInsights into logistics operations as a career pathTwo key soft skills required to excel in the logistics industry.Bringing equality & breaking stereotypes in recruitment

“No matter what, set audacious goals. When you set audacious goals you will meet them.” - Piyush Suri. A 1st generation serial entrepreneur, Piyush Suri is the CEO & Chief Storyteller at 5BY7 a premium corporate gifting & promotional products company. In this episode of The Spotlight, we sit down for a chat with Piyush to explore career paths in the branding & merchandising space. Here are the key takeaways from our conversation with him: Exploring opportunities to find the most suitable career pathHow to create brand engagement through merchandisingHow to bootstrap and grow your startup How to ensure that you have a predictable pipeline of customersFuture of branding & brand extensions

“I do not limit myself from thinking insane things, and trying to figure a logic on if you can do it” - Nakul Kumar Nakul Kumar is the Co-founder of Cashify, a re-commerce leader in India with a focus on smartphones. Nakul is an MDI Gurgaon graduate and a serial entrepreneur. His first business was in the waste management domain where Nakul successfully started and managed the operations of a waste management plant and made gold from garbage. Today Cashify is the official buyback partner for top brands in smartphones such as Apple, Samsung & Xiaomi to name a few. Apart from buyback they also sell refurbished smartphones, smartphone accessories & smartphone repairs. Originated in 2013 Cashify now has over 15 Lakh customers & over 1 Million App Downloads. In this episode of The Spotlight, Nakul talks about starting a business as a freshly graduated student without a clear business plan or any funding options. Nakul’s power-packed story is guaranteed to inspire many to set upon their own entrepreneurial journey. Key takeaways from the show: How to start a business without a concrete business plan or funding. How to build credibility as a domain expert when you are just a fresh graduate. How to raise VC Funding through networking events. Advice for aspiring entrepreneurs on coming up with new business ideas.

“We are leveraging the power of Ayurveda using the power of digital” - Arjun Vaidya. Arjun Vaidya the CEO of Dr. Vaidya’s launched a D2C brand harnessing the knowledge of Ayurveda accumulated over 150 years and passed down through 6 generations of his family. His goal is to leverage the power of Ayurveda using the power of digital to make it available in every nook and corner of India & the World. This Brown University Alum is a passionate patriot who aspires to be the flag bearer for taking Indian Ayurvedic science to consumers across the globe. In a conversation this week with the host Akshay Datt, Arjun talks about his childhood, studying abroad, working with  Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy Group & re-branding & scaling his grandfather's legacy through the Dr. Vaidya brand. Here are our key takeaways from this episode: Making the transition from college academics to corporate life. Advantages of studying abroad. Launching & scaling a D2C business. What not to do in branding.Leveraging customers as a lever for growth. To stay updated about the latest episodes, show launches & get daily tips on career guidance join our WhatsApp community here.

“In India, dining out is an event, smallest of things can ruin it, and smallest of things can make it better”– Ankit MehrotraWhen his fear of failure vanished with one examination, a spark of entrepreneurship was ignited.This South Delhi boy’s story of an engineering degree, love for finance, days of doing odd jobs to survive and culminating into a successful investment banker is one for the movies. The young man however has been experimenting with business since his early days.Ankit Mehrotra is a University Of Essex alumni with a degree in Engineering, a CFA charter holder and is a co-founder of Dine Out, one of India’s largest Dining out and Restaurant Tech platform operating across the B2C and B2B domain processing more than 100M diners and $800 worth of transactions across its network of 50,000 partner restaurants in 20 cities. In this episode of The Spotlight, Ankit talks about being a young professional during the 2008 recession, conceptualising Dine Out, starting out, acquisitions and creating an ecosystem for the food industry.Here are our key takeaways from our conversation with Ankit: Taking an idea from concept to businessCommon mistakes that start-ups may makeMaintaining the vision of your businessUnderstanding your niche, and Creating new avenues within your industry

“Only when you ask customers, will you be able to build something that they need” - Preksha Kaparwan. As a rebellious army kid wanting to escape traditional education systems, and yet driven by an incredible yearning to travel the world, Preksha Kaparwan spent her childhood exploring various career paths - from being an astronaut to being an air hostess. She finally locked in on a plan to graduate from the prestigious IHM Pusa College of Hotel Management. It is here that Preksha discovered the incredible life of a chef & pursued it with passion and joined the small community of Indian female chefs. From getting accepted into a largely male team and a demanding work environment to leading a team of 28 and working 22 hour work shifts, Preksha made her mark in the hotel industry before she quit & became a techie!Today, Preksha is the Co-Founder & CMO at Alphaa AI, a San Francisco based startup that is on a mission to make analytics accessible to everyone via conversations.Wondering how a Preksha went from being a chef to a techie? Tune in to this episode of The Spotlight and know more about her incredible journey!

“Entrepreneurs don’t fail, businesses do” Sudeep Singh In this episode of The Spotlight, we are in conversation with Sudeep Singh - Founder & CEO of MPowered. An astute entrepreneur who has always been a step ahead of times with his uncanny ability to spot trends. Sudeep is also a master of sales and has proved this by becoming an AVP at Kotak Investment Banking at just 24 years! Guided by his passion for all things tech, Sudeep finally took the leap into entrepreneurship with A1 Technology Inc. in New York, successfully scaling the business and then finally exiting it with a successful sell-off deal. Now with Mpowered - a new age asset management solution, Sudeep is chasing his vision of real estate liabilities into income-generating assets for their owners & stakeholders. Here are some of our key takeaways from this exciting & enriching conversation with Sudeep: How to sell big ticket items. Challenges of working in the US Investment Banking sector. How to unlearn & relearn. Building a solid core team as an entrepreneur.

“AR is the most powerful thing people are using during COVID-19” - Meghna SaraogiAn Indore girl with aspirations of becoming the next M.F.Hussain to leading the AR revolution in the jewellery retail industry - we speak to Meghna Saraogi about studying at a design school, becoming a graphic designer, starting a fashion social network & then taking a leap into the world of retail-tech. Meghna’s journey from design to tech was a product of her fashion insecurities that she turned into an opportunity. She was a total stranger to all things tech, but had a burning conviction of creating a product that adds value & set out on a journey to create an app that would solve it’s users fashion dilemmas - StyleDotMe. But Meghna’s entrepreneurial journey had its fair share of challenges and it was when StyleDotMe was running short of funds, Meghna pivoted & introduced a revolutionary AR tech-powered product Mirrar, that is set to disrupt the way consumers shop. Having seen success in the jewellery industry Meghna now has her goals set on other segments such as eyewear & wristwatches. Here are our key takeaways from this exciting conversation with Meghna: The experience of studying in a design school. How to seek mentorship & co-founders. Starting a career in AR.

This pandemic has put businesses on an accelerated path to digital transformation. For larger organisations, achieving digital integration is relatively easy. But, for SMEs it poses unique challenges. That’s where our guest for this episode Sriram Subramanian of ShoppinPal comes to the rescue! With a product tailored to make world class tech solutions available to SMEs without burning a gaping hole in their pocket, ShoppinPal has been powering growth for businesses in the retail ecosystem.  Join us for a chat with Sriram Subramanian to know more about his entrepreneurial journey, right from his days at the prestigious UC Berkeley to working for amazing businesses like HP and Paypal, then returning to India to adopt two beautiful daughters & set up his own SAAS startup.  Show credits:Host: Akshay DattProduction: Vanya Shruti Voiceover Artist: Vanya Shruti

“Okay Google! turn on the lights!” Or Since we are all about podcasts, how about “Hey Siri! play The Spotlight!” Getting the job done through a simple voice command is just brilliant. An experience that is super easy and convenient for the consumer. But have you ever thought about what goes into making our lives this easy?! Well that's the sort of questions we are going to answer on this episode of The Spotlight. We are in conversation with Arpit Chabbra the CEO & Co-Founder of IOTfy - a startup that's bringing together IoT, Hardware, Cloud, and Mobile technologies to revolutionize the way we use consumer durables. Join us as we speak to Arpit about his passion for engineering, studying at the NSIT, working for Yamaha, starting his first venture at the young age of 24, being a serial entrepreneur, tasting failure & knowing how to pivot to come out successful. And last but not least to better understand the role & scope of IOT. Here are our key takeaways from this episode: Studying at NSIT & how to enrich your experience of an engineering degree. Knowing how to pivot in a failed startup. How to explore opportunities for new ideas.

“You cannot chase success at the cost of your personal happiness” - Parthip ThyagarajanChasing his passion for writing, Parthip Thyagarajan started his career in media with a summer job at The Independent - a newspaper. It is here that he realised his true calling was media and he single mindedly pursued his passion. This led to a 4 year stint with the Times of India Group and then to the genesis of WeddingSutra.com - India’s first Wedding Portal. In this episode of The Spotlight, we chat with Parthip about his journey of transition from a successful corporate career to starting his own dot-com business. Something that Parthip had never thought he would be doing, until a call from a friend swayed his mind!Launching WeddingSutra in the year 2000 and growing it from a team of 2 to now a team of 30, Parthip talks about his exciting entrepreneurial journey as a publisher and being the voice of India’s Wedding Industry. Here are our key takeaways from this conversation: Career opportunities for the youth in media & publishing The future of the events industryChasing happiness and success

It is said that “the secret to life is to fall seven times and get up eight times”. This is especially true if you are an entrepreneur - and our guest this week is a testament to this. Growing up in Indore, Ankur Joshi of Nuclei had simple dreams of earning a salary of 2-3 lakhs and living an independent life. To his surprise, his first job via his college placement was with Deutsche Bank with a salary that blew his mind! Nevertheless, 4 years down the line, Ankur felt uninspired and restrained in his job and hence quit to explore new avenues. Over some beers with friends he made the bold decision to start his first venture, a food-tech company in Pune. With 3 other co-founders and rating himself a 1 on 10 in business planning, Ankur failed to scale his business, learning some valuable lessons in the process. Not defeated by his failure, he launched his second venture - a tech product that was aimed at the Pharma Industry. But it was not long before Ankur realised his solution while a great product lacked the potential to be scaled. And he had to quit again. Still determined to keep going, he moved to Bangalore and started working for Tapzo. A company that was India’s first all-in-one app product. Although unprofitable, Tapzo was eventually acquired by Amazon.By now Ankur had already seen a few failures. However, with failure comes learning, and after all the setbacks Ankur had faced he had some solid learnings to back him up. Thus with an undeterred spirit, and powered by his learnings Ankur once again started a new tech venture - Nuclei. Today Nuclei is going strong with several clients not just in India but also in SEA and Middle East. Their vision - "To build a well respected global product company out of India."Tune into our candid conversation with Ankur to know more about his journey - about all the ups and the downs. Here are our key takeaways from this chat: Is it wise to have multiple Co-Founders?Should one start a business with friends?How to get VC funding in the early stages of your business. Ankur’s learnings that are now his guiding principles.

Starting his first venture at the age of 16, selling art online on Ebay, our guest this week is someone who has always aspired to be an entrepreneur. Now a serial entrepreneur with 2 successful businesses, this curious minded and bold leader is set to conquer the challenging market of instant coffee with a D2C brand that is all the rage since its very inception! Well, we are in conversation with Bharat Sethi - Founder  CEO of Rage Coffee. Tune into our candid conversation as Bharat talks about starting his first business as a student, about his life in college, travelling to Russia for summer school, the inception of PosterGully - an online consumer brand for millennials to shop clothing, wall decor  affordable art. Bharat shares some riveting stories of sleepless nights and his constant hustle to grow PosterGully to 15 Million unique visitors  then exiting the company through a successful acquisition. He further talks about his second venture - iDecorama, a company he grew to 7x revenues, the genesis of newest venture - Rage coffee and his vision to create a Rs. 500 Cr ARR company by 2025.Our key takeaways from this conversation: The impact of non-academic learning of a college education. An entrepreneur’s experience of raising capital and; Bharat’s take on fund-raising how to approach big investors.

“Normal is Boring.”As a 16-year old boy, he was fascinated by business stories and forging a different path. Fueled by his curious mind, our guest today, Krishna Jonnakadla went on to explore a variety of sectors from accountancy to technology to media and fashion. He is now the Founder of Maharajas of Scale, a not-for-profit podcast focused on Indian Entrepreneurs and co-founder of FLIT, the Fashion Locator In Town which he set up to scale independent and designer brands in Fashion and Lifestyle in India. He also happened to venture into a successful online media company and was the Co-Founder and Member of the Board at Mango Mobile TV. His maternal family being of a business background, as a kid, he would enjoy his summers at his mother’s native place in Tirupati, city in Chittoor district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. From a very young age, Krishna was negotiating with high-end people and had a strong conviction to become an entrepreneur as he grew up. Interestingly, he also possesses skills like editing, dubbing, distribution and on the economics of the film-making world. In our conversation with him, Krishna shares with us his not so linear rather a tortuous journey. Having undergone a few messy situations in life, he has bounced back from them courageously. Listen to our candid conversation with the unbeatable guy. Here are our insightful takeaways from the episode:How to scale your startup BIG.Being unstoppable and experimenting with new ventures. Changing between streams and handling transitions in your career.Tips on content delivery, monetizing and setting up a subscriber base. Birthing a business model that disrupts. To get notified about new episodes join our Whatsapp community here: http://bit.ly/podmwhatsapp

This week on The Spotlight we are in conversation with Geetansh Bamania - the Founder & CEO of RentoMojo. An IIT-M alumnus & a serial entrepreneur Geetansh is a problem solver. In fact, he is an entrepreneur with a track record of seeking business opportunities in challenges! In our candid conversation with Geetansh, we speak to him about his childhood, studying at IIT-M, his journey towards entrepreneurship & starting a cost heavy business & then scaling it to 150x within a span of just 6 years. (Yep, we are referring to RentoMojo) Tune in to know all about Geetansh’s journey from being a founder to a CEO. Here are our key takeaways from this episode: How to solve capital problems. Why & how to approach VC funding. The importance of having a shared vision. Advice for aspiring entrepreneurs.

“It pays to stay authentic and talk to millennials in the language they understand” - Hitesh Dhingra. Hitesh Dhingra is the founder of The Man Company - an exclusive men’s only grooming brand. He is a 4x Entrepreneur who has been a pioneer across various industries. Right from starting an eCommerce site, a dating site & now The Man Company Hitesh has a proven track record of identifying unmet consumer needs and capturing the early adopters market. In this episode of The Spotlight, our host Akshay is in conversation with Hitesh to learn more about what it takes to capture the millennial market. Key takeaways from the show: How to bootstrap and save resources. Generating VC Funding. How to connect with the Millenial consumer

Don’t we all want our everyday life affairs to be simpler? Don’t we want to eliminate that “procrastination ka keeda” from our lives? We all secretly desire to have a simpler life where our very own “jaadu” takes care of the routine tasks. We all want to believe in magic and are certainly curious to find simpler ways of living. Today, on The Spotlight, we have someone who has an intriguing story to tell. His fascination for all things AI is mind-bending. He is the founder of India’s number 1 domestic robots brand, Milagrow Robots. We are in conversation with Rajeev Karwal whose vivid imagination has made lives simpler. In this episode, we are exploring the world of Robots with him!A veteran, he shares the experience of working with big companies like LG, Reliance Digital, Philips, Onida, Electrolux, and Chellarams in the last 36 years. He was the president of the Consumer Electronics Association of India from 2000 to 2002 and has also served various National Industry bodies like CII, FICCI to name a few. Redefining the conventional, the IMT Ghaziabad alumnus explored the wonders of his mind and launched India’s first Floor Robots, Pool Robots, Lawn Robots, Massaging Robots in the year 2007. He was the first one to have launched the world's first-ever Live Mapping Robots, Air Purification Robots, Home Safety Robots and Alexa enabled Robots. Let’s get right to it and delve into the world of Robotics and All things fascinating! What you can expect from the conversation: Lessons in Selling through thick & thin Owning your job role and taking strategic risks Effective ways of  Brand building Marketing innovatively How to make a sustainable business in Robotics

Well, we all have been confused at one point or the other, when it comes to making career choices. A commerce student, our guest today was, in his own words, an average student at school. The freedom from his parents, of making his own choices and paving his own path, shaped him as an individual. Like any other commerce student, he had applied for the CA exam but ended up with the realisation that he did not like it. As a football enthusiast, he wanted to pursue the sport full-time but unfortunately, things didn’t turn out as planned.Anand Sinha went on to pursue his graduation from Christ University, Bangalore. He gives us a gist of life in Bangalore in this candid chat. Previously a National Sales Head of Zomato, he eventually started his own. His company, Pressplay, a media-tech startup didn’t go very far but it did get 1 MN+ app downloads and 100+ content partners on board.  He shares the experience of rejoining Zomato and becoming the Global Head of Zomato Gold. In the quest for his calling, however, he further went on to build Leapclub, a powerful, private network for women leaders that changed the game. Anand shares with us impactful insights and the journey of building this professional network of women role models. Let’s hear it from him in this intuitive conversation.  Key takeaways from this episode:Working in early-stage startupsPerseverance and resilience- the qualities that make an entrepreneur Significance of having a route map and a vision as an entrepreneur Lessons for up and coming founders Scaling up your business Taking feedback from potential users and creating lasting connections

Someone who quit his well paying job at a billion-dollar company in order to make the heartland of India a financially stable place. Our guest today on The Spotlight is Manish Kothari, the man on a mission to create an investment mindset in the people of India. His venture, Zfunds, is successfully selling financial services. Growing up in a Marwari family hailing from the city of Kolkata, he was always aiming for starting his own business one day. He recollects his corporate days, where he worked in companies like Citibank, IIFL, and was the business head for mutual funds at PolicyBazaar before starting Zfunds. In this episode, Manish shares with us his expertise in banking, investing, insurance, financial advising and mutual funds. With a vision to educate more and more people, he wishes to expand the overall investor base and encourage consumers to invest their wealth properly. Tune in to the full conversation for insightful facts from the man disrupting the Indian investment mindset. From the Episode: What an MBA teaches you, beyond academicsHow to invest your wealth in the right place Understanding ‘mutual funds’How to scale up the mutual fund distribution space

Someone with no prior experience in media whatsoever, he has garnered a unique path of his own, helping Indian millennials with ‘all things finance’. No matter how bumpy the road gets, our guest today keeps moving forward with a determined mindset. Finshots has now 2,00,000+ subscriber base and the community continues to grow. ‘Finshots’ are 3-min fun, crisp and insightful reads on a variety of news and discussions from across the nation and globe. In this episode, the co-founder of Finshots, Bhanu, spills the beans, talks about his engineering days from IIT Roorkee, his rigorous interview experience at IIMA and where the idea of Finshots stemmed from. An IIMA alumnus, he would read business and finance news during his prep for the CAT exam. He is making financial news simple and accessible, educating people through the 3-minute long daily newsletter on the most important Financial and Business buzz in an easily understandable language. A man with a calm demeanour, he takes us through his journey of building a content platform from getting it off the ground and breathing it into existence. Key Takeaways from the episode:Teamwork and complimenting each other’s strengths.  Lessons on Market Research and Analysis. Learnings from growing a content platform from scratch. Creating short-form content and building a strong subscriber base.  Financial Advisory and targeting a potential audience.Connect with us on IG: @thepodium We are on the web at thepodium.in Be a part of our Whatsapp community: www.podm.in/growwithpodium