Deep Tech Musings

Nishanth Raja, is a researcher turned entrepreneur with expertise in Ultrasonic Guided wave, Hi-Temp Sensor, NDE, Data analysis and interpretation. He is the co-founder of XYMA Analytics, a Deep tech startup on a mission to enhance industrial automation using IoT-enabled Ultrasonic Waveguide sensors to address the critical pain point in industries with High-Temperature applications. In this episode, we cover (00:00:39) Backdrop on Xyma’s Aegis Graham Bell innovation award (00:02:08) What motivated Nishanth to start Xyma Analytics? (00:05:30) What is the core problem that Xyma is looking to solve? And what are the products that it has come up with to solve that problem? (00:09:57) What were some of the initial activation hurdles Nishanth faced to make his clients trust and try his product? (00:10:21) How did Nishanth overcome those hurdles? (00:11:59) What are the major technologies at play, and what software layer is on top of it? (00:15:47) After gaining some good traction, how has Nishanth’s team gone about building moats into this product? (00:16:53) What advice does Nishanth give to fellow entrepreneurs who are looking to make it zero to one in this field? (00:19:06) How did Xyma go about defining its customer segment in the initial days? And how did it change over the years? (00:21:16) What are some of the biggest challenges right now for Xyma? (00:23:20) How does Nishanth see the role of AI contributing towards the growth of Xyma? Where to find us? Nishanth Raja – nishanthraja (LinkedIn) XYMA Analytics – XYMAAnalytics (LinkedIn), @AnalyticsXyma (Twitter) Pronojit, DTM Podcast - pronojitsaha (LinkedIn), @pronojits (Twitter)

Divanshu is the co-founder of Solinas, which is a deep-tech IITM incubated start-up that develops robotic & AI solutions for the pipeline and sanitation industry, solving problems of water leakages and eliminating manual scavenging. Their products organize the management of pipelines and tanks by providing efficient solutions and data-driven decision-making for their customers. Solinas has won multiple awards in its journey till now. Divanshu is a recent mechanical engineering graduate from IITM and a young entrepreneur who is passionate about solving complex problems using first-principle thinking. He firmly believes in the power of technology and is constantly looking to amplify the impact of social enterprises through that. He was one of the only 2 students to receive both an academic and a nonacademic institute prize while graduating in 2019. He is a regular speaker at events organized by WEF, TFI, IIT Madras, BITS, and others In this episode, Divanshu shares his story on building his startup and the products that Solinas is building. He gives his thought on the predicament of a robot replacing a human and how he views the situation. He shares how Solinas has structured itself to build products that are more pull than push products. Finally, he shares insights on how Solinas intends to build moats and his advice to entrepreneurs in the same field looking to make it from zero to one. Divanshu Kumar – divanshukumar (LinkedIn), div_involve (Twitter) Solinas Integrity Pvt. Ltd. - www.solinas.in/ (Web), solinasintegrity (LinkedIn) Pronojit, DTM Podcast - pronojitsaha (LinkedIn), @pronojits (Twitter) Show notes: (00:00:36) Divanshu’s background and experience in starting the IIT Formula Electric team (00:02:05) What motivated Divanshu to startup? (00:04:12) What are the products that Solinas is building? (00:06:32) A perfect case of a robot replacing a human, does Divanshu see this situation differently? (00:11:23) How have Solinas structured themself to build products which are more of a pull than push products? (00:13:30) What are the main technologies at play in Solina’s products? (00:15:27) How Solinas plans to utilize data and build vision analytics capabilities (00:17:30) What is the intelligence layer that Solinas plans to build on top of its products? (00:20:50) How do Solinas intend to build moats into their product? (00:22:38) What are the biggest challenges that Solinas is facing right now? (00:25:12) Divanshu’s advice to entrepreneurs looking to make it from zero to one in this field?

Harshit is the founder & CEO of Intugine Technologies, an end-to-end multimodal supply chain visibility platform. Intugine's real-time logistics visibility platform brings together disjoint systems and helps businesses optimize their logistics operation. Some of India’s renowned brands like flipkart, myntra, LG, Diageo, Mahindra, Ford, etc use Intugine's platform to negotiate volatility and uncertainties in their supply chain. In this episode, Harshit shares his motivation to start Intugine and the discoveries that led his team to successfully pivot from B2C to B2B segment. He shares the various resolutions of location data being enabled by Intugine and reveals how is the product embedded into logistic supply chain. He talks about the 3 layers of location intelligence and how is the predictive layer acceptance on the field. Harshit give his advice to fellow entrepreneurs in logistic industry in making it from zero to one and shares his views on building moats in technology startups. Harshit Shrivastava - harshitshrivastava (LinkedIn), harshit_iiitkgp (Twitter) Intugine - www.intugine.com/ (Web), intugine-technologies (LinkedIn), @intugine (Twitter) Pronojit, DTM Podcast - pronojitsaha (LinkedIn), @pronojits (Twitter) Show notes [00:00:17] What was Harishit’s motivation to start Intugine? [00:02:31] What discoveries led Harshit to successfully pivot from B2C to a B2B segment? [00:07:16] What is this visibility challenge within the supply chain industry? And how does Intiguine’s product solves this challenge? [00:11:47] The various resolutions of location data being enabled and the 3 layers of location intelligence [00:20:05] How well is the acceptance of the predictive layer among organizations? [00:22:46] How to build moats in technology startups? [00:25:11] Which among the three layers will be more focus going forward? [00:26:32] Advice to fellow entrepreneurs who want to make it from zero to one in logistic industry.

Vijay Krishna (VK) is the co-Founder of WEGOT Utility Solutions which aims to reduce the water consumption by bringing about a much need behavioral change in the way people use water. WEGOT’s IoT based Smart Water Meters help manage water consumption and help save up to 50% of water in buildings. In this episode, VK shares details about WEGOT’s product and features, and the benefit their users can enjoy and consequently how the product has shifted human behavior. He gives his view on how he overcome hurdles and how he build a product in cutthroat IOT technology domain. VK also gives advice to entrepreneurs in the IOT industry and shares his thought on how to build moats in the same. Vijay Krishna, WEGOT – vijay-krishna (LinkedIn) WeGot - https://www.wegot.in/ (Web), wegot-utility-solutions (LinkedIn), @WEGoTtech (Twitter) Pronojit, DTM Podcast - pronojitsaha (LinkedIn), @pronojits (Twitter) Show Notes [00:00:29] VK’s background and how he started with his startup WEGOT . [00:02:37] What does the device do?What are the actions that users can take and the benefits that they can derive?[00:04:33] How user can segment that where user is using? How would user know that where user using more water? [00:06:54] How does the product shift human behavior? [00:08:23] How did WEGOT overcome the initial activation/installation hurdles? [00:12:28] What are the major technologies at play in the product? [00:14:43] With so much of data being captured, what is VK thoughts on utilizing analytics capabilities? [00:16:31] How to build a competitive differentiation/moat in technology products? [00:20:34] What are major challenges for WeGot now and their future vision? [00:22:41] VK’s advice to aspiring entrepreneurs in the IOT space

Allon Hammer, is the head of Data at VI which is the World Leading Enterprise-AI for Digital Health. VI leverages powerful tech to help people around the world stay healthy and active. Their powerful AI software helps digital health enterprises increase member engagement, retention, and LTV. VI's market-leading solution reaches over 30 million members daily.  Previously, Allon has been a Data Scientist and researcher with hands on experience in Deep learning, Machine Learning, NLP, Reinforcement Learning, Big Data technologies in cloud-based environments, Python and SQL In this episode, Allon shares how they are providing AI-as-a-Service for health and wellness enterprises, to increase member engagement, retention, and LTV. He shares his thoughts on being AI first in strategy, on democratizing data science & using feature stores, his advise to entrepreneurs looking to build AI startups, how to assess technical feasibility in AI and build competitive differentiations. Allon Hammer - allon-hammer (LinkedIn) Vi-Labs - https://vi.co/ Pronojit, DTM Podcast - pronojitsaha (LinkedIn), pronojits (Twitter) In this episode, we cover: [00:00:46] What are VI's products,features and the benefits? [00:01:57] Examples of what would health care company use VI for? [00:03:12] Brief about each of VI's product. [00:05:04] Allon’s thought on being AI first in strategy. [00:11:30] Allon’s thoughts on the use of feature stores. [00:15:11] What algorithms or models is VI using right now? [00:20:23] Allon’s advice to entrepreneurs looking to make the zero to one journey [00:24:55] How to assess technical feasibility of AI implementation? [00:26:51] How to build competitive differentiation in AI startups?

Chirag is the Managing Partner of 8X Ventures and has 15+ years of experience in venture capital, startup mentoring, strategy design, strategy execution, organisation design, investment banking and business analytics. Through 8X Ventures he is investing and supporting DeepTech startups that will fundamentally change how industries and economies operate while striving to build a profitable, sustainable business in the long-term.  In this episode, Chirag shares his views on Deep tech domain, why 8X Ventures chose to go ahead with this domain, his advice to startups in Deep tech on things to avoid, what value 8X Ventures provides to its portfolio startups.  This episode was recorded live on Mentza, which is a unique take on social audio conversations wherein we are time-boxed to 25 mins, do check it out on your app store. Chirag Gupta, 8X Ventures - chirag-gupta (LinkedIn) Pronojit, DTM Podcast - pronojitsaha (LinkedIn), pronojits (Twitter) In this episode, we cover: [00:01:29] How does 8X venture define deep tech? [00:03:23] What made 8X Ventures take on deep tech domain when very few people are doing that right now? [00:06:40] What are the ways that a startup can go about building moats in deep tech industry? [00:08:44] How do you make deep tech pervasive toward for wider audience? [00:11:00] Advice to entrepreneurs in deep tech domain looking to take their startup from zero to one? [00:13:50] How does 8X Ventures venture assess the tech quality of deep tech startups? [00:15:24] How is it evident at a very early stage from when a startup is doing just a few POCs, that it will go on to make a 10 X impact? [00:18:01] What value does 8X Ventures provide to the startups who come onboard?

Dhinesh is the founder of Fabheads, which manufacturers Asia's first & only continuous fiber 3D printers, and in their journey have won multiple awards from the Government of India, DRDO, CII & others. In this episode, Dhinesh gives us an overview of Fabheads, the problem its solving, its features, and other details. He then highlights what he thinks are the top 3 things that technology hardware startups should focus on to enable their journey from zero to one. We end the discussion with what Dhinesh think is in the future for the 3D printing industry.  This episode was recorded live on Mentza, which is a unique take on social audio conversations wherein we are time-boxed to 20-25 mins, do check it out on your app store. Dhinesh Kanagaraj, Fabheads - dhineshrk (LinkedIn) Pronojit, DTM Podcast - pronojitsaha (LinkedIn), pronojits (Twitter)

Himanshu is the co-founder of Devnagri, an AI-powered human translation platform. Devnagri exists to use technology and humans to translate the data available over the internet. It helps businesses and the government to reach real people who are not part of the internet because of the language barrier.  In this episode, Himanshu gives us an overview of Devnagri, the problem its solving, its features, and other details. He then highlights what he thinks are the top 3 things that founders should focus on to enable their journey from zero to one. This episode was recorded live on Mentza, which is a unique take on social audio conversations wherein we are time-boxed to 20-25 mins, do check it out on your app store. Himanshu Sharma, Devnagri - ihimansh (LinkedIn) Pronojit, DTM Podcast - pronojitsaha (LinkedIn), pronojits (Twitter), pronojit (Clubhouse)

Arjun is the co-founder of Courseplay, an AI-powered employee experience platform for 360-degree employee growth. Courseplay focuses on offering on-the-job, social, and formal learning to the workplace. Large enterprises and fast-growing startups are managing their entire skill and talent development lifecycle on Cousrseplay's unified talent experience platform and mobile apps.  On the show Arjun gives us an overview of Courseplay, the problem its solving, its features and other details. He then highlights what he thinks are the top 3 things that founders should focus on to enable their journey from zero to one and finally he ends with what he thinks creates a differentiation in today's AI world.  This show was recorded live on Mentza, which is unique take on social audio conversations wherein we are time-boxed to 20-25 mins, so do check it out on your app store. Arjun Gupta, Courseplay - arjngpta (LinkedIn), arjngpta (Twitter) Pronojit, DTM Podcast - pronojitsaha (LinkedIn), pronojits (Twitter), pronojit (Clubhouse)

Ankur Mittal has 20+ years of experience with Fortune 50 companies & is a prominent figure in the Indian startup ecosystem. He co-founded Inflection Point Ventures in 2019 with the bold mission to democratize startup investing in India. On the show, he discusses the genesis & motivation behind IPV, shares his viewpoint on the future of democratized startup investing, future industries to look out for, how India will be a leading startup destination in the world, and many more.  Ankut Mittal, IPV - ankur-mittal-3ba773 (LinkedIn), ipventures.in (Website) Pronojit, DTM Podcast - pronojitsaha (LinkedIn), pronojits (Twitter), pronojit (Clubhouse)