First Principles

Business

First Principles

by The Ken

First Principles is a weekly interview podcast comprising authentic, candid, and insightful conversations between some of India’s most accomplished founders and business leaders, and Rohin Dharmakumar, The Ken’s CEO & co-founder.

From personal philosophies, mental models and decision making frameworks, to reading habits, parenting styles or personal interests, each episode will delve into what makes each of these leaders unique.

68 episodes

EN language

All Episodes

1

Part 1: Curefoods' Ankit Nagori on cold emailing his way into Flipkart, designing for talent density, and surviving a pandemic on 2 crores a month

55:41 Mar 23, 2026

2

Part 2: Captain Fresh's Utham Gowda on seafood as the world's last unorganised trillion-dollar industry, why undervaluation is a founder's superpower and his “reverse career path”

1:00:10 Mar 2, 2026

3

Part 1: Captain Fresh's Utham Gowda on seafood as the world's last unorganised trillion-dollar industry, why undervaluation is a founder's superpower and his “reverse career path”

1:08:33 Feb 23, 2026

4

Part 2: Kalpana Morparia on the culture of dissent, the 90-day NYSE race, and why ambition requires self-redundancy

59:14 Feb 9, 2026

5

Part 1: Kalpana Morparia on the culture of dissent, the 90-day NYSE race, and why ambition requires self-redundancy

1:02:18 Feb 2, 2026

6

Part 2: Darwinbox’s Rohit Chennamaneni on leading without a CEO, the ‘show don’t tell’ product mindset, and why resilience beats intelligence

1:03:49 Jan 19, 2026

7

Part 1: Darwinbox’s Rohit Chennamaneni on leading without a CEO, the ‘show don’t tell’ product mindset, and why resilience beats intelligence

52:07 Jan 12, 2026

8

First Principles, second look: The 2025 wrap

1:40:46 Dec 29, 2025

9

Part 2: Ixigo's Aloke Bajpai on using empathy, customer experience, and resilience to both survive and thrive

1:11:04 Dec 22, 2025

10

Part 1: Ixigo's Aloke Bajpai on using empathy, customer experience, and resilience to both survive and thrive

1:03:39 Dec 15, 2025

11

Part 2: Indiagold's Deepak Abbot on turning a nation's 'dead asset' into credit scores and working capital

58:00 Nov 17, 2025

12

Part 1: Indiagold's Deepak Abbot on turning a nation's 'dead asset' into credit scores and working capital

1:08:37 Nov 10, 2025

13

Part 2: Trilegal's Rahul Matthan on the firm, the partnership, and the principles

1:04:43 Sep 22, 2025

14

Part 1: Trilegal's Rahul Matthan on the firm, the partnership, and the principles

1:10:53 Sep 15, 2025

15

Part 2: Anand Jain of Clevertap on starting with nothing and learning, building and leading as you go along

1:13:28 Aug 18, 2025

16

Part 1: Anand Jain of Clevertap on starting with nothing and learning, building and leading as you go along

1:07:04 Aug 11, 2025

17

Part 2: Ultraviolette Automotive's Narayan Subramaniam on tinkering, designing and learning by discarding

1:03:49 Jul 28, 2025

18

Part 1: Ultraviolette Automotive's Narayan Subramaniam on tinkering, designing and learning by discarding

1:18:03 Jul 21, 2025

19

Part 2: Manish Sabharwal of Teamlease on creating great ancestors, India’s development journey and ‘regulatory cholesterol’

47:08 Jul 1, 2025

20

Part 1: Manish Sabharwal of Teamlease on creating great ancestors, India’s development journey and ‘regulatory cholesterol’

1:06:46 Jun 24, 2025

21

Part 2: Sahil Barua on why Delhivery is the antithesis of moving fast and breaking things

1:08:26 May 19, 2025

22

Part 1: Sahil Barua on why Delhivery is the antithesis of moving fast and breaking things

1:15:21 May 12, 2025

23

Part 2: Vidit Aatrey on building a problem-first mindset into Meesho's culture

41:44 Apr 21, 2025

24

Part 1: Vidit Aatrey on building a problem-first mindset into Meesho's culture

1:34:22 Apr 14, 2025

25

Beyond the First Order - The Ken's first live subscriber event

2:01 Mar 21, 2025

26

Introducing Two by Two, a new premium business podcast from The Ken

10:31 Jul 18, 2024

27

The Final Supercut Part 2: Founders 21-41

1:31:04 Jul 11, 2024

28

The Final Supercut Part 1: Founders 1-20

1:26:50 Jul 4, 2024

29

Last Principles

8:43 Jun 20, 2024

30

Five women founders speak about leading with empathy, ambition, and not being apologetic and just focusing on building

1:28:02 Jun 13, 2024

31

Part 2: Manav Garg sold his business and started TogetherFund with Girish Mathrubootham. Naturally, the $150M fund has a founder-operator bias. What does that mean?

1:09:04 Jun 6, 2024

32

Part 2: Alok Mittal—teacher, angel investor, former VC—asserts Indifi is not a disruptive business. He also emphasises organisations should not fall into the trap of founder-worshipping

52:47 May 30, 2024

33

Part 1: Manav Garg started and ran Eka Software for 20 years before selling it. His #1 advise to founders? Budget 6 months to "manufacture" your co-founders

1:05:34 May 23, 2024

34

Postcard Hotels' Kapil Chopra wants to build an iconic luxury hotel group in a hurry and from scratch, but without risking it all

1:49:52 May 16, 2024

35

Part 2: Jaydeep Barman explains how internet restaurant Rebel Foods and luxury good giant LVMH have more in common than one can imagine

49:26 May 9, 2024

36

Part 1: Alok Mittal of Indifi on why org culture should not be defined but discovered

1:16:38 May 2, 2024

37

Part 1: Jaydeep Barman of Rebel Foods on why his business is 'misunderstood'—and why that's a good thing

1:31:31 Apr 25, 2024

38

Part 2: Chetan Maini of SUN Mobility on finding his 'true north', again

42:37 Apr 18, 2024

39

From succeeding in overcrowded markets to creating customer delight, five founders share their secrets

1:19:51 Apr 11, 2024

40

Part 2: Harsh Mariwala of Marico on experimenting with learning, fitness and leadership at 72

42:43 Apr 4, 2024

41

Part 1: Why Chetan Maini of SUN Mobility stopped making EVs when it got cool

1:25:21 Mar 28, 2024

42

Part 2: Girish Mathrubootham on Freshworks' trade secrets – and why he opened them up to competitors

36:32 Mar 21, 2024

43

Part 1: From Parachute to Saffola, Marico's Harsh Mariwala on building and branding India's biggest consumer products

1:05:36 Mar 14, 2024

44

Part 1: Girish Mathrubootham of Freshworks on why he doesn't measure 'winning' by numbers

1:08:11 Mar 7, 2024

45

Part 2: Why Vaibhav Gupta of Udaan doesn’t identify problems by patterns

55:52 Feb 29, 2024

46

Five founders on creating trust, patience and careers in their organisations

1:28:14 Feb 22, 2024

47

Part 2: Aneesh Reddy of Capillary Tech on how being called a “bully” led him to be a better leader

1:02:38 Feb 15, 2024

48

Part 1: How Vaibhav Gupta of Udaan builds, scales and improves execution playbooks

1:09:24 Feb 8, 2024

49

Part 2: How Viren Shetty of Narayana Health is building a career free of ‘groundhog days’

1:08:29 Feb 1, 2024

50

Part 1: Aneesh Reddy of Capillary Tech on his wins, mistakes and a breakout SaaS model

1:18:58 Jan 25, 2024

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