Entrepreneur | Shruti Kapoor | Global Indian

Global IndianstoryEntrepreneur Shruti Kapoor’s recipe for success: Combining passion, innovation, and customer-centricity

Entrepreneur Shruti Kapoor’s recipe for success: Combining passion, innovation, and customer-centricity

Written by: Lubna Reshi

(May 8, 2023) In today’s fast-paced and competitive business environment, having real-time insights into sales encounters can make all the difference. And Shruti Kapoor, the Co-founder and CEO of Wingman, a SaaS solution that delivers real-time information for sales teams, has experienced this firsthand. The entrepreneur’s journey began while managing a sales team at an Indian fintech start-up in 2017. However, she found it difficult to get the information they required from their CRM since there didn’t seem to be a workable substitute,she decided to filll the gap.

Entrepreneur | Shruti Kapoor | Global Indian

After some deliberations the entrepreneur and her co-founders embarked on a mission to create a solution to transform the way sales teams approach their interactions with customers, leading to the birth of Wingman. The following year, they introduced the first iteration of their product. Their journey, however, wasn’t an easy one – their first big task was to attract customers. In the first 40 encounters they had with potential clients, they were unable to close any deals, she recollects. Nonetheless, with the right approach, the goals didn’t seem unachievable though and Wingman emerged – with a different approach and philosophy.

“Instead of thinking about our revenue, we thought the other way round. We began calculating how to impact revenue for the customers. The more you can think in terms of not, ‘how do I get more revenue for myself?’ but, ‘how do I get more revenue for my customers?’ the more your message is likely to steer in the right direction,” shared the entrepreneur, as she sat down for an interview with Global Indian.

Always making the right investments

Having been born in Mainpuri – a small town in Uttar Pradesh, India – ‘investing in education was a big bet’. “It was a place is better known for tobacco and bandits than for education and development,” the entrepreneur shares while talking about her childhood, adding, “My parents made the big bet to invest in our education and moved to Lucknow to give us access to better opportunities and it paid off.” She was selected for the SIA scholarship to study in Singapore for her A-levels. The exposure and confidence of being independent at that age helped her in many future aspects of life and how she would interact with the world in general.

Building an empire

For a commoner, Wingman can be defined as a conversation intelligence platform for sales teams. According to the entrepreneur, Wingman started as a simple idea – “there is a wealth of information in conversations with customers – but it is currently not captured, most sales calls in B2B were not recorded, or too inefficient to access as listening to recorded calls is time-consuming. If we could record, transcribe and analyze the calls at scale we could provide businesses access to insights like.”

Entrepreneur | Shruti Kapoor | Global Indian

She adds, “I was leading the go-to-market function for a global fintech company in India called Payoneer. The team in India was three people and all products and marketing were centralised. Very often I would face situations where I felt if the marketing or product leaders had heard it from the customers; they would have understood it much better.”

On the other hand, organising a call between a prospect and a team in another time zone was always challenging. The entrepreneur expresses, “At Payoneer, I first learned about sales and marketing and the entire process that must take place to bring marketing, sales, customer success, and product together to ensure that they are not just creating the right things, but also communicating them to customers in the correct way.”

Wingman was created as a method to bring everything together and address what she perceived to be the biggest disconnect: a split between front-line sales and marketing and product, which are located further away from the customer, she maintains. According to the entrepreneur, marketing and product always wanted to know what the customers were saying and they had no way of finding out. “Going on calls all the time and then trying to explain to marketing what the customers are saying was extremely frustrating for sales. For scattered or remote teams that might not even share an office, the issue is significantly worse.”

Entrepreneur | Shruti Kapoor | Global Indian

Wingman, which monitors customer interactions and applies AI to produce insights, action items, and more, is the solution for her. “The issue was that when COVID struck, it was still very much in beta, endangering growth. Today, with an over 3x growth over the previous and having been bought by Clari – a Unicorn,” she adds.

Getting a foothold

Wingman was a global company on day one – while the team was based in India, so they were very clear that they wanted to target the US market initially. She explains, “So we made early efforts to connect with potential buyers in the US. This was through our network – friends’ friends as they say.”

Once they had some early customers, they extended this by hiring a local salesperson in the US and a sales agency that could do mass outreach on their behalf. However, both those efforts didn’t pay off the way we expected and we then spent more time building the brand and case studies etc, the entrepreneur recalls. Once those things were in place, they saw inbound traffic, and outbound both began to build up. “My major takeaway from this was: think of go-to-market in terms of building and scaling trust.”

A venture with a difference

Shruti’s company focuses on reducing ‘time to revenue’ for its customers. It raised $2.33 million in the seed round, led by Venture Highway, Speciale Invest, and Y Combinator back in 2019. Last year it was acquired by Clari to become part of their revenue platform. Clari is a well-known unicorn in the sales technology space with investors like Sequoia and Blackstone.

The company is currently targeting B2B clients – because business sales follow a certain cadence and requires multiple touch points – making Wingman’s feedback and analytics impactful. It has on-boarded hundreds of companies such as Bandwidth and Fabric etc. The entrepreneur remarks, “Without Wingman it takes 3-8 months to fully ramp up a new sales rep. A large part of this is in training them on best practices, tribal knowledge, and handling customer objections. With Wingman, companies can cut this time by 30-50 percent.”

Entrepreneur | Shruti Kapoor | Global Indian

The former Morgan Stanley banker says that the biggest cost for the company is that of customer acquisition — the industry number for this is close to 9-10 months of the revenue for the first year. The second biggest cost is cloud computing — for example, speech-to-text can cost around two cents per minute. “Once the scale sets in and once you have customers who are expanding, infrastructure costs can be minimised and the margin can be above 60 percent,” she emphasises. As far as the entrepreneur’s future vision is concerned she wants to make intelligence from customer conversations a part of every revenue-critical workflow.

The road ahead

While listing out some points, the entrepreneur says that they have focused on building a platform that, firstly is specialised for the B2B sales use-case so customers get a lot of value on day one without having to customise the system. “Secondly, we focus on delivering value to the whole sales team – so the platform automatically provides live coaching and feedback to the sales reps rather than just giving data and analytics to managers to then give feedback to sales reps,” she shares.

The young entrepreneur stresses the fact that it becomes very hard as an entrepreneur, especially if you are trying to build a global company with multiple time zones. Shruti says, “I try to block some time daily on my calendar in the evenings so I can make sure I can be with my husband and child. I try to keep Saturdays mostly free.”

Shruti staunchly believes in the fact that in the early days you are your company and you will have to be prepared to be the face of the company. “Your most important job at the company will change every six months – be prepared and open to it. It can be a hard and lonely journey. Try to build your ecosystem along the way,” says the entrepreneur, as she signs off.

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R C Sundar

May 11, 2023 4:58 pm

Absolutely thought provoking & great guidance to the younger generation of entrepreneurs!

Published on 08, May 2023

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Road to Mandalay: How Ankit Gupta brought Burmese cuisine to India

(June 1, 2023) Burma Burma is full, even on a Monday evening, and the staff are busy serving up laphet (fermented tea leaf paste), tohu (made from chickpea) and seitan imported from Indonesia. It's a tribute to authentic Burmese cuisine and the restaurant we're at is the newest one, boldly placed after a Pan-Asian restaurant that serves up more familiar fare, plus cocktails. Burma Burma, on the other hand, is vegetarian, offers nothing stronger than boba tea and is still clearly where everybody wants to be. "Bengaluru is our biggest market," founder Ankit Gupta grins, as he joins us for a pre-dinner chat. "They're fascinated with jackfruit, banana flower, avocado ice-cream and mock meat." This restaurant is a tribute to Burmese gardens – “We want to recreate the feeling of dining outdoors in a Burmese bungalow, and celebrate Bengaluru’s greenery,” he says, pointing to the 100-year-old banyan tree standing right beside our window seat. Growing up with a Burmese mother, Ankit Gupta recalls a separate refrigerator at home exclusively for Burmese staples like laphet - "Eighty percent of the tea they produce goes into making this," he explains. At school, friends would wait for fresh batches of balachaung, a spicy

ends would wait for fresh batches of balachaung, a spicy relish with onion, peanut, garlic and spice (rightly so, it's delicious), kho suey, plum candy and sunflower seeds. His other influence was his father, a second-generation hotelier himself.

[caption id="attachment_39452" align="aligncenter" width="694"] Ankit Gupta | Burma Burma Ankit Gupta, co-founder, Hunger Pangs Private Limited[/caption]

A family legacy

"I had a heavy influence of Burma and the restaurant industry," Ankit tells Global Indian. "My grandfather came from Haryana and started one of the first licensed tea stalls, back in the 1950s." He went on to acquire hotels and properties near Santa Cruz East, near the Bombay airport. And for the first ten years of his life, Ankit and his family lived inside the hotel. "I loved living like that," he says. "You can order room service at midnight, there's a driver ready always... I was very pampered." Entertaining guests was part of daily life too, both his parents loved it, as did Ankit himself.

Ankit Gupta trained in hotel management, and did a diploma with the American Hotel and Lodging Association. He began his career with the Taj Group, becoming a beverage manager and an assistant manager. It was a firsthand glimpse behind the glamour of the hotel industry - "The pampering ends, you're working 18-19 hour-shifts. I would report at 1 pm and leave at 5 am for two years straight." This was when the seed for Burma Burma was first planted in Ankit's mind. Meeting people from different countries inspired him to travel too, which he did, exploring Asia and the world to understand people and food.

In 2011, Ankit returned from his travels and went back to join his family business. "That was when my chef and I went to Burma for the first time," he says. Maybe it was the charm of visiting one's roots, but Ankit was instantly captivated by the place, its "beauty, culture and all that the country has to offer." He began traveling more often, meeting chefs, restaurant owners and exploring the possibility of making this a concept in India. "I wanted Indians to experience the Burma I knew," he remarks.

Finding Burma a place in India

The first Burma Burma came after three solid years of R&D. "You need the right contributors to come on board and make sure that the end product is great," Ankit says. "It needs to have a very strong connection to the food, to the culinary techniques." Ankit and his co-founder Chirag, a friend from school, held pop ups across the country - at Sunburn in Goa, at school fairs, selling buckets of kho suey for Rs 100. "We were sold out, everywhere, every time," he smiles. "Whoever ate our food liked it."

So, in 2014, they started Burma Burma and the concept found immediate success. Two years later, they went to Gurgaon. Now in their ninth year, they own eight Burma Burma restaurants in seven cities in India. "We're opening in Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and another in North Bangalore." In fact, they hope to double the number of restaurants in the next two years.

Veg only, please

[caption id="attachment_39455" align="aligncenter" width="464"] The tea leaf salad, with avocado and laphet dressing[/caption]

"We are not a vegetarian restaurant, we are a restaurant that happens to be vegetarian," Ankit says. On their trips to Burma, they found that a lot of dishes are inherently vegetarian, but covered in some kind of seafood condiment. Fermented fish paste, shrimp powder and broth made from catfish or sardine are the staples. "It's very strong,” Ankit explains, adding, “Even non-vegetarians may not like it. Also, because they abstain for two months in the year, vegetarian food is very easy to find."

Burmese days

Political turmoil and civil unrest have been a way of life in Myanmar for decades. The coup d'etat of 1962 resulted in a military dictatorship under the Burma Socialist Programme Party, marking the start of decades of strict border controls under what was said to be one of the most abusive regimes in modern world history. In August 1988, the 8888 uprising led to brief normalcy and a multi-party system, and in 2011, the year Ankit made his first trip, the military junta had been dissolved following the 2010 election. Political prisoners like Aung San Suu Kyi were released under the partly civilian government. Suu Kyi's party won a clear majority in 2020, but the Burmese military seized power in one more coup d'etat. In 2021, the borders were closed again for some time and even now, tourists are advised to stay clear.

The country Ankit Gupta entered in 2011 was, in his own words, "pure, untouched and clean." There was no "Pepsi or cola, no SIM cards, no phones." Few people had experienced the Burmese culture, or the warmth and hospitality of its people. "People would sing, enjoy themselves and have fun," he says. "When they saw a foreigner, they would feel very happy, they welcome you with open arms." These days, he travels often, every five or six months to explore the food or source ingredients and dines at the homes of his vendors and suppliers.

The diaspora food trail

He discovered culinary traditions that reminded him very much of home. Myanmar is home to a sizeable Indian diaspora - indentured labourers taken to Rangoon by the British, as well as traders, businessmen and moneylenders from the Chettiar community in Tamil Nadu. "They love dosas, samosas and Bengali-style biryani," Ankit explains. "They also sit around a low table with a plate of rice, meat and vegetables, from which they all eat together."

The diaspora is varied - Indians, Chinese, Thai, Cambodians, Vietnam. "They all brought their own influences," says Ankit. Still, Burmese cuisine stands on its own, and is versatile and diverse. "They believe in fresh ingredients and simple food," he says. "You will find hawkers who can serve up 50 dishes from a 4x4. You would be amazed." Burmese cuisine involves a lot of roasted gram flour, chilli, tamarind, sunflower seed, as well as laphet and dried and fermented mustard seed from the hilly regions of Kachin.

"The food is very diverse," says Ankit. "There are eight mother communities or tribes, and their sub tribes." Over the years, Ankit and his team have traversed the length and breadth of Myanmar, which they continue to do every few months, and always manage to discover something new. "Business is a side product," he smiles. "If you have a good product and a good restaurant, people will come and business will grow."

Ankit Gupta | Burma Burma

At this point, a waiter arrives with bowls of Kachin dried-mustard soup, a tangy concoction with garlic and edamame. "The mustard greens are pickled and put underground for three months, after which they are cured," Ankit explains. The avocado with the characteristically bitter laphet dressing arrives next - it's impossible to replicate outside of Myanmar, Ankit informs us. "They use a special fermenting process - chefs have tried to replicate it but it doesn't work." The leaves, which become extremely soft after the fermentation process, are made into a paste with olive oil.

Sourcing ingredients

Ankit Gupta works with his brothers to source ingredients. "I have a channel from the Manipur side, one from Thailand and another from Bodh Gaya," he says. While the situation has improved since 2010, security issues and border restrictions could happen at any time. "There isn't a free flow of trade still, but it it happens. We call it in bulk and store it."

Ankit Gupta's unwavering passion for Burmese cuisine, rooted in his upbringing and travels, has paid off, handsomely. By embracing the authenticity of traditional recipes and sourcing genuine ingredients, he has created an extraordinary dining experience that immerses Indian food enthusiasts in the diverse and flavoursome world of Myanmar. Ankit's commitment to quality and his relentless pursuit of culinary excellence continue to fuel the expansion of Burma Burma, captivating diners with the wonders of Burmese gastronomy.

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Antarctica’s Mount Sinha: Named after a Bihar-born scientist in the USA

(August 22, 2024) In 2013, Professor Akhouri Achyutanand Sinha, was searching online for information to write a tribute to a former team member, who had passed away. The late team member had accompanied Professor Sinha on an Antarctic expedition in the 1970s. The professor had been on a scientific expedition focused on researching and documenting the populations of seals, whales, and birds that inhabit the pack ice - a floating layer of sea ice - within the Bellingshausen and Amundsen seas of Antarctica. That research had helped establish critical baseline data for future research, climate change debates and United Nations population conservation efforts of wildlife. 40 years later, to Professor Sinha’s surprise, he discovered a Wikipedia entry, revealing that a 990 metres high mountain, located at the southeast end of Erickson Bluffs in the southern region of McDonald Heights in Antarctica, was officially named ‘Mount Sinha’ in recognition of his contributions in the Antarctic expedition. "Named by US-ACAN for A.A. Sinha, member of the biological party that made population studies of seals, whales and birds in the pack ice of the Bellingshausen and Amundsen Seas using USCGC Southwind and its two helicopters, 1971-72," the entry reads. [caption id="attachment_54206" align="aligncenter" width="775"]

s in the Antarctic expedition.

"Named by US-ACAN for A.A. Sinha, member of the biological party that made population studies of seals, whales and birds in the pack ice of the Bellingshausen and Amundsen Seas using USCGC Southwind and its two helicopters, 1971-72," the entry reads.

[caption id="attachment_54206" align="aligncenter" width="775"] Indian Scientist | Professor Akhouri Achyutanand Sinha | Global Indian Image extracted from Google Maps[/caption]

Memorable experiences

Following this discovery Professor Sinha shared with the press, "I went to Antarctica on two expeditions lasting for about 22 weeks on the US Coast Guard cutters, Southwind and Glacier, during 1972 and 1974. We were often dropped via helicopter atop vast sheets of pack ice to research and capture resident fauna, and I was even attacked once by predatory Skua birds near Palmer Station.”

Given his background and expertise in reproductive biology, the US National Science Foundation had invited Dr Sinha to conduct research on the reproduction of Antarctic seals, as part of their Antarctic Program. His work encompassed cataloguing of native seal, whale, and bird species along nearly 100,000 nautical square miles of the Antarctic coast.

Carrying out the studies in the remote and challenging environments, the scientist was mesmerised by the pristine beauty of the place and the superb adaptability skills of the Antarctic animals to the harsh weather conditions.

Along with his team he had even visited countries like Argentina and New Zealand on their way to Antarctica. Between expeditions, Sinha and his crew members aboard their U.S. Coast Guard ship would play poker, rummy and eventually bridge.

Raising alarms on climate change

In addition to his work with animals, Sinha has been one of the key people to first raise the alarm on Antarctica’s depleting ice shelf. According to the University of Minnesota, “Records of population sizes, types and behaviours created by Sinha and his teammates have established critical baseline data that remain relevant in today’s climate change debates.”

[caption id="attachment_54207" align="aligncenter" width="403"] Indian Scientist | Professor Akhouri Achyutanand Sinha | Global Indian Professor Akhouri Achyutanand Sinha[/caption]

Research conducted by Professor Sinha helped in establishing the continent as an international scientific preserve to protect it from drilling and exploitation for oil, minerals, and other valuable natural resources. The scientist's research was also used for the United Nation’s early conservation policies to preserve native wildlife of Antarctica.

Professor Sinha had highlighted that since Antarctica is rich in resources such as animal populations, gas, oil, minerals, and freshwater, India and the United States could form a strong research collaboration to tap into these valuable assets and advance scientific understanding to protect the continent’s resources. “India can play a constructive role with a tie-up with the US and can protect habitats and mineral resources of Antarctica," he had remarked during a seminar in India.

Since the Global Indian scientist’s pioneering biological research expedition provided critical data and insights, the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (US-ACAN) and the US Geological Survey had named an Antarctic mountain after him within a few years of the expedition - a tribute he discovered decades later.

From Buxar to Minnesota

Sinha who served as an adjunct professor in the Department of Genetics, Cell Biology, and Development, and a professor in the Department of Urology at the University of Minnesota - had moved to the United States in 1961 as a PhD scholar.

[caption id="attachment_54209" align="aligncenter" width="758"] Indian Scientist | Professor Akhouri Achyutanand Sinha | Global Indian Professor Akhouri Achyutanand Sinha[/caption]

Born in the village of Churamanpur in Buxar district, a village established in 1739 by his ancestor Akhoury Churaman Singha (later Sinha), the research enthusiast earned a BSc degree from Allahabad University and an MSc in Zoology from Patna University. Before moving to the US for his PhD at the University of Missouri at Columbia, he taught in the Department of Zoology at Ranchi College.

After completing his PhD, he took up postdoctoral work, and his first teaching role as an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin before being accepted to teach at the University of Minnesota in 1981. Professor Sinha taught graduate level courses for more than two-and-half decades.

"In spite of my stay in the US, I have preserved my perspectives in life," Sinha had shared during one of the felicitation ceremonies of his alma mater, Patna University adding "Earning money is not enough. I know many Indians brag how rich they are. You cannot take money with you, but a good deed will last forever."

Pioneering work in cancer research

Professor Sinha, who has authored hundreds of research papers, conducted critical studies on the characteristics of prostate cancer stem cells, the aggressiveness of prostate cancer, and cell proliferation and death. He was affiliated with the University of Minnesota’s Masonic Cancer Centre, a comprehensive cancer centre recognised by the National Cancer Institute.

Some of his research works were efforts which were not even funded by grants. He had hired student researchers, paying them out of his own pocket to assist him in his work. “I will do what is right - if you don’t give me money, that’s OK,” the scientist with deep dedication towards his work and life’s purpose had remarked.

Apart from his responsibilities as a professor and cancer research scientist, he held a long-term association as a researcher at the VA Medical Center in Minneapolis dedicated to the needs of veterans, their families and caregivers. "After I moved to VA, I was nudged to work on something relevant to veterans' diseases,” he had remarked.

[caption id="attachment_54210" align="aligncenter" width="652"] Indian Scientist | Professor Akhouri Achyutanand Sinha | Global Indian Professor Akhouri Achyutanand Sinha[/caption]

Matters of the heart

Despite being deeply engaged in his work in the US, Professor Akhouri Achyutanand Sinha had not lost touch with his village in Bihar’s Buxar, visiting almost every year to escape the Minnesota winters. The scientist with a fascination for cross-country skiing, travelling, reading, and photography, had met his wife Dorothy K. Pamer at a party in Dinkytown. “He just loves what he does and he says he’s never going to retire,” Dorothy had remarked in an interview.

Encouraging the students in Patna, the alumni of Patna University's 1956 batch had said during a felicitation ceremony, "Show the world what you are capable of and do not be afraid to talk to people about your research work, and take help from experts."

Reading Time: 5 mins

Suvir Saran: The Michelin-star chef and author who heads Shilpa Shetty’s Bastian Group

(July 7, 2024) There is little Chef Suvir Saran cannot do in the world of cuisines and culinary skills. From launching award-winning restaurants to writing best-selling cookbooks, he talks about his incredible journey If ever a biopic was to be made about a chef from India, my pick would be Suvir Saran. He is a man of several talents. A Michelin-star chef who is on the board of nutrition for Brigham and Women’s Hospital, which is associated with Harvard Medical School, he can write, paint, sing [Indian classical], sew, crochet, do macrame, etc. And oh, he cooks food that people – read the who’s who from across the globe – cannot get enough of. [caption id="attachment_52896" align="aligncenter" width="510"] Chef Suvir Saran[/caption] He lived in the US for several years, owned a farm that housed endangered species, launched and managed successful restaurants, taught people to cook, and consulted with conglomerates. But, a series of falls left him legally blind after a mild stroke. He recovered and is today a popular speaker, a culinary director with the Bastian Hospitality Group, owned by Shilpa Shetty, Raj Kundra and Ranjit Bindra. Under his leadership, they have launched several successful brands with more on the

d is today a popular speaker, a culinary director with the Bastian Hospitality Group, owned by Shilpa Shetty, Raj Kundra and Ranjit Bindra. Under his leadership, they have launched several successful brands with more on the anvil.

He has launched Qora in Koregaon Park and Murphies on Prabhat Road in Pune with his protégé Vardaan Marwaah and the promoter Aman Talreja.

There is Lord Elgin, a restaurant in Amritsar that serves tapas from all over the world and Farro is his latest, soon-to-be-launched fine dining venue with food that will be a modern interpretation of traditional dishes. It will most importantly be mindful and sustainable, including grains, greens, vegetables and meat. Suvir firmly believes that Indian ghar ka khaana is one of the healthiest and most balanced meal options available.

Learning from the Best

Recalling his childhood days, growing up in Nagpur and later Delhi, Suvir’s earliest influences that nurtured his talent were his mother, the Panditji who cooked in their home, and all the neighbourhood housewives, house-husbands, cooks, and his extended joint family. He says, “Panditji was a Brahmin chef and people were not allowed inside the kitchen wearing a belt or without a bath. He gave me carte blanche and taught me everything. My mother who cooked with mindfulness and passion was also a great influence. She was the smartest baker I knew and could effortlessly manage cooking for a large group. She planned everything military style and answered all my questions on love, empathy, and more. Because I was different, she calmed me down.”

Chef Suvir Saran | Global Indian

Every time Suvir would visit people’s homes as a child, he revealed that he would go to the kitchen, help the cooks or hosts and learn in the process. He audaciously even taught a new bride that had married into his family, how to make a round roti!

Suvir studied fine arts at the JJ School of Arts and later, graphic design at the School of Visual Arts in New York. Though he wanted to be a teacher, an artist, or a veterinarian, his passion for cooking persisted. He says, “In Mumbai, and later in New York too, I used to cook for friends; and there was no school teaching what I was cooking. I happened to meet the publisher of Food Arts magazine who asked me to write for them. He listed my name on the masthead as Culinary Authority. One thing led to another and in 2003, I launched my first restaurant in New York, Amma. It was a 30-seater, and people would stand in queues to get in. No one was doing pan-Indian food at that time. We would serve lamb chops with a dosa filling and a Himachali pear chutney. We were selling a story, not just food.”

American Base, Cooking Desi

Earlier, Suvir used to cook meats without tasting them as he grew up vegetarian. An aunt who was married into a non-vegetarian family taught him how to cook and gauge whether it was done without tasting the dish. “I started eating meat at 35, because I was writing food reviews for Food and Wine magazine, Gourmet, Bon Appetit and Food Arts; and I couldn’t play a guessing game about the taste. It had to be authentic,” he tells Global Indian.

[caption id="attachment_52898" align="aligncenter" width="569"] Malabar Mushroom Biryani[/caption]

After leaving Amma, Suvir launched Devi, a more refined, daring, and progressive restaurant. “This was in 2007, the same year that the Michelin guide launched in the US. They awarded the Michelin star to 18 restaurants in North America that year, Devi was one of them.” At Devi, Suvir has cooked for international celebrities, royals, stars from Hollywood and Bollywood, entrepreneurs and billionaires, artists and rock stars – and just about everyone who loves good food. “I served Bhel Puri here; 20 years ago I had dared to bring street food onto a fine dining table.”

He then moved on to other projects and along with his partner, owned a farm called Masala Farm, where the eggs from their chicken were in great demand as they were high in protein and fat content. “We also had several endangered species that were almost extinct living at the farm. For me, it was a place to live, not a money-making venture. Everything else I did, paid for the farm’s expenses.”

Food writing

While in the US, with his reviews and food writing gaining a fan following, a book offer was sure to follow. And it did, with the publishers spending vast sums of money on the production of the book itself. In his words, “The book didn’t do what the Tarla Dalal and Madhur Jaffrey books did. This was Indian home cooking for people who wanted to learn Indian cooking. It was titled Indian Home Cooking and I followed it up with two more – American Masala and Masala Farm. These books were seminal; they had recipes for six to seven varieties of rasam, shorbas, dals, subjis, chicken, pickles, chawal ki kheer, parathas … It was a labour of love. Each recipe was tested four or five times. And I did not compromise on ingredients. If the dish needed coriander leaves, I used coriander leaves, not parsley.”

Masala Farm also made it to the James Beard list of best cookbooks in 2011. It tells food stories of Suvir’s travels around the world and his life coupled with food from India. A novel and a memoir, “It is more aspirational and exciting,” says Suvir.

Chef Suvir Saran

American Masala, as described on Amazon is ‘about adding new flavours to the great American melting pot, using spices to liven up the old standbys, and enjoying dishes that are as exciting and diverse as life in the big city, and yet as familiar and comforting as your mother’s cooking.’ It features dishes such as Tamarind-Glazed Turkey with Corn Bread–Jalapeño Stuffing, Crab-and-Salmon Cakes with Spicy Cilantro Aïoli, Crispy Okra Salad and Bombay-style Whole Snapper etc.

His latest book, Instamatic, with a foreword by Dr Shashi Tharoor, is a collection of musings, essays and pictures taken by Suvir when he was almost blind, to show him where he was. “I would write the essays on the phone as I couldn’t type.”

India is still Home

Despite all the success and adulation, his career had its share of challenges. Suvir, who is openly gay, has had to face biases because of it. He says, “Was I discriminated against? Yes. Did I lose out on offers because I am gay? For sure. And there were many times I did not get due credit either. But I have never allowed my mind to wander to these negative aspects. I choose to be grateful and celebratory instead of angry. The people who care for me were happy at my success.”

Another setback was a stint of bad health. During his frequent travels around the country, he’d had several falls. He recalls, “In 2016, I’d had a few falls and then I had a mini-stroke. It left me legally blind and after three years of recovery, I came home to India to die. I had no interest in living, had given up eating and I was given the choice of a hospice or my mother’s home. I chose to go to her home and she helped me recover. She encouraged me to go out and travel with friends. Though I couldn’t see, I could smell and feel everything. A cousin’s wife, Smita, would take my hand and lead me to the kitchen, asking me what to cook. I would guide her and we would make three or four dishes. Slowly I recovered, and believed I had a future, and today, I can see well enough to manage my day, but not enough to drive.”

[caption id="attachment_52901" align="aligncenter" width="501"] Grandma's cornbread[/caption]

His favourite ingredients to cook with include lentils, beans, greens, grains and vegetables. “I like to cook food that gives you the comfort of digestion, and not start tomorrow with heartburn from last night’s meal.” As for global trends in food, he says, "Getting back on track with healthy happy food that is sustainable.”

It would be intriguing to see what this multi-talented chef creates with his next venture. Another milestone for sure.

While travelling, Chef Suvir likes to eat at:

Plats, New Delhi: Grilled Mushrooms
Neuma, Mumbai: Pork Belly
Soam, Mumbai: Bhel Puri
Vidyarthi Bhavan, Bengaluru: Benne Dosa
Pindi, New Delhi: Pindi Chole

Follow Chef Suvir Saran on Instagram

Darwinbox: Pioneering the next chapter in Indian HR tech evolution

(Aug 18, 2023) When Darwinbox was first conceptualised, the other players on the field were two Goliaths, SAP Labs and Oracle. The idea was so daring, it was audacious, more so in the hands of three first-gen entrepreneurs, Chaitanya Peddi, Jayant Paleti and Rohit Chennameni. This was in 2015. In less than a decade, Darwinbox went on to achieve unicorn status, stands proudly alongside industry titans and has put India on the global HR-tech map. Darwinbox boasts clientele like Domino's, Domino’s, Starbucks, Kotak, and Swiggy, helping them manage their HR processes, including hiring, attendance, and resignations, through a tech-enabled, user-friendly, end-to-end experience. In the end, it was about identifying a gap in the market, and the courage to take a risk, which all three founders possessed in spadefuls. [caption id="attachment_43786" align="aligncenter" width="665"] Entrepreneurs Chaitanya Peddi, Jayant Paleti, and Rohit Chennameni.[/caption] The story and journey of Darwinbox is unique in many ways than one. “We were one of the rare SaaS (Software as a service) companies that set out to build a product from Asia for the world, while most SaaS companies focused on the West. Our fundamental premise was that it is difficult to build systems that cater to the different

Starting out

The career paths of all three co-founders had one thing in common - they advised large enterprises on business transformation, digitalisation, and M&A. They found, across the board, that their clientele struggled to streamline HR processes, and organisations struggled to furnish critical information about human capital. The gap was most evident in a large-scale merger conversation in the life sciences sector led by Jayant in November 2014, where to his surprise, neither of the stakeholders was aware of the percentage of their talent attrition.

As the trio went a step deeper to solve the problem, they realised the real trouble was with multiple systems (every organisation had an average of 3 HR systems) across the employee lifecycle which made it difficult to sync and analyse data. And in cases where there were integrated options, the solutions were rigid and clunky for the HR and employees alike resulting in poor adoption. To deal with these challenges and to make HR technology more intuitive, integrated, and insightful, Darwinbox was conceived and started in 2015.

Within a short span, Darwinbox became one of Asia’s fastest-growing HR technology platforms that helped enterprises cater to HR needs across the entire employee lifecycle. It became a success story and the founders, were poster boys of the Indian start-up scene.

Meeting an unmet need

The trio challenged the status quo and entered the playground of global legacy players. Initially, they put in their life savings before the venture capital funds discovered the start-up in 2017. They were aware of the challenges they faced and knew that they had to create a holistic solution that would stand the test of time. The initial offerings from Darwinbox were attendance and payroll which was the need for every firm but slowly they started to build up the platform by adding aspects like automation, simplifying regular processes (like leave and appraisal), and digital education.

In eight years, all their gambles paid off and Darwinbox has emerged as a leading player in South Asia (3rd largest), Southeast Asia, and MENA (Middle East and North Africa) by displacing some of the heavy hitters like SAP, Oracle, Workday, and others that boasted decades of legacy. Today more than 800+ enterprises, and two million employees from across 90+ countries love the Darwinbox experience, and the company is backed by reputed global investors like Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV), Salesforce, Sequoia, Lightspeed, 3one4 Capital, and Endiya Partners.

[caption id="attachment_43789" align="aligncenter" width="463"] Global Indian | Darwin Box Rohit Chennameni., co founder of Darwinbox.[/caption]

What contributed to their success was thinking ahead of the curve. When they started, most companies were focussed on the US, the entry barriers were tough and nobody considered Asia to be a viable and attractive market. Rohit recalls, “The competition was deeply entrenched and difficult to shake – SAP and Oracle. While these were some of the perceived challenges that we have overcome or are in the process of overcoming, we are on our way to becoming the top Human Capital Management player in Asia.”

Breaching barriers

As the start-up is valued as a Unicorn, Chaitanya adds, “We are very grateful to have the valuation we have now, but it is a milestone and part of our journey and not the destination. Innovating on the product is an ongoing process and the Unicorn valuation only reinforces our commitment to our customers. We are obsessed with customer success, and we will keep a steady focus on that every day.”

Rohit says that it has been an immensely satisfying journey. He adds, “It feels like yesterday when we had this idea to start Darwinbox Today we are one of the top three HCM players in Asia and have taken on the giants on their battlefield. We have grown to 750 plus employees and a Unicorn valuation in eight years. We service 650 plus enterprise clients and are present in over a hundred countries.”

[caption id="attachment_43790" align="aligncenter" width="596"] Global Indian | Darwin Box Chaitanya Peddi, co-founder of Darwinbox.[/caption]

The start-up has over the years increased its range of offerings. Today, it also provides a social network that enables better employee connectivity and is quick to integrate AI as part of the services, be it leveraging the technology for leaving applications or meetings that can be scheduled at a voice command. As they scale the summit of success, they remain motivated and enthused about the product they created. Jayant explains, “It’s a balance between growth and profitability that we are focusing on. There is a lot of opportunity globally for this space and we are bringing in a lot of innovations as well. As we take on the global giants, the balancing act is critical.”

The trio are gunning for global dominance. They aim to continue to grow in Asia to become the no.1 HR tech player in Asia ahead of SAP and Oracle apart from looking at expanding to new markets like US, UK, China, and Australia. “We want to be #1 in all the markets we are present. In the next 2-3 years, the aim is to get to $100 million in revenues. Given our experience in displacing global competition here, we are set to launch in the US market later this year. And are now ready to compete head-on in the largest enterprise technology markets in the world.” they sign off.

Boxing sans burqa, these zealous Kolkata girl boxers pack a knockout punch

(December 31, 2021) At the crack of dawn, a group of 20 teenage girls are all fired up and ready to go. Clad in shorts and t-shirts, the determined youngsters jog through the densely populated Kalighat locality in South Kolkata into a ground in the Regent Park area. The sudden early morning drizzle hardly bothers them as they line up in front of their “hero” and boxing coach Razia Shabnam. Rigorous warm up and strength training sessions later, they put on their boxing gloves, look straight into their opponent’s eyes, and get down to bouts of sparring. From straight punches to jabs, hooks and even uppercuts — they deliver power-packed punches in each bout — their aggressive side on full display. Not far away from this place, about 35 girls sweat it out in the makeshift boxing ring at the Kidderpore school of physical culture at Ekbalpore, where their coach Mehrajuddin Ahmed aka Cheena Bhai, is busy evaluating their boxing prowess and fine tuning it. “Duck! Avoid the opponent’s punches!” he advises as he keenly watches the sparring which goes on for hours. [caption id="attachment_18377" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Shakeela and Shanno practise at the boxing yard; Photo Courtesy: Arindam Mukherjee[/caption] The

/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/shakeela-shanno.jpg" alt="Global Indian burqa boxers" width="1200" height="797" /> Shakeela and Shanno practise at the boxing yard; Photo Courtesy: Arindam Mukherjee[/caption]

The women, they are ready for the ring

Women’s boxing arrived a tad late in West Bengal when compared to other states. Finally in 1998, a handful of burqa-clad girls from poor families dared to step out of their homes to learn boxing. Some put on gloves for self-defense, others to boost confidence and self-esteem while the rest were driven by their sheer passion for the sport, and dreams of making it big one day.

There was a time when the “burqa boxers” as they came to be known, braved societal pressures and gender discrimination to pursue the sport. But not anymore. Now, these girls don’t think twice before donning a t-shirt and shorts and sweating it out to deliver the perfect knockout punch!

“Boxing gives the girls self-respect and confidence to break barriers. When I took up boxing, I faced gender discrimination and people in the community treated me like I was doing something wrong and dirty. They expressed apprehensions about my marriage. But the situation is different now. People have become more broadminded and the girls are clear about what they want to achieve,” says a beaming Razia Shabnam, in an exclusive chat with Global Indian.

[caption id="attachment_18375" align="aligncenter" width="400"] Global Indian Razia Shabnam Razia Shabnam exercises at her rooftop; Photo Courtesy: Arindam Mukherjee[/caption]

Mention burqa boxing and Shabnam interjects that it is gender discrimination rather than religious discrimination that is an obstacle. “Now, there are hardly any girls who come in burqa and change into boxing gear. Those days are gone,” she informs.

Shabnam took to boxing in 1998 when the sport had just opened up for women in Kolkata. A first-year Arts student at Calcutta University, she decided to give boxing a shot, and was lucky to have participated in the national level boxing championship. She went on to become one of the first women boxing coaches in the country in 2001. Shabnam is also the first Indian woman to become an international boxing referee and judge, and has been officiating at international boxing tournaments across the globe. “I was clear that I wanted to become a coach who could train both men and women to fetch gold medals for India,” says Shabnam.

While her journey into the world of boxing came with obstacles, it was her father Rahat Ali Khan, a wrestler, who supported and encouraged his daughter. Having grown up in Kidderpore in a traditional Muslim family, where girls stay home or are groomed for marriage, Shabnam faced discrimination even when she started to go to college. Now, a doting mother, she coaches girls aged 12 to 18, a majority of them rescued from the red-light area in Kolkata. Through her NGO, New Light, she even provides them shelter.

[caption id="attachment_18378" align="aligncenter" width="1003"] Global Indian burqa boxers Photo Courtesy: Arindam Mukherjee[/caption]

Girls who just want to throw punches

“I want to play at the national and international boxing championships and I am preparing for it,” informs Salma Molla, a 15-year-old, who started boxing at age 10. She trains with Shabnam, and wants to follow in the footsteps of boxing great Mary Kom. “My family knows I am passionate about boxing, and are happy. Like Mary Kom, I will compete for India one day,” smiles Salma, who ensures she never misses training.

In 1998, women’s boxing kickstarted in West Bengal. The then-President of the WB Boxing Federation Asit Banerjee along with coaches Mehrajuddin Ahmed, Sujoy Ghosh and Jamil Alam began training girls. What initially started with a handful of “burqa boxers” soon saw the participation of more girls. In the past two decades, hundreds of girls from Kolkata have learnt boxing.

“Back then, a few burqa-clad girls would come to the Kidderpore school to learn boxing. They were obviously worried about what the community would say. But now, I don’t see the girls scared or bothered. They learn boxing without a worry,” says Mehrajuddin Ahmed.

[caption id="attachment_18379" align="aligncenter" width="1147"] Global Indian burqa boxers Ajmira Khatun during a practise session; Photo Courtesy: Alka Raghuram[/caption]

Ahmed, who runs the Kidderpore school, recalls how women’s boxing had arrived in Delhi, Punjab, Manipur and Mizoram early. “The boxing federation president, other coaches and I collectively decided that girls have to learn boxing and started coaching them,” he informs.

He recalls instances when convincing parents was an uphill task. “The girls came from very poor families. Their parents were against boxing. Some felt it was a male bastion, and girls should stay away, others felt it will hinder their marriage prospects. The community elders and neighbours did their bit in discouraging the girls. But I spoke to many families and convinced them otherwise. Many agreed but were sceptical. That is no longer the case. Today, there is nothing stopping them,” he says. Shabnam too has similar stories.

All their efforts have yielded results. There are quite a few girls from Kolkata who have made it big in boxing. Among the notable boxers is Ajmera Khatun, who started in 2009, and went on to win five golds at the state and national level. She is not boxing anymore. Similarly, Sarita Khatun first won a gold medal at a state level championship and subsequently won nine medals including a bronze at the national level in 2012. The same year, Simi Parveen, a soft-spoken Arts student from Kolkata’s Ekbalpore area represented West Bengal and won a bronze medal at the women’s boxing national held in Patna. Thereafter, when the Indian Boxing Federation was suspended by the International Boxing Association, her career came to a stop. She trained at the Kidderpore school. Sabina Yasmeen, another boxer won three golds at district, state and national levels. A majority of the boxers have been trained by Mehrajuddin or Razia Shabnam.

Coaching for glory

[caption id="attachment_18380" align="aligncenter" width="1138"] Global Indian burqa boxers Taslima during a practise session; Photo Courtesy: Alka Raghuram[/caption]

Presently, Razia Shabnam coaches about 20 girls for three hours on weekdays, and six on weekends. Similarly, at the Kidderpore school, there are 185 youngsters training, of which 35 are girls. The pandemic did play spoilsport in Kolkata’s boxing legacy but the coaches hope for better days.

While the women’s boxing scene in Kolkata appears promising, many at the national level have quit due to marriage or job prospects. Razia Shabnam’s protegee Parveen Sajda gave up the sport after marriage. “Ajmira Khatun (who won the gold at the state and national level) shifted to Haryana. Once they cross a certain age, they give up due to self-sufficiency and work. Yet, going by the enthusiasm and determination of a few girls, I am confident they will make it big in boxing. The situation is changing,” says a hopeful Razia. Besides marriage and jobs, another reason for opting out is the expense. Nonetheless, the number of girls taking to boxing has been increasing steadily.

Interestingly, a documentary titled Burqa Boxers directed by Alka Raghuram, a filmmaker and a multidisciplinary artiste who tries to make sense of the world through her insightful films, gives you a ring side perspective on the lives of the girls. The film weaved the stories of Razia Shabnam, Ajmira Khatun, Taslima Khatun and Parveen Sajda as they negotiate poverty and traditions, and learn to face the biggest obstacle — fear. The film was awarded the top prize Grant Open Doors at the Locarno Film Festival co-production market in 2011.

For boxer Rimpi Khatoon, Razia Shabnam inspires them to take up boxing. “Razia madam is my hero. I took up boxing to boost my confidence and for self-defense. My knockout punches are good, I can give anyone a tough fight,” laughs the 14-year-old, who has been training with Razia since she was 10. Even 16-year-old Pooja Singh is passionate about boxing. “I have been boxing since 2014 and I look forward to participating in the national boxing championship,” says Pooja.

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