Let's Dive Right In

Let's Dive Right In

by Vivek Ramani and Arvind Chari

Business Technology

Season 1

From DC to Silicon Valley, political insider and climate communicator weighs in on everything from TikTok to Taco Bell

Vikrum Aiyer has seen a lot in the political world. Starting his career as a Congressional aide and rising to become an influential chief of staff in the Obama administration, he returned home to Silicon Valley in the Trump years to run policy divisions at tech companies. In our chat with him he speaks candidly from the heart on the pitfalls of being “too polished” and authenticity in communications. In his day job he’s Head of Global Policy and External Affairs at Heirloom, a climate tech focused on carbon removal technology. TikTok and Taco Bell were on the menu for our conversation too, tune in!

From an idea to promote authors of color to 30,000+ followers, the story of Brown Girl Bookshelf

Back in 2020, SriSruthi Ramesh cofounded Brown Girl Bookshelf, an instagram movement dedicated to recommending books from south asian authors. What started as a conversation between two friends has turned into an internet sensation with over 30,000 followers, a newsletter, and in person engagement. We explore how that happened with SriSruthi, and what it can teach us about the twists and turns of building a following.

How does a top tier Venture Capital Partner think? Dive in with Karthik Ramakrishnan of IVP

Karthik is a Partner at IVP, a venture firm that leads early and growth stage rounds in startups across B2B software, consumer, fintech, and digital tech. IVP has backed companies like Twitter, Snap, Discord, Datadog, CrowdStrike, UiPath, and Dropbox. Some companies that Karthik works with include DeepL, Dream Games, Niantic, CrowdStrike, Attentive, and Numeric. In his free time, Karthik is a big sports fan (Brooklyn Nets and New York Giants), loves to play any racquet sports, and enjoys spending time with his wife. And he is recently a first time dad. Karthik was also a 30 under 30 Forbes list winner.

Should you be investing in short term rental real estate? With Pranav Tadi, VP Finance, HBS

We talk to Pranav about his real estate investment strategy - buying properties to rent out on Airbnb, which helps him reduce tax burden and build a real estate portfolio long term. We discuss how he got into it, what it’s all about and pros and cons.

Leveraging AI to speed the energy transition with Helena Merk of Streamline Climate

Helena Merk is the CEO and co-founder of Streamline Climate; an AI platform to source, write, and manage access to government funding (like the IRA) for climate technologies. Before Streamline, Helena built her first company, Glimpse, in the videochat space, which she sold in 2022 to transition into the climate space professionally.

The Future of Crypto with Ankit Desai of Pocket Labs

We dive in to discuss how Ankit, a relatively early crypto adopter, got deeply interested in the space and how he sees things evolving into the future. What is the blockchains core value proposition, how high could bitcoin go, and what will the regulatory changes incoming open up for the industry? Join us to find out!

What does a CEO’s Chief of Staff do? Dive in with Saumil Shah of ARM

Join us as we dive into the evolution of ARM- the largest fabless semiconductor company - and learn more about its market position and future outlook, and how AI will affect the company over time. We then learn about Saumil's job as Chief of Staff to the CEO and how he balances his demanding job with family and friends.

Sourcing the Lithium Revolution with Keerti Shukla of Lilac Solutions

Welcome to another episode of the pod! Today we have the pleasure of chatting with Keerti Shukla about the importance of lithium to the accelerating clean energy revolution, the current challenges of extraction, China's dominance in the space, and how Lilac's lithium extraction technology can help. We then dive into how the incoming Trump administration might play a role in scaling efforts and how Keerti is navigating all of this in her new business development role. Come on, Let's Dive Right In!

Executive and Life Coaching with Rahul Deedwania

Rahul started off his career in management consulting and then transitioned to working in strategy and finance at YouTube until 2015. This is when he first learned about coaching and was drawn to the personal growth and self emergence he saw possible. After selling an escape room business in 2021, Rahul decided to follow that long held passion for self emergence that hadn’t gone away, and started to train and work as a life and executive coach. At the end of 2021, he transitioned almost entirely to working as in leadership development, team facilitation, and executing coaching. He also started a podcast, Woven Wings, which partially inspired us to start this conversation, where he focuses on spirituality and personal growth. And with that, let’s dive right in with Rahul Deedwania.

Urban Air Mobility with Pavan Yedavalli of Wisk

As the built environment of our cities and towns evolves, Pavan envisions a significant role for Electric Vertical Take-off and Landing (eVTOL) vehicles in shaping how we navigate them. Join us to learn more about Pavan's journey into this field and discover what could help this exciting new industry take flight.

2 of 3