Nimmi Roche is the founder of Blue Flag Project - an all-purpose sustainable men's shoewear that I cannot wait to buy. Each pair of Blue Flags is made of ~8 upcycled plastic water bottles. On the episode, we discuss Nimmi's early childhood and how that has influenced her choices. We chat about her MBA at Harvard (and why Harvard MBA students shy away from revealing the name of their institution). We discuss Nimmi's corporate experience, her plunge into entrepreneurship and lots of detail about Blue Flag Project - the 4Ps, the 3Cs and everything marketing related. We end the show with some authentic and mildly philosophical advice from Nimmi about hard work and results.  Nimmi worked at Goldman Sachs as an Associate in Hedge Fund Consulting. She graduated with an MBA from Harvard post which she worked in Amex and Adpatly before she finally decided to go all-in with Blue Flag Project- a product that replaces fast fashion and forces customers to change the environment- one step at a time. Show notes- Blue Flag shoes explained in 2 minutes-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xzvd3_Qhpz0&t=8s Blue Flag website-https://blueflagproject.com/ Nimmi's LinkedIn-https://www.linkedin.com/in/nimmi-roche-035b7513/ Washington Post Article-https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/climate-solutions/israeli-startup-ubq-turning-trash-into-plastic-products/

YouTube Link to audiovisual - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMe_oUUfIkg&t=1544s FYI- I would say it's better to watch and listen via the Youtube link. However, if you are on the move, this recording should do a good job as well! The visual helps drive the point home but the audio, independently, does not do a bad job either. Best to listen in with headphones :) About the episode- A recording of The Reading Workshop I hosted with author, Krishna Trilok on 3rd Feb, 2019. We had a good turnout and a very good discussion. The workshop was for people who care about reading but are struggling to incorporate it in their daily routine. At the workshop, we discussed why we read, busted some myths about reading, committed to build it as a habit and shared actionable advice to make reading convenient. We discussed audio books, how we should pick our next books, answered common questions and spoke about varying genres. My previous podcast with author, Krishna Trilok- Episode 9

On the show we discuss Rahul’s early childhood and his motivation behind starting Storiyoh. How he moved from being an employee in London’s financial district to a full-time entrepreneur. From the 15th minute on, we talk about podcasting- Rahul’s love for BBC world services and how it inspired him to start Storiyoh. We talk about the business model of podcasting by breaking it into 3 topics- distribution, consumption and monetization. We talk about the typical going rates of ads on podcasts, the disparities in listenership across different geographies. I was surprised to learn that  China is the biggest podcasting market in the world with it generating revenues of 7B$ in 2016. Chinese who have a reputation for being frugal are more than willing to pay for good content. We discuss advantages of free v/s paid content and how podcasters shouldn’t shy away from pricing their episodes. We talk podcasting for the mass v/s niche. We discuss the ad model versus paid model and pros and cons of each of these. We answer the question – Is good content good enough for a podcast’s success? Rahul compares podcasting and its marketing to a book/movie launch and draws relevant parallels. Finally, we get Rahul’s 2 cents on being a perpetual learner and doing deep work. With that, I leave you to listen to my wide ranging conversation with Rahul Nair, founder and CEO of Storiyoh. Please enjoy.  Show notes- Storiyoh- https://www.storiyoh.com/ You can reach Rahul on-  Email- [email protected] Facebook-https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100021699556849 About Rahul- Rahul has over 13 years of experience across domains including financial services, entrepreneurship, consulting, and has experience working in the education sector in India. He started his career as a private-client and institutional stockbroker in London, selling IPOs to London’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM), subsequently co-founding a business in the niche real-estate asset class of student and staff housing. He then founded and managed his own coffee retail and hospitality business for two years before advancing his professional experience with EY, Dubai and Pricewaterhouse Coopers, Dubai in accounting and IPO advisory services respectively, working across sectors including healthcare, hospitality, real-estate, construction and trading. Rahul did his schooling in Mumbai, Shanghai, Coimbatore and Dubai before moving to the University of Liverpool from where he graduated with a BA (Hons) in Economics and International Development. He also holds an MSc in Organisational Behaviour from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). During his stockbroking days, he was an Associate of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investments (CISI), and, most recently, was also an education sector chair at the Learning Innovations Lab at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

The theme of our conversation was social conditioning on gender roles, women in sports and the corporate world. Our guest Rashi Kakkar holds an undergraduate degree from The Shri Ram College of Commerce, New Delhi, a young India Fellowship from The Ashoka University in New Delhi and an MBA from The University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management with the prestige of having secured the Forte Fellowship (a prestigious educational scholarship awarded to about 100 women in the world owing to their past performance and future potential ). She currently works in Toronto at McKinsey and Company as a management consultant. A junior level national tennis player, Rashi is a complete sports buff who enjoys playing, reading, writing and watching any and every sport.

In my chat with Amrita, we talk about her early childhood, how she was always doing 10 things -writing, dancing, theatre and lots more, how the skills of business acumen, people handling and approachability that she built up as an HR professional have helped her in MommyshotsbyAmrita, how she transitioned from a cushy corporate job to converting her passion into a profession, how and when she FINALLY decided to take the plunge, how a professional shoots get done – the homework, on shoot day and post production, how she used photography as a medium to raise awareness about her breastmilk donation, Amrita’s strong message about saying no to baby fairness creams, how Amrita deals with creative block, Amrita’s 2 months of self-doubt where she almost shut down Mommyshots but with a hailmary got back to hustling and growing it to what it is today. To close, she shares her 2 cents for budding entrepreneurs and how anyone can and must keep a passion alive and not let it die.

Swapna Nair is a national award winning second grade teacher of Social Science and English in various schools in India & abroad with 27 years of experience. She also works closely with school authorities, communicating with parents and providing academic guidance to students. She is now a happy grandmom now and loves travel, food and movies. On the show, we discuss her early childhood, her adventures in Assam, alternate schooling and how CBSE and matric are not the only options for your child. We chat about parenting and upbringing-why parents need to be more attentive and patient, how and why they should keep their vicarious ambition in check. We also discuss writing, her favourite books and her mastery of saying NO to things and people. We close with a conversation discussing her moment of fame when she was chosen as the cover girl for the home improvement magazine called ‘Good Housekeeping’

Aditya is a former investment banker and management consultant with a Finance degree from NYU Stern, but he left all that behind to join Pocket Aces, a digital media start-up best known for it's channels FilterCopy and Dice Media. After starting as a production intern, 3 months he was asked to take over as the Head of Video for FilterCopy. You might not have heard of Aditya himself but chances are that you must have seen many of the viral videos that he has produced on your Facebook and Youtube feeds. He has created several online popular videos, and worked with the likes of Akshay Kumar, Sonakshi Sinha, Ayushman Khurana and Rani Mukherjee.. Aditya’s shift from investment banking to the creative and media industry happened in a matter of 3 years. He was recently invited by Josh Talks, an Indian TedTalk equivalent to speak about career choices and how you should think about it. I watched the 12 minute video and found it to be super simple and solid advice.

In my conversation with Krishna, we talk about his early childhood, his love for battlefields, how he hid his passion for writing for a good amount of time just so he wouldn't be discouraged. His loneliness and frustration leading up to his first publication, Krishna's interaction with musical maestro, AR Rahman (Krishna spent months traveling with AR Rahman, spoke to his family, directors and others who are a part of his journey). We discuss Rahman's personality, humour, humility and his unique gift of elevating spirits around him. Krishna talks to us about writer's block, how he tackles it and lots more on why Krishna thinks everybody should write-one way or the other. We also discuss Krishna's favourite books. You can find all books and important links mentioned in the show notes, below

In casual conversation with Chennai boy and a dear friend- Ashwin Sridhar Iyer (fondly known as Iyer). We discuss Iyer’s childhood, his journey in Boston and what motivates him. We also discuss his obsession of making people around him happy, how he deals with expectations of being happy all the time and his love for alone time. Iyer shares a tip on how humour helps him get through difficult times and some friendly banter plus inside jokes (we take a dig at our good friends). Lastly, Iyer’s consistent betrayal to Ajith and Vijay surfaces in our conversation as well. I had a great time recording this. Hope you guys enjoy listening to it! Ashwin Sridhar Iyer grew up in Chennai and is currently pursuing his masters in Supply Chain Management in the University of Boston. You can find Ashwin on Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/ashwin.sridhar.5

Pranshu grew up in Chennai, went to Wharton for college. He had originally dreamed of going into politics in India after college (idealistic dreams of changing the country and all that. He started his first company in his 2nd year; retail analytics using security cameras which got funded by Y combinator, raised $1mm. But then he shut the product down in 2016, returned money and began pivoting. He came back to India in September 2016 and started SimpleMoney. Simplemoney tracks your portfolio automatically by reading the statements in your inbox! In my conversation with Pranshu, we discuss his early childhood, his passion for building relevant institutions, his learnings at Wharton, his learnings from startups- funding, how to approach funding and when is a good time to raise money, the VC death trap. Specifically we also talk about his start up Simple money which tracks your portfolio automatically by reading the statements in your inbox. We discuss his favourite books, minimalism ...