Episode 22 of The Offline Network — hosted by Utsav Somani and Dhruv Sharma — in conversation with two builders re-shaping India’s equity and health-tech infrastructure.

🎙 Deep-Dive Conversations

1/ Kashish Sharma (CEO, EquityList) on how Indian startups can make global ESOPs work, what founders should fix before IPO, and why fair pricing matters for both employees and retail investors.

Dhruv and Utsav dig into ownership playbooks and cross-border equity OS for founders building globally.

2/ Ankit Maheshwari (CTO & Founding Team Member, Innovaccer) on building agentic AI for healthcare, how Flow Auth actually saves clinicians time, and what tech can fix in a $4T health system struggling with data friction and cost.

He unpacks how Innovaccer is solving value-based care challenges and building globally from India.

This episode is made possible by Smartworks — India’s largest managed office platform powering the new hybrid workforce.

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Episode 21 of The Offline Network — hosted by Utsav and Dhruv — decodes the week’s biggest tech stories and two builders reshaping India’s AI and manufacturing future.

📰 This Week’s News Rundown

• Microsoft × OpenAI Deal Values OpenAI at $500 Billion Microsoft’s 27 % stake (~$135 B) marks a 10× return since 2019. The PBC shift unlocks independent funding and a $250 B Azure commitment, while ChatGPT Go goes free in India for a year as subs double post-launch.
  

• Blueprint Raises $60 M to Build a ‘Full Health OS’ Bryan Johnson pivots from supplements to longevity infrastructure backed by Kardashian, Karpathy & Naval; anti-aging market headed to $140 B by 2034.
  

• NEO Home Robot Launches at $500/month 30 kg bot with LLM + vision does house chores; raises privacy debate amid a $5 T humanoid market forecast by 2050.
  

🎙 Deep-Dive Conversations

• Raghav Gupta (Futurense & 1 % Club) on AI-driven education, enterprise upskilling, and building community-led learning brands as AI reshapes jobs.
  

• Gaurang Kuchhal & Anand Yadav (MEKR) on India’s manufacturing renaissance, OEM networks, and how India can finally play its China+1 advantage.
  

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Episode 20 of The Offline Network — hosted by Utsav and Dhruv — brings together India’s biggest startup headlines and two founders building for the next decade of commerce and consumers.

📰 This Week’s News Rundown

1/ Deepinder Goyal’s $25M Aging Fund: Launches Continue Research to back open-source science in longevity and biology; first bet on LAT Aerospace’s indigenous gas-turbine engines for regional air travel.

2/ Accel × Prosus Co-Invest Alliance: $200K–$2M cheques for “leap-tech” formation-stage startups; early-stage dealflow stays resilient at $3.5B this quarter.

3/ India’s AI Rules Incoming: MeitY’s draft mandates labels and traceable metadata for AI-generated and deepfake content — tightening compliance for platforms.

4/ Lenskart’s ₹7,278 Cr IPO: Oct 31 – Nov 4 window; lists Nov 10 at ₹382–402 band (~₹70,000 Cr valuation). Founders and early investors eye 4–17× returns as India readies its largest OFS since Nykaa 2021.

🎙 Deep-Dive Conversations

• Soumya Kant (Clovia) on decoding Tier-2/3 women consumers, AI-driven personalization, and competing responsibly inside Reliance’s brand portfolio.

• Chirag Taneja (GoKwik) on powering India’s festive-season GMV, tackling returns, and building profit-first e-commerce infrastructure for global markets.

This episode was made possible by Smartworks — India’s largest managed-office platform.

🎧 Watch, subscribe, and tell us in the comments:

Are Indian consumer brands finally scaling smarter than their markets?

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Episode 19 of The Offline Network — hosted by Utsav and Dhruv — dives into India’s festive-season consumption spree, AI’s dominance in venture capital, browser wars shaping the internet, and two founders rewriting playbooks in education and personal finance.

📰 This Week’s News Rundown

1/ India’s Festive Spend Surges: ₹5.4 lakh cr in goods + ₹65,000 cr in services; UPI touches ₹1 L cr/day as GST cuts spur consumption.

2/ AI Dominates Global VC: 53 % of all 2025 funding flows to AI; India sees $5.7 B across 470 deals (H1). ROIC set to flip from -3 % to +20 % by 2030.

3/ OpenAI Launches Atlas: macOS-first agentic browser with on-page automation and memory controls; Atlassian buys The Browser Company for $610 M.

4/ Chakr Innovation Raises $23 M: bets on aluminium-air batteries and clean-tech exports.

5/ Uniphore Secures $260 M: valued at $2.5 B to scale Business AI Cloud with NVIDIA and AMD.

6/ WazirX Returns Post-Hack: relaunch after $235 M settlement marks crypto’s mainstream moment in India.

🎙 Deep-Dive Conversations

• Akshay Chaturvedi (Leverage) on the evolving study-abroad economy, full-stack education platforms, and how AI and trust shape student choices in 2025.

• Ravi Handa (Handa Uncle) on building trustworthy AI for personal finance, creator-led learning, and India’s next 100 M learners.

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In Episode 18 of The Offline Network, hosts Utsav and Dhruv sit down with two builders solving two very different but equally hard problems — how founders finance their growth, and how patients cross borders for better healthcare.

Eklavya Gupta, Founder of Recur Club, joins fresh off a $50M Series A, to talk about his mission to make credit accessible and fast for founders. With over ₹3,000+ crore already deployed to startups and SMEs, Recur is redefining how companies think about debt vs equity, underwriting, and founder behavior that actually earns better loan terms.

He breaks down:

• The new rules of founder-friendly debt

• When to take capital as credit, not equity

• What behavior actually improves loan terms

• How Recur plans to hit a ₹10,000 crore run-rate by FY’27

Sahil Jain, Co-founder & CEO of TMTC, is tackling an entirely different frontier — making cross-border surgeries safer, simpler, and affordable. Backed by athletes like Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer, and KL Rahul, TMTC connects UK patients to trusted Indian hospitals — offering savings of up to 70% with global standards of care.

He unpacks:

• The logistics of cross-border healthcare

• Why athletes became investors – not just financiers

• Lessons from building Dineout → TMTC

• What it takes to make life-changing decisions under stress
  

Two distinct journeys. One thread – solving for friction at scale.

🎧 Watch, subscribe, and tell us in the comments: Do you think debt will replace venture capital for founders – or are we just getting started?

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Episode 17 of The Offline Network, hosts Utsav and Dhruv are joined by two builders from opposite sides of the table. Two perspectives. One question: what separates the outliers from everyone else in this new AI age?

This episode brings together Anand Chandrasekaran, now building HiOctave with Khosla Ventures, reimagining customer experience for small businesses. Anand’s new chapter is about giving small businesses enterprise-grade AI tools to automate bookings, sales, and customer conversations, without losing the human touch.Akshay Mehra, Partner at Hummingbird Ventures, the VC that backs just 0.1% of what it sees. He brings the investor’s lens, forged through early bets on Lovable and Vance, and a philosophy that founder quality is 80% of the outcome.

Together, they unpack:

• What defines a 0.1% founder in today’s AI market

• How to build when speed, compute cost, and retention collide

• Why the next wave of outliers won’t follow Silicon Valley’s playbook

• What small businesses get wrong about automation

• The one founder habit that changes survival odds

Our first dual-guest segment – raw, real, and built for this AI moment.

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In Episode 16 of The Offline Network, hosts Utsav and Dhruv break down a massive week for AI, fintech, and consumer tech — where the lines between innovation and aspiration are blurring faster than ever.

📰 This Week’s Top Stories • The AI arms race heats up — OpenAI’s DevDay rolls out GPT-5 Pro, Sora 2, and the new Agent Kit; Anthropic doubles down with an India expansion; AMD inks a 6 GW GPU deal with OpenAI; and Nvidia joins Elon Musk’s $20B xAI supercluster. • At GFF 2025, RBI and NPCI announced UPI face and fingerprint authentication, multi-sign corporate approvals, and new AI-powered payment devices from PhonePe and Paytm. • ICONIQ’s State of Software 2025 reveals AI-native startups growing faster, burning less, and pulling ahead on every efficiency metric.

🎙️ Guest Conversations • Gaurav Khatri (Noise) — Bootstrapped to #1 in wearables, redefining the line between devices and lifestyle. On competing with Apple & Samsung, social-driven product design, and what comes after earbuds and watches. • Archit Nanda (KNOT) — Building where culture meets commerce. On fusing fashion and quick delivery, trend forecasting from social media signals, and the new Gen Z consumption code.

🏢 This episode is made possible by Smartworks — India’s leading managed workspace platform for enterprises. 

🎧 Watch, subscribe, and stay tuned — because the next frontier is already here.

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Episode 15 of The Offline Network — hosted by Utsav and Dhruv — breaks down India’s biggest startup and business stories of the week, and brings you unfiltered founder conversations from the trenches.

📰 This Week’s News Rundown

• Ather Energy beats Ola Electric – For the first time, Ather surpassed Ola in monthly EV sales. TVS and Bajaj still lead the charts, while Ola struggles with a 50% YoY decline.

• a16z on Startup AI Spend – New data from 200k+ accounts reveals where startups are actually spending on AI. Two Indian companies, Merlin and Emergent, make the global top-50 list.

• Dhan enters Unicorn Club – Stock-trading platform Dhan hits a $1.2B valuation after raising $120M, posting strong profits and gaining share amid SEBI’s F&O curbs.

• FM Sitharaman on Stablecoins – India’s Finance Minister calls on nations to prepare for stablecoins reshaping money and capital flows, as Polygon hints at an INR stablecoin.

• EA’s $55B Take-Private Deal – Electronic Arts agrees to a record all-cash buyout by Saudi PIF, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners — the largest sponsor-led deal ever.

🎙️ Deep-Dive Conversations • Anant V Goel (Handpickd) — On reinventing India’s fruit & vegetable supply chain, lessons from Milkbasket, and whether a zero-inventory model can beat perishability, seasonality, and quick commerce. • Dheeraj Jain (Redcliffe Labs) — On scaling India’s #3 diagnostics brand across 220+ cities, why trust is healthcare’s biggest moat, and how he’s now building for child health and neurodivergence.

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Episode 14 of The Offline Network — hosted by Utsav and Dhruv — dives into India’s hottest startup and tech stories: WeWork India’s IPO, Zerodha’s pivot moment, founders upping stakes ahead of listings, Chamath’s comeback SPAC, OpenAI’s Sora 2 + app, and ChatGPT’s instant checkout. 

📰 This Week’s News Rundown

• WeWork India IPO-bound – Q1 FY26: net loss narrows 51% to ₹14.14 Cr; revenue up 19% to ₹535.3 Cr. IPO via 100% OFS (~₹3,000 Cr), price band ₹615–₹648, listing Oct 10. Implied valuation: ₹8,685 Cr. 68 centres, ~7M sq ft, ARPM at ₹19,085. Runs independently of US bankruptcy.
  

• Zerodha Revenue Hit – Brokerage revenue −40% YoY in Q1 FY26. Kamath says: “time to pivot” after F&O curbs; charging for delivery trades may be next.
  

• Founders Upping Stakes – Groww, Lenskart, Zomato, Swiggy founders increase holdings pre-IPO/listings; Policybazaar founders cut OFS. Signals confidence in long-term value.
  

• Chamath Palihapitiya Returns – $345M SPAC “AEXA” (5× oversubscribed) focused on AI, defense, energy, DeFi. Sponsor shares tied to post-merger stock appreciation.
  

🎙️ Deep-Dive Conversations

Episode 13 of The Offline Network — hosted by Utsav and Dhruv — explores how India is shaping the future of consumer brands and venture capital. From Ayurveda going global to AI’s India push, this unfiltered conversation dives into how Indian founders and global investors are rewriting the playbook.

Anthropic Eyes India – Hiring a Country Head as part of its Asia expansion. India’s $10.4B AI market by 2028 and government-backed GPU infra make it the next battleground for enterprise AI.

Kapiva Raises $60M – The “modern Ayurveda” brand eyes US expansion with stronger clinical R&D. With ₹550 Cr ARR and 80% YoY growth, can it break into a $200B global wellness market?

Hocco Scoops ₹115 Cr – Ice-cream brand valued at ~₹2,000 Cr, scaling cold-chain and q-commerce channels. With India’s frozen market set to 4× by 2033, can regional challengers crack Amul and HUL’s dominance?

Zoho’s Arattai Surges – A 100× spike in traffic as India’s made-in-India, privacy-first WhatsApp rival gets government backing and viral buzz. Can Arattai realistically chip away at WhatsApp’s 850M users?🎙️ Deep-Dive Conversations

Building Brands with Cultural Depth – Naiyya Saggi (EDT, BabyChakra, Good Glamm) on what makes an Indian brand global-ready, lessons from scaling across geographies, and how design + culture can be India’s wedge in consumer.

Investing Across Borders – Boris Wertz (Version One Ventures) on conviction-led investing, geographic arbitrage between India/Canada/US, and how fund managers can avoid traps in emerging markets.This episode was made possible by Smartworks, India’s largest managed office platform.

Subscribe, hit the bell, and tell us in the comments: what’s the one India × global story you want us to chase in Episode 14?

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Episode 12 of The Offline Network — hosted by Utsav and Dhruv — breaks down India’s biggest startup & business stories of the week, from new SaaS growth benchmarks to record-breaking festive sales. We also sit down with founders reshaping deeply personal markets — love and homes — and unpack how trust is built in both.📰 This Week’s News Rundown

• T2D3 vs Q2T3 — Bessemer declares SaaS growth benchmark “dead” as AI-native firms chase supernova growth.

• E-commerce bumper sales — India’s 2025 festive season kicks off with ₹25,000+ crore GMV in 48 hours, the strongest start in 5 years..Peak XV Surge 11 — 23 startups (12 AI-first) join with up to $3M seed, expanding across India + APAC.

• Simpl shutdown — RBI halts BNPL unicorn’s payment ops over PSS Act breach, disrupting 26K+ merchants from Zomato to BigBasket.

🎙️ Deep-Dive Conversations

• Snehil Khanor (TrulyMadly) —  On building India’s most trusted matchmaking app, battling scams, and monetising love in 12 languages.

• Tanuj Choudhry (HomeLane) —  On scaling interiors with trust, AR/VR-led design certainty, and merging with DesignCafe to tackle India’s $20B+ unorganised market.

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Episode 11 of The Offline Network — hosted by Utsav and Dhruv — breaks down India’s biggest startup & business stories of the week, from surprise profitability to billion-dollar bets. We also bring you raw founder conversations — straight from the trenches of India’s next wave of entrepreneurship.

📰 This Week’s News Rundown

• Rocket’s $15M Seed Round — The rebranded DhiWise (now Rocket) lands Salesforce Ventures & Accel backing to take its vibe-coding AI app builder global.
  

• Ultrahuman Turns Profitable — Wearables startup posts ₹73 crore profit on ₹565 crore revenue in FY25, scaling five-fold in a year.
  

• Swiggy Exits Rapido — Sells its stake to Prosus & WestBridge at a 2.5× return, while Rapido doubles down with new services.
  

• Nothing’s $200M Raise — Carl Pei’s AI-native OS push fuels a $1.3B valuation and ambitions to rewire device-first AI software.
  

• OpenAI × NVIDIA — A 10 GW GPU build-out pact across OpenAI’s data centers, reshaping the AI infra race.
  

🎙️ Deep-Dive Conversations

• Neal Thakker (Magma) → On building India’s factory OS across 350+ manufacturers, balancing energy, logistics, and sustainability at industrial scale.
  

• Neel Gogia (IPLIX Media & Layers.shop) → From creators to commerce — how influencer-led D2C can scale beyond fads and build enduring consumer brands.
  

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Episode 10 of The Offline Network — hosted by Utsav and Dhruv, breaks down India’s biggest startup & business stories of the week, from game-changing policy reforms to shifting investor dynamics. We also bring you unfiltered founder conversations — straight from the trenches of India’s next wave of entrepreneurship.

📰 𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝑾𝒆𝒆𝒌’𝒔 𝑵𝒆𝒘𝒔 𝑹𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒐𝒘𝒏

• US H-1B Visa Fee Hike – From 2026, a one-time $100,000 fee applies to new approvals. India supplies ~71% of H-1B talent, so the ripple hits India first. Big IT firms may shift more projects home, while offshore delivery grows stronger.

• GST 2.0 Reform Goes Live – India moves to a two-slab system: 5% for essentials, 18% for most products, and 40% for luxury/sin goods. Expected to boost consumption, streamline compliance, and shake up FMCG, auto, retail, and online platforms.

• Shark Tank India Season 4 Fallout – Out of 34 “on-air deals,” only 11 actually closed. Valuation gaps, royalty terms, compliance issues, and founder rethinks reveal the show’s growing role as marketing over guaranteed funding.

🎙️ 𝑫𝒆𝒆𝒑-𝑫𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝑪𝒐𝒏𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔

• Operator → Investor – Dhruv Dhanraj Bahl (Sadev Ventures) on backing founders in India’s tier 2/3 cities, rebranding Eternal Capital to Sadev Ventures, and how operator-led conviction spots what traditional VCs often miss.

• Lab-grown Luxury – Darayus Mehta (True Diamond) on disrupting India’s $100B jewellery market with ethical, design-driven lab-grown diamonds — reshaping cultural perceptions of value, sustainability, and aspiration.

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Episode 9 of The Offline Network – Utsav and Dhruv are back with fresh perspectives — this week we’re reacting to viral memes, and diving deep with two leaders reshaping India’s consumer and fintech landscape.

📰 This Week’s Meme Collision

• Meme Time – From Inc42’s World Laughter Day thread to the Internet, we’re unpacking what India laughed about this week.

• A light take on the business of memes, internet culture, and what they say about startups.

🎙️ Deep-Dive Conversations

• Skin in the Game Investing – Suhail Sameer (OTP Ventures) on a ₹400 Cr debut fund, why consumer + fintech are ripe for Fintech 2.0, and how personal capital shapes discipline, conviction, and contrarian bets.

• Brewing India-to-the-World Brands – Matt Chitharanjan (Blue Tokai Coffee Roasters) on raising $25M, scaling specialty coffee beyond metros, and the artisanal food trends reshaping Indian consumer taste.

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𝗘𝗽𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗱𝗲 𝟴 𝗼𝗳 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗢𝗳𝗳𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗡𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 — 𝗨𝘁𝘀𝗮𝘃 and 𝗗𝗵𝗿𝘂𝘃 break down a blockbuster week in tech & startups, from TikTok’s US split to Urban Company’s IPO frenzy — plus, two founders redefining health & wellness for India.

📰 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗪𝗲𝗲𝗸’𝘀 𝗡𝗲𝘄𝘀 𝗛𝗶𝗴𝗵𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀

• 𝗧𝗶𝗸𝗧𝗼𝗸’𝘀 𝗨𝗦 𝗦𝗽𝗹𝗶𝘁 – Oracle, Silver Lake & a16z take 80% control of TikTok’s US ops; ByteDance keeps 20%. A new US-only app with a separate algorithm could reshape the geopolitics of AI & media.

• 𝗚𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘀𝗸𝗿𝗮𝗳𝘁 𝗖𝗙𝗢 𝗦𝗰𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗹 – Ex-CFO allegedly siphons ₹250 cr for F&O trades, exposing governance lapses; 93% of retail traders lose money while startups rethink financial oversight.

• 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗮𝗻 𝗩𝗖 𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗸𝗲-𝗨𝗽 – Top VCs like Shailesh Lakhani, Harshjit Sethi & Ashish Dave exit Peak XV & Mirae to launch new independent funds. “Niche is the new scale” becomes the theme for early-stage capital.

• 𝗨𝗿𝗯𝗮𝗻 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗜𝗣𝗢 – Shares debut with a 60% premium, delivering 27–30x returns to Accel & Elevation. India’s hottest tech IPO since Nykaa reignites consumer-tech optimism.

🎙️ 𝗗𝗲𝗲𝗽-𝗗𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀

1. 𝗟𝗼𝗻𝗴𝗲𝘃𝗶𝘁𝘆 & 𝗛𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘁𝗵𝘀𝗽𝗮𝗻 – 𝗗𝗿. 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰𝘂𝘀 𝗥𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗲𝘆 (𝗛𝘂𝗺𝗮𝗻 𝗘𝗱𝗴𝗲) on redefining wellness beyond supplements & diagnostics, making performance science accessible, and India’s place in the global longevity race.
   

2. 𝗖𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗻 𝗕𝗲𝗮𝘂𝘁𝘆 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗮 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗚𝗲𝗻 – 𝗗𝗵𝗿𝘂𝘃 𝗠𝗮𝗱𝗵𝗼𝗸 (𝗔𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗮) on building India’s first-mover clean beauty brand, balancing affordability with authenticity, and carving space in a market dominated by global giants.
   

𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗲𝗽𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗱𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗺𝗮𝗱𝗲 𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗯𝘆 𝗦𝗺𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀 – India’s largest managed office platform.

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Episode 7 of The Offline Network — Utsav and Dhruv bring you powerful insights from an investor shaping India’s frontier alliances, and a founder building globally competitive products from scratch.

📰 This Week’s News Highlights

• Eight New Deeptech Startups Join IndiaAI Mission – Expanding the sovereign stack to build India’s full AI value chain: chips → compute → models → apps. BharatGen, Fractal, and others now included.

• Hike Shuts Down Amid RMG Ban – Founder Kavin Bharti Mittal closes the chapter after pivoting from messenger to social and gaming products.

• Groww Plans IPO With $8–9B Valuation – Following strong profitability (₹1,819 crore net profit in FY25) and growing market share vs Zerodha.

🎙️ Deep-Dive Conversations

Investor Perspective: Scaling India’s Deeptech Ambitions – Anand Chandrashekaran (Crescendo CX /Celesta Capital) Exploring bold early-stage bets, global alliances, and the vision that’s reshaping India’s deeptech ecosystem.

Founder Perspective: Building Global-Ready Products – Naman Pushp (Airbound) Tackling India’s monetization hurdles, scaling culture, and how global competitiveness shapes product strategy.

This episode is made possible by Smartworks – India’s largest managed office platform.

👉 Subscribe, hit the bell icon, and tell us in the comments: What’s your boldest prediction for India’s tech future?

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Episode 6 of The Offline Network — hosted by Utsav and Dhruv, takes a deep dive into India’s green and digital spirituality sectors, spotlighting structural shifts and bold contrarian bets driving the next economy.

📰 This Week’s News Rundown NASA’s Mars Rover discovers a potential biosignature – a hint toward ancient life requiring further validation.

🎙️ Deep-Dive Conversations

Carbon activity & Market Maturity – Shrey Agarwal (Alt Carbon) shares insights on India’s evolving carbon credit ecosystem, how deep geochemistry and AI converge, overcoming greenwashing risks, and whether India can truly become a global carbon credit hub.

Digital Religion Shift – Prashant Sachan (AppsForBharat - Sri Mandir) discusses the emerging spiritual tech sector, sustainable monetization models, challenges in authentically scaling regionally fragmented faith apps, and how digital religion differs in India compared to the U.S., Indonesia, or China.

This episode was made possible by Smartworks, India’s largest managed office platform.

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Episode 5 of The Offline Network — hosted by Utsav and Dhruv, dives into India’s critical gaming ecosystem inflection point: regulation hurdles, global ambitions, and the rise of the creator economy.

This unfiltered conversation features two visionary leaders building India’s gaming future — from ecosystem infrastructure and AI labelling to creator monetization and sustainable platform strategies.

📰 This Week’s News Rundown

• Rapido Surpasses Uber in India – By July 2025, Rapido claimed 50M Android MAUs versus Uber’s 30M, dominating bike taxis with ~70% market share. The subscription model enables driver retention amid aggressive market competition.

• iPhone 17 Official Release – Priced at ₹82,900 in India, higher than US and UAE. Made-in-India models now serve global markets from 5 factories, powering nearly half of US iPhone supply.

• Urban Co IPO – Raising ₹1,900 crore amid strong investor demand. Offering reflects structural growth: adjusted EBITDA turned positive, service professionals earning up to ₹50K/month.

🎙️ Deep-Dive Conversations

Gaming Meets AI Labelling – Manish Agarwal (Kratos Gaming Network): The intersection of gaming, AI infrastructure, RMG ban impact, and global IP ambitions shaping India’s gaming ecosystem.

Creator-First Platforms – Piyush Kumar (Rooter): Building sustainable creator careers, tackling India’s small-ticket monetization, short-form content trends, and positioning Rooter versus global giants.

This episode was made possible by Smartworks, India’s largest managed office platform.

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𝗘𝗽𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗱𝗲 𝟰 𝗼𝗳 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗢𝗳𝗳𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗡𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 — hosted by Utsav and Dhruv, explores how India’s capital stack is evolving beyond billion-dollar funds. Micro VCs, Solo GPs, operator-investors, and new models are seeding the next generation of founders, solving structural gaps in India’s startup ecosystem.

This unfiltered conversation brings you insights straight from the frontlines — as capital evolves to meet the challenges of speed, conviction, and trust.📰 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗪𝗲𝗲𝗸’𝘀 𝗡𝗲𝘄𝘀 𝗥𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗼𝘄𝗻

OYO rebrands as Prism – Oravel Stays renamed Prism to unify stays, extended residences, and celebration venues under a single brand. Profitable two years running, aiming for IPO by 2026.Zomato & Swiggy raise platform fees – Ahead of festive season, Zomato hikes fee to ₹12, Swiggy to ₹15; new GST burden adds ₹2–2.6 per order cost.PhysicsWallah IPO – Edtech unicorn files ₹3,820 crore IPO, hybrid offline-online model thriving amid sector turmoil; raising funds for expansion.Gold prices surge – Global and RBI slow gold buying amid geopolitical risks. 24K gold at ~₹10,848/gram; strong seasonal demand continues.🎙️ 𝗗𝗲𝗲𝗽-𝗗𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀

From conviction to opportunity – Vaibhav Domkundwar (Better Capital) explains India’s evolving founder quality, conviction-driven checks, and overlooked billion-dollar sectors.Operator first Investing – Kushal Bhagia (All In Capital) dives into operator-led support models, founder blind spots, regulation myths, and his view on India’s micro VC future.

This episode was made possible by Smartworks, India’s largest managed office platform.

𝗙𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝘂𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘂𝗻𝗳𝗶𝗹𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲𝘀:

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𝗘𝗽𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗱𝗲 𝟯 𝗼𝗳 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗢𝗳𝗳𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗡𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 — hosted by Utsav and Dhruv, dives into India’s three most debated frontiers: crypto’s search for legitimacy, retail investors’ need for clarity, and deeptech’s demand for patience.

This unfiltered conversation features India’s boldest voices cutting through hype, scams, and short-termism — asking what it really takes to build structural depth in India’s tech + startup ecosystem.

📰 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗪𝗲𝗲𝗸’𝘀 𝗡𝗲𝘄𝘀 𝗥𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗼𝘄𝗻

𝗚𝗦𝗧 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗮𝗺𝗽 𝗕𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗙𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗦𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗼𝗻 – Two-slab GST structure cleared, effective Sept 22. Could reduce consumer decision fatigue and boost discretionary categories like fashion, beauty, F&B, and wellness. Tailwind for D2C, retail, and ecommerce. Amazon and Flipkart’s mega sales follow immediately, with festive spending projected to jump ~40%.

𝗙𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁𝗖𝗹𝘂𝗯 𝗕𝘂𝗰𝗸𝘀 𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝗢𝗯𝘀𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 – India’s newest q-comm player triples valuation to $120M by going premium-first. But can beauty and fashion survive in a model designed for fast-moving staples? With ₹40–70 delivery costs and thin margins, the innovator’s dilemma looms.

$𝟭𝗕 𝗗𝗲𝗲𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵 𝗔𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗙𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗲𝗱 – Accel, Blume, Celesta, Premji Invest, and others pool over $1B to back India’s frontier bets — AI, semiconductors, robotics, biotech, space, and climate tech. Underfunded for years, deeptech may finally get the capital-heavy risk-taking needed to put India on the global map.

𝗨𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝗧𝘂𝗿𝗻𝘀 𝗗𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗖𝗹𝗼𝘂𝗱 𝗟𝗮𝗯𝗼𝗿 – 1.4M Uber drivers in India can now earn extra by labeling AI data during downtime. Active across 12 cities, this could diversify Uber’s revenues and inspire Swiggy/Zomato/Ola clones — but raises familiar worker exploitation concerns.

🎙️ 𝗗𝗲𝗲𝗽-𝗗𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀

𝗖𝗿𝘆𝗽𝘁𝗼 𝗖𝗹𝗮𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆 – Sumit Gupta (CoinDCX) breaks down what’s next for Indian crypto post-bear market, innovation beyond exchanges, and whether India is late on regulatory reform.

𝗣𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 – Neil Borate (TheFynPrint) highlights hidden investor blind spots, risks in SIPs/mutual funds, and the impact of gamified investing.

𝗕𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗮𝗻 𝗠𝗼𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘁𝘀 – Vishesh Rajaram (Speciale Invest) shares deeptech bets and what sector could put India on the global innovation map by 2035.This episode was made possible by Smartworks, India’s largest managed office platform.👉 Subscribe, hit the bell, and tell us in the comments: what’s the one story you want us to chase in Episode 4?

𝗙𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝘂𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘂𝗻𝗳𝗶𝗹𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲𝘀:

Twitter/X → https://x.com/OfflineOnAir

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LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/company/offlineonair/

Website → theoffline.network