Kushal Bhagia is a Venture Capitalist and the CEO of First Cheque, an early stage VC firm from India. In this episode of the podcast, we discuss Kushal's journey, from starting up straight out of college to running his own venture capital firm at 31. He talks about what he looks for in the founders and companies he invests in, what he thinks makes someone a good VC, where he sees the Indian start up ecosystem in 10 years from now, and a lot more. He even gives some really good advice for college kids. Listen on Spotify: Check out First Cheque's website: https://firstcheque.vc/ Runnin' Down a Dream: How to Succeed and Thrive in a Career You Love - Bill Gurley: Runnin' Down a Dream: How to Succeed and Thrive in a Career You Love - Bill Gurley 9/14/2018 Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/noahfromgoa Follow me on Instagram: https://instagram.com/noahfromgoa Follow the DFTL Podcast: https://twitter.com/theDFTLpodcast Like, Share and Subscribe for more content like this! Follow Kushal on Twitter: https://twitter.com/kushalbhagia Follow First Cheque on Twitter: https://twitter.com/FirstchequeFollow A Noah Martins Production Intro Music by Skeletron https://www.instagram.com/skeletron_music Cover Art by Anslem https://www.instagram.com/98artofficial DFTL https://twitter.com/theDFTLpodcast https://www.instagram.com/thedftlpodcast Don't Follow the Leader (DFTL) is a college podcast run by Noah Martins in an attempt to understand society's exceptions. He interviews entrepreneurs, business leaders, celebrities and academics, and tries to understand how they make decisions and what motivates them.

Akhil Singh is a serial entrepreneur and the Co-Founder of Questt.com In this episode of the podcast, we primarily discuss Akhil’s journey and learnings as an entrepreneur, starting with Cubito, a cab sharing start up that he started working on while in college, followed by Invol.in, a plug-in for news channels that allowed them to interact with viewers, and then Real Learning, an ed tech start up that evolved into Questt. Given his years of experience, Akhil’s insights are not just thought provoking, but also very well-articulated. Besides some best practices for entrepreneurs, we also discuss his college life at BITS Goa, and he gives some great advice for students currently in college. Check out Questt: https://questt.com Listen on Spotify: Follow me on IG and Twitter! https://www.instagram.com/noahfromgoa https://twitter.com/noahfromgoa A Noah Martins Production Intro Music by Skeletron https://www.instagram.com/skeletron_music Cover Art by Anslem https://www.instagram.com/98artofficial DFTL https://twitter.com/theDFTLpodcast https://www.instagram.com/thedftlpodcast Don't Follow the Leader (DFTL) is a college podcast run by Noah Martins, along with Rayan, Rohan and Gada in an attempt to understand society's exceptions. We interview entrepreneurs, business people, celebrities and academics, and try to understand what makes these people special, and try to decode how they think. Tags: entrepreneurship, Indian entrepreneurs, bits goa, Akhil singh, questt, start ups, college start ups, advice for college students Hashtags: #bitsgoa #collegeadvice #bitspilani #entrepreneurship #motivation #inspirationalvideo #startups #makeinindia

Raj Kunkolienkar and Aditya Kulkarni are the co-founders of Stoa School, an internet based business education university.   In this episode of the podcast, we discuss the process of creating a startup, both from a practical and a philosophical point of view, we discuss the psychology behind India's engineering and MBA craze, and we discuss Raj and Aditya's journey so far building Stoa School.   Check out Stoa School: https://www.stoaschool.com   Follow me on IG and Twitter!  https://www.instagram.com/noahfromgoa   https://twitter.com/noahfromgoa   A Noah Martins Production   Intro Music by Skeletron  https://www.instagram.com/skeletron_music    Cover Art by Anslem https://www.instagram.com/98artofficial   DFTL https://twitter.com/theDFTLpodcast  https://www.instagram.com/thedftlpodcast  Don't Follow the Leader (DFTL) is a college podcast run by Noah, Rayan, Rohan and Gada in an attempt to understand society's exceptions. We interview entrepreneurs, business people, celebrities and academics, and try to understand what makes these people special, and try to decode how they think.

Nilesh Kothari is the Co Founder and Managing Partner at Trifecta Capital.  Trifecta Capital is India's first venture debt fund. It is a platform focused on providing alternative financing to new age businesses in India, founded by Nilesh and Rahul Khanna in 2014. Before starting Trifecta, Nilesh worked on building Zenta, a data analytics start up, until it's acquisition in 2011 by Accenture. It was Accenture's largest acquisition at that time. Besides this, Nilesh is also a music and movie buff, and a big Pink Floyd fan.  In this episode of the podcast, we discuss the difference between venture debt and venture capital, Nilesh's journey as an entrepreneur, and how he goes about building great businesses, the state of the start up ecosystem in India, and more.   Subscribe to our newsletter now! https://medium.com/dont-follow-the-leader-blog/newsletters/the-dftl-newsletter Follow me on IG and Twitter! https://www.instagram.com/noahfromgoa https://twitter.com/noahfromgoa Editing by Fayne Antonio Pereira Carvalho https://www.instagram.com/fayne_antonio Intro Music by Skeletron  https://www.instagram.com/skeletron_music  Cover Art by Anslem https://www.instagram.com/98artofficial DFTL https://twitter.com/theDFTLpodcast https://www.instagram.com/thedftlpodcast Don't Follow the Leader (DFTL) is a college podcast run by Noah, Rayan, Rohan and Gada in an attempt to understand society's exceptions. We interview entrepreneurs, business people, celebrities and academics, and try to understand what makes these people special, and try to decode how they think.

Awais Ahmed is the Co Founder and CEO of Pixxel, an Indian space technology start up. Pixxel is building the world's most advanced constellation of earth imaging microsatellites, and revolutionizing the Indian private space sector. They recently also raised a $5 million round of funding. Besides running Pixxel at the age of 22, Awais was also one of the founding members of India's Hyperloop team for Elon Musk's competition. If you are even mildly interested in space, entrepreneurship, engineering, or even just interesting challenges in general, this is the episode for you. Awais is genuinely one of the most inspiring people I've ever spoken to. Subscribe to our newsletter now! https://medium.com/dont-follow-the-leader-blog/newsletters/the-dftl-newsletter Follow me on IG and Twitter! https://www.instagram.com/noahfromgoa  https://twitter.com/noahfromgoa  Intro Music by Skeletron  https://www.instagram.com/skeletron_music   Cover Art by Anslem https://www.instagram.com/98artofficial  Primary Editing by Somrat Dutta https://www.instagram.com/somrat_dutta  DFTL https://www.instagram.com/dftl.podcast   Don't Follow the Leader (DFTL) is a college podcast run by Noah, Rayan, Rohan and Gada in an attempt to understand society's exceptions. We interview entrepreneurs, business people, celebrities and academics, and try to understand what makes these people special, and try to decode how they think.

Pete Michels is an animation director and has worked on The Simpsons, Rick & Morty and Family Guy!  He has also directed shows like Rugrats and Rocko's Modern Life for Nickelodeon. Throughout his career, he has worked with platforms and channels like Netflix, Fox TV, Cartoon Network, Disney, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central. He was nominated for an Emmy in 2000. Currently, he is working with Netflix for an upcoming Animated series.  In this episode we discuss his journey as an animator, the history of animation, careers in art, some philosophy, and his advice for young artists.  Subscribe to our newsletter now! https://medium.com/dont-follow-the-leader-blog/newsletters/the-dftl-newsletter A Noah Martins Production https://www.instagram.com/noahfromgoa  Intro Music by Skeletron https://www.instagram.com/skeletron_music  Cover Art by Anslem https://www.instagram.com/98artofficial DFTL https://www.instagram.com/dftl.podcast Don't Follow the Leader (DFTL) is a college podcast run by Noah, Rayan, Rohan and Gada in an attempt to understand society's exceptions. They interview entrepreneurs, business people, celebrities and academics, and try to understand what makes these people special, and try to decode how they think.

In this short episode, I talk about the purpose of running this podcast and what I hope to achieve with it. 

Shashank Murali is the Co-Founder and CEO of Tapchief.  Shashank Murali is a young entrepreneur, and BITS Pilani alumnus. He sold his first start up, Edvice, while still in college. He then went on to create Tapchief(https://www.tapchief.com) , a freelancing platform, that is building a network that connects businesses to domain-specific professionals. Tapchief  is currently 3rd on the LinkedIn list of top Indian start ups. I had the opportunity to chat with this truly inspiring Indian entrepreneur, and get his take on all sorts of matters ranging from his opinion on how the world will change post the COVID-19 pandemic, to the hardest decisions he's had to make as CEO, how to get funded, and even advice that he has for young founders.  Books that Shashank reccommends: Delivering Happiness (https://amzn.to/3esaVNw) Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike (https://amzn.to/3cfMOQH) Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Playbook of Silicon Valley's Bill Campbell (https://amzn.to/2yMZLnx) Measure What Matters: OKRs: The Simple Idea that Drives 10x Growth (https://amzn.to/2Mcq5KH)  Find out about all our guests and future events on our new website now!   https://www.bitsandpiecespodcast.com  A Noah Martins Production  https://www.instagram.com/noahfromgoa  Intro Music by Skeletron  https://www.instagram.com/skeletron_music  BITS & Pieces is a college podcast run by Noah Martins and his friends, who are engineering students at BITS-Pilani Goa. They interview entrepreneurs, business people, celebrities and academics, and try to understand what makes these people society’s exceptions. Why are they different?  Subscribe to the channel and check out our content to find out!

Aravind SA is an internationally touring stand up comedian. You can find his stand up special Madrasi Da on Amazon Prime.  I had the chance to chat with him a while ago, and we had a genuinely interesting conversation about starting stand up, the challenges he faces and the lessons he's learned, and about life in general.  Find out about all our guests and future events on our new website now!   https://www.bitsandpiecespodcast.com  A Noah Martins Production  https://www.instagram.com/noahfromgoa  Intro Music by Skeletron  https://www.instagram.com/skeletron_music  BITS & Pieces is a college podcast run by Noah Martins and his friends, who are engineering students at BITS-Pilani Goa. They interview entrepreneurs, business people, celebrities and academics, and try to understand what makes these people society’s exceptions. Why are they different?  Subscribe to the channel and check out our content to find out!  Phanindra Sama, Founder of RedBus https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rigS...  Ramanan Laxminarayan, Princeton Professor/Entrepreneur https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOsZN...  Urooj Ashfaq, Stand Up Comedian  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toXRe...

Sanjay is a Co-Founder & Managing Partner of Blume Ventures, one of India's leading early stage VC firms.  We had the opportunity to interact with him when he came down to BITS Goa for an alumni gathering, where he was a panellist. This was the first episode of the series that we shot, but probably the most insightful one of them all. In this episode, we spoke to him about his journey, what he looks for in the start ups that he invests in, the WHY of starting a company, and more.  Find out about all our guests and future events on our new website now!   www.bitsandpiecespodcast.com  A Noah Martins Production  www.instagram.com/noahfromgoa  Intro Music by Skeletron  www.instagram.com/skeletron_music  BITS & Pieces is a college podcast run by Noah Martins and his friends, who are engineering students at BITS-Pilani Goa. They interview entrepreneurs, business people, celebrities and academics, and try to understand what makes these people society’s exceptions. Why are they different?  Subscribe to the channel and check out our content to find out!  Phanindra Sama, Founder of RedBus https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rigSrRMHxU&t=1282s  Ramanan Laxminarayan, Princeton Professor/Entrepreneur https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOsZNeAo95s  Urooj Ashfaq, Stand Up Comedian  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toXReuKV5qE&t=1s