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Halo Drop

Halo Drop

Halo Drop

Have you always wondered what it takes to make an Idea go from ok to amazing? To go from Idea to Exit? What are the trends shaping India today, and how can we take the lessons from Silicon Valley and apply them at scale? We created Halo Drop to build a community of amazing entrepreneurs, investors, family offices, hustlers, and change agents. We want you to be inspired to learn, build, and become successful! We spend countless hours researching the top trends in India and America to bubble up the macro trends, find amazing companies, and share actionable tips for you to get started. This isn’t just a show for you to listen in on, we want you to participate and build. Visit https://www.halodrop.fm for more information.
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Top 10 Halo Drop Episodes

Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Halo Drop episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Halo Drop for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Halo Drop episode by adding your comments to the episode page.

How sustainable are your fashion choices? With all the insanity happening across the world right now, what can you do to play your part in consuming clothes that respect the planet?

“As eco-conscious consumers realize the environmental toll of fast fashion, there's an increased focus on making clothes that are better for the planet. This can be using less resource intensive manufacturing processes, committing to recycled or sustainable materials, designing more durable fabrics, and even creating markets for clothing resale.”

The audio app space has been booming in India. India has about 150 million daily listeners. They’re the third largest podcast market after the US and China, and they're growing at 50% annually. In fact, the majority of our listeners are from India!

While listening to podcasts is a great way to escape mentally, the third and probably most important topic we discuss on this episode is companies set up to support mental health. Following the year we’ve just had, the demand for mental health services has risen exponentially.

“The mental health market will probably be worth around $250 billion by 2027. So there's a lot of room to grow here.”

Finally, we discuss trading baseball cards on Stock X, creating your own Avatar and the importance of stretching your calves out via a wooden slant box. This episode is jam packed full of great Indian companies you should check out. Download and listen today.

On today’s podcast:

  • Sustainable fast fashion brands
  • The audio app space
  • Taking care of your mental health
  • Trading baseball cards
  • Stretching your calves

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We are super excited for this episode of Halo Drop. At the start of the pandemic we hosted an amazing conversation with American football player, Jerry Rice, who imparted a wealth of wisdom gleaned during his time both on and off the football field.

“I never thought I would get drafted and go on to live the ultimate dream of playing professional football. You know, a guy out of Mississippi who goes to Mississippi Valley State University and gets drafted by the greatest team ever: The San Francisco 49ers.”

Jerry is a Hall of Famer, was a part of three winning Super Bowl teams and holds over 100 NFL records. Today he’s the CEO and founder of GOAT Fuel (Greatest Of All Time).

“You're not always going to win. But it's like, what do you do when you don't? And that's when I think you realize that you have to be tougher, you gotta be stronger. You have to be able to fight through adversity.”

In this episode, Jerry shares his journey from football dream to reality, the power of working together as a team, winning the Super Bowl three times, why losing makes you stronger, how to prepare mentally and physically for greatness and longevity, and why the GOAT mindset is for everyone.

“I'll do what others won't, so tomorrow I can accomplish what others can’t. That's what I'm all about. That's what I did in football. I always tell people to love what you do, and always give 100%.”

On today’s podcast:

  • From football dream to reality
  • Winning and losing the Super Bowl
  • Why fear of failure is his biggest motivator
  • The importance of leading by example
  • Fueling the GOAT mindset

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If you’re an Indian entrepreneur or you're thinking about founding a startup in India, don’t miss Venktesh Shukla this week on Halo Drop. Venk is a general partner in Monta Vista Capital, a VC company focused on seed stage B2B companies, bringing a hands-on operational approach to the first years of a company's life.

As President of TiE, a nonprofit that exists to promote wealth creation through entrepreneurship, Venk presides over one of the most powerful networks focused on technology startups in Silicon Valley. Venk is also the founding chair and active member of the TiE angels, one of the most active angel investor groups in the Valley.

“In those 3 years that the group invested in 25 companies, I wrote only 5 checks, but those 5 companies turned out to be the best of those 25, and nobody else in that 100% investor group got those 5 right.”

Venk is also involved in Startup India, an initiative designed to make it easier to startup, fund and grow a company in India.

“I used to write extensively, criticising [startup] policies in newspapers in India. The government thought that the best way for them to prevent me from writing all these things is to bring me inside.”

In this latest episode, Venk shares his incredible journey: from his boyhood dream of being an engineer, to coming to the US for his MBA. How he became Teradyne’s most successful sales person having never sold before. Why he became a VC. How he became involved in Startup India. Why having a wide network of people is invaluable. And how meditation gets his head back in the game.

“I sit down and try to figure out where I want to be two years from today. That frames how I should be spending my time today. What do I want to see happen in two years from today, and then work backwards from there.”

On today’s podcast:

  • Finding product market fit
  • Becoming a TiE angel
  • The advantage of being a distributed company
  • Startup India
  • His advice for new entrepreneurs

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What has been keeping us up at night? Well, lately, it’s been fitness. Fitness and working out makes us happy, it gives us a chance to disconnect from our otherwise chaotic days. But during the last year, what with being stuck at home and gyms closed, we’ve had to find new ways to get our sweat on.

“So we started off early last year, doing a lot of these zoom workouts and trying to be all diligent about doing every floor exercise humanly possible. There's a couple of things that I look for working out-wise, and I'm trying to figure out how to recreate that from a digital aspect.”

The main issue of working out at home, is a lack of accountability. There are plenty of great home workout options from Peloton to Tempo, for example.

“The challenge for me is, how do you create accountability when you're working out from home? And how do you recreate the energy of that room or atmosphere with people around you to push you to go harder, further, faster?”

Elsewhere, we discuss interior design and developments in the e-com world and finally, we share our love for Ewan McGregor’s motorcycle journeys, a fantastic way to enjoy a spot of escapism, while trapped at home.

On today’s podcast:

  • Digital fitness workouts
  • Accountability in working out at home
  • The Halo Drop award
  • Interior design companies
  • Developments in e-commerce
  • Long Way Down

Links:

Hosts Twitter
Vishal - https://twitter.com/vgurbuxani
Krishna - https://twitter.com/ksub15
Sunil - http://twitter.com/vermasun

Show Social
Twitter https://twitter.com/halodropfm

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For founders in India thinking about fundraising, incubators and accelerators, to venture capitalists looking for new deals and opportunities to invest in, this is an episode not to be missed.

We are so excited to have Shantanu Surpure on the show today. Shantanu is a partner at Inventus Law, and is a US, UK and India admitted corporate lawyer with broad experience on cross border legal matters.

He has experience in representing venture capital, private equity funds, emerging growth companies, family offices and entrepreneurs in corporate m&a, venture capital, and financings across the world.

Many of the sectors that he focuses on include technology, mobile, media, internet, financial technologies, and renewable energies. He’s also a co-founder of the Mumbai Angels, India’s leading angel investment group.

“One of the big things is thinking about the history of investments in India. Last year in 2020, there was anywhere between two and $5 billion in investment in venture capital investment into Indian startups.”

From how Shantanu came to practise law between India and Silicon Valley, to creating an ecosystem that can support these startups, to how founders should be thinking about equity distribution and where they should incorporate, India or the US. This episode is jam packed full of useful information and top tips for startup founders in India. Don’t miss it.

“The other thing that really propelled Silicon Valley is that you have exits of these large companies, whether it's Airbnb, etc, where you then spawn people who have had exits, and now have capital, who will then invest into other startups. And that is a very important trigger for the ecosystem to continue. And that's starting to happen in India.”

On today’s podcast:

  • Foreign venture capital investors in India
  • The startup ecosystem
  • Where to incorporate, the US or India
  • Common pitfalls for Indian startups
  • Crypto blockchain and FinTech
  • The Mumbai Angels
  • Who owns your data

Links:

Hosts Twitter
Vishal - https://twitter.com/vgurbuxani
Krishna - https://twitter.com/ksub15
Sunil - http://twitter.com/vermasun

Show Social
Twitter https://twitter.com/halodropfm

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Halo Drop - Naveen Tewari - InMobi The Next Decacorn
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02/11/21 • 57 min

On today’s episode we are super excited to chat to our mentor and inspiration, Naveen Tewari, the awe-inspiring Indian entrepreneur, founder and CEO of InMobi, a global provider of enterprise platforms for marketers.

“If you are somebody who is able to see the patterns, then you'll do well, by the way, but if you are able to actually break the pattern, then you’ll do exceptionally well.”

Naveen’s entrepreneurial journey is a notable one, having started his career as a business analyst with McKinsey and Company before studying for an MBA at Harvard Business School, where he was awarded the Dean's Award for exceptional leadership and contribution.

Along with Abhay Singhal, Amit Gupta and Mohit Saxena, (‘The Boys with PowerPoint’), they started their first business, mKhoj, an SMS search engine, which failed shortly after launch. Undeterred, they pivoted the business, before pivot was even a term, to a mobile advertising and technology platform - InMobi.

“If you're not optimistic about it, there is no way it's going to happen. Unfortunately, or fortunately, we're trying to do things which most people when they would look at it say, ‘You're crazy to try and do this, and it's not going to happen’.”

From the personality traits of an entrepreneur and what it takes to have the tenacity to be successful, to how he remains optimistic and happy, and why his family thought he was crazy to launch a startup. The frameworks they used to pivot from mKhoj to InMobi, why he invests in his people, hiring internally 90% of the time to create a high performing culture, and his tips for other entrepreneurs looking to follow in his footsteps.

“The way I think about this is very simple. You know, if I'm going to spend the majority of my life working, I want to do that with people that I want to hang around with.”

This incredibly in depth episode is jam-packed full of insight from the Indian version of the PayPal mafia. Miss it at your peril.

On today’s podcast:

  • How to stay optimistic
  • Raising finance for InMobi
  • Creating an environment of innovation
  • The future of InMobi
  • Why he’s not in the space race

Links:

Hosts Twitter
Vishal - https://twitter.com/vgurbuxani
Krishna - https://twitter.com/ksub15
Sunil - http://twitter.com/vermasun

Show Social
Twitter https://twitter.com/halodropfm

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With almost all of us working remotely, from home, a situation that isn’t likely to change in the near future, we’re rooting for a vaccine, to enable us to get back to normal.

But a vaccine program is going to take 2-3 years to be rolled out fully, with first world countries getting the vaccine first, then third world countries. And it’s not just a single vaccine, you need one shot, then a booster.

So with that in mind, today we’re talking about wellness and rethinking experiences. More and more of us are turning to nature for an escape from the confines of home, but with travel curtailed, how can we connect with the wilderness, without really leaving home?

“How do you reconnect to nature? That's something that as a macro trend has been fascinating... You're basically trying to simplify your current experiences and almost changing your mindset versus having to actually travel somewhere.”

And it's not just nature experiences we’re after, we want wellness experiences too. From disconnecting from your phone to camping in your backyard, creation and destruction experiences to watching cooking shows.

“There is a visceral appeal to seeing something go from raw material into a finished product.”

Elsewhere, the companies we’ve been looking at this week include male grooming products and plant based companies. And our top tip? Make fermented beet juice.

Don’t miss all of this and more, on this week’s episode of Halo Drop.

On today’s podcast:

  • Rethinking experiences in light of COVID
  • The appeal of creation and destruction
  • Male grooming products
  • The rise of plant based companies
  • Fermented beet juice
  • Sleep optimization without an Oura Ring

Links:

Hosts Twitter
Vishal - https://twitter.com/vgurbuxani
Krishna - https://twitter.com/ksub15
Sunil - http://twitter.com/vermasun

Show Social
Twitter https://twitter.com/halodropfm

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The longer we’re all working from home, the more we figure out how to be self-sufficient, and one thing that’s becoming increasingly popular is 3D printing, in particular, printing things at home.

In fact, you can even 3D print your new home if you want.

“There's a bunch of interesting new startups that are 3D printing houses, where they'll prefab all of it, pre-print it and then essentially move an entire house to wherever the location you want to build it is.”

DTC brands are really shaking up the marketplace right now. By going direct to consumers, they’re cutting out the middleman and one thing that makes them super successful, is they are creating a community around the brand too, building awareness and encouraging advocacy.

“Live Tinted is a beauty brand started in the US and it’s basically beauty products that are catered towards tinted skin. One of the amazing things they've done is built this really powerful community across social media that is driving all their success.”

Finally, if you're looking for a hydration multiplier, try Liquid IV. You can also find a hydration multiplier with immune support, there’s another with energy, and another to help you sleep.

Don’t miss this latest episode of Halo Drop, it’s eclectic, educational and cheeky in all the right places.

On today’s podcast:

  • 3D printing
  • Jinx dog food
  • Gender neutral perfume
  • The rise of DTC brands
  • Hydration multipliers

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Halo Drop - The Rise of Athleisure Wear
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05/13/21 • 12 min

Getting back to in-person meetings after a year of working from home means having to find clothes that aren’t athleisure wear and ‘proper shoes’. We’ve become so accustomed to wearing sweats day in and day out, it’s tough setting them aside.

“In India we've seen the rise of athleisure outfits by over 1500% over the last year. And as you guys pointed out, Amazon searches for men's loungewear have increased by over 1100% as well.”

From athleisure brands, to Peloton sleep meditations, to ASMR meditation, to our increasing energy consumption, today’s episode of Halo Drop discusses pertinent topics of interest from the last week.

On today’s podcast:

  • The rise of athleisure
  • Forge clear ice system

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We are thrilled to chat with serial entrepreneur Peter Pham, one of L.A.’s most prominent early-stage investors and the co-founder of Science Inc. For those not in the know, Science Inc. is a Santa Monica startup studio and early-stage venture fund that manages over $100 million and recently launched a $310.5 million SPAC (they’re also behind Dollar Shave Club).

“You know what you’re going to get with me, you're going to get a neurotic person who's passionate beyond belief. You want me on your team.”

As an operator, Peter grew Photobucket to become the largest photo sharing site in 2007, exiting to Myspace for $300 million. He repeated that success as a co-founder and CEO of BillShrink, which was acquired by MasterCard. But how did he start out, what shaped him as a kid to become the preeminent VC he is today?

“I think what shaped me in terms of growing up, not having anything and the classic American dream. No one’s gonna give it to me, I’m gonna go earn it, work my ass off. I had three jobs to pay for college, as a waiter.”

He spent 9 years jumping between 13 different enterprise software companies, but his advice for wannabe entrepreneurs today is this: “Go work at a startup, pick it up, try different things and just be the motivated person who's willing to learn and do whatever it takes, and don't get sucked into titles.”

From finding your superpower, to founding Photobucket, BillShrink and Color, to choosing a co-founder, the qualities he looks for when he meets a founder, to the ideal company he’s looking for.

“Across all three categories for us, it's mobile, marketplaces, and consumer brands, those are the types of companies we're looking for.”

If you’re an entrepreneur, you don’t want to miss this. Download and listen now.

On today’s podcast:

His journey to entrepreneur

  • Find your superpower
  • Founding Science Inc.
  • What makes a desirable founder
  • Miami vs LA vs Austin vs Bay Area

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FAQ

How many episodes does Halo Drop have?

Halo Drop currently has 18 episodes available.

What topics does Halo Drop cover?

The podcast is about India, Entrepreneur, Entrepreneurship, Investing, Podcasts, Business and Careers.

What is the most popular episode on Halo Drop?

The episode title 'Sustainable Fashion, the Popularity of Podcasting & Mental Health Support' is the most popular.

What is the average episode length on Halo Drop?

The average episode length on Halo Drop is 27 minutes.

How often are episodes of Halo Drop released?

Episodes of Halo Drop are typically released every 14 days.

When was the first episode of Halo Drop?

The first episode of Halo Drop was released on Dec 17, 2020.

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