The Aarthi and Sriram Show

'tis the time for our year end roundup - we talk about our favorite episodes this year, and our favorite other content - books, movies, in-person meetup, tech trends, and what is getting us excited about 2023. Happy holidays! Follow Sriram: https://www.instagram.com/sriramk/ https://twitter.com/sriramk Follow Aarthi: https://www.instagram.com/aarthir/ https://twitter.com/aarthir Follow the podcast: https://www.instagram.com/aarthiandsriramshow/ https://twitter.com/aarthisrirampod

This week's special guest is Steven Sinofsky, one of our favorite techno-optimists responsible for shipping Windows and Office products at Microsoft used by billions of people. He is also the author of one of the most popular Substack books - https://hardcoresoftware.learningbyshipping.com In this episode we talked about Steven's early days at Microsoft, his famous internet memo, working with Bill Gates, and the traits he sees in good leaders and founders, how to set company culture, his experience leading Office and Windows teams at Microsoft, and the secret behind his ability to write well. Follow Sriram: https://www.instagram.com/sriramk/ https://twitter.com/sriramk Follow Aarthi: https://www.instagram.com/aarthir/ https://twitter.com/aarthir Follow the podcast: https://www.instagram.com/aarthiandsriramshow/ https://twitter.com/aarthisrirampod

Indra Nooyi joins us this week as our special guest. In this episode we talked about her upbringing and early life, her career including leading PepsiCo, her leadership lessons, making it as an immigrant, and her experience meeting Steve Jobs. Born in Madras (Chennai) in Tamil Nadu, India, Indra Nooyi is an American business executive and former chairperson and CEO of Pepsico. She has consistently ranked among the world’s 100 most powerful women. She serves on the boards of Amazon and ICC. In 2007, the Government of India awarded her the Padma Bhushan, the country’s 3rd highest civilian honor. For more conversations with creators, builders and thinkers, subscribe to Aarthi and Sriram's Good Time Show - https://www.youtube.com/c/TheGoodTimeShowAarthiSriram Follow Sriram: https://www.instagram.com/sriramk/ https://twitter.com/sriramk Follow Aarthi: https://www.instagram.com/aarthir/ https://twitter.com/aarthir Follow the podcast: https://www.instagram.com/aarthiandsriramshow/ https://twitter.com/aarthisrirampod

In this 'solo' episode, Sriram and Aarthi talk about their trip to India and hosting the first in-person meetup in Chennai for fans of the podcast, as well as Sriram's take on Elon's first few weeks at Twitter and what he learned from watching Elon at work. Follow Sriram: https://www.instagram.com/sriramk/ https://twitter.com/sriramk Follow Aarthi: https://www.instagram.com/aarthir/ https://twitter.com/aarthir Follow the podcast: https://www.instagram.com/aarthiandsriramshow/ https://twitter.com/aarthisrirampod

In this episode, Aarthi and Sriram talk to Alexandr Wang is the founder and CEO of Scale AI. Alex is a 25 year old dropout from MIT, and is the youngest self made billionaire. Scale AI is the data platform for AI, providing high quality training data for leading machine learning teams. In this episode we talked about Alex's background and upbringing, how he stumbled onto the idea for Scale while building a camera in his refrigerator, the state of artificial intelligence, YCombinator (YC) program, department of defense and AI contracts, US vs China, use cases for artificial intelligence, how to solve for attribution and monetization for artists' IP in the world of AI, advice for founders. how to develop active thinking, company building and culture building. Follow Sriram: https://www.instagram.com/sriramk/ https://twitter.com/sriramk Follow Aarthi: https://www.instagram.com/aarthir/ https://twitter.com/aarthir Follow the podcast: https://www.instagram.com/aarthiandsriramshow/ https://twitter.com/aarthisrirampod

In this episode, Aarthi and Sriram talked to the one and only Marc Andreessen who is back by popular demand. For those of you (who are clearly living under a rock) who don't know him, Marc Andreessen is the co-founder of Netscape and co-founder and General Partner of Andreessen Horowitz. He is an innovator and creator, one of the few to pioneer a software category used by more than a billion people and one of the few to establish multiple billion-dollar companies. He is, without exaggeration, one of the smartest person we've ever met. In this episode we talked about Elon Musk and what makes him really successful, how to know if your startup idea is good, how to find a co-founder, how to persevere, Marc's favorite books, and one of our favorite topics - how to have the courage to think creatively and independently without worrying about repercussions. We packed a lot into this one. Enjoy! Follow Sriram: https://www.instagram.com/sriramk/ https://twitter.com/sriramk Follow Aarthi: https://www.instagram.com/aarthir/ https://twitter.com/aarthir Follow the podcast: https://www.instagram.com/aarthiandsriramshow/ https://twitter.com/aarthisrirampod

In this episode, Aarthi and Sriram talk to Rich Roll, an ultra-endurance athlete who is vegan, a chart-topping podcast host and author of multiple bestselling books, on his journey from being in college at Stanford, becoming an alcoholic, and then at the age of 40, recovering from his addiction, finding purpose and becoming an ultra endurance athlete. We talked about his early life, recovery, resurgence, role of spirituality in his life, what a typical week of diet and exercise looks like, why he champions plant based nutrition, how to get started with making lifestyle changes, what makes people like Andrew Huberman and Robin Arzon so successful and what it means to him to find so much success later in life. Follow Sriram: https://www.instagram.com/sriramk/ https://twitter.com/sriramk Follow Aarthi: https://www.instagram.com/aarthir/ https://twitter.com/aarthir Follow the podcast: https://www.instagram.com/aarthiandsriramshow/ https://twitter.com/aarthisrirampod

In this episode, Aarthi and Sriram talked to Palmer Luckey, the founder of Oculus and now the founder and CEO of Anduril. We talked about Palmer's unique childhood, how he started Oculus and essentially made re-ignited the VR movement, sold to Meta, got fired, and then went on to start another challenging company called Anduril which focuses on building defense technology. We talked about Palmer's recent trip to Ukraine, the current state of the Ukraine/Russia, China/Taiwan and the threat of nuclear war. We also talked about John Carmack, Elon Musk, dealing with haters, working on hard problems and what drives incredibly productive people and his advice for founders. Follow Sriram: https://www.instagram.com/sriramk/ https://twitter.com/sriramk Follow Aarthi: https://www.instagram.com/aarthir/ https://twitter.com/aarthir Follow the podcast: https://www.instagram.com/aarthiandsriramshow/ https://twitter.com/aarthisrirampod

In this episode, Aarthi and Sriram talked to Tanmay Bhat, arguably India's most famous comedian, YouTuber, scriptwriter, actor, performer, producer and startup investor. We talked about Tanmay's early start with Youtube (a decade ago!), getting into live streaming, what a 'plandid' is, breaking down the construction of a joke, how comedy varies for different cultures and audiences, getting marriage proposals (!), dealing with haters, what makes Dave Chapelle, Andrew Shulz and other comedians successful, and finally Tanmay's foray into health and wellness, and getting into crypto investing and building with Superteam. Follow Sriram: https://www.instagram.com/sriramk/ https://twitter.com/sriramk Follow Aarthi: https://www.instagram.com/aarthir/ https://twitter.com/aarthir Follow the podcast: https://www.instagram.com/aarthiandsriramshow/ https://twitter.com/aarthisrirampod

In this episode, Aarthi and Sriram talk to Emad Mostaque, the founder and CEO of Stability AI, the company behind Stable Diffusion AI (Artificial Intelligence). We covered everything from Emad's unique background, his religious beliefs as a Muslim, his son's autism diagnosis and how that shaped the building of Stable Diffusion, on LLMs (Large Language Models), how he thinks about AI ethics, how developing countries like India can leverage AI, and why he believes in open sourcing and democratizing access to AI technology. AI and it's role in everyday life, especially in art and creativity is all the rage right now, and there are many questions on the role of humans and the ethical questions that arise from leveraging Artificial Intelligence. Follow Sriram: https://www.instagram.com/sriramk/ https://twitter.com/sriramk Follow Aarthi: https://www.instagram.com/aarthir/ https://twitter.com/aarthir Follow the podcast: https://www.instagram.com/aarthiandsriramshow/ https://twitter.com/aarthisrirampod