The Early Twenties Podcast

Yo yo yo! On this episode of the Early Twenties Podcast, we sit down with Karthik(Co-Founder & CEO at Flexiple) to discuss his journey thus far. We discuss about the importance of bootstrapping a startup, his experiences as he navigated life after college(BITS Pilani & IIM-A) and for a first time on this podcast, we talked about dogs. One thing that struck out to us was the first principle thinking methodology that Karthik follows, tune in and enjoy!

Shownotes:

Welcome to one of the biggest episodes on this podcast, on this one we sit down with Deedy(yes, from the Deedy resume fame!) to talk about his life's journey, career decisions, relationships, fitness and a lot more! Deedy has a lot of stories to share, and we have a funny feeling about him making it big in the podcasting world :)

This episode is especially interesting for folks doing/have done Computer Science as their major as he talks about his transition from working at Google & Facebook to now working at a startup in the valley. One thing we've learnt from talking to people on the show is that a huge amount of skills are transferrable across different sectors of life - and this was one thing that was very clear as I reflected on this conversation. Lots to unpack here, tune in and enjoy!

Shownotes:

On this episode of the Early Twenties podcast, the four of us sit down to do a review on 2020(as they say, Hindsight is 20/20), and discuss goals for the new year. We discuss finance, relationships, work and martial arts - along with the usual bakchodi that comes with our episodes. 

Tune in and let us know whether you like these free-flowing conversations better than the scripted ones? Well, we never did scripted ones anyway :)

"Wankhede Stadium me shareholder meeting karni hai" - Anirudh Singla

On this episode of the Early Twenties Podcast, we have a candid conversation with Anirudh about starting up out of college and navigating the highs & lows of entrepreneurship all at the age of 21. One thing that struck out for us for the maturity that he displays, and how he talks about growing exponentially on a day-to-day basis.

Lots packed into this episode, especially if you're in the creative field and curious to know how Pepper could help out!

Shownotes: 

 - Anirudh on Twitter: https://twitter.com/SinglaAnirudh

 - Anirudh on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anirudh-singla-3a1844137/

 - Pepper: https://www.peppercontent.in/

If we don’t take responsibility of weeding out unwanted societal elements, it will eventually come back and bite us! — Abhishek

On this episode of the Early Twenties Podcast we learn about Abhishek’s journey of navigating from the helm of capitalism to an agent of change. 

He sold a startup right after college and now runs Navgurukul, a foundation that enables youngsters from under privileged communities to get high paying jobs in the industry.

We dig deep into his quest for happiness and meaning, evolving through experience instead of intellect and how everyone can contribute towards a better society. Fun fact- Abhishek went from being a temperature sensitive person to living without a fan in Delhi summer and bathing in the river in hilly winter.

He is an intense personality and so is this episode. Rest assured, it’s going to be a lot of learning and unlearning. Jump right in!

Shownotes:

Abhishek Gupta- https://www.linkedin.com/in/abhishekgupta92/?originalSubdomain=in

Navgurukul- https://navgurukul.org/

Work with Abhishek- https://www.notion.so/Job-Board-cc0fc74362214e4a8d31a061ad9559ba

On this episode, we are celebrating Gyani's 1000 kilometer running goal this year. On the one-year anniversary episode of the Early Twenties, we had committed to mileage goals for 2020, Gyani went ahead and killed it in eight months! 

We go behind the scenes, and talk about Gyani's running consistency and how controlling the diet helped him lose 16 kilos in this time period. Running is one of those things that are discussed often on this podcast, and we never get bored of it. Continuing on the thread of making commitments on this public platform, we commit to training goals for our full marathon attempt in Jan/Feb 2021.

Drawing parallels between running and life isn't much of a stretch, and that's why they say, Keep hammering.

Be the jack of all trades. It's being looked down upon, but that's not actually true. It's good to be the jack of all trades when you're 19 -- Aayush

On this episode of the Early Twenties Podcast, we talk to Aayush Jain and talk about his journey from Kota to Pilani to London & Indore, and also about the story behind his transition from a finance job to leading Greendeck as CEO. 

We go into the details of Aayush's early startup attempts in college and after, and how he has grown as a founder over the years. We, at Early Twenties, are never the ones to hide our vulnerabilities - we talk about the low points of running a startup when things don't work out. 

This, and a lot more about what Aayush is currently building at Greendeck. Tune in for another banger!

Shownotes:

Raw. Unfiltered. Fascinating. 

On this episode of the Early Twenties podcast, we discuss about our experiences & experiments with nofap, male sexuality and pornography. This has been an episode long time in the making, one which we always wanted to discuss in detail without any censorship. It is weird that we don't discuss sexuality openly in the mainstream or even with our peers, although it is a topic that affects every individual's life.

We discuss the objectives of our NoFap streaks, how & what we felt, and where we see this going forward in our lives. It might be a discussion that could change how you live your everyday life. We are joined by Preet Singh Khalsa, a junior from Pilani who's going to be a core member of the Early Twenties team from now onwards. 

It takes us a while to get into the meat of the topic, so sit back, relax and tune in.

Shownotes:

Life imitates art more than art imitates life.

On this episode of the Early Twenties Podcast, we sit down with the founders of a brand new podcast series - "Cut to Scene", where Aditya & Devansh critique films with their unique perspectives. Their recent episodes had us hooked, and we decided to dive deeper into the mindset of someone who watches cinema with a critical eye.

Lots to unpack in this episode, let us know how you find it! 

Shownotes:

On this episode of the Early Twenties Podcast we geek out over sports & fitness with Mishti Khatri, an ACSM certified trainer, pacer at Nike Run Club, currently pursuing her MSc in Sports Nutrition at the University of Huddersfield, UK. We talk about Mishti's motivations to work in the fitness industry, her transformation story, how she curates her Instagram content and much much more! 

Oh, and also, some good masala on the vegan debate ;)

Shownotes:

 - Mishti's Instagram page

 -What I talk about when I talk about running by Murakami

 - Born to Run by Christopher McDougall

 - The Gamechangers documentary

 - Joe Rogan's thoughts on the carnivore diet.

We're back with yet another free flowing podcast where the three of us catch up on life and discuss about current affairs. We talk about mental models required to think about meta questions, and we also break down Sodhi's time-table in the pursuit of progress. Let us know feedback from the episode! 

Oh, and also, don't forget to get some. 

Show notes:

"All wounds are self-inflicted." -- Abhishek Nayak

On this episode of the Early Twenties Podcast, we have with us serial entrepreneur & fellow Bitsian, founder of Gharpay, ClinkNow, Mobshow, BicycleAI, the one & only, Abhishek Nayak!

This episode is packed with inspiring stories -- from arriving in Pilani one week early to get good internet, getting ACBs in four semesters, to founding multiple startups & recently being a part of YCombinator. A consistent theme through our conversation was growing as a person, while being thrown out of the comfort zone constantly. We talk about life, entrepreneurship, being happy, relationship advice, and a lot lot more -- take out your earphones & tune in. This will be a nice two-hour ride :)

Our podcast has been on a pause for a while, treat this as Season 2; Episode 1.

Shownotes

 - Abhishek's Linkedin

 - Abhishek's Twitter

We have with us Dhairik Fuletra, the founder and CEO of Befikar. 

Learn how a BITS Pilani Alum, former consultant at BCG is going head to head with the biggest food brands in India in this episode.

Befikar is a food company based out of Rajkot in India. They are working on the perfect trio -- food that is tasty, healthy and affordable! If you are based out of Pune or Mumbai they'll be in a store near you early next month. Everyone else don't worry, you'll have them in shops near by soon too!For those who shop digitally they'll have a store online -- healthy food at your finger tips!

Stay tuned till the end for surprises. 

Visit their website at https://www.eatbefikar.com/. 

Follow them on Instagram @befikarlife

When you’re gone would you rather have your gravestone say, ‘He never missed a meeting.’ Or one that said, ‘He was a great father.’ - Steve Blank

On this episode of the Early Twenties podcast, the three of us sit down to have a conversation around work-life balance -- we discuss our personal definitions of balance, what we think about on Friday evenings, and also get in an interesting discussion around money and work.

Being weirdo engineers that we are, we discuss about some time-tracking tricks to quantify 'balance' in our lives. We also take on audience responses from our Instagram poll on their definitions of work-life balance. That, and some random Arabic rap from the one and only Arabian superstar, Gyani! 

Hope you derive some value out of this episode, let us know how you liked/hated it! We're always looking forward to your feedback :)

I would go back and slap my 19 year old self and say that, Bro, Books are important!

On this episode of the podcast, we are joined by Filmmaker, Beatboxer, Drummer, Nilay Singh!
With multiple viral hits under his belt, Nilay, who is currently working as a Director at Schbang Motion Pictures, talks about his journey into music and film-making. He touches on his experiences of being from a middle class family and tackling social, peer and family pressures.

Specifically, Nilay also spoke to us about choosing to drop to take another stab at the entrance exams jazz and how that went for him. We spend a lot of time discussing his progress through his Bachelors of Mass Media journey and how he was gigging for five bands during university.

Towards the end we talk about his own venture @stopmotionwaale, how that came into being, what's his plan for the near future and more!
With a lot of stories with drama and comedy packaged into this episode, this will be so worth your time!

Oh and don't forget to check out Nilay mind blowing Instagram and other socials below!

Instagram    https://www.instagram.com/atom_singh/
Facebook   https://www.facebook.com/Nilay.Singh21

Team Patil: Short Film  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MzJSNPXd9I
Seth Godin: Purple Cow  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/641604.Purple_Cow
Gliding friends video  https://www.instagram.com/p/BTb-g0kjb2x/  This gave the intial idea about @stopmotionwaale

I went to the hospital for six days straight, and i thought there was something physically wrong with me. I couldn't breathe -- Nirant Kasliwal

On this episode of the Early Twenties podcast, where we are joined by our very own Bitsian senior, Nirant Kasliwal! For all of us Bitsians, this name shouldn't be new to the ears -- you might like him, you may not like him, but you can't ignore him!

A semi-celebrity on Quora, and quite a sensation in the Bitsian elections, Nirant has worked in three Machine Learning/AI jobs over the last couple of years -- and has quite a lot to share for folks looking to get into Artificial Intelligence. Over the last year, Nirant even wrote a book on Natural Language Processing, which is just crazy, to say the least! Being a very active reader, we talk about the books and authors he's been reading, and also geek out over Naval Ravikant!

Nirant also shares with us about the mentally tough times he faced during his college years and how his internship at Belong helped him counter that. We talk about his process of finding mentors, and taking decisions with contradictory pieces of advice and biases. That, and a lot of Pilani masala packed into this wide-ranging conversation with Nirant Kasliwal. Tune in!!!

You can find him almost everywhere on the socials, go say hi :)

- Twitter

- Quora

- Facebook

Shownotes

- For the first time on the show, a book written by our guest themselves -- Natural Language Processing with Python Quick Start Guide

- Keep your identity small:  http://www.paulgraham.com/identity.html 

- Don't call yourself a programmer:  https://www.kalzumeus.com/2011/10/28/dont-call-yourself-a-programmer/ 

- A Powerful Mind: The Self-Education of George Washington:  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24453966-a-powerful-mind 

- The courage to be disliked:  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36622739-the-courage-to-be-disliked

- The Prophet:  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2547.The_Prophet

"I was this skinny kid, with thick eyebrows and nerdy glasses. I used to look at the floor while walking -- Nikita Tanwani"

Nikita, recently crowned Femina Miss India Andhra Pradesh, and previously TGPC Miss India came by on the Early Twenties Podcast! She pursued engineering and graduated in 2017 from BITS Pilani, & has been working as an engineer at Oracle since. She's now a finalist in Miss India and will be representing Andhra Pradesh in this years pageant :)

Nikita shares with us her struggles during her late teens & early twenties, against her parents, against the society. She shares with us her about her setbacks, the backlash against FashP in Pilani, and how she countered her insecurities with mental conditioning. Oh, and also, she completely fangirls over Priyanka Chopra! Tune in to hear much much more!!!

We wish her luck! And and and, when you get the chance, do vote for her!

You can find her almost everywhere on the socials, go say hi :)
- Instagram
- Facebook
- India Times Article featuring Nikita!

Books that were mentioned in the Podcast
- Shoe Dog by Phil Knight
- Open by Andre Agassi
- Becoming By Michelle Obama

You have got to move forward with what you have! -- Shamoly Khera 

Dr. Shamoly Khera(@shamoly.khera) is a multi-faceted speaker, a TV presenter, producer, and speaking coach -- and very interestingly, a MBBS and Cosmetologist by training! 

Founder of her Content Production company 'One Take Media', & previously a TV Presenter on UTV & Zee TV, Shamoly takes us through the insecurities and struggles in her Early Twenties -- This episode will make you pause and appreciate the moment. We talk about her early days in the entertainment industry, the pressure from her parents to stick to the 9-5, and much much more!

She ends with "Be okay with rejections...", tune in to know why!

You can find her almost everywhere on the socials, go say hi :)

 Yo Yo Yo!

On this episode of the Early Twenties podcast, we sit down with our favourite senior from Pilani, Siddharth Seth! 

This episode is the second part in a 2-part series, one where we time-travel through his journey -- from a 19 year old Seth in Kota, through his university days, running his own startup for two years in Bombay, and now as Director of Products at Koinex!  In this episode we focus on how he decided to shut down Meshup, the startup he founded after leaving his job at Morgan Stanley, his learnings from it,  his journey through Entrepreneur First, his decision to go back to India to join Koinex and finally the advice to his 19 year old self!!

This one really dives into his thinking process and that's what makes it super interesting!
Let us know if you've feedback and don't forget to share the episode in your network!

Oh, and if you missed the first part, please check the 12th episode of the podcast!

Show Notes:
* https://koinex.in/ Siddharth is working as Director of Product here and they are aggressively hiring across the board!

* Black Swan by  Nassim Nicholas Taleb 

Welcome Welcome Welcome! 

On this episode of the Early Twenties podcast, we sit down with our favourite senior from Pilani, Siddharth Seth! 

This episode is Part 1 of a 2-part series, one where we time-travel through his journey -- from a 19 year old Seth in Kota, through his university days, running his own startup for two years in Bombay, and now as Director of Products at Koinex! A very free-flowing conversation with the Supernetworker that Seth is, we talk about making the tough decisions in his career, the hard times at his startup, and countering the insecurities in his early twenties. 

Tune in, this episode is a gem! Hope you derive some value out of it, and let us know of any feedback! 

Oh, and stay tuned for Part 2. Lots in store :)


Show Notes:
* https://koinex.in/ Siddharth is working as Director of Product here and they are aggressively hiring across the board!

* Must see Budapest ruin bars

* Chegg.com Tutoring website Siddharth used to make some money when he decided to quit his stable Morgan Stanley job.

Baahubali!!!

What's up guys, on this episode of the Early Twenties podcast, we invite Ramsri Goutham on the microphone! Ramsri is one of the most optimistic entreprenuers I've met here in Singapore, and that goes back to his previous life in India and the States. Ramsri had a really good lifestyle in Silicon Valley where he drove a Porsche Panamera to work, but gave up all of that and came back to India to start up. 

We try and dissect Ramsri's life decisions, what strategies he took, and how he has found the entrepreneurship ecosystem across Silicon Valley, India & Singpaore. We talk about self-awareness, the anger against India, and most importantly, Bahubali! A very interesting episode on the Early Twenties, i hope this brings some value and perspective as you go about making life decisions in runtime :)

As always, let us know what you liked, what you didn't and what you'd like to see more on the podcast! Oh, and also, feel free to find Ramsri on his Facebook or LinkedIn :)

Welcome to the 10th Episode of The Early Twenties Podcast.

On this one, we attempt to discuss Friendships. We talk about the way we try to maintain them, how we create new ones and how much do we actively think about all this. On an absolutely unrelated note, we also discuss Sodhi'slove for telegram!

I feel it's a rather different topic for us and we would love to hear how you felt about this!
No show notes for this one, but I'd like to take this opportunity to look back on the 10 episodes we have created in little over two months now and would like to thank all our listeners who take the time to listen and often reach out to us with feedback or just supportive messages. We absolutely love receiving these and they personally make my day every single time!

If you liked what you heard, please share the podcast in your network, tag us and let us know!

Welcome to the 9th episode of the podcast!

In this episode we talk about jobs, the transition from university to our first jobs and what we learnt in that exercise.

The episode was made to be a shorter one and we'd love your feedback on how do you think that went!!

Show Notes:

As always, Request you to follow us at
Early Twenties Instagram
Early Twenties Twitter
Early Twenties Website 

for getting the latest updates and for sharing any feedback that you might have for us.
Finally, thanks for taking the time and have an amazing week ahead!

Kill'em <3  ⚔
#ApanTimeAaega

On this episode we talk about traveling. What we like and dislike, our love for travel, what we pack and our dream destinations. All of us share some travel stories!

Here are the show notes :-

Joe Rogans Podcast  Youtube
The Thousand Dollar Challenge Gyanis Blog
Early Twenties Instagram
Early Twenties Twitter
Early Twenties Website
Mr Fisherman Arugam Bay TripAdvisor
Shubhankar Vlogs Youtube

On this episode of the showwww, we get into Mental Strength & how to go about building it in our day-to-day lives. We talk about self-talk, social media depression, and listen to Djokovic's on-court interview!

Oh, and also, power poses & pushups before an interview ;)

Shownotes:

In the sixth episode of the early twenties podcast, we move towards a more conversational format and explore topics ranging from  Collateralized loan obligations to Underground communities for music and other things with Siddhant Bhardwaj.

Siddhant, graduated out of BITS Pilani in 2015 and has since been working at Credit Suisse. He is currently based out of New York and loves composing music in his free time.

Show Notes:
 

We had an amazing time recording this one and hope you guys love it as well. As always, Tell us what you liked, and what you didn't! What would you like to listen about? Anybody in the early twenties we can have on the podcast as a guest?

We're excited!! You can find us at Shubhu, Sodhi and Gyani.  

In our first guest episode, we have Aditya Vijaykumar, our batch mate from Pilani, currently pursuing a PhD in Physics, talk about Decision Making and how he goes about it.

We talk about the various decisions we all have made right from our undergraduate, to career choices and to more recent, company shifts.

As always,  

Tell us what you liked, and what you didn't!
What would you like to listen about?
Anybody in the early twenties we can have on the podcast as a guest? We're excited :)

You can find us at Vijaykumar,Gyani,Sodhiand Shubhu.

Show notes! 

 - https://alexvermeer.com/getmotivated/ 

  -https://www.ted.com/talks/tim_urban_inside_the_mind_of_a_master_procrastinator?language=en 

  - https://www.ted.com/talks/adam_grant_the_surprising_habits_of_original_thinkers?language=en 

 - https://www.lifehack.org/668261/best-habit-tracking-apps 

 - https://thefabulous.co/ 

 - http://www.stickk.com/ 

 - Tail end -- Tim urban: https://waitbutwhy.com/2015/12/the-tail-end.html 

 - Joe Rogan's podcast with Elon musk podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycPr5-27vSI 

 - Tim Feriss' podcast with Jocko Willink: https://tim.blog/2015/09/25/jocko-willink/

 - Seinfeld's Productivity Secret: https://lifehacker.com/281626/jerry-seinfelds-productivity-secret

On this episode of the Early Twenties hosted by Gyani, we discuss about the things we are grateful for in 2018 & our biggest hits/misses of the year. We then steer the discussion towards Artificial General Intelligence, Ageing and Universal Basic Income. Oh, and we talk about spaceships!

Tell us what you liked, and what you didn't! What would you like to listen about? Anybody in the early twenties we can have on the podcast as a guest? We're listening :)

Shownotes:

 - Artificial General Intelligence by Wait but Why

 - Forest App

 - Station 

 - The story on the Chinese Scientist [CRISPR]

 - Merkle Science

 - Bill Gates on UBI

 - Shubhankar's yearly blog report

On the inaugral episode of the Early Twenties, we start off with our introductions and sharing the goals for this podcast.

With 2019 just around the corner, we couldn't not talk about our New Year Resolutions! And then we geeked out a bit into books, podcasts and Computer Science concepts. 

Tell us what you liked, and what you didn't! What would you like to listen about? Anybody in the early twenties we can have on the podcast as a guest? We're excited :)

You can find us at Gyani, Sodhi & Shubhu

Shownotes

 - The Mongol Rally

-  Justin Kaan

- What to do after College by GaryVee

- The Tim Ferris Podcast

- E = MC^2 by David Bodanis

- The Four-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferris