Mundhe Banni Podcast

Mundhe Banni Podcast
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Updated Biweekly

Mundhe Banni is a Kannada-language podcast that delves into the world of startups, entrepreneurship, and business insights, specifically aimed at young adults and early-career professionals . The name Mundhe Banni (ಮುಂದೆ ಬನ್ನಿ) translates to "Come Forward" or "Step Ahead" in Kannada, which reflects the podcast’s goal to inspire, motivate, and empower listeners to take bold actions in their professional and entrepreneurial journeys. Hosted by Vasant Shetty and Kiran Kodlady, the podcast offers valuable insights into fostering a more entrepreneurial mindset in the region.

  1. Jul 14

    What's Happening With OTT & Kannada Cinema | Ft. Daali Dhananjaya & Shashank Soghal | Episode 28

    What you'll learn in this episode:✅ Why "a good film will always find its audience" is a comforting myth — and what actually decides whether a movie runs✅ The real reason families in small-town Karnataka stopped coming to theatres (it isn't the films)✅ How Daredevil Musthafa got made after nearly 100 producers said no — the crowdfunding model, explained honestly✅ What adapting a K.P.Poornachandra Tejaswi story taught Shashank about writing for the screen✅ The unconventional marketing experiments that made a novelist the "hero" of a film's campaign✅ Where the money really disappeared — OTT, satellite rights, and how far Kannada trails Telugu Chapters:00:00:00-Trailer00:01:31-Sponsor: Odoo00:03:01-Welcome & the crisis in Kannada cinema00:05:21-What's broken: theatres, affordability & honest cinema00:12:44-Content, marketing & too few production houses00:16:52-The language-consumption problem & why OTT skips Kannada00:21:45-From actor to producer: Daali Pictures & a producer's job00:28:04-Shashank & the crowdfunding of Devil Mustafa00:36:20-The writing problem & finding new talent00:52:25-Marketing reinvented: cutouts, ₹1 tickets & genre campaigns01:04:26-Cameos & representing Kannada beyond the state01:09:03-Theatres, OTT & satellite: the economics of distribution01:25:09-The government's role & the pan-India squeeze01:29:52-Inside Mother Promise01:36:14-Community, poetry & Karnataka favourites01:45:00-The fanboy moment, the big idea & closing wishes

  2. Jul 4

    Delivery Boys Earn ₹40,000/Month? The Shocking Truth | Arun Kumar, EV91 Founder | Episode 27

    A delivery boy in India can earn ₹40,000 a month — but takes home only half. EV91 founder Arun Kumar reveals the hidden economics of India's gig economy, and the EV subscription model rebuilding it.From a small room in Mandya to 25 cities, 5,000 riders, and 2,000 vehicles — this is the story of how an auto driver's son became the founder of one of India's fastest-growing gig mobility startups. In this Kannada podcast conversation, Arun Kumar walks through his 15-year journey across Ola, Swiggy, Rapido, and Dunzo before starting EV91 a single-point EV subscription platform for delivery riders, quick commerce partners, and ride-hailing fleets. If you're an aspiring entrepreneur, gig worker, EV enthusiast, or Karnataka startup watcher, this episode is packed with ground-level insight you won't find in polished founder interviews.What you'll learn in this episode:✅ Why 1 crore Indian delivery workers face the same hidden problem and how EV91 solves it✅ The real math behind ₹40,000/month delivery jobs (and what riders actually take home)✅ How an EV subscription model saves riders 50% of their vehicle costs✅ Why delivery boys are "smarter than us" the multi-app strategy nobody talks about✅ The transition from employee to founder: lessons from Ola, Swiggy, Rapido & Dunzo✅ Why India's EV two-wheeler adoption is stuck at 7% and what changes it Chapters:00:00:00-Trailer-The Line That Stops You Cold00:01:09-Welcome to Mundhe Banni00:02:24-Meet the Founder of EV9100:07:56-The ₹40,000 Truth Nobody Tells You00:09:15-The Model That Changed Everything00:18:55-The Auto Driver's Son From Mandya00:26:42-The Day He Walked Away From a Salary00:45:12-A Message to Every Kannadiga With a Dream

  3. Jun 23

    Could your love for your parents be silently k*lling them? | Ft.Adarsh Narahari | Episode 26

    By 2050, India will have 35 crore senior citizens — and almost no one is preparing for it. In this episode, Primus Senior Living founder Adarsh Narahari breaks down how to add years of healthy, independent life to your parents (and yourself) — and why ageing is quietly becoming one of the biggest business opportunities of our generation.This is a rare "double dhamaka" conversation on Munde Banni. If you're a founder or aspiring entrepreneur, you get a real, unfiltered look at building Primus Senior Living from zero in a sector nobody believed in — the bank loans, the "old age home" misconception, the near-collapse, and the turnaround. And if you have ageing parents, in-laws, or grandparents, you walk away with a practical framework for health span, preventive care, and Blue Zone-style living that most families in India have never been told. Adarsh blends the science of healthy ageing with the on-ground reality of elder care in Bangalore and across India, in a way that's honest, warm, and genuinely useful.What you'll learn in this episode:Why "retirement" might be the most dangerous decision your parents ever makeThe Blue Zone formula behind people who live to 100 — fully independentHow loving children accidentally make their parents weaker (the Dependency Risk Spiral)The difference between life span and health span — and why it changes everythingHow Primus turns an apartment community into a "mini Blue Zone"Why he refuses to put a hospital inside his projectsThe grandmother who accidentally started a company — and the founder lessons behind itGet in touch with the guest: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chaitanyar/Chapters:00:00:00-Trailer00:01:23-Introduction00:02:23-The Aging Wave India Isn't Ready For00:05:54-The Secret to Living to 100, Fully Independent00:11:44-What Elders Truly Want (And How Children Take It Away)00:17:02-Catch It Early, or It's Already Too Late00:22:46-Inside Primus: A Mini Blue Zone in the City00:29:04-Loneliness, One Fall & the Home Built to Stop Both00:32:28-Eat Together, Live Longer — and the Hospital He Refuses00:38:50-The Grandmother Who Accidentally Built a Company00:45:22-The Project That Almost Broke Him00:49:51-The Age-Tech Goldmine Everyone's Ignoring00:57:46-The Red Flags That Say Your Parent Is Declining01:00:23-Who Pays, Who Decides & the Policy Fixes India Needs01:06:42-The Astonishing Lives of India's Seniors (& a COVID Memory)01:10:08-Fall-Proof the Home & the One Rule for Good Children01:13:26-Can an Indian City Become a Blue Zone?01:15:22-Multi-Gen Living & the Son-vs-Daughter Truth01:19:11-His Biggest Failures & Why Patient Capital Wins01:23:07-Founder Advice, Rapid Fire & a Superpower Called Kindness

  4. Jun 13

    From ₹800 to ₹1300 Cr — The Wakefit Founder Who Sold India Better Sleep Ft.Chaitanya | Episode 25

    He had ₹800 left in his bank account and two failed startups behind him. A few years later, Chaitanya Ramalingegowda took Wakefit public — a ₹1,300 crore company built on the one thing most founders ignore: sleep.This is the full Wakefit founder story. In one of the most honest conversations on Indian entrepreneurship, the Wakefit co-founder breaks down the bootstrapped startup journey from a tiny rented factory to a publicly listed company — the failures, the rejections, the scrappy early days, and the unglamorous decisions behind one of Karnataka's biggest startup success stories. If you're a founder, a D2C operator, or anyone who loves a real Indian startup story, this one is for you.What you'll learn in this episode:- How Wakefit turned mattresses — one of the most boring products imaginable — into a ₹1,300 crore business- The two startups Chaitanya failed at before Wakefit, and what hitting rock bottom actually taught him- Why offering a 100-day free return sounded like financial suicide — and became their biggest growth lever- The almost unbelievable way the first factory ran: tea for the delivery guy, a pulley, and repurposed power tools- What investors got wrong about Wakefit — and how the company answered them on the road to its IPO- The honest mistakes most founders make, from someone who made them and came back------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Support Mundhe Banni: https://mundhebanni.org/en/patronFollow Mundhe Banni on Social Media:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mundhebanni?igsh=MWMwOXQyenNjaWIwaA==https://linktr.ee/mundhebanniMundhe Banni Website: www.mundhebanni.orgFor Monthly Update on Startups & Entreprenuership in Kannada Subscribe to Mundhe Banni Newsletter:https://mundhebanni.org/newsletterJoin Mundhe Banni WhatsApp Community: https://chat.whatsapp.com/J4Pwge8FIG13zO2S3cHsAq?mode=gi_tSubscribe to Mundhe Banni Academy:https://youtube.com/@mundhebanniacademy?si=eE4qKbsTeWB-s2Oz------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Get in touch with the guest: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chaitanyar/Chaitanya Ramalingegowda is the co-founder and director of Wakefit, one of India's leading sleep and home solutions companies. A self-described "ordinary Kannadiga" from Mysuru, he co-founded Wakefit in 2016 with Ankit Garg and grew it from a small rented space into a listed company doing around ₹1,300 crore in revenue. This conversation traces the full arc — failure, persistence, and the everyday decisions behind a company that quietly became a household name.Why this episode matters: most startup stories you read are the glamorous, headline version. This one is the opposite — a candid founder journey through startup failure, near-bankruptcy, investor rejection, and the long, patient build that turned a bootstrapped mattress brand into a ₹1,300 crore IPO. It's as much about mindset and resilience as it is about business.Chapters:00:00:00-₹800 to a ₹1,300 Crore IPO | Trailer00:01:22-Meet the Founder Behind Wakefit00:02:30-Why a ₹1,300 Cr Company Is Obsessed With Sleep00:05:08-The Ads That Made India Notice00:09:16-The Mattress They Sent the Prime Minister00:11:18-A Childhood With No Hometown00:13:54-Why You Can't Trust a Mattress in a Showroom00:17:26-Two Failures and a Near-Empty Bank Account00:25:34-The Factory on the Third Floor00:34:11-The 100-Day Bet Everyone Called Crazy00:40:17-Finding the Co-Founder Who Completes You00:47:06-Beyond Mattresses: Building a Home Brand00:51:15-The Investors Who Kept Saying No01:01:41-The Employees He Quietly Made Wealthy01:04:02-Why He Refused to Sell and Chose an IPO01:06:01-What Going Public Actually Takes01:16:14-What He'd Tell Every Founder Who Failed01:19:41-Rapid Fire: Books, Heroes & a Message to Kannadigas

  5. Jun 4

    The Only Managers Who Survive AI Do This One Thing. | Ft.Sidu Ponnappa, RealFast AI | Episode 24

    Is AI about to wipe out Indian IT services — or quietly turn it into the biggest opportunity of the decade? Sidu Ponnappa, the engineer who helped scale Gojek into a $10B decacorn, breaks down what "AI-native IT services" really means — and why one engineer can now do the work of ten. In this episode, we go far past the usual "AI will take your job" panic. Sidu lays out a concrete map for anyone working in tech right now: the IT professional worried about AI disruption, the founder deciding what to build next, and the leader trying to figure out why their team got Copilot and Cursor but still isn't moving faster. We cover the future of Indian IT services, the shift from billion-dollar startups to the millionaire startup era, the India vs China AI race, and the personal philosophy — "break every rule" — that took him from an anxious introvert to building companies across India, Indonesia, and Singapore.What you'll learn in this episode:✅ Why "AI-native" delivery compresses 1–2 year IT projects into 1–2 months — and what that does to your role✅ The real reason most teams adopted AI tools but saw zero gain in velocity✅ Why the era of the billionaire founder is over — and what the "millionaire startup" actually looks like✅ How one engineer now does the work of ten — and whose income goes 3x, 5x, 10x✅ Why India risks going from a net exporter of IT services to a net importer of AI "tokens"✅ The hard truth about scaling a company that sent him into depression for a yearSupport Mundhe Banni: https://mundhebanni.org/en/patronFollow Mundhe Banni on Social Media:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mundhebanni?igsh=MWMwOXQyenNjaWIwaA==https://linktr.ee/mundhebanniMundhe Banni Website: www.mundhebanni.orgJoin Mundhe Banni WhatsApp Community: https://chat.whatsapp.com/J4Pwge8FIG13zO2S3cHsAq?mode=gi_tSubscribe to Mundhe Banni Academy:https://youtube.com/@mundhebanniacademy?si=eE4qKbsTeWB-s2OzGet in touch with the guest: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sidup/About the guest:Sidu Ponnappa is originally from Kodagu, born in Delhi and raised in Bengaluru. He built the consulting firm C42 Engineering, which was acquired by Indonesia's Gojek, where he served as Head of Engineering and helped grow the company into Indonesia's first decacorn. He's now building RealFast AI around AI-native IT services, and is known for his sharp, often contrarian writing on AI, engineering, and the Indian tech ecosystem. This conversation matters because almost everyone is shouting that a flood is coming — Sidu is one of the few actually explaining how to row the boat.If you've been searching for a clear answer on the future of Indian IT, how AI is reshaping software jobs, what AI-native services and AI-first delivery really mean, or how to position your career and your company for the next five years, this episode is built for you.If this gave you a new way to think about AI and your career, subscribe and follow Mundhe Banni for more honest conversations with the people actually building the future — and join our community to keep the discussion going.Chapters:00:00:00-A Flood Is Coming — Nobody Tells You How to Row00:02:30-Who Is Sidu Ponnappa — and Is Indian IT Doomed?00:04:56-"AI-Native" Explained: 2 Years of Work in 2 Months00:09:07-The Two Rebel Women Who Made Him00:15:19-His Startup Went Viral — Then He Walked Away00:20:34-Starting Over: The Comeback That Built C4200:24:14-Break Every Rule You Live By00:34:46-900x in 18 Months: Inside the Gojek Rocket00:41:27-The Billionaire Founder Is Dead. Enter the Millionaire.00:46:03-The Industrialization of IT — and the 10x Few00:57:45-India vs China: The Race We Can't Afford to Lose01:06:57-The Two Skills That Decide Who Survives AI01:13:27-New Gods, Useless Bodies & the Rules You Inherit01:18:49-"Good Companies Can't Win" — The Truth That Broke Him01:24:02-Hot Takes: Gen Z, Belonging & Faking the Language01:31:07-Rapid-Fire: Movies, Food & One Controversial Pick

  6. May 23

    The Kannadiga Who Built Germany's First Crowdfunding Platform | Ft.Vittal Ramakrishna,Nucleo | Ep 23

    A Bengaluru founder failed two startups, moved to Germany, and built the first crowdfunded platform Germans actually used — until a German media house bought him out. This is Vittal Ramakrishna's full story.From walking into Gandhi Bazaar shops asking for ₹2,000 web design gigs in 2008, to being appointed Germany's Indo-German Startup Exchange Ambassador, to building Create — a platform that has done close to ₹280 crore in lifetime sales with sellers from Kashmir to Kanyakumari — Vittal's journey is one of the most layered entrepreneurial arcs to come out of Karnataka in the last decade. In this conversation with Munde Banni, he opens up about being rejected 99 times out of 100 by German customers, the six-month bureaucratic battle to start a business as an immigrant, and why his current venture Nucleo is rebuilding how Indian founders raise capital.This episode is essential listening for first-time founders, aspiring entrepreneurs, working professionals thinking about quitting their job, and anyone who has ever wondered whether failure actually has compounding returns.What you'll learn in this episode:------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Support Mundhe Banni: https://mundhebanni.org/en/patronFollow Mundhe Banni on Social Media:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mundhebanni?igsh=MWMwOXQyenNjaWIwaA==https://linktr.ee/mundhebanniMundhe Banni Website: www.mundhebanni.orgFor Monthly Update on Startups & Entreprenuership in Kannada Subscribe to Mundhe Banni Newsletter:https://mundhebanni.org/newsletterJoin Mundhe Banni WhatsApp Community: https://chat.whatsapp.com/J4Pwge8FIG13zO2S3cHsAq?mode=gi_tSubscribe to Mundhe Banni Academy:https://youtube.com/@mundhebanniacademy?si=eE4qKbsTeWB-s2OzGet in touch with the guest: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vittalramakrishna/Chapters:00:00:00-Trailer A Kannadiga in Germany, Failures Worth Celebrating & A Birth at CTR00:01:35-Mundhe Banni Intro — Why We're Building This00:02:45-Meet Vittal Ramakrishna — Founder of Create & Nucleo00:04:24-Why He Lists His Failures on LinkedIn First00:06:00-2008 Recession & Knocking on 260 Doors in Gandhi Bazaar00:12:53-Cloyee Technologies — A Bribed Agent & The First Real Product00:17:54-KPMG, Bosch & The First Trip to Germany00:24:58-The 2014 Meeting That Changed Everything: Crowdfunding00:29:45-"Are You Crazy?" — Quitting His German Job to Start Up00:36:25-Mistaken for a Syrian Refugee — Building Trust as an Outsider00:38:23-Germany's Fastest Growing Startup — €32M, 667 Campaigns00:43:51-The Exit — Three Weeks Before COVID Hit the World00:44:01-Back to Bengaluru — Born at CTR, Returns to CTR00:46:14-The 50 Rupee Doll That Sparked Create00:50:18-The MyGate Insight — Cracking GTM From WhatsApp Groups00:53:24-The Real USP — Selling Without GST & 29,760 Sellers00:58:43-Why Paying Sellers FAST Became the Unfair Advantage01:02:21-₹280 Crores in Sales — Create Today01:03:18-The Birth of Nucleo — Fixing Indian Fundraising01:08:34-Inside Nucleo — The Digital HQ for Founders & Investors01:14:02-Compressing 6-Month Fundraises Into 3-4 Weeks01:18:56-3 Things Kannadigas Must Learn From Germans01:23:43-Vittal's Favourites — Vishnuvardhan, Benne Masala Dose & Block Tickets01:25:24-Vittal's Vision for Karnataka @ 100 in 205601:28:58-Closing Reflections — A Truly Inspiring Story✅ Why his first 260 websites taught him more than the money he made from them✅ The exact moment in Germany he realised he had to quit his corporate job — and his wife's surprising reaction✅ How a foreigner with broken German pitched his way into Germany's fastest-growing startup award (twice)✅ Why customers will never be loyal to your company — and what they're actually loyal to✅ The one cultural habit he believes is holding Kannadiga founders back✅ How Nucleo is compressing the typical 4-6 month founder fundraising journey into 3-4 weeks

  7. May 18

    The Bengaluru Scientist Who Solved What America Couldn't | Dr. Geetha Manjunath, Niramai | Ep 22

    She left a top AI lab job to build the world's first AI-powered, radiation-free breast cancer screening — and 4 lakh women later, Dr. Geetha Manjunath is on a mission to bring breast cancer deaths to zero. In this episode of Munde Banni Podcast, we sit down with Dr. Geetha Manjunath, Founder, CEO & CTO of Niramai Health Analytix the IISc PhD and ex-Xerox AI Research Lab Director who turned a personal loss into a global healthtech breakthrough. From losing her cousin sister to late-stage breast cancer, to building Thermalytix a non-invasive, AI-powered screening solution now deployed across 22 countries and 300+ hospitals in India this is the kind of founder story India doesn't celebrate nearly enough. We unpack the science, the struggle, the system, and the spirit it took to build a deep-tech, Made-in-Bengaluru product from scratch including how she raised her first $1M term sheet within a month, filed 39 patents around a single product, and ended up sharing a podium with the Secretary of the UN.If you're a founder, scientist, woman entrepreneur, healthcare professional, or simply someone fascinated by India's deep-tech and AI story this conversation will move you.Support Mundhe Banni: https://mundhebanni.org/en/patronFollow Mundhe Banni on Social Media:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mundhebanni?igsh=MWMwOXQyenNjaWIwaA==https://linktr.ee/mundhebanniMundhe Banni Website: www.mundhebanni.orgFor Monthly Update on Startups & Entreprenuership in Kannada Subscribe to Mundhe Banni Newsletter:https://mundhebanni.org/newsletterJoin Mundhe Banni WhatsApp Community: https://chat.whatsapp.com/J4Pwge8FIG13zO2S3cHsAq?mode=gi_t------------------------------------------------------------------------------------🎯 What you'll learn in this episode:✅ Why mammography misses up to 50% of cancers in Indian women and what actually works✅ The exact moment Dr. Geetha decided to quit a top corporate job in mid-life and start over✅ How to file patents in India (and why most founders get this completely wrong)✅ The unspoken "anti-India bias" in global research and how to break through it✅ How a woman founder raised crores in funding without an engineering co-founder✅ The biggest myths around breast cancer Indian families still believe✅ What every man should be doing for the women in his family starting today👩‍🔬 About the GuestDr. Geetha Manjunath holds a PhD from IISc Bangalore and an executive management degree from Booth School of Business, Chicago. Before founding Niramai, she served as Lab Director of AI Research at Xerox and Principal Scientist at HP Labs, with over 1700 citations on Google Scholar. She holds 50+ personal patents and has been recognized as one of the Top 20 Technology Pioneers by the World Economic Forum and a Top 10 FemTech founder by the UK NHS. Her work has been published in Lancet Oncology, Nature Digital Medicine, and presented at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.Niramai's Thermalytix is the world's first AI + thermal imaging-based breast cancer screening tool — non-invasive, radiation-free, and works on women of all ages, including under 45 where mammography fails.LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/geetha-manjunath-82b8058/Checkout Niramai Health Analytix: https://niramai.com/Chapters:00:00:00-Trailer00:01:31-Mundhe Banni Intro00:02:20-Meet Dr. Geetha — Scientist Turned Founder00:05:00-The Loss That Changed Everything00:11:00-The Cancer Lie We've All Been Told00:18:30-Why Mammography Fails 50% of Women00:25:00-How AI Sees What Doctors Can't00:32:00-Even 17-Year-Olds Are Getting It00:38:30-The $1 Million Bet on a New Idea00:45:00-The Anti-India Bias in Science00:52:00-39 Patents And Why It Matters00:56:00-Going Where No Hospital Reaches01:04:00-"Forget You're a Woman"01:08:30-The Breast Selfie Is Coming01:11:00-The Mission: Zero Cancer Deaths01:13:30-Rapid Fire — The Personal Side01:15:30-Closing Thoughts

  8. May 9

    This 24 Year Old From Surathkal Wants To Make Satellites Obsolete | Ft.Shreepoorna Rao, Arctus Aerospace | Episode 21

    A 24-year-old from Surathkal is building a 45,000-foot aircraft that could end India's dependence on foreign satellites and global investors are already betting big on him.Meet Shreepoorna Rao, founder of Arctus Aerospace and one of India's youngest deep-tech founders. Fresh out of IIT Madras, he's building unmanned aircraft that fly for 24 hours straight, capture centimetre-level imagery from the stratosphere, and deliver earth-observation data at a fraction of what satellites cost. In this in-depth Kannada conversation, Shreepoorna walks us through the engineering behind Arctus, how he raised $2.6M in a pre-seed round backed by Balaji Srinivasan, Version One Ventures, and South Park Commons, and what it really takes to build hard tech in India straight out of college. If you're a founder, engineer, student, or anyone curious about India's aerospace and defence-tech revolution, this episode is for you.What you'll learn in this episode:✅ Why satellites are no longer the smartest way to do earth observation✅ How Arctus's aircraft delivers 95% cheaper imagery than space-based systems✅ The real story behind raising a global pre-seed round as a 23-year-old✅ How a failed crypto startup quietly funded the first aerospace experiments✅ Why defence, oil & gas, agriculture, and insurance are the first big customers✅ What it takes — mentally and financially — to build hardware at software speed in IndiaCheck out RV Campus Mysuru: https://mundhebanni.short.gy/9FuioL------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Support Mundhe Banni: https://mundhebanni.org/en/patronhttps://linktr.ee/mundhebanniMundhe Banni Website: www.mundhebanni.orgFor Monthly Update on Startups & Entreprenuership in Kannada Subscribe to Mundhe Banni Newsletter:https://mundhebanni.org/newsletterJoin Mundhe Banni WhatsApp Community: https://chat.whatsapp.com/J4Pwge8FIG13zO2S3cHsAq?mode=gi_tSubscribe to Mundhe Banni Academy:https://youtube.com/@mundhebanniacademy?si=eE4qKbsTeWB-s2Oz------------------------------------------------------------------------------------About the guest:Shreepoorna S Rao is the 23-year-old founder of Arctus Aerospace, a Bengaluru-based deep-tech company building India's first commercial mid- and high-altitude long-endurance unmanned aircraft. An IIT Madras alumnus from Surathkal, he's leading a 15-engineer team designing aircraft that can replace large parts of the satellite stack at a fraction of the cost. Arctus closed a $2.6M pre-seed round in late 2025, with backing from Version One Ventures, South Park Commons, gradCapital, and angels including Balaji Srinivasan and other global operators.This episode matters because almost every conversation about Indian deep tech defaults to software. Arctus is one of the rare hardware-first stories — built from first principles, by someone who started building aircraft as a child, and who is now competing with companies that have decades of head start. Whether you're tracking the rise of Indian aerospace, the future of unmanned systems, the satellite vs aircraft debate, or just want to understand how young founders raise serious capital for hard problems, this conversation goes deep.Chapters:00:00:00-Trailer00:01:28-Mundhe Banni Intro00:02:30-RV Episodes Integration00:03:00-Meet The 23-Year-Old Taking On The Satellite Industry00:08:08-Why Satellites Are Quietly Becoming Useless00:11:50-The 7th Grader Who Was Already Building Aircraft00:24:00 -nside IIT Madras — Where The Real Story Began00:29:08-"I Used To Be Laughed Out Of Rooms"00:39:18-The ₹3 Crore Crypto Detour Nobody Talks About00:46:00-Walking Away From Placement — And Going All In00:51:22-The Cheque That Changed Everything1:10:42-Why India Is Still Importing What This Aircraft Can Build1:14:58-If This Existed 30 Years Ago, Would Veerappan Have Been Caught?1:37:58-A Message To Every Young Kannadiga Watching This

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About

Mundhe Banni is a Kannada-language podcast that delves into the world of startups, entrepreneurship, and business insights, specifically aimed at young adults and early-career professionals . The name Mundhe Banni (ಮುಂದೆ ಬನ್ನಿ) translates to "Come Forward" or "Step Ahead" in Kannada, which reflects the podcast’s goal to inspire, motivate, and empower listeners to take bold actions in their professional and entrepreneurial journeys. Hosted by Vasant Shetty and Kiran Kodlady, the podcast offers valuable insights into fostering a more entrepreneurial mindset in the region.

Information

  • Creator
    Mundhe Banni Podcast
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    29
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Mundhe Banni Podcast
  • Show Website
    Mundhe Banni Podcast