The Filter Koffee Podcast

In the 75th episode of the show, Karthik speaks with Hemu Ramaiah - founder of The Landmark store. They look back at the journey that began in the basement warehouse of a building in Nungambakkam, Chennai, which would become a retail phenomenon in India. A phenomenon that included extraordinary growth with multiple stores across India, but retained its unique customer experience in each of them. They also talk about the cultural impact of the store on the city of Chennai and how 'Landmark Quiz' - the gold standard of live quizzing in India was born. In this episode, Karthik explores the unique entrepreneurial style of Hemu - one that was defined as much by technology-led innovation, as it was by a very human, customer-centric approach that empowered front line staff to provide customer delight. The conversation also pans to the period when the store was acquired by the TATAs who never really understood the business and eventually had to preside over the closure of most stores.Follow Hemu: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hemu-ramaiah-02526b9Tweet to Karthik Nagarajan @The_Karthik and follow his WordPress handle here (filterkoffee.com).You can listen to this show and other awesome shows on the IVM Podcasts app on Android: https://ivm.today/android or iOS: https://ivm.today/ios, or any other podcast app.You can check out our website at http://www.ivmpodcasts.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Shasvathi Siva is an entrepreneur and also evangelist and an activist for normalizing the concept of 'divorce' and helping remove the social stigma around it. In this episode, she speaks to Karthik about her own journey of realization and how it helped shape her convictions. She also speaks about how she is creating a community of support groups around this issue that helps both men and women find help in dealing with an otherwise lonely journey - emotionally, legally and also socially.Follow Shasvathi on Instagram at https://instagram.com/shasvathi and on Twitter at https://twitter.com/shasvathiTweet to Karthik Nagarajan @The_Karthik and follow his WordPress handle here (filterkoffee.com).You can listen to this show and other awesome shows on the IVM Podcasts app on Android: https://ivm.today/android or iOS: https://ivm.today/ios, or any other podcast app.You can check out our website at http://www.ivmpodcasts.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, Karthik sits down with a friend - Nikhil Mayne. Nikhil is the VP of Content at Mindshare and an influential name in the branded content business. Nikhil's take of popular culture is known to come with rough edges and a large dose of irreverence and in most cases, is not the popular opinion on the subject. Karthik and Nikhil talk about what lies ahead in various aspects of popular culture - from gaming to cricket to OTT shows. The episode is replete with gems like why Bangalore is the ideal place to be quarantined in, what will happen if China had a test cricket team and why the aunty across the hall is the biggest roadblock to the growth of e-sports in India!Follow Nikhil on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikhil-mayne-82439923Tweet to Karthik Nagarajan @The_Karthik and follow his WordPress handle here (filterkoffee.com).You can listen to this show and other awesome shows on the IVM Podcasts app on Android: https://ivm.today/android or iOS: https://ivm.today/ios, or any other podcast app.You can check out our website at http://www.ivmpodcasts.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, Karthik sits with Rakesh Dhareshwar - amateur wild life photographer. They speak about what wildlife photography takes and the story behind the great pictures that we get to see in the end. Rakesh speaks about some of his most memorable trips and the images that he has captured in his journeys. Being a bird lover, he also talks about the spirituality of traveling in the wilderness, why the snow leopard continues to be the holy grail of wild life photography, and much more.Here are the links to the photographs of Rakesh that were discussed in the episode:The rusty throated wren babbler of Mishmi: https://www.instagram.com/p/BzAoQejBXDr/The Mother and calf Rhino: https://www.instagram.com/p/BoCRC10lvaO/The dancing elephant: https://www.instagram.com/p/BhK8fU5Ac5e/The Baya weaver: https://www.instagram.com/p/B4sM5LRhpXV/Below are the photographs that Karthik mentioned in the episode:The works of Frans Lanting: www.lanting.comWorks of Nick Nichols: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/photography/proof/2017/06/nick-nichols-wild-life/Cristina Mittermeier: https://www.instagram.com/mitty/Follow Rakesh on Instagram @rdx_wildlifephotographyTweet to Karthik Nagarajan @The_Karthik and follow his WordPress handle here (filterkoffee.com).You can listen to this show and other awesome shows on the IVM Podcasts app on Android: https://ivm.today/android or iOS: https://ivm.today/ios, or any other podcast app.You can check out our website at http://www.ivmpodcasts.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kerala has been in the news a lot recently, mostly in a positive way. The state has always had a unique culture that seeps into everything from its approach to nature, health, women, families and most importantly, society.Kerala was also in the news recently because of the verdict on the Padmanabhasaamy temple, where the Supreme Court overruled an earlier Kerala high court verdict and gave control of the temple and its treasures back to the royal family of Travancore.In this episode, the host speaks to Manu Pillai, author of the book 'The Ivory Throne', originally published in 2016 by harper collins, which documents the history of the royal families of Travancore. The book is also an extraordinary history of Kerala itself, starting over five centuries back. Karthik speaks to Manu about the SC verdict, its implications on what remains of the royal family and also about brand kerala and its core DNA.Follow Manu on Twitter @UmamPillai and on Instagram @waatcoconutTweet to Karthik Nagarajan @The_Karthik and follow his WordPress handle here (filterkoffee.com).You can listen to this show and other awesome shows on the IVM Podcasts app on Android: https://ivm.today/android or iOS: https://ivm.today/ios, or any other podcast app.You can check out our website at http://www.ivmpodcasts.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Gunjan Arya has been associated with OML right from the times of the first NH7 Weekender - first as a partner and then as an employee and now as its CEO. In the last decade, OML has been part of a handful of companies that have shaped popular and sub-culture in India, especially music and comedy. Karthik speaks to Gunjan about how some of these journeys began and how it took shape and eventually became commercially successful. They also speak about the success of content also impacts the artists ecosystem and enable more people to take up the craft. Karthik and Gunjan also discuss how as an organization, OML prepped for the lockdown and how the pandemic will impact some of these businesses in the medium term.Follow Gunjan on Instagram & Twitter @EchoGunjanTweet to Karthik Nagarajan @The_Karthik and follow his WordPress handle here (filterkoffee.com).You can listen to this show and other awesome shows on the IVM Podcasts app on Android: https://ivm.today/android or iOS: https://ivm.today/ios, or any other podcast app.You can check out our website at http://www.ivmpodcasts.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this week's episode, Karthik speaks to Swati Bhargava - Co-founder, CashKaro about growing up in Ambala, moving from investment banking into the start up world and the experience of pitching to angel investors, including Mr. Ratan Tata. Swati also speaks about her view of the Indian consumer, building a company and creating a positive culture in her organization.You can follow Swati on Twitter @Swats26 and on Instagram @swatidbTweet to Karthik Nagarajan @The_Karthik and follow his WordPress handle here (filterkoffee.com).You can listen to this show and other awesome shows on the IVM Podcasts app on Android: https://ivm.today/android or iOS: https://ivm.today/ios, or any other podcast app.You can check out our website at http://www.ivmpodcasts.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Disrupting a business through digital media is a topic that is so well narrated and discussed on stage, that it's almost a cliche at this point. However, in reality, it is a fairly rare art form. Very few people have been able to walk this talk in reality. Durga Raghunath is one of them. She has been able to scale and grow different kinds of businesses - like book publishing, news media, and now, food aggregation. Karthik speaks to Durga about her experience taking Zomato to international markets, how Zomato Gold succeeded as a loyalty program and how the company has succeeded in building a unique and approachable identity on social media.Karthik also speaks to Durga about her experience in launching Firstpost in India (When she was the CEO of Digital at Network18) and how she was able to scale it to success rapidly. They also discuss the book publishing market where India is inexplicably under leveraged as an opportunity and how this led to the birth of Juggernaut Books (Durga was the co-founder).Follow Durga Raghunath on Twitter @durgaraghunathTweet to Karthik Nagarajan @The_Karthik and follow his WordPress handle here (filterkoffee.com).You can listen to this show and other awesome shows on the IVM Podcasts app on Android: https://ivm.today/android or iOS: https://ivm.today/ios, or any other podcast app.You can check out our website at http://www.ivmpodcasts.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jaideep Giridhar is a career journalist who has been chronicling popular culture from the early 2000s - a time when India would change forever. One of his earliest gigs was being the editor at Rave - a magazine out of Bangalore at the time that set out to be the Rolling Stone of India but ended up being much more. Jaideep speaks to Karthik about the 'scene' back in the day and how music and sub cultures started taking root in India and how some of the stars of today were just trying to break in at the time. Jaideep and Karthik also discuss the role of hyper local journalism and how technology today is r m&gv=any niches become mainstream.Follow Jaideep on Twitter @JaideepGiridharTweet to Karthik Nagarajan @The_Karthik and follow his WordPress handle here (filterkoffee.com).You can listen to this show and other awesome shows on the IVM Podcasts app on Android: https://ivm.today/android or iOS: https://ivm.today/ios, or any other podcast app.You can check out our website at http://www.ivmpodcasts.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week on #TheFilterKoffeePodcast, Karthik speaks with Salone Sehgal – one of the most important voices from Indian gaming and e-sports community. Salone has been an investor in interactive media for over 14 years and has been a gaming entrepreneur herself. She is currently a General Partner in Lumikai India, which is an early stage VC fund. She is also one of the very few from the investment community, to voice the imbalance of scales when it comes to women in technology and especially gaming. Karthik and Salone discuss the lack of representation for women in technology and within the startup ecosystem and how it affects innovation. They also talk about why there are very few games made for the women audience in spite of them being a significant part of the playing ecosystem.The conversation is based on some of Salone’s extremely well researched pieces published recently. Link below for those interested in reading the full articles:NoVenture$ForWomen: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/noventureforwomen-salone-sehgal?articleId=6490596682416353280#comments-6490596682416353280&trk=public_profile_article_viewBuilding for inclusive entertainment: https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__medium.com_-40SaloneSehgal_girls-2Dgot-2Dgame-2Da-2Dparadigm-2Dfor-2Dinclusive-2Dentertainment-2D54ec0bd85db6&d=DwMFaQ&c=N-xPqDyeLJg5V3gLll2thA&r=hhhp9rwaSUtwzesYTjPeMzETxoNIPEcUfVZcWBdiD5Y&m=c8abIRExWkCcrliWwov6sVKTbW1FQdV-MtpAzgxv9NQ&s=VNMvEjCil30nSlkFylwF1gdzZ5kpQxGFVGUKduEgUhc&e=The Blog Salone mentions towards the end: https://www.deconstructoroffun.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.