Episode 7 - Entrepreneurship, start-ups, funding and VC lessons and books (feat Pranshu Maheshwari)

In Conversation with Ashwin

Pranshu grew up in Chennai, went to Wharton for college. He had originally dreamed of going into politics in India after college (idealistic dreams of changing the country and all that. He started his first company in his 2nd year; retail analytics using security cameras which got funded by Y combinator, raised $1mm. But then he shut the product down in 2016, returned money and began pivoting. He came back to India in September 2016 and started SimpleMoney. Simplemoney tracks your portfolio automatically by reading the statements in your inbox! In my conversation with Pranshu, we discuss his early childhood, his passion for building relevant institutions, his learnings at Wharton, his learnings from startups- funding, how to approach funding and when is a good time to raise money, the VC death trap. Specifically we also talk about his start up Simple money which tracks your portfolio automatically by reading the statements in your inbox. We discuss his favourite books, minimalism and even discuss our mutual love for renowned organizational psychologist, Wharton Professor and one of my favouritest authors- Adam Grant. Show notes- Simple Money- https://simplemoney.in/ Pranshu's blog post on Prayas shutting down and his learnings from the same: https://medium.com/@pranshum/10-lessons-on-3-years-with-prayas-31cdaf893b40 TV shows- Mad Men Books- Simulacra and Simulation by Jean Baudrillard Midnight's children by Salman Rushdie People- Adam Grant Salman Rushdie