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The Ken

First Principles

Candid conversations with India’s best-known entrepreneurs and leaders about their mental models, operating principles, philosophies and world views that help them chart paths that most others baulk at.

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EPISODE 016 16 Mar, 23

Five founders on fundraising, culture-building, clock-building, culture-shaping, people coaching, surviving and thriving

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EPISODE 015 02 Mar, 23

Shan Kadavil of FreshToHome on selling fish, building moats, encouraging bottom-up “shots on goal”, and being honest with boards

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EPISODE 014 16 Feb, 23 105 min

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

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EPISODE 013 02 Feb, 23

Kamal Sagar of Total Environment on picking principles over convenience, reimagining real estate, design, authenticity and learning to say no

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EPISODE 012 19 Jan, 23

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

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EPISODE 011 05 Jan, 23 87 min

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

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EPISODE 010 22 Dec, 22 98 min

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

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EPISODE 09 08 Dec, 22 93 min

Amit Agarwal of NoBroker talks about his single-minded mission to disrupt brokerage, building a cockroach company, and why his office address is a secret

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EPISODE 08 24 Nov, 22 106 min

Amrish Rau of Pine Labs talks about the differences between being a founder and CEO

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EPISODE 07 03 Nov, 22 10 min

Vineeta Singh of SUGAR Cosmetics talks about building products, educating consumers, and focusing on the long term

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EPISODE 06 20 Oct, 22 12 min

Razorpay CEO Harshil Mathur talks about deliberate culture, building to a need, and the principles of product development

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EPISODE 05 06 Oct, 22

Learnability, curiosity, and brand building; Ex-Myntra CEO and Mensa Brands founder Ananth Narayanan gets candid

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EPISODE 04 22 Sep, 22

InMobi founder Naveen Tewari gets candid about survival, innovation, and playing the game by changing the rules

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EPISODE 03 08 Sep, 22

Nithin Kamath of Zerodha candidly talks about building his bootstrapped business, weighing risks, and finding opportunities

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EPISODE 02 25 Aug, 22 97 min

$1.5B Amagi Founder Baskar Subramanian talks about culture at work, parenting, and building from ground up

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EPISODE 01 10 Aug, 22 85 min

Kabeer Biswas of Dunzo talks about raising money, gathering user insights, battling deadlines and more

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