The Undefeated Underdogs By cover art

The Undefeated Underdogs

By: Sharath Kuruganty
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  • Summary

  • The Undefeated Underdogs is a podcast unpacking the underdog stories you never heard of! It highlights the underdog mentality and brings authentic conversations with people who play the long game, take action with a chip on their shoulders, and convert obstacles into opportunities! Buckle up, as I will be bringing some authentic founders, VCs, community builders, and content creators who got underestimated their whole life, and yet they beat the odds and became insanely successful!
    © 2024 Sharath Kuruganty
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Episodes
  • Pritika Mehta - How you can build a dream website using a simple prompt with Butternut AI in 20secs!

    Pritika Mehta - How you can build a dream website using a simple prompt with Butternut AI in 20secs!
    May 9 2024
    👉🏼 About the Guest:Pritika Mehta is the founder of Butternut AI, an AI-based website builder. After having earned her first dollar on the internet when she was 14, Butternut is her third startup, having built Mindbatteries (acquired), and SockSoho (YC S20), which went from 0 to millions in ARR in 18 months. She is also a TEDx speaker, having spoken at Wilmington Women about focus, failure, and the future of work. In addition, she is an advisor to Innovation Mission Punjab ($30M Startup Seed fund), has built Kiddycoders to bring young kids into STEM, and is running a merit scholarship program for underprivileged girls in India. Her other projects include a 10,000+ member community of pet parents over WhatsApp. 👉🏼 About the Host:Sharath is a founder, creator, and community builder. He is also a serial maker who built and shipped 15+ projects using no-code tools. His SaaS product Shoutout generated $30k ARR, which was sold to a UK-based product studio. Prev, Sharath worked for world-changing startups like Product Hunt and On Deck, where he helped build and nurture communities. He also grew his audience on Twitter from 200 to 22,000 using give-first principles and creating high-value content. Currently, he is building a SaaS product called GuestLab, and runs another podcast series called YC Founder Stories alongside hosting this one.👉🏼 Sponsor Corner:Shoutout to Acquire.com for being the first sponsor of The Undefeated Underdogs podcast! They’re the best online marketplace to buy/sell startups and I know many founders who have sold their businesses there. If you're looking to wind down your business and cash in some of your founder chips, check them out - https://try.acquire.com/sharath/👉🏼 Description:Listen in as Sharath and Pritika discuss the AI wave, going from D2C to software, being an immigrant founder, and more! 👉🏼 Timestamps:00:00: Episode Highlight00:16: Shoutout to Acquire.com02:42: Introduction to Pritika Mehta - founder at Butternut AI, TEDX speaker, scholarship creator, and more!07:22: The common traits of founders08:45: Going from software to D2C to software13:45: Destroying self-doubt in a new industry15:45: How to validate your product idea17:45: Getting into Y Combinator with a sock company19:15: The impact of Y Combinator21:10: The story of Butternut AI25:07: Pritika's favorite website built on Butternut AI25:40: Behind the scenes at Butternut AI28:00: The future of Butternut AI30:26: The ultimate vision for Butternut AI32:31: Which domains will remain untouched by AI?33:30: Pritika's backups if she wasn't working on Butternut AI38:02: Where is the Indian startup ecosystem heading?41:34: What Pritika looks for in founders she's investing in43:37: Lessons learned from SockSoho45:55: Outro and closing thoughts👉🏼 Resources:Magic: https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/magic-2PartnerHQ: https://www.partnerhq.com/Link to Acquire.com: https://try.acquire.com/sharath/👉🏼 Where to find Pritika:Website: https://pritikamehta.com/Twitter: https://twitter.com/pritika_mehtaLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pritikam/Butternut AI: https://butternut.ai/SockSoho: https://socksoho.com/Kiddycoders: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/10/india-coding-children-opportunity/TED talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APPRZcGkFIUBBC: https://wspartners.bbc.com/clip/p07sr603TechCrunch: https://techcrunch.com/2020/08/31/fashion-brand-socksoho-is-using-data-science-in-a-bid-to-become-the-uniqlo-of-india/The Hindu: https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/are-children-being-introduced-to-coding-too-early-in-life/article62106966.eceWEF Economic Summit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91KzyE6V5So👉🏼 Where to find Sharath:Twitter: https://twitter.com/5harathYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@5harathWebsite: https://5harath.com/Newsletter: https://5harath.substack.com/
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    47 mins
  • Hiten Shah - How startups are building a future using AI that is fully inspired by our past!

    Hiten Shah - How startups are building a future using AI that is fully inspired by our past!
    May 1 2024

    👉🏼 About the Guest:

    Hiten Shah (268K followers on Twitter!) has been building and writing about SaaS businesses for 20+ years. He is currently the CEO and Co-founder at Nira and is the ex-founder at CrazyEgg and KISSmetrics.


    👉🏼 About the Host:

    Sharath is a founder, creator, and community builder. He is also a serial maker who built and shipped 15+ projects using no-code tools. His SaaS product Shoutout generated $30k ARR, which was sold to a UK-based product studio. Prev, Sharath worked for world-changing startups like Product Hunt and On Deck, where he helped build and nurture communities. He also grew his audience on Twitter from 200 to 22,000 using give-first principles and creating high-value content. Currently, he is building a SaaS product called GuestLab, and runs another podcast series called YC Founder Stories alongside hosting this one.

    👉🏼 Sponsor Corner:

    Shoutout to Acquire.com for being the first sponsor of The Undefeated Underdogs podcast! They’re the best online marketplace to buy/sell startups and I know many founders who have sold their businesses there. If you're looking to wind down your business and cash in some of your founder chips, check them out - https://try.acquire.com/sharath/

    👉🏼 Description:

    Listen in as Sharath and Hiten discuss the AI wave, figuring out your niche, launching a podcast, and more!

    👉🏼 Timestamps:

    • 00:00: Episode Highlight
    • 00:43: Shoutout to Acquire.com
    • 03:08: Introduction to Hiten Shah - multi-founder for 20 years!
    • 04:32: Creating your own podcast and what to keep in mind
    • 09:56: Advice to people starting their own podcasts
    • 14:17: "Record the show and they will come" - how this can work and how it can go terribly wrong
    • 22:00: How to figure out your audience
    • 22:46: How to create a startup in a crowded market
    • 31:54: Where to create your AI startup in 2024
    • 34:24: Reality vs deepfakes: when will we be unable to distinguish between the two?
    • 48:17: How Hiten's father influenced his life philosophy
    • 53:17: How to decide your identity
    • 56:10: Outro and closing thoughts

    👉🏼 Resources:

    • Airchat: https://www.air.chat/
    • Devin: https://www.cognition-labs.com/introducing-devin
    • Link to Acquire.com: https://try.acquire.com/sharath/

    👉🏼 Where to find Hiten:

    • Website: https://hitenism.com/
    • Twitter: https://twitter.com/hnshah?
    • Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hnshah
    • Nira: https://nira.com/

    👉🏼 Where to find Sharath:

    • Twitter: https://twitter.com/5harath
    • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@5harath
    • Website: https://5harath.com/
    • Newsletter: https://5harath.substack.com/
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    57 mins
  • Marie Martens - The story of how two founders bootstrapped a $1M+ ARR startup!

    Marie Martens - The story of how two founders bootstrapped a $1M+ ARR startup!
    Apr 26 2024

    👉🏼 About the Guest:

    Marie Martens is the co-founder of Tally, the simplest way to create forms. With a background in marketing, she co-founded a travel marketplace, Hotspot, and pivoted to Tally during the pandemic. Between 2020 and 2024, Tally's lean team has bootstrapped Tally to a $1M in ARR!


    👉🏼 About the Host:

    Sharath is a founder, creator, and community builder. He is also a serial maker who built and shipped 15+ projects using no-code tools. His SaaS product Shoutout generated $30k ARR, which was sold to a UK-based product studio. Prev, Sharath worked for world-changing startups like Product Hunt and On Deck, where he helped build and nurture communities. He also grew his audience on Twitter from 200 to 22,000 using give-first principles and creating high-value content. Currently, he is building a SaaS product called GuestLab, and runs another podcast series called YC Founder Stories alongside hosting this one.

    👉🏼 Sponsor Corner:

    Shoutout to Acquire.com for being the first sponsor of The Undefeated Underdogs podcast! They’re the best online marketplace to buy/sell startups and I know many founders who have sold their businesses there. If you're looking to wind down your business and cash in some of your founder chips, check them out - https://try.acquire.com/sharath/

    👉🏼 Description:

    Listen in as Sharath and Marie discuss juggling parenthood and startup life, hockey stick growth, and more!

    👉🏼 Timestamps:

    • 00:00: Episode Highlight
    • 1:10: Shoutout to Acquire.com
    • 03:34: Introduction to Marie Martens - the co-founder of Tally.so!
    • 05:50: How does being a mom keep Marie motivated?
    • 09:22: Why Tally refuses to hire or raise funds
    • 20:35: Tally's original mission in 2020
    • 24:03: Secrets of hockey stick growth
    • 30:32: Ways to get over burnout
    • 38:04: Why Marie founded Tally in an over-crowded market
    • 44:10: How Notion influenced Tally
    • 47:30: How no-code tools and AI could have changed Tally's growth
    • 52:24: Marie's Plan B in case Tally didn't work out
    • 55:10: How building Tally differs from Marie's previous startup
    • 56:36: Tally's tactics that led to hockey stick growth
    • 59:08: What's next for Tally?
    • 1:03:25: Outro and closing thoughts

    👉🏼 Resources:

    • Link to Acquire.com: https://try.acquire.com/sharath/

    👉🏼 Where to find Marie:

    • Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarieMartens
    • Linkedin: https://be.linkedin.com/in/mariemartens
    • Tally: https://blog.tally.so/author/marie/

    👉🏼 Where to find Sharath:

    • Twitter: https://twitter.com/5harath
    • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@5harath
    • Website: https://5harath.com/
    • Newsletter: https://5harath.substack.com/
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    1 hr and 4 mins
Leadership Economics
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