Outliers 100: Life lessons from AR Rahman
So what’s the big deal about the 100th episode of the Outliers podcast? What’s the big deal about the 100th of anything? Not much, if you ask me personally. Milestones can be lifeless. But, milestones can be a big deal, too. It all comes down to the events surrounding any milestones, or an outcome. Sometimes […]
Meet former entrepreneur Raju Reddy, now a startup ecosystem builder
So what makes a startup ecosystem work? Entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and perhaps even the regulators. Apart from the above, there are these low profile, faceless ecosystem builders who back the founders not just with monies, but with the emotional energy required in navigating the ups and downs of entrepreneurial journeys. After selling his software services […]
CavinKare founder on building a culture that lasts
C.K. Ranganathan quit home and family nearly three decades ago to start CavinKare, a Chennai-based consumer goods startup that once gave the likes of Hindustan Lever sleepless nights. I am not sure how many of you remember the Chik shampoo that came in single-use sachets. The brainchild of Ranganathan’s father, R. Chinnikrishnan, the sachets reimagined […]
How Ritesh Arora learned from failures to bootstrap, then turn BrowserStack into a $60m rocket ship
If you’ve been following the mainstream startup movement in India, it’s likely you’ve never heard of BrowserStack, or its low profile founder Ritesh Arora. But if there’s one startup playbook you must learn from, it’s the BrowserStack journey. By the time BrowserStack earned its first million-dollar revenue in the year 2012-13, the founders Arora and […]
William Bissell of Fabindia on building brand, lessons from the journey
“Giving just returns to your investors and shareholders is a restrictive model for business. Business is such a powerful force, it needs to stand for a higher purpose,” Bissell tells me in this episode of Outliers. Bissell, who took over the business in 1999, is now the vice chairman of Fabindia. If you want to […]
Why Environment, Sustainability are hot for Amuleek Singh of Chai Point
Amuleek Singh Bijral, the founder of Chai Point, is an outlier for many reasons. For me, Amuleek is an outlier because of his undying focus to ensure Chai Point is sensitive towards the environment. And he believes being environment-friendly makes business sense too. Also, he’s in my list of Indian founders who I believe are […]
How Vinoth Chandar of ChuChu TV made it a top global brand on YouTube
With over 24.5 Billion views and more than 38 Million subscribers across its channels, ChuChu TV is one of the top video creators on YouTube from India. Vinoth Chandar, founder and CEO of ChuChu TV, began the channel in 2013 with a nursery rhyme video titled ‘Chubby Cheeks’ sung by his daughter, which went viral […]
Sebastian Thrun on flying cars and solving today’s problems
Can Bengaluru’s traffic jams be solved with flying cars? For Sebastian Thrun, the Google X founder and among the world’s top AI and robotics scientists, flying cars are no more science fiction. Thrun, the cofounder of online education startup, Udacity, believes that learning new things is the only way to survive. “You can only learn […]
Kishore Biyani on his survival lessons for the future
Kishore Biyani’s entrepreneurial journey has been a rollercoaster ride since he first started selling fashion fabric to garment manufacturers in November 1983. Over the last four decades, Biyani has been through several cycles of business and technology disruptions, including the economic slowdown of 2008 when he had to scale down the business, negotiate with the […]
How Nandan Nilekani brings people together to create lasting impact
Most of us have known Nandan as the cofounder of Infosys, and the brain behind Aadhaar and India’s recent financial platforms, including “the IndiaStack.” While all of the above make for a good bio of Nandan, they don’t necessarily make him an outlier. From my days of tracking Infosys since 2000 to writing early stories […]