First Principles by The Ken

SUGAR Cosmetics, though now amongst the most popular and fastest growing cosmetics brand in India, wasn't the first choice when Vineeta was asked to name her new cosmetics company, and neither was cosmetics the first business that Vineeta undertook when she set out to be an entrepreneur. Getting SUGAR to it's users was a tumultuous journey and as Vineeta sits down with Rohin to recount some of the most important points in the journey, we get a peek at the lenses she uses to look at the world around her. We have also published the transcript for this interview no our website. You can click here and read through it if you'd like. If you have any questions, thoughts, suggestions, or rants, please email them to podcasts@the-ken.com. We might not be able to reply to all of them but we do read every single one of them.

Today’s guest on First Principles is Harshil Mathur, CEO and co-founder of Razorpay. Razorpay claims to be India’s first full-stack financial solutions company. And if that sounds very much like how a coder would describe a company, it’s because that’s exactly what’s happening. When Harshil Mathur and Shashank Kumar, two coding enthusiasts fresh into their first jobs, started working on what would later become Razorpay, they never really set out to build a company or be entrepreneurs. They just wanted to solve a problem. But in doing so, they were compelled to create Razorpay. Today’s episode is a delightful mix of first principles thinking, thoughts on product development, and the importance of deliberately driving company culture. Earlier in August, The Ken’s journalist Shashwat Mohanty did a story on the challenges Razorpay faces in realising its neo-banking dream. And just for this week, we’ve made that story free for everyone to consume. You can find it here. It does go back behind a paywall next Thursday, though. Feedback? Write to us on podcasts@the-ken.com

Mensa Brands is India’s fastest unicorn. It took them only six months to zoom past the one-billion-dollar valuation mark. Having raised over US$300 million in debt and equity so far, Ananth Narayanan, the founder and CEO of Mensa Brands and the former CEO of Myntra, seems to be on to something. In this episode, we tap into all of it. From his time at McKinsey as a consultant and his stint as Myntra's CEO, to leading MedLife and its sale to PharmEasy, and eventually founding Mensa Brands, Ananth shares everything good and some things that weren't. We touch upon his thoughts on ploughing through the tough times, the ability to bounce back after major lows, and the value of learnability and curiosity. As always, we’re happy to hear your feedback. Please share it with us at podcasts@the-ken.com. You can write to us with feedback, questions you want us to ask future guests, or even guests you would like to see on the show! You can also read the story we wrote on Mensa Brands here for free: Mensa, Evenflow pitch e-comm brand aggregation to rigid Indian sellers This story will only remain free for a week and then move behind a paywall.

The InMobi Group is a curious giant. Not only is it comprised of India's very first tech unicorn, the mobile advertising platform InMobi, it also houses another unicorn within which is one of India's youngest and fastest. That's the lock screen service Glance that's on hundreds of millions of smartphones globally. There's also live video app Roposo, which is pressing down the accelerator on its live commerce offerings. All of these are linked together by Naveen Tewari, the co-founder and CEO of InMobi., His entrepreneurial journey has seen numerous pivots, innovations and failures. And an abiding survival instinct honed through first-hand learnings around business and creativity. We begin all the way from mKhoj, Naveen's first tech start up, and trace his journey down to the current day behemoth that InMobi is. Through this journey, there are stories, anecdotes, notes on culture, and in each of them, some first principles. These are the principles that help Naveen look at the world a little differently than the rest of us. We're thankful for the feedback and suggestions you keep sending us with each episode. Please don't stop. If you have thoughts, suggestions, questions we could ask our guests, or even guests you wish to see on the show, please write to us on podcasts@the-ken.com We read every single email that comes in there.

This time around First Principles makes its way to possibly one of the most fascinating success stories to come out of the Indian start-up space. Zerodha's cofounder Nithin Kamath joins Rohin Dharmakumar in this free wheeling chat about what makes him tick, why he is thankful no one ever invested in his idea early on, thoughts on their early success, and a lot more around building relationships, identifying risks, and seeking opportunities. First Principles is a show where Rohin Dharmakumar, founder and CEO of The Ken, interviews some of the most successful business leaders, and entrepreneurs of our time on the lenses they use to look at the world around them. Lenses that help them see things that most of us don't. You can look at all the other Ken Podcasts here

In this episode of First Principles we speak to Baskar Subramanian, co-founder and CEO of Amagi, a profitable unicorn you probably haven't heard about. Yet. Valued at almost 1.5 billion dollars, and a leader in the broadcast-technology domain, Amagi's road to the top wasn't easy, but it definitely makes for a fun listen. Listen to that and more about how Baskar built the company, how he leads life, his thoughts on leadership, parenting, and more. First Principles is a show where Rohin Dharmakumar, founder and CEO of The Ken, interviews some of the most successful business leaders, and entrepreneurs of our time on the lenses they use to look at the world around them. Lenses that help them see things that most of us don't. You can look at all the other Ken Podcasts here

This pilot episode of First Principles features Kabeer Biswas, founder and CEO at Dunzo, one of India's fastest growing quick commerce companies. Kabeer talks about how he navigates failure, accepts feedback, and makes sure that Dunzo is always focused on the things that matter. First Principles is a show where Rohin Dharmakumar, founder and CEO of The Ken, interviews some of the most successful business leaders, and entrepreneurs of our time on the lenses they use to look at the world around them. Lenses that help them see things that most of us don't. You can look at all the other Ken Podcasts here