In this episode, Kyle interviews Shirish Nadkarni, a serial entrepreneur and author. We talk about his early experience as a product manager at Microsoft, and his work on the acquisition of Hotmail, which inspired him to eventually start his own company. We discuss the companies Shirish founded, Livemocha and TeamOn Systems, and the lessons he learned from each of those.

We also discuss his latest book, Winner Takes All, and the history of digital marketplaces as well as what we can learn from the largest marketplaces in the world. And how to compete against monopolies and regulate monopolies like TicketMaster and Amazon. You won’t want to miss this amazing discussion.

Shirish Nadkarni

Shirish Nadkarni is a serial entrepreneur with proven success in creating multiple consumer businesses that have scaled to tens of millions of users worldwide. Shirish was the co-founder of Livemocha, the world’s largest language learning site with 15+ million registered members from over 200 countries. Livemocha was acquired by RosettaStone in 2013. Prior to Livemocha, Shirish was the founder of TeamOn Systems, a mobile wireless email pioneer that was acquired by BlackBerry in 2002. The TeamOn technology served as the core foundation for Blackberry Internet E-mail which serviced over 50 million BlackBerry users. Shirish started his career at Microsoft where engineered the acquisition of Hotmail and launched MSN.Com which became a leading web portal in the early days of the internet.

Shirish received his MBA from Harvard Business School and a BSE in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan. He serves on the board of TiE Seattle where he chairs a number of programs including the GoVertical Startup Creation Workshop, the TiE Entrepreneur Institute and the Z5 Catalyst funding initiative.

Links from the Show:
LinkedIn: Shirish Nadkarni
Book: Winner Takes All: How Online Marketplaces Are Creating Modern Monopolies

Links: ShirishNadkarni.com

More by Kyle:

Follow Prodity on Twitter and TikTok

Follow Kyle on Twitter and TikTok

Sign up for the Prodity Newsletter for more updates.

Kyle's writing on Medium

Prodity on Medium

Like our podcast, consider Buying Us a Coffee or supporting us on Patreon

Creativity, Well-being and the Influence of Composers since 1450