An Antidote to Social Media Addiction

I’ve thought a lot about the world we’re marching towards in which virtual interactions and relationships far outweigh real, in-person exchanges. The art of conversation, body-language, human and humane interaction – holding hands, looking at people with meaningful warmth – are fading away.

I write this for those who share my discomfort.

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Six Books That Have Offered Me Significant Insights in 2017

It’s that time of the year when we take stock of how the year that is about to fade away has been. For me, books are a large part of the process of processing information and synthesizing insights. Here are six books that have helped advance my thinking this year.

1.     Sapiens A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari: The book is an anthropologist’s view of how human history has progressed over many millenniums. Its first great insight is that the core differentiating factor between our human species versus others is the power we have for story telling. “You could never convince a monkey to give you a banana by promising him limitless bananas after death in monkey heaven.” Religions are stories. Nations are stories. Corporations are stories. And all these stories have served as organizing principles to enable humankind to collaborate in large numbers and make spectacular progress. Today, we’re entering a phase in human history where these stories we’ve been telling are insufficient to continue to empower large-scale cooperation. Cracks are opening up in the organizing principles of the world. Extremely thought provoking in today’s context.

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8 Founder Podcasts Discuss Building Startups in Europe

Last year I wrote about The Next European Renaissance, in which we explore whether Europe’s recognized enthusiasm for culture in its various forms – food, music, architecture, literature, and many more – and greater commitment to the preservation and promotion of such expressions of culture would offer a good platform for generating new and important ideas given the enabling technology of today.

Entrepreneurs, especially those based in Europe, will also find advice and inspiration from the following group of successful European entrepreneurs. Each shares their interesting journey in a 30-minute podcast interview.

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What Are Indian VCs Looking For With Sandeep Singhal

We’re doing a deep dive into the current seed investment eco-system and talking to our investor friends about what they’re looking for.

Here, you can hear the perspective of Sandeep Singhal of Nexus Venture Partners on Indian Startups:

Come talk to me to brainstorm, strategize, weigh your funding options.

8 Investors Discuss Trends in Seed Investing in Podcasts

Entrepreneurs in the early stages of building startups need to be aware of the myriad stages of seed funding that have emerged. By the time you’ve gone through three to five rounds of seed funding, you have spent huge amounts of time and energy (and possibly, equity). To bring yourself up to speed on the developing trends in seed funding, please listen to the following 30-minute podcast interviews with a varied group of seed investors, Angels and VCs.

Don Hutchison, Independent Investor – Don is one of the most experienced and long term Angel Investors in Silicon Valley. We discuss the trends of the industry and ways to mitigate the Series A gap that is a serious issue right now.

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#MeToo: I Come From a LONG Heritage of Chauvinism

Today, the #MeToo thread has started to spread all over social media. I want to point you to an article I wrote for women entrepreneurs on how to deal with sexual advances from VCs some time back.

As an attractive woman in the male dominated technology industry, I have dealt with my share of sexual advances. I have never named names in public. I am still not naming names or recounting anecdotes.

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India Currents Names Sramana Mitra the Top Indian Digital Influencer

India Currents Magazine has a cover story on Indian digital influencers in its September issue. Sramana Mitra is their top choice. You can read the story here.

Want to discuss your strategy with Sramana Mitra? Come to a free and online 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable. Register here.

10 Entrepreneurs Who Bootstrapped to Millions in Podcasts

If you have been putting off moving forward with your own startup venture due to a lack of financing, please listen to this series of podcast interviews with some successful startup founders who managed to bootstrap their businesses to millions in revenue. Each of these 30-minute podcast interviews tells the inspiring story of how they did it.

Girish Navani, CEO at eClinicalWorks – Bootstrapped a billion dollar Unicorn with a paycheck. Girish didn’t quit his job for two years, while he tested and validated his original product and customer base. He now has built a $300 million revenue company that is still 100% bootstrapped, private, and has no desire to sell out or go for an IPO.

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