Amitabh Kant is the Chief Executive Officer for The National Institute for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog. We caught up with him during his recent visit to Silicon Valley and spoke to him about being an entrepreneurial bureaucrat and his branding campaigns for India for tourism and the Make in India and Startup India. Kant joined the… Continue Reading
VIDEO: KARL KRANTZ OF SILICON VALLEY VIRTUAL REALITY
Virtual Reality (VR) is the big trend this year in Silicon Valley. This big trend is market by the transition from cardboard VR headsets to fancy headsets like Oculus Rift and Samsung Gear VR and the introduction of 360 cameras and other hardware that help created VR content. We spoke with Karl Krantz, founder of Silicon… Continue Reading
PODCAST: PROF. FREEMAN DYSON ON SRINIVASA RAMANUJAN
Prof. Freeman Dyson of Princeton University worked on Srinivasa Ramanujan‘s partition of numbers theory while studying at Cambridge University. In this interview Prof. Dyson shares how he first discovered about Ramanujan in ET Bell’s book Men of Mathematics, and later on he went on to work on Ramanujan’s number theory at Cambridge University and developed a tool called Rank.… Continue Reading
Silicon Valley Virtual Reality Show
Today I finally got to dip my toe into this frontier technology called Virtual Reality (VR) at Silicon Valley Virtual Reality (SVVR) show in San Jose. To be fair I did get a cardboard VR headset last year from DoDo Case, but never got around to trying it. I rectified that glaring oversight today… Continue Reading
TiECON 2016 IS BACK WITH IoT, DATA ECONOMY & DESTINATION INDIA
For over 2 decades Silicon Valley’s The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) has held its annual conference in Santa Clara that brings entrepreneurs, technologists and investors. This year marks the 23rd year of TiECon which will feature panels on innovation, social entrepreneurship, Internet of Things, data economy and Destination India. Here is a list of featured speakers… Continue Reading
VIDEO: MEET SOCIAL ROBOTS NAO AND PEPPER
Meet social robots Nao and Pepper, who are unlike anything you may have seen. Both these humanoid robots are studded with all sorts of sensors and are able to interact with users. For instance Nao is equipped with HD cameras, microphones and an array of sensors. Nao is used in American schools to help children… Continue Reading
TWITTER TURNS 10
Twitter turns 10 today. And in 10 years Twitter has changed our world and how we connect, communicate and share with people around the world. And in 10 years Twitter’s journey has been a roller coaster ride where it went from a scrappy startup to a public company. Here is a quick history of Twitter… Continue Reading
They Are Back – HBO’s Silicon Valley Season 3 Is Here
The motley crew from HBO’s Silicon Valley is back. The popular series premieres on April 24, 2016. Mike Judge and his crew have brilliantly captured the essence of Silicon Valley’s startup culture with its warts and all. HBO’s Silicon Valley gives you a sense of what it takes to do a startup in Silicon Valley.… Continue Reading
MARCH IS WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH
March is Women’s History Month and here is a collection of my interviews with women from various walks of life from authors to filmmakers to entrepreneurs to engineers and venture capitalists. In each of these interviews the goal was to find out how about their journey and how they developed a passion for what they do. … Continue Reading
PODCAST: MATTHEW HILL OF KITE HILL ON DAIRY FREE CHEESE & FOOD STARTUPS IN SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA
In the last few years San Francisco Bay area has emerged as a hub of food startups, who are using technology to create new products and Kite Hill is one such company. We talk with Matthew Sade, CEO of Kite Hill to find out what they are doing differently about making cheese that is dairy… Continue Reading
INDIA’S ECOMMERCE COMPANY SNAPDEAL SNAGS $200 MILLION AT $6.5 BILLION VALUATION
It is boom time in Indian e-commerce space. The heat is on for an epic race between Snapdeal, FlipKart and Amazon India. All 3 major players are vying to corner a piece of the lucrative Indian market that a Goldman Sachs report pegged at $100 billion (FY20201) reports the Economic Times. FlipKart and Amazon have invested hundreds of millions… Continue Reading
FACEBOOK INDIA’S MANAGING DIRECTOR STEPS DOWN
Facebook India’s Managing Director Kirthiga Reddy is stepping down and will “explore new opportunities” at the company’s Menlo Park headquarters in the US. The decision to relocate to the US is based on personal reasons wrote Reddy in her Facebook post. For the next 6 months she will be busy transitioning out of her role as… Continue Reading
FACEBOOK’S FREE BASICS BANNED IN INDIA
I guess we can no longer have, as Facebook puts it “digital equality for all Indians.” Despite aggressive lobbying by Facebook, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) ruled in favor of Net Neutrality and against Facebook. What this means is that Facebook‘s Free Basics service, a limited and free Internet service, can no longer be offered in India.… Continue Reading
VIDEO: NICKI BOYD OF VERSAME, A WEARABLE TECH STARTUP
Meet Nicki Boyd of VersaMe, a Silicon Valley-based startup. We sat down to speak with her about her entrepreneurial journey and how she and her two co-founders founded VersaMe, a wearable tech company. VersaMe means talk to me and we talk to Boyd about their first product -Starling. This is the first time Boyd is working… Continue Reading
VIDEO: DAN GARBLICK OF BANDAR FOODS ON SELLING INDIAN FLAVORS WITH AN AMERICAN TWIST
Meet Dan Garblick, co-founder of Bandar Foods of San Francisco. Garblick and Lalit Kalani met at Wharton Business School while doing their MBA. They created Bandar (monkey) sauce as a fun, side project for one of their classes. They soon realized they have the makings of a new food company and that is how… Continue Reading
HIGHLIGHTS FROM 2015
This was a wonderful and got to interview interesting folks from the world of technology, startups, films, food (yes, food startups is a big trend) and authors. This collage is a sample of the various guests on our show about life, people and ideas. Thank you all for your support and encouragement. And, if you… Continue Reading
SUBSCRIBE TO OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL
Every Thursday you can catch a new interview on my YouTube channel. We feature interviews with entrepreneurs, technologists, filmmakers and other news from in and around the San Francisco Bay area. These interviews air in various TV channels in the Bay area, Los Angeles and in Cambridge, MA. Here are a couple of playlists… Continue Reading
PODCAST: SHY MUDAKAVI ON BUILDING SAFARI KID
Meet Shy Mudakavi founder and CEO of Safari Kid headquartered in the San Francisco Bay area. How Mudakavi built Safari Kid is a fascinating story of one woman’s determination to succeed in her mission and how she hired the right resources to expand. What drove her to build her school was her belief, passion and committment.… Continue Reading
VIDEO: SAFARI KID’s SHY MUDAKAVI ON ENTREPRENEURSHIP, PASSION & BUILDING HER SCHOOL
Shahdokth “Shy” Mudakavi is founder and CEO of Safari Kid, a preschool and kindergarten school that started in San Francisco Bay Area. America is a land of opportunities and this is where dreams come true points out Mudakavi. What did she do right? “I believed in it. There was 100 % belief and they say when… Continue Reading
PODCAST: MARTIN COOPER “FATHER OF CELL PHONE”
Martin “Marty” Cooper is often described as the “Father of the Cell Phone.” Cooper along with his team worked on creating the first cell phone or wireless phone as it was known at Motorola. The very first call Cooper made in April 1973 from the streets of Manhattan was to his counterpart Joel Engel at… Continue Reading
Space X Creates History With Successful Launch of Falcon 9
On Monday, Dec 21, 2015 Elon Musk’s SpaceX made a brilliant breakthrough that had people talking about it for quite sometime. To say a little bit of space history was created with this breakthrough would be an understatement. For the first time Space X’s Falcon 9 rocket made “a successful ground-based landing at Cape Canaveral… Continue Reading
PODCAST: MEET DR. VINITH MISRA, TECHNICAL CONSULTANT FOR HBO’s SILICON VALLEY
Ever wondered who created the compression algorithms and all the technical stuff in the startup world that you see in HBO’s Silicon Valley. We talk to the character behind the technology. Meet Dr. Vinith Misra, the technical consultant, who worked with Mike Judge and his team on the series. He was working on his PhD with Prof. Tsachy… Continue Reading
VIDEO: STEFFI PAEPCKE OF OPEN SOURCE ROBOTICS FOUNDATION
We speak to Steffi Paepcke, Lead Designer and Co-Founder of Open Source Robotics Foundation. Located in Silicon Valley this non-profit organization is focussed on help promote open source software in the field of robotics. This interview with Paepcke is part of our Women in Science and Technology series. Paepcke is the only non-engineer in her… Continue Reading
PODCAST: STEFFI PAEPCKE ON ROBOTS, ROBOTICS & STEM EDUCATION
Meet Steffi Paepcke, lead designer and co-founder of Open Source Robotics Foundation (OSRF), a non-profit organization based in Mountain View. OSRF is a spin off from Willow Garage, a robotics startup in Menlo Park. OSRF’s mission is to support the development and distribution of open source software in robot research, education and product development points out… Continue Reading
VIDEO: ANARGHYA VARDHANA OF MAVERON
Meet Anarghya Vardhana, a millennial investor, marathoner, math whiz and dancer. We spoke to Vardhana on how she developed her interests in science, technology & sports and how did they turn shape her professional career. For instance, we were curious to find if participating in sports activities helped develop her confidence level. How did sports help… Continue Reading
PODCAST: ON ROBOTS & ROBOT OPERATING SYSTEMS WITH BRAIN CORP’S DR. TODD HYLTON
Ever wondered about the brains of a robot or the robot operating systems (ROS)? Is there a standardized ROS for robots? How do robots learn? How do you teach a robot? And then there other questions about Artificial Intelligence (AI), ethics and the future of robots in our society. We spoke with Dr. Todd Hylton,… Continue Reading
VIDEO: TAVA INDIAN KITCHEN’S HASNAIN ZAIDI
Meet San Francisco Bay area’s Tava India Kitchen’s Hasnain Zaidi, Chief Operating Officer. In this interview Zaidi shares the back story of how Tava was born and what kind of food they serve. We also find out if they were inspired by the success of Chipotle, the restaurant chain that serves Mexican food. Tava… Continue Reading
PODCAST: MANRESA BREAD’S AVERY RUZICKA
We caught up the talented Avery Ruzicka, head baker and partner of Manresa Bread in Los Gatos, CA at the BiteSV conference in Santa Clara. BiteSV was the first food and technology conference that was held in June 2015 in Levi’s Stadium, Santa Clara. Chef/Owner David Kinch heads Manresa, a Michelin-starred restaurant that consistently gets rave reviews.… Continue Reading
VIDEO: SRI ROBOTICS RICH MALONEY ON SUPERFLEX EXOSUIT
Imagine attaching a one pound device to your leg and instanly adding strength to your joints and reducing fatigue? Imagine adding 200 pounds of pull from that one pound device. That is exactly what SRI Robotics has done with SuperFlex, a technology platform of light weight component technologies. SRI Robotics’ Dr. Rich Maloney explains how this… Continue Reading
VIDEO: BANGALORE AS INDIA’S STARTUP HUB WITH PROF RISHIKESHA KRISHNAN
Bangalore is often referred as Silicon Valley of India. The city is studded with startups and has a huge pool of technical people. How and why did Bangalore became the startup hub of India? Why do startups from other parts of India move to Bangalore? What are the common characterstics between Silicon Valley and Bangalore?… Continue Reading
