The Aarthi and Sriram Show

We chatted with Mark Pincus - in his own words, he is the "most unmanageable founder in tech". He was the CEO of the mobile gaming platform, Zynga, and is an outspoken critic of the current state of media and journalism. In this episode, we covered it all - from his take on the US elections, the state of media, the story of Zynga, then the comeback story, him meeting Zuckerberg and investing in Facebook and about the product culture of Zynga. This was great fun for us and I hope you enjoy it too!

Aarthi and Sriram talk to Ishan Mukherjee - a multi-time Silicon Valley based startup founder, launching his new AI startup Rox. Coming from a small town in India with working class beginnings, Ishan tells us his story of immigrating to the US, starting and exiting multiple companies, working at companies like Amazon and Apple and essentially, living the immigrant American Dream.

The year is 2024 and it has been a few days since the remarkable US elections. Trump is now President elect. Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy (both former guests of our podcast!) are leading DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency). What does it all mean for tech, for startups and for skilled immigration? What is the future of journalism and media? Is this election a one of one, or is this the first of many podcast elections? We cover it all here in our solo episode. Chapters 00:01:00:17 – 00:03:21:15: One week after the US elections ⁠00:03:19:26 – 00:14:12:00: DOGE and Elon Musk 00:14:15:21 – 00:22:22:17: Elon, Trump and the new government  00:22:34:07 – 00:27:48:05: The podcast election  00:27:55:07 – 00:33:25:13: Views on journalism - the decline of wired magazine  ⁠00:33:38:03 – 00:47:39:19: Sriram’s view on skilled immigration and country caps  00:47:46:26 – 00:58:35:22: Views on the Trump government  ⁠00:58:50:10 – 01:00:44:26: RFK Jr, FDA and the American food system ⁠01:00:48:27 – The end

The one where our show becomes the Aarthi, Sriram and Anil show? Sriram and Aarthi are joined by Anil Varanasi, the CEO and co-founder of Meter, the company building networking hardware. In this wide-ranging conversation, Anil shares his fascinating journey from his and his brother’s unconventional upbringing, his ability to find and fund talent early, to building Meter, including stories of sleeping in Chinese factories and why Meter is building AI models. And then, the tables turn and Anil asks the hosts some great questions. Enjoy!

Sriram and Aarthi are joined by Gokul Rajaram who is a Silicon Valley icon. Gokul has done it all - founder, angel investor, executive at the best of the best technology companies such as Facebook and Google, and best of all, a good friend and guide to Aarthi and Sriram during their career inflection points. We covered everything from Paul Graham’s famous essay on Founder Mode, Gokul’s experience working with Mark Zuckerberg and Larry and Sergey, his hot takes on AI startups, and the current fundraising climate.