Don't Follow The Leader

Noah Martins

DFTL is a platform through which I, Noah Martins, try to understand the people I refer to as "society's exceptions". I believe that not everyone can create change, and it takes a certain audacity to even think you can do it. With this podcast, I try to understand the creative and decision making processes of game changers. I try to decode how these risk taking, high performers think, and what motivates them. Do follow this series for some fun, super insightful interviews with entrepreneurs, business leaders, comedians and entertainers!

  1. 06/05/2021

    What Do Venture Capitalists Do? : Kushal Bhagia | DFTL 14

    Kushal Bhagia is a Venture Capitalist and the CEO of First Cheque, an early stage VC firm from India. In this episode of the podcast, we discuss Kushal's journey, from starting up straight out of college to running his own venture capital firm at 31. He talks about what he looks for in the founders and companies he invests in, what he thinks makes someone a good VC, where he sees the Indian start up ecosystem in 10 years from now, and a lot more. He even gives some really good advice for college kids. Listen on Spotify: Check out First Cheque's website: https://firstcheque.vc/ Runnin' Down a Dream: How to Succeed and Thrive in a Career You Love - Bill Gurley: Runnin' Down a Dream: How to Succeed and Thrive in a Career You Love - Bill Gurley 9/14/2018 Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/noahfromgoa Follow me on Instagram: https://instagram.com/noahfromgoa Follow the DFTL Podcast: https://twitter.com/theDFTLpodcast Like, Share and Subscribe for more content like this! Follow Kushal on Twitter: https://twitter.com/kushalbhagia Follow First Cheque on Twitter: https://twitter.com/FirstchequeFollow A Noah Martins Production Intro Music by Skeletron https://www.instagram.com/skeletron_music Cover Art by Anslem https://www.instagram.com/98artofficial DFTL https://twitter.com/theDFTLpodcast https://www.instagram.com/thedftlpodcast Don't Follow the Leader (DFTL) is a college podcast run by Noah Martins in an attempt to understand society's exceptions. He interviews entrepreneurs, business leaders, celebrities and academics, and tries to understand how they make decisions and what motivates them.

    What Do Venture Capitalists Do? : Kushal Bhagia | DFTL 14
  2. 01/23/2021

    How to Build a Startup: Akhil Singh | DFTL 13

    Akhil Singh is a serial entrepreneur and the Co-Founder of Questt.com In this episode of the podcast, we primarily discuss Akhil’s journey and learnings as an entrepreneur, starting with Cubito, a cab sharing start up that he started working on while in college, followed by Invol.in, a plug-in for news channels that allowed them to interact with viewers, and then Real Learning, an ed tech start up that evolved into Questt. Given his years of experience, Akhil’s insights are not just thought provoking, but also very well-articulated. Besides some best practices for entrepreneurs, we also discuss his college life at BITS Goa, and he gives some great advice for students currently in college. Check out Questt: https://questt.com Listen on Spotify: Follow me on IG and Twitter! https://www.instagram.com/noahfromgoa https://twitter.com/noahfromgoa A Noah Martins Production Intro Music by Skeletron https://www.instagram.com/skeletron_music Cover Art by Anslem https://www.instagram.com/98artofficial DFTL https://twitter.com/theDFTLpodcast https://www.instagram.com/thedftlpodcast Don't Follow the Leader (DFTL) is a college podcast run by Noah Martins, along with Rayan, Rohan and Gada in an attempt to understand society's exceptions. We interview entrepreneurs, business people, celebrities and academics, and try to understand what makes these people special, and try to decode how they think. Tags: entrepreneurship, Indian entrepreneurs, bits goa, Akhil singh, questt, start ups, college start ups, advice for college students Hashtags: #bitsgoa #collegeadvice #bitspilani #entrepreneurship #motivation #inspirationalvideo #startups #makeinindia

  3. 10/31/2020

    What is Venture Debt? : Nilesh Kothari | DFTL 11

    Nilesh Kothari is the Co Founder and Managing Partner at Trifecta Capital.  Trifecta Capital is India's first venture debt fund. It is a platform focused on providing alternative financing to new age businesses in India, founded by Nilesh and Rahul Khanna in 2014. Before starting Trifecta, Nilesh worked on building Zenta, a data analytics start up, until it's acquisition in 2011 by Accenture. It was Accenture's largest acquisition at that time. Besides this, Nilesh is also a music and movie buff, and a big Pink Floyd fan.  In this episode of the podcast, we discuss the difference between venture debt and venture capital, Nilesh's journey as an entrepreneur, and how he goes about building great businesses, the state of the start up ecosystem in India, and more.   Subscribe to our newsletter now! https://medium.com/dont-follow-the-leader-blog/newsletters/the-dftl-newsletter Follow me on IG and Twitter! https://www.instagram.com/noahfromgoa https://twitter.com/noahfromgoa Editing by Fayne Antonio Pereira Carvalho https://www.instagram.com/fayne_antonio Intro Music by Skeletron  https://www.instagram.com/skeletron_music  Cover Art by Anslem https://www.instagram.com/98artofficial DFTL https://twitter.com/theDFTLpodcast https://www.instagram.com/thedftlpodcast Don't Follow the Leader (DFTL) is a college podcast run by Noah, Rayan, Rohan and Gada in an attempt to understand society's exceptions. We interview entrepreneurs, business people, celebrities and academics, and try to understand what makes these people special, and try to decode how they think.

  4. 05/30/2020

    Building One of India's Top Start Ups at 27 : Shashank Murali | DFTL 8

    Shashank Murali is the Co-Founder and CEO of Tapchief.  Shashank Murali is a young entrepreneur, and BITS Pilani alumnus. He sold his first start up, Edvice, while still in college. He then went on to create Tapchief(https://www.tapchief.com) , a freelancing platform, that is building a network that connects businesses to domain-specific professionals. Tapchief  is currently 3rd on the LinkedIn list of top Indian start ups. I had the opportunity to chat with this truly inspiring Indian entrepreneur, and get his take on all sorts of matters ranging from his opinion on how the world will change post the COVID-19 pandemic, to the hardest decisions he's had to make as CEO, how to get funded, and even advice that he has for young founders.  Books that Shashank reccommends: Delivering Happiness (https://amzn.to/3esaVNw) Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike (https://amzn.to/3cfMOQH) Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Playbook of Silicon Valley's Bill Campbell (https://amzn.to/2yMZLnx) Measure What Matters: OKRs: The Simple Idea that Drives 10x Growth (https://amzn.to/2Mcq5KH)  Find out about all our guests and future events on our new website now!   https://www.bitsandpiecespodcast.com  A Noah Martins Production  https://www.instagram.com/noahfromgoa  Intro Music by Skeletron  https://www.instagram.com/skeletron_music  BITS & Pieces is a college podcast run by Noah Martins and his friends, who are engineering students at BITS-Pilani Goa. They interview entrepreneurs, business people, celebrities and academics, and try to understand what makes these people society’s exceptions. Why are they different?  Subscribe to the channel and check out our content to find out!

About

DFTL is a platform through which I, Noah Martins, try to understand the people I refer to as "society's exceptions". I believe that not everyone can create change, and it takes a certain audacity to even think you can do it. With this podcast, I try to understand the creative and decision making processes of game changers. I try to decode how these risk taking, high performers think, and what motivates them. Do follow this series for some fun, super insightful interviews with entrepreneurs, business leaders, comedians and entertainers!