The Founder's Foyer with Aishwarya Ashok

If there’s one phrase that’s ruling all of our social media experiences today, it’s Open AI’s GPT. It’s amazing to see the wonders of large language models kick in with everyday user experience, and the best part is that we’re only getting started. Beyond exposing ourselves to the numerous tools that spin out of AI, we as builders really got to dig deeper into understanding what this phase of tech advancement could mean from the lens of open source computing, ethical tech, personification, user generated content, API layers, and co-creation. Travis Fischer, AI researcher, entrepreneur & software developer has been working in the open source space for nearly a decade, with previous stints at Microsoft & Amazon. Travis has built a bunch of Open AI based projects, and loves working towards Passion Economy, about building products that will help enable a more independent and fulfilling future of work. Travis and Aishwarya discuss about his journey from corporate to open source development, striving to create value and perseverance in the long game , balancing creative pursuits with monetization, using community as a leverage to upskill, understanding the challenges in passion economy, navigating the platform risk of where your work is displayed. They also go in depth about AI—Personification, LLMs, and AI; Artificial generative intelligence: Are we nearing it?, AI as a foundational application layer, experimenting with opportunities in the AI playground; AI, boundaries, and ethics: Where are we headed at?, The boons and consequences of the AI play, what's in the AI game for open source devs?, AI as a copilot with all forms of works

There’s been an infinite number of times I’ve spoken to people about how a career in comedy and building products are similar: a journey that involves so much iteration, craft, and attention to detail. And dealing with audiences day in and day out along with the market defining a hit of your work: how close can this get! Which is why TikTok, Instagram Reels, and a lot of social media content are going high on humour, both for the content and the tech creators who are the faces behind. So what exactly can we learn from building a thriving business out of humour, content, and technology? I can't contain my excitement—for I finally pulled in Alexis Gay (Creative Entrepreneur | Stand-up Comic | Podcaster) to sit down with me and discuss everything about creative entrepreneurship. Alexis and Aishwarya chatted about a bunch of themes—-transition from tech to comedy, why to be good at comedy (& business) you have to first be bad, how to shift the needle from ROI to enjoying the process, planning blocks of time as a creator and prepare a calendar, building consistency and momentum around work, acknowledging newer versions of yourself as a founder, working on viral comedy content, why it's important to be 'funny' than anything else, hard parts of today's creator apps and the gap left to address, and talking to world-renowned people on "Non Technical" podcast. Tune in!

Innovation is what most of us immediately point to when it comes to product success—but how often have we innovated our own thinking? Have we ever discovered what it means to be at the intersection of interests, ideas, and impact? So many creative entrepreneurial endeavors are based on a portfolio—of skills, careers, and people. And getting into the heart of that is really important. I'm super happy that I got a chance to pull in Christina Wallace's experiences in this space. Christina dons so many hats—founder, podcaster, professor, and author. She’s currently the Senior Lecturer of Entrepreneurial Management at Harvard Business School, where she co-leads HBS Startup Bootcamp, and is an active angel investor and startup advisor. She’s also authored the book “The Portfolio Life” that’s gonna be live very soon. As a 'Human Venn Diagram' that she proudly is, Christina and I chat all about how it's okay to not singularly focus on one identity, but bring together a diversified approach to entrepreneurship. Being a multi-hyphenate is so much fun, she quotes, for building a portfolio career and life. Christina and Aishwarya chat about being a Human Venn diagram, why is it important to 'start' with an idea and connect dots, how to let yourself be naturally curious, how to be a multi-hyphenate, embracing diversification of interests, the left-brain & right-brain fallacy (why it's wrong), the role of self-reflection in identities, the concept of 'portfolio' and how it relates to careers, shedding the 'guilt' and looking at possibilities, what companies should do to accommodate employee's portfolio, and monetizing your passion and looking forward.

What’s the best way to unlock creativity? Does our mind have the power to process so many thoughts and references? How does AI help in creating, building, and sharing ideas as founders and creators? Some of these questions are deep enough, but there’s a common line that connects them all—the power of cognition and how computers can be trained to augment that science behind. Alice Albrecht is a founder building something cool in the AI space. She did a PhD in cognitive neuroscience at Yale and then spent 10 years researching AI before starting up to solve challenges in human creativity and knowledge. Alice and Aishwarya chatted all about cognitive neuroscience and the way it's associated with augmenting creativity: Getting started with the neuroscience space and entering tech, what does it mean to augment creativity, challenges in building tools for knowledge workers & creators, why humans are obsessed with tools over the creativity process, the effect of AI algorithms on attention span, keeping users' consciousness in mind while building products, concepts and cognitive theories that Alice is fascinated with, and the future of AI space with the role of ethical tech

When was the last time you tried explaining an idea to your friend, co-founder, or teammate? Of course, it happens quite frequently for most of us, but looking back at the experience, at certain instances we spent more time explaining so the other person understands it better. Also there are times when they immediately vibe with us. So what exactly is the purpose of communication? Especially from the context of clarity, brevity, and impact.   Matt Abrahams is a lecturer at Stanford GSB, wherein he teaches entrepreneurial minds about organizational behavior, strategic communication, cognitive planning,  and persuasion. Matt also runs the “Think Fast, Talk Smart” podcast wherein he hosts guests and discusses everything around maximizing the effectiveness around communication. Prior to teaching, Matt held senior leadership positions in several leading software companies, where he created and ran global learning and development teams. Matt and Aishwarya discuss about communication—the mistakes that high-performing people make, getting better at listening, processing feedback, negotiating with stakeholders. Also, they delve into treating communication and speaking as a sport, approaching it with an iterative mindset, and getting better each day. Tune in!

If you’ve been sharing stuff and reading through Twitter or LinkedIn, there’s so much buzz around building in public. Especially over the last couple of years, a lot of founders, solopreneurs and enthusiasts who worked on side projects really leveraged the network to both build on their ideas as well as find a fit with the market.   Karthik Puvvada, fondly called KP “The Build in public” Guy, is the founder & CEO of Build in Public studio, a media and consulting company aimed at helping create more successful founders in the world. He’s formerly led educational programs and communities at OnDeck and Day One, having helped 500+ ambitious no-code builders and founders. He also created Build In Public Founder's Manual, a handy digital product to help founders learn how to build in public effectively. KP and Aishwarya discuss about getting, started with a creative entrepreneurial journey, why should one look into building portfolio career, the perception about non-linearity in creator economy, What  'build in public' means and how to do it, execution as a leverage to ship projects, navigating the idea maze and setting a framework, and effectively managing community engagement. Tune in!  Check the build in public guide - https://buildinpublicllc.gumroad.com/l/bipfm

With a new year setting in, most of us want to plan out our goals, look forward to high performance, and get ready to do our best form of work by either creating or shipping something live. As much as all the enthusiasm is intact, we’re sure we’d move past challenges, especially with decision making, doing the right/impactful activities, dealing with uncertainties and confusions. As founders and builders, channelizing our thoughts and plans becomes very important here, to get towards anything we look to achieve.     Dr. Julie Gurner is all set to help us navigate our decisions, take a balanced mindset, and stay true to our goals. She is a doctor of psychology and executive performance coach with nearly a decade of experience working with some of the world’s top tech and finance executives and teams. Dr. Julie & Aishwarya chat all about setting goals, narrowing down on focus paths, facing competition in the markets, growing into new habits and opportunities, doubling down on strengths, playing the confidence game among different stakeholders, trusting the gut, and more. Tune in! 

This is a summary episode where Aishwarya looks back at the memory lane and talks about the interesting concepts she got to discuss with 18+ guests on The Founder's Foyer show. For anyone starting afresh and the ones who are looking to revisit specific episodes, this is a primer on going about. Tune in. 

Becoming a first-time founder is definitely fun, challenging, and more than anything a roller-coaster ride. Whether it’s transitioning from being an operator or scaling up a side project to something big, the energy and focus are unparalleled. So, what’s it like to hit the start button for foundership? What are the things to keep in mind, trade-offs to handle during decisions, and uncertainties to wade through?   Aarthi Ramamurthy is an entrepreneur, creator, product advisor, and a bearer of so many other hats. Aarthi runs the Good Time Show along with her partner Sriram, and she formerly led product teams at Clubhouse, Netflix, Facebook, and Microsoft, while also co-founding two amazing startups.    Aarthi and Aishwarya chat all things about building early-stage products—Aarthi's journey into Silicon Valley, working at Netflix in its early days, strategy behind putting the red Netflix button to the remote ;), transitioning to becoming a founder, co-founding two startups (top 25 in the Valley), thinking in bets, setting up and running a team, creating content with Good Time Show, and more. Tune in!

User experience is a huge part of ideating, building, and shipping products. Usability defines not just the value of a software but the way teams and companies are going towards the vision they want to achieve.   How do you align product folks towards putting UX at their centre focus? And what are the practices that led to a great experience design with some of the best product brands out there?   Jared Spool is the Co-founder and Maker of Awesomeness at Center Centre – UIE. Jared is also a writer, speaker, educator, and an expert on the subjects of usability, software, design, and research. He’s currently guiding orgs to deliver well-designed products & services. In this episode, Jared and Aishwarya chat all things about user experience design, aligning company strategy with design (examples from Apple, Netflix, Disney), the concept of tipping point and how to overcome that, tying UX with the right metrics to measure impact, and more. Tune in.