Lockdown With Kumar Abhineet Kumar

Christina MacDonald Sikand is the Director of Communications and Public Relations at Toronto-based cross-border fintech startup Remitr.

Before this, Christina worked as the head of community for Toffee Insurance in India, and in public relations with fintech unicorn Transferwise. 

She's based out of New York, loves story-telling, building brands, and creating community.

Key themes:

1:03 Growing up in Maine, and discovering a fintech career

4:42 All things Remitr

8:00 On Remitr's highly successful Product Hunt Launch -- recognize the value of network

12:20 Journey from Maine to NYC to Delhi back to NYC

17:40 Being an early stage employee in Insurtech

27:40 Consulting brands on community building and PR

29:00 Working globally and adapting to a new culture in India -- find that foundation that will let you blossom

34:30 How can founders leverage PR better?

40:49 Bringing a PR team to help in early stage startups

41:52 Christina's morning ritual 

Douglas Shinsato is the managing director of Anthill Ventures and a member of the advisory board of Via Equity, one of Northern Europe's most successful investment firms. 

Currently based out of Hawaii, Doug has been a member of the Board of Regents of the University of Hawaii and has served in senior leadership roles at many leading technology companies including IBM, Xerox, as well as on the board of Mphasis and Deloitte Japan.

I love seeking Doug's mentorship around leadership and venture building, and he has been kind enough to advise me on my journey towards tech and entrepreneurship.

Here are some key themes we talked about on this episode:

Background:


2:07 Growing up, Education
4:22 Why did Doug study law at Stanford?
30:32 Doug's current work adventures

Anecdotes:


5:42 Doug's role in deregulation of airlines and working for the US Assistant Attorney General
8:29 Anti-trust in the 70s and 80s compared with anti-trust now (big tech)
9:26 Working in Japan and learning about working in a new culture
12:40 Role of luck in career success -- joining MPhasis' board when they had 60 employees
55:27 Doug's Xerox story. Have fun along the way :)

Advice on venture building:


10:45 What new leaders should be really focusing on when they go about expanding their ventures?
34:31 Thoughts on starting up and building an early-stage team
37:45 On leaders
39:59 Amazon vs American Airlines culture
40:56 How is a good board helpful at a company?
54:21 Single most valuable trait you look for when you go about building a team or partnering with someone

Tech Trends:


17:22 Excitement about telemedicine and edtech 
19:57 Why is there an opportunity to reinvent the university business model with COVID-19 as a driver of change?
22:37 Bigger universities vs Smaller universities

Advice to students and professionals:


25:36 What would you study if you were a student entering college in 2020?
28:54 Reinventing yourself to scale the career ladder

On Innovation and change management:


43:06 Kodak, Digital Equipment started off as innovators
48:15 Future of air travel
51:35 Change management is about changing management, not management processes

Productivity and Rituals:


15:49 Doug's routine in quarantine
44:39 On networking and building relationships. Role of a personal CRM 30 years ago and now
58:03 How greeting his wife every morning has been the game-changing ritual all these years for Doug 

Our guest Pranav Deshpande started working with Twilio when they were a growth stage company with 300 employees. He has since worked in sales and product marketing and seen Twilio become a public company with 3300 employees.

Pranav explains the fundamentals of product marketing and how Twilio's culture has evolved over the years. He also tackles the questions whether a Master's degree in the US is still worth it for foreign students, why he is bullish about API infrastructure companies, how he learns on the internet, and his views on India tech.



On Twilio:

1:57 Impact of COVID-19 on Twilio's business

3:56 How Twillio's valuation doubled during lockdown?

5:27 Pranav's journey to working with Twilio

13:25 Twilio's evolution from 300 to 3300 employees



On Recruiting as a Foreign Student:

7:27 Recruiting challenges as a foreign graduate student in the US

8:06 Pranav's approach when searching for jobs

9:17 Advice for recent Master's graduates

9:49 On wanting to come work in the Bay Area

11:19 Pranav's perception about Silicon Valley when he was in India and why he wanted to go there

12:40 Breaking into tech

19:44 How Pranav ended in Product Marketing and how it compares to Product Management 

24:47 Is a Master's degree today worth it?

28:10 Understanding global context gives you an edge when you go back to India



On the Stock Market, SAAS ecosystem, API Infrastructure Companies

16:41 Stock market's on steroids

17:55 SAAS is where the opportunity lies ahead

18:42 BVP Nasdaq Emerging Cloud Index

30:36 Bullish on API Infrastructure companies including Postman



On Learning on the Internet, Writing & Lifehacks

36:11 Learning on the internet

38:56 Abhineet's focus on building a second brain

41:37 Pranav's approach to writing online

43:46 Thoughts on India tech

47:19 Culture of buying software isn't there yet

48:41 Building from India from the world

49:39 One habit that has changed Pranav's life

Our guest Eric Martin has a background in software sales having worked for Swiftype (acquired by Elastic), DataFox (acquired by Oracle), and now at fast-growing cyber-security startup Vanta where he was the first sales employee. Eric has also been an entrepreneur having brought products to market in underwater hardware and fantasy sports markets. 

Eric and I talk about:

2:20 His story growing up in Stockton

3:06 Studying in California & Saudi Arabia 

5:18 Early entrepreneurial journey

6:51 Takeaways on building startups

9:22 Advice to entrepreneurs

11:22 Eric's journey into software sales -- Swiftype and DataFox

15:26 Software sales basics

18:49 How Eric landed his gig at Vanta?

19:58 Vanta

21:58 How Vanta saves time and $ for companies selling software to enterprise?

23:26 Who should get a SOC 2 certification in enterprise SAAS?

24:48 Takeaways for companies undergoing a SOC 2 certification

26:52 Building a sales team at Vanta -- how CRM (Salesforce, Hubspot etc) and thinking about an outbound engine is key from the start?

30:42 San Joaquin Soccer Alliance

33:24 Eric's daily habit or ritual taught by his dad that has changed his life

Our guest Aditya Narvekar has a background in investment management and financial services in both India and the US. He joins us to share his views on emerging investment tech platforms in both countries and how they are making retail investing mainstream:


0:40 Aditya's Introduction
3:45 How US and India markets compare? 
4:55 Why India has more listed public companies than the US?
6:47 US vs India retail participation rate
8:52 How investment tech platforms like Robinhood and Zerodha are democratising finance for all?
11:05 How does Robinhood make money?
14:10 Emerging Investment Tech Apps in India and US
18:48 How are legacy players adapting?
20:40 What's one ritual Aditya abides by to stay productive?

Welcome to the first episode of Lockdown With Kumar

The future of work is remote and distributed - for some companies it will be a 100% transformation, for some partial. Whatever happens, remote work is here to stay. Featuring the host Abhineet Kumar, The World is Going Remote covers:


0:53 Gratitude
1:54 Why I am loving work from home?
2:22 Hiten Shah's Remote Work report highlights
2:51 Remote Work was there even 10 Years Ago at Citrix
3:20 Two interesting CEO takes on remote work: Austen Allred of Lambda School vs Brent Beshore of Permanent Equity (Tech vs Non-Tech)
6:00 Culture tweaks: Podia hosts a virtual retreat
8:00 Culture tweaks: Apurv from Squad hosted a remote townhall
8:23 With remote work, individuals will write more, and writing well will become the most important skill
8:27 Isolation and lack of social opportunities in remote work
9:37 Pragli and Hallway.Chat try tackling isolation
10:09 Unbundling of Clubhouse to cater to enterprise use cases
10:31 Kavita's tweet on employee visibility and upward mobility impacted in the modern remote workplace
11:23 Transformation of MSFT Teams from Nov 2019 to Mar 2020
12:12 Micromanagers will have a tough time with remote work LOL