Advertise on podcast: Business Over Chai

In today’s episode, we speak to award winning Parm Bhangal - Founder of Bhangal’s Construction Consultants which started in 2010 providing quantity surveying, estimating and project management services. Parm quickly recognised a second gap in the market which led him to opening his second business, My Build Estimate, providing online estimating services to private clients, builders merchants and professionals in the construction industry. Parm has won fourteen awards through various organisations including Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2019 in the SME National Business Awards and Small Business of the Year also in 2019 in the SME Northamptonshire Business awards. In our conversation we also go on to discuss the book he has written which is aimed at helping people with small business success and we also talk about a new venture that he is about to launch in the food industry.

In today’s episode we speak to Ganesh Iyer, founder and CEO of dotin Inc., a B2B AI talent analytics platform that helps in sourcing, screening and engaging talent in real-time, without asking any questions but using concepts such as Colour Theory and Natural Language Processing. The company has increased hiring efficiency by 60 percent and significantly increase productivity by 2.5x. It has also been internationally recognised in many awards and initiatives including being a SalesForce Demo Jam Finalist and being included as a Top 25 Disruptive HR solutions company by CIO review magazine in 2018. Ganesh was born in Mumbai and studied at IIT, before moving to the US where he continued studies at Binghamton university, San Jose State and Stanford university. Ganesh started his professional career as an engineer, before moving into business oriented roles at Cisco Systems. This led him to understand the problems in talent acquisition and retention which inspired him founding dotin.

In today’s episode we have Srikanth Velamakanni, Co-founder, Group Chief Executive & Vice-Chairman of Fractal Analytics, a multinational analytics and AI company serving the largest businesses across the globe. Founded in 2000, Fractal Analytics was ahead of its time being one of the first pure-play analytics companies. From having to convince their first customer to engage with them for free, Fractal Analytics today is a $160m revenue company with 2,100 employees worldwide. In this episode, Srikanth touches on the difficulties of launching his business as well as the sacrifices he made from a financial and emotional perspective. We also discuss mentorship and common mistakes he sees founders repeating, as well as the important topic of mental health issues that entrepreneurs face.

In today’s episode we are speaking to Gursevak Shergill, also known as Tony, who is the CEO of BritAsia TV. BritAsia TV is a popular TV channel, targeting the young Asian demographic, broadcasting on Sky and FreeView in UK, as well as expanding to India, Canada, Europe and Africa. Tony also held the first Punjabi Film Awards outside of India, held at Grosvenor House on Park Lane. Tony is a big believer in supporting local communities, and has recently launched BritAsia Fund, a project born during the COVID-19 pandemic which aims to teach and guide start-up businesses and develop a roadmap for entrepreneurs to realise their dreams.

In this episode, we speak to Sonia Nagpal, CEO and Co-Founder of DissDash, a South-Asian Media Content site aiming to provide features, multi-platform content and thought-provoking articles. Sonia has built a global following which has led to partnerships with industry giants such as Sony Music, LinkedIn and Toyota. Being a strong proponent for manifestation and positive thinking, Sonia shares some incredible stories and examples of how she has experienced this first hand and the significant impact it has had on her life.

In this episode, we speak to Nabeel Ahmed, an award winning Digital Marketer and Founder of Super Kind Company, an impact fashion and lifestyle company which has a mission of educating children affected by displacement and conflict around the globe. Nabeel shares a fantastic story about how he founded Tripli, a TravelTech business. Coming from a marketing background, his focus was purely on the aesthetics of the product and making sure the front end looked great visually. This ended up being interesting as 60,000 people started engaging with their social media posts, without there being a product!

In this episode, we speak to Shermin Lakha, Managing Attorney and CEO of LVLUP Legal, a law firm based in New York City, USA. Shermin discusses her experience as a lawyer at Freshfields, how she actually decided to start her own firm, the challenges she faces as a business owner and, rather impressively, how she has built her business whilst spending zero on advertising.

In this episode, we speak to Mehak Kansal, owner of Bindas Eatery, a delicious Indian street food restaurant, inspired by the dishes sold at foodie hubs throughout India. After completing stints in a legal career and working in the family business, Mehak followed her passion for food by starting blogs. She then received a present to host a supper club which meant designing a menu, selling tickets, cooking dishes and hosting a dinner party which received rave reviews.

In this episode, we speak to Prasanna Kannan, co-founder of Native Finance, an award winning technology platform for institutional real estate finance. After obtaining a Masters in Engineering from University of Oxford and a Masters in Management from University of Cambridge, Prasanna started his career at Goldman Sachs in Fixed Income Hedge Fund Sales. He then worked as a Portfolio Manager at Elton John AIDS Foundation, where he launched the first HIV Social Impact Bond in the world.

In this episode, we speak to Someit Sidhu, founder of Izana Bioscience. Someit studied Medicine at the University of Oxford, and trained as a Medical Doctor at University Hospital Birmingham. Being commercially curious, Someit took up a position as an Associate at McKinsey & Company. He then amalgamated his experiences and co-found Izana Bioscience, a bio-pharmaceutical company focused on bringing innovative science to market through the development of namilumab for the treatment of Rheumatoid Arthritis. More recently Someit has been investigating the use of namilumab in the treatment of Covid-19.

In this episode, we speak to Resham Kotecha, founder of Podium Perfect. Resham is a two time UK Parliamentary candidate, and is the youngest BME party candidate, having fought in the General Election in 2015 and 2017. After various roles in financial services, consulting, public sector and government, she launched Podium Perfect, a public speaking coaching company which has generated over 35,000 sign ups from 100+ countries. 

In our inaugural episode, we speak to Deepak Tailor, founder of LatestFreeStuff.co.uk. Deepak is a serial entrepreneur and has been successful in connecting brands with consumers. Latest Free Stuff is the UK's leading freebie site reaching up to 1 million consumers every month. Deepak has appeared on BBC's Dragon's Den where he was successful in obtaining 3 different offers. Deepak is also the author of the #1 Amazon Best Seller "How To Live For Free" book.