Thought Leaders in Internet of Things: CleanConnect CEO David Conley (Part 1)

David discusses problems, solutions, and open problems in this interview about AI and IoT in the Oil and Gas sector.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start by introducing you to our audience and talk about your background and the company.

Featured Videos

Catching Up On Readings: Digital Banking Trends 2022

This report from Gartner analyzes digital banking trends at the ongoing Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo 2022, Gold Coast. Gartner predicts that 30% of banks with greater than $1 billion in assets will launch BaaS for new revenue by the end of 2024. For this week’s posts, click on the paragraph links.

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Mohanjit Jolly, Partner at Iron Pillar (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: How long do you think it will take for India to catch up?

Mohanjit Jolly: The next year will be a challenging one. When the next bull run starts, India is going to be playing a pretty big role in the outcomes. I’m less interested in the term unicorn; I’m more interested in the underlying value that these companies are providing.

Video FAQs

Colors: Blue Vastness  IV

I’m publishing this series on LinkedIn called Colors to explore a topic that I care deeply about: the Renaissance Mind. I am just as passionate about entrepreneurship, technology, and business, as I am about art and culture. In this series, I will typically publish a piece of art – one of my paintings – and I request you to spend a minute or two deeply meditating on it. I urge you to watch your feelings, thoughts, reactions to the piece, and write what comes to you, what thoughts it triggers, in the dialog area. Let us see what stimulation this interaction yields. For today – Blue Vastness  IV

Blue Vastness  IV | Sramana Mitra, 2021 | Watercolor, Pastel, Brush Pen | 8  x 8, On Paper

Colors: Blue Vastness  III

I’m publishing this series on LinkedIn called Colors to explore a topic that I care deeply about: the Renaissance Mind. I am just as passionate about entrepreneurship, technology, and business, as I am about art and culture. In this series, I will typically publish a piece of art – one of my paintings – and I request you to spend a minute or two deeply meditating on it. I urge you to watch your feelings, thoughts, reactions to the piece, and write what comes to you, what thoughts it triggers, in the dialog area. Let us see what stimulation this interaction yields. For today – Blue Vastness  III

Blue Vastness  III | Sramana Mitra, 2021 | Watercolor, Pastel, Brush Pen | 8  x 8, On Paper

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Mohanjit Jolly, Partner at Iron Pillar (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: One of my observations on Now Float is that selling to SMBs in India is hard.

Mohanjit Jolly: That’s right. The dichotomy in India is – Indians love to be pampered as customers.

Sramana Mitra: High-touch, low-value sales.

Mohanjit Jolly: Exactly. They want the high touch but the unit economics don’t work. That was a conundrum. The interesting thing is that we had a strategic term sheet on the table. It was one of the financial institutions in India.

A Journey into Personalized Luxury Fashion: Editorialist YX CEO Rafael Ortiz (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: Is there also a special category of boutiques or designers? I have a very good friend whom I hired out of Bergdorf Goodman in 1999 to be my VP of Merchandising – Bruce Pask. His partner is Donald Dean who’s a couture designer. He has a ready-to-wear line, but he’s also very much a custom designer.

What category of designers do you work with? Where do you get these designers? I found great small designers when I traveled. Is that something that can be accessed?

Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped Using Services to an Awesome Business Model

If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page. 

We’ve shared many Bootstrapping Using Services case studies with you here, as well as in the book on that topic. Inspyrus Founder CEO Nilay Banker’s story is particularly interesting because of the absolutely awesome business model that Nilay and his team had implemented by the time we spoke in 2017. Read on!

Sramana Mitra: Let’s go to the beginning of your personal journey. Where are you from? Where were you born, raised, and in what kind of background?

Nilay Banker: I’m from India, born and brought up in Ahmedabad, which used to be a sleepy town when I was born and growing up. It has now blossomed into a sprawling metro. It’s one of the five largest cities in India. I had a very interesting childhood. I grew up in a family of professionals. My father is an architect. My mother is a doctor. Pretty much, every person in my family is a professional with very few people who are not doctors. I consider myself a black sheep in the family.

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