Ronnie Screwvala on why upGrad is neither a startup nor an edtech
"You need to be restless, because you don't have a choice".Those are words you expect to hear from a 30-something tech founder building a ChatGPT-powe...
First Principles
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About
First Principles is a fortnightly interview podcast comprising authentic, candid, and insightful conversations between some of India’s most accomplished founders and business leaders, and Rohin Dharmakumar, The Ken’s CEO & co-founder. From personal philosophies, mental models and decision making frameworks, to reading habits, parenting styles or personal interests, each episode will delve into what makes each of these leaders unique.
Fractal’s Srikanth Velamakanni on surviving before thriving
Worth over $1.5 billion today, Fractal has raised close to $700 million in venture capital over its lifetime. But the path it took to get here is anyt...
Kunal Shah of CRED on “exciting but painful” workplaces, gated digital communities, and employee shareholders
Welcome to episode 16. If you like our deep interviews with some of India’s best known founders across a range of domains, please rate us on your favo...
Five founders on fundraising, culture-building, clock- building, culture-shaping, people coaching, surviving and thriving
If this isn’t the first time you’re listening to First Principles, you’re probably wondering what’s going on. Why did we have five different founders ...
Shan Kadavil of Fresh To Home on selling fish, building moats, encouraging bottom-up “shots on goal”, and being honest with boards
Shan Kadavil, one eighth a co-founder and 100% a CEO at Fresh To Home, one of the largest online sellers of fish and meat in India, made a rough busin...
Srikanth Iyer of Home Lane on embracing what you’re bad at in order to do better at what you’re good at, and being a wartime general
The shortest distance between two points may be a straight line, but when it comes to entrepreneurial success, straight lines rarely exist. Instead, t...
Kamal Sagar of Total Environment on picking principles over convenience, reimagining real estate, design, authenticity and learning to say no
One of the recurring themes when it comes to entrepreneurship is “valuation”. How much a company is “worth” is in many ways the tail that wags the ent...
Ruchi Kalra of Oxyzo on creating two unicorns in 7 years, spotting gigantic market opportunities, putting profits and cash flow first, and letting go of personal ambitions
In 2015 Ruchi Kalra was a partner with McKinsey in their Financial Services practices. In 2016 she, along with four co-founders, started OfBusiness, a...
Deep Kalra of MakeMyTrip on being “22 years young”, presenting from Excel sheets instead of Powerpoint slides, the importance of open disagreements, and the good stress of building
The year was 2004. MakeMyTrip was a struggling 4-year old company and Deep Kalra, its founder, hadn’t taken a salary for nearly 18 months and had exha...
Tarun Mehta of Ather Energy talks about doing hard things, going down multi-year rabbit holes, building companies over 30-40 years, and being chief storyteller
Serendipity usually plays a huge role in entrepreneurship. It played an outsized role in Tarun Mehta’s journey to founding Ather Energy, easily India’...