Circa

Vipulesh Thiyagarajah

Circa is a weekly podcast hosted by Vipulesh Thiyagarajah — Sri Lankan author of Sonder: An Existential Manifesto and entrepreneur. Each episode features in-depth conversations with some of the most interesting minds in business, politics, philosophy, economics, culture, and sport. Guests include business leaders, politicians, film-makers, tech founders, economists, authors, and athletes. Topics range from existential philosophy and geopolitics to entrepreneurship, investing, sport, cinema, and what it actually means to build something that lasts.

  1. 4 NGÀY TRƯỚC

    75+ Million Dollar VC Exit w/ JP Morgan Chase | Investment Games | Brain Drain | ft. Chalinda Abeykoon

    One company. JP Morgan acquisition. 100+ Sri Lankan millionaires in the making. Chalinda Abeykoon is the Managing Partner of nVentures — the first Singapore-regulated VC fund built to back founders from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and the tier-two cities of South and Southeast Asia that most investors can't even find on a map.He built Sri Lanka's first post-war startup incubator after graduating into the 2008 financial crisis. He went to Oxford on the Chevening scholarship. And his portfolio just had a company acquired by JP Morgan — bigger than any Sri Lankan startup exit before it.In this episode we get into:→ Why Chalinda stayed in Sri Lanka when everyone else left — and what that did to his risk tolerance→ The real story behind WealthOS being absorbed into JP Morgan's international consumer banking division→ Why he invests in "boring" B2B fintech — and why that's the point→ AI wiping out Chegg, destroying SaaS seat models, and what founders actually need to do about it→ Brain drain as a feature, not a bug — and why he's pro leaving Sri Lanka→ The trains vs. the rails: why everyone's building the wrong thing in the AI race→ What it takes to get a founder to unicorn statusThis is Circa — conversations at the edge of what's possible.─────────────────────────────────────🎙️ CIRCA is hosted by Vipulesh Thiyagarajah — entrepreneur, author of Sonder, Executive Director at Taian Lanka Steel, and Co-Founder of Getwin Group.─────────────────────────────────────📌 TIMESTAMPS00:00 — Introductionxx:xx — Building after a war and a financial crisisxx:xx — Why Singapore? The nVentures origin storyxx:xx — WealthOS × JP Morgan — what we can actually sayxx:xx — "Boring" B2B fintech and why it winsxx:xx — Chegg is dead. Is SaaS next?xx:xx — AI replacing people — who actually gets wiped outxx:xx — Brain drain: why leaving might be the best thing for Sri Lankaxx:xx — What gets a founder to unicorn status─────────────────────────────────────📲 FOLLOW CIRCA**********All Links → https://linkin.bio/vipulesh— new episode every Sunday.🎙️ **Listen to Circa Z**Youtube → https://www.youtube.com/@CircaPodApple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/lk/podcast/circa/id1552622208Spotify → https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/circa-z/---📖 **Read**Substack (P.E.S.T.) → https://vipuleshthiyagarajah.substack.comMedium → https://medium.com/@vipulesh123Website & Blog → https://vipuleshthiyagarajah.com---📚 **My Book — Sonder: An Existential Manifesto**Amazon → https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DB2RQYNL---LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/vthiyagarajahLinkedIn Newsletter: Subscribe on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=7454097282641158144All Links → https://linkin.bio/vipulesh---*© Vipulesh Thiyagarajah. All rights reserved.*

    1 giờ 31 phút

  2. 5 THG 5

    Iran War | US Debt Spiral | $2.5M Treasury Fraud | UAE OPEC Exit | ft. Kusum Wijetilleke

    In this episode, I sit down with Kusum Wijetilika—political commentator and SJB working committee member—to dissect the systemic rot inside the global financial architecture. From the "spoofing" of the Sri Lankan Treasury to the geopolitical earthquake of the UAE leaving OPEC, we use Ray Dalio’s "Big Cycle" framework to explain why the world feels so volatile in 2026. All Links → https://linkin.bio/vipulesh Topics covered in this episode: ✅ 00:00 – Intro: The intersection of Finance, Media, and Politics. ✅ 05:22 – Treasury Fraud: Was it a hack or just pure incompetence? ✅ 11:00 – The NDB Scandal: How 13 billion rupees went missing for 18 months. ✅ 29:17 – Real Estate Crisis: Why Colombo is now the hardest city to buy a home in globally. ✅ 52:19 – Ray Dalio’s Big Cycle: Are we in the "Debt Death Spiral"? ✅ 01:00:19 – Tariffs & Inflation: Is the U.S. restructuring or just desperate? ✅ 01:28:10 – The Iran War: Oil at $117 and the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. ✅ 01:43:00 – Resource Nationalism: What the UAE’s exit from OPEC means for you. All Links → https://linkin.bio/vipulesh— new episode every Tuesday. 🎙️ **Listen to Circa Z**Youtube → https://www.youtube.com/@CircaPod Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/lk/podcast/circa/id1552622208 Spotify → https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/circa-z/ 📖 **Read**Substack (P.E.S.T.) → https://vipuleshthiyagarajah.substack.comMedium → https://medium.com/@vipulesh123Website & Blog → https://vipuleshthiyagarajah.com 📚 **My Book — Sonder: An Existential Manifesto** Amazon → https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DB2RQYNL All Links → https://linkin.bio/vipulesh ---*© Vipulesh Thiyagarajah. All rights reserved.*

    1 giờ 44 phút

  3. 26 THG 4

    Space-X IPO, Y-Combinator & VC Playbooks, Shifting Equities Markets, AI-Driven Unemployment. (ft. Raveen Kariyawasam)

    Circa By Vipulesh Thiyagarajah. On this weeks episode: Raveen Kariyawasam went from a Sri Lankan school kid to a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, a Wharton graduate, and a two-time Y Combinator founder who has raised Millions in Silicon Valley. In this episode, he sits down with Vipulesh Thiyagarajah for a wide-ranging, unfiltered conversation about what it actually takes to build at the frontier. They cover: firing an entire engineering team and replacing them with AI agents, why the real moat in today's AI landscape isn't your model — it's your taste, the "wrapper" debate and why calling something a GPT wrapper is a sign you don't understand the market, what AI job displacement actually looks like from the inside (it's not the workers you think), the quantum computing encryption crisis that could expose every bank, government, and crypto wallet within a decade. Plus: Gary Tan's "boil the lake" framework, context rot in LLMs, AI guardrails and the Heretic repo, robotics timelines, and why storytelling has replaced engineering talent as the new startup moat. Raveen Kariyawasam is the co-founder of a YC-backed robotics AI startup focused on communication layer optimisation for robotic systems, previously co-founder of a deep research AI agent company (before OpenAI's Deep Research), Oxford MSc, Penn + Wharton dual degree. Topics: AI agents, YC, Y Combinator, startup founding, Silicon Valley, immigration, Rhodes Scholar, quantum computing, encryption, robotics, AI job displacement, LLMs, Claude, Anthropic, OpenAI, deep research, AI wrappers, founder storytelling.

    2 giờ 4 phút

  4. 21 THG 4

    Your Desires Aren't Yours — Mimetic Theory, Cancel Culture & the New Religion

    Five years ago, this conversation hit #1 on Apple Podcasts in Sri Lanka. We're back.  Wimarshana Wijesooriya — philosopher, author of Modern Heresy, and the man who introduced me to philosophy at seventeen — returns for the Circa Z relaunch. Two and a half hours on the ideas that actually matter.  We get into René Girard's mimetic theory and why your desires probably aren't yours. How mimetic rivalry produces scapegoats — and why cancel culture is just us ritually hanging Louis XIV. The Harvard Grant Study's 75-year answer to what actually makes a good life. Why late-stage capitalism functions exactly like a religion, complete with its own clergy and confession booth. And why this age is not intellectually superior to any that came before it.  Closing with Oscar Wilde: "Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation." Find Circa Z on https://linkin.bio/vipulesh

    1 giờ 54 phút

  5. 22/09/2025

    What If Everything You See Isn't Real?

    Exploring Plato's Cave and the crucial act of questioning the world around us. The following post is an exploration of a passage from my book, "Sonder: An Existential Manifesto," and honestly, it’s one of those concepts that keeps popping back into my head, no matter what I’m doing.

    5 phút

  6. 15/09/2025

    The Hedonic Treadmill

    Why You’ll Never Be Happy — and Why That’s Exactly the Point. The ideas explored in this essay are drawn from a chapter I originally wrote for my book, Sonder: An Existential Manifesto (2024). The book dives deep into the hidden patterns of our modern condition — tracing how history, identity, and meaning interlace in our lives. What follows is a distilled meditation from that chapter, adapted for Substack. If you find resonance here, you might enjoy the broader philosophical arc the book attempts to draw. https://vipuleshthiyagarajah.com/novel  Vipulesh Thiyagarajah Author of "Sonder: An Existential Manifesto"

    7 phút

  7. 08/09/2025

    The Wrexham Way: The Greatest Story in Football

    Triple Triumph: Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds' Fairytale Rise from Non-League to the Championship

    11 phút

  8. 25/08/2025

    Augusta Is a Feeling: Why The Masters Is the Most Beautiful Event in Sport

    Inside the Veblen good that every luxury house envies.

    8 phút
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Giới Thiệu

Circa is a weekly podcast hosted by Vipulesh Thiyagarajah — Sri Lankan author of Sonder: An Existential Manifesto and entrepreneur. Each episode features in-depth conversations with some of the most interesting minds in business, politics, philosophy, economics, culture, and sport. Guests include business leaders, politicians, film-makers, tech founders, economists, authors, and athletes. Topics range from existential philosophy and geopolitics to entrepreneurship, investing, sport, cinema, and what it actually means to build something that lasts.

Thông Tin

  • Nhà sáng tạo
    Vipulesh Thiyagarajah
  • Năm hoạt động
    2021 - 2026
  • Tập
    20
  • Xếp hạng
    Thô tục
  • Bản quyền
    © Vipulesh Thiyagarajah
  • Trang web chương trình
    Circa