The Neon Show
01:06:56 · Siddhartha Ahluwalia, Bhaskar Ghosh
[01:06:56] S0: And the last thing, think this is another topic for another podcast [01:06:59] S1: A whole podcast. Because [01:07:02] S0: we can't give justice to it in such a short span of time and how the rate which market is evolving, right? What is the how the founder type changing on the founder required on the GTM side is of keen interest to me. But I'll leave it open ended for here. [01:07:22] S1: Meaning, the founders, the way they think about go to market itself. Yeah, [01:07:28] S0: founders, they think about go to market itself, right? How do they land their first 10 enterprise contract, right? Is the old way of SaaS bank still applicable? So should you get a co founder who has sold SaaS? Or should you like possibly try to find a different kind of a founder? I don't have an answer because the market is changing.
01:07:28 · Siddhartha Ahluwalia, Bhaskar Ghosh
[01:07:28] S0: founders, they think about go to market itself, right? How do they land their first 10 enterprise contract, right? Is the old way of SaaS bank still applicable? So should you get a co founder who has sold SaaS? Or should you like possibly try to find a different kind of a founder? I don't have an answer because the market is changing. [01:07:46] S1: Look, Siddhartha, the only thing I'll say is, even now, product building is hard. If you build software products, let's not ignore that. Building software products is really hard. It is just so that software engineering is so profoundly affected by Gen AI, you can do that iteration fast. But the taste of a product, the design aspect of a product, increasingly, AI centric design, where you are building an AI infused product, how do you land it? These are non trivial things, which I don't think can be automated away. So I think that part is hard and it requires founders to have superpowers. The second thing is very mundane. I still think the first five design partnerships are really important. I think design partnerships, when you land the right design partnership, maybe the speed of it will be much faster because people want AI infused software. I still think those mundane things will remain important, but a topic for another day. [01:08:40] S0: Yeah. Maybe this this requires another podcast as well on how to find the right design partner in in AI first era. [01:08:47] S1: Profound question. [01:08:50] S0: So last thing is, what are you doing beyond work in the India US corridor? What are your passions?
01:08:57 · Bhaskar Ghosh
[01:08:57] S1: Yeah, right, I would say I've always been fairly involved in the non profit sector. You know, we have been backing projects whether they are in the South, whether they are East, Odisha, Bengal. So in terms of, you know, I have a non profit called Saxa, and we have always been big into women's and children's education and healthcare related initiatives in India, that is always true. Education remains a huge passion of mine. And I think education for a changing India, and for a changing US for that matter, is very important to me. And new modes of education, coursework, how do you teach differently, what are the skills that you want more from a trade side versus fundamental learning, remain very important to me. So backing non profits and you know groups like Pratham in India, which works with the government, these are very important to me. Second is, you know, begin to arts, especially music. Try to support a lot of the India US corridor around music. Also, very passionate about the sacred music traditions of all over the world, especially India. Music traditions which bring people together. Bring people together at a spiritual level. I want to call out, there is a beautiful music festival that we've been supporting for six-seven years now in New York City called Raga's Life. I'd be proud to say it's the only twenty four hour Indian themed music festival in The US I've heard of. We have it in Brooklyn every October. We have artists coming from India, from all over the world. Sacred music coming from The Middle East, from East Europe, from South Africa, from South America. Very proud and with a strong Indian classical theme. And I think I would love to support that for the rest of my life. And I want to support more and more performance art and music in India. I think India is just like, it's just an ocean that, you know, remains to be explored and that's a huge passion of mine.
01:10:53 · Siddhartha Ahluwalia, Bhaskar Ghosh
[01:10:53] S0: So so glad that you're... We also discussed in the previous podcast that your interests are so diversified and Kolkata remains at heart. [01:11:02] S1: Kolkata is important, I think Kolkata has given me personally a culture of being curious and open to all possibilities. [01:11:09] S0: Not also a lot of taste. [01:11:12] S1: Especially in food. I think food scene in India, I mean I'm a huge follower of all the food podcasts of India. I think, remain very excited, you know, also of, I think the multi layer of India with, I think meditation, quiet, belongingness in nature, something you and I have talked about... [01:11:32] S0: Yes, given Vipassana to the world. Right? And India, if would have been commercial about it, would have added 1,000,000,000,000 to its GDP. [01:11:40] S1: Know, trademarking yoga. I mean, I think there are depths, multiple layers to... I have discovered so much more of India after coming here. I think I'm very comfortable as an American, as this is my homeland. But, you know my past has remained a very deep motivation inside me. And and we want to support India US corridor massively in the arts also in the non profit. But my ultimate passion remains in entrepreneurship and kind of backing companies which do great things in this corridor. I'll just repeat myself, AI enabled services should be massively happening from India for the world. So all of this remains important to me. And thank you for asking me that question. Siddhartha, it's an honor. [01:12:27] S0: I'm grateful for your friendship. That's
01:12:27 · Siddhartha Ahluwalia, Bhaskar Ghosh
[01:12:27] S0: I'm grateful for your friendship. That's [01:12:28] S1: what I I'm going am grateful for your mentorship. I think very highly of you and you're doing the hard yards, raising a fund. And I see you in the Bay Area more and more. That makes me very happy. [01:12:39] S0: Thank you, Bhaskar. [01:12:39] S1: Thank you so much.