Podcast
People by WTF
Hosted by Nikhil Kamath · EN
People by WTF is a series where Nikhil Kamath has a conversation with personalities who stand out in their industries around the world.
24episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Generics, Ozempic & The Fear Holding India Back | WTF is Pharma? | Trailer
1w ago00:02:15Tap to summarizeI always assumed India was becoming the pharmacy of the world, until this conversation made me sit with the sharper truth that we're the generic pharmacy of the world, and from there we got into whether China really killed our API industry or whether Indians still quietly lead it, why a drug like semaglutide turns into a miracle and a problem the second everyone wants it, the side effects nobody wants to talk about, the ethics of running a prescription-driven business, whether the global enthusiasm around Indian hospitals is actually justified, and why fear might be the single biggest thing holding Indian entrepreneurship back.#nikhilkamath Co-founder of Zerodha and GruhasHost of 'WTF is' & 'People By WTF' PodcastTwitter: https://x.com/nikhilkamathcio/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nikhilkamathcio/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikhilkamathcioFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/nikhilkamathcio/Rajeev Juneja-Vice Chairman & Managing Director at Mankind Pharma LtdLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajeev-juneja-27882a24b/G.V Prasad Reddy-MD & Co-Chairman at Dr. Reddy'sLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gvprasadster/Watch 'WTF is' Podcast on Spotifyhttps://tinyurl.com/4nsm4eznWatch 'People by WTF' Podcast on Spotifyhttps://tinyurl.com/yme92c59Watch 'WTF Online' on Spotifyhttps://tinyurl.com/4tjua4th#WTFiswithnikhilkamath #PeopleByWTF #WTFOnline
Transcribe →Martin Escobari: Trauma, Chaos & Three Industries Worth $100B | Nikhil Kamath | People by WTF
3w ago01:33:44Tap to summarizeMartin Escobari is the co-president of General Atlantic, one of the largest growth equity funds in the world, and he says entrepreneurs and gangsters have more in common than we admit — so few make it, so many die early, and the ones that survive are almost always wounded in some specific way. He grew up in Bolivia in the 80s through 35,000% inflation, eleven presidents in ten years, and three coups; his family lost everything in a revolution; and he now believes America is converging towards the volatility he escaped, not the other way around. I brought in Arian, a 21-year-old founder who cold emailed Sam Altman from India, and asked Martin to allocate $100 billion across three industries with a blank slate today — AI, healthcare, energy transition, and the rise of the new consumer in the global south. We got into why India hasn't produced a truly global company, why four out of seven frauds in General Atlantic's entire history happened here, why the next generation of Indian founders has to build without shortcuts, and why fiction makes better investors than non-fiction. The most interesting two hours I've spent at a dinner table this year.Timestamp:00:00 Introduction05:14 Engineering a happy life08:22 Surviving Bolivia's hyperinflation12:19 Trauma as the engine behind every entrepreneur20:17 Built-for-turbulence companies and spear fishing the storm25:31 Is America still worth the journey, and what is wealth for31:00 Capitalism, communism, and learning to think critically37:19 Submarino, the IPO crash, and the India that almost was43:02 Aryan's story: cold-emailing Sam Altman from Mumbai51:18 The four mega-trends and where to put 100 billion1:01:53 Why India has never built a global company1:10:25 How General Atlantic is built: perpetual capital and pooled bets1:16:14 Manifestation, the 8-second rule, and the checklist for great companies1:24:23 Failure, dead ends, and the courage to change your mind1:28:36 The venture-to-IPO value chain, monopolies, and young revolutionaries#nikhilkamath Co-founder of Zerodha and GruhasHost of 'WTF is' & 'People By WTF' PodcastTwitter: x.com/nikhilkamathcioInstagram: instagram.com/nikhilkamathcioLinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/nikhilkamathcioFacebook: facebook.com/nikhilkamathcio#MartinEscobari — Co-President and Head of Global Growth Equity at General AtlanticLinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/martin-escobariTwitter: x.com/MartinEscobariWatch 'WTF is' Podcast on SpotifySpotify LinkWatch 'People by WTF' Podcast on SpotifySpotify LinkWatch 'WTF Online' on SpotifySpotify Link#WTFiswithnikhilkamath #PeopleByWTF #WTFOnline
Transcribe →Martin Escobari: "America Is Freaking Out About 5%, We Had 35,000%" | Ep. 22 Trailer | People by WTF
3w ago00:02:02Tap to summarizeMartin Escobari is the co-president of General Atlantic — one of the largest growth equity funds in the world, with over $5 billion deployed into India. He grew up in Bolivia in the 80s with 35,000% inflation, eleven presidents in ten years, three coups, and a family that lost everything in a revolution.I sat him down with a few Columbia Business School students and a 21-year-old AI founder named Arian and asked him the questions a 20-year-old and a 40-year-old would each ask differently.Full episode drops soon.#nikhilkamath Co-founder of Zerodha and GruhasHost of 'WTF is' & 'People By WTF' PodcastTwitter: x.com/nikhilkamathcioInstagram: instagram.com/nikhilkamathcioLinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/nikhilkamathcioFacebook: facebook.com/nikhilkamathcio#MartinEscobari — Co-President and Head of Global Growth Equity at General AtlanticLinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/martin-escobariTwitter: x.com/MartinEscobariWatch 'WTF is' Podcast on SpotifySpotify LinkWatch 'People by WTF' Podcast on SpotifySpotify LinkWatch 'WTF Online' on SpotifySpotify Link#WTFiswithnikhilkamath #PeopleByWTF #WTFOnline
Transcribe →The $120 Billion Man: Poverty, Power & Why Jobs Fix Everything | Ajay Banga x Nikhil Kamath | People by WTF
Apr 2101:23:57Tap to summarizeAjay Banga took Mastercard from a $30 billion company to $360 billion in a decade, was the frontrunner to run Citibank's quarter of a million people, quit to become CEO of a company with 4,000 — and today runs the World Bank Group, a $120 billion-a-year institution that was originally built to rebuild Europe and Japan after the Second World War and now exists to kill poverty by creating jobs. He says 600 million people in Africa have zero electricity and he doesn't mean inadequate electricity he means black none, that 1.2 billion young people in the developing world will turn 18 in the next 15 years with only 400 million jobs projected for them, that if you don't give them hope the demographic dividend stops being a light at the end of the tunnel and becomes a freight train, that the five sectors governments should obsess over are infrastructure and smallholder farming and primary healthcare and tourism and value-added manufacturing, that India gets fewer tourists a year than a country a fraction of its size and cultural weight, that the World Bank financed Japan's bullet trains and France's nuclear plants and helped create HDFC, that every dollar invested in tourism creates more jobs than a dollar in any other sector, that fossil fuels aren't going away but energy security is becoming a national security question, that small AI delivered on a phone to an illiterate farmer matters more to the developing world than large language models, that life is 50% luck but most people leave their luck on the station platform and forget about it, and that the only way to put a nail in the coffin of poverty is to give somebody a job because earnings are not just subsistence — they are hope and optimism and the belief that tomorrow will be better than today00:00 Introduction02:26 AJ's career journey across industries09:00 Consumption patterns and consumer insecurity15:00 World Bank's five-part structure explained22:00 Killing poverty through job creation29:00 Primary healthcare and farmer empowerment35:00 Wealth concentration versus societal prosperity spread42:00 Demographic dividend becoming freight train49:00 Five sectors driving future jobs56:00 Decency quotient over IQ EQ1:03:00 Energy security and nuclear opportunities1:10:00 Forward thinking beats historical grievances1:17:00 Luck flexibility and taking risks1:23:00 Closing message on optimismNikhil Kamath Entrepreneur & InvestorHost of 'WTF is' & 'People By WTF' PodcastTwitter: https://x.com/nikhilkamathcio/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nikhilkamathcio/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikhilkamathcio/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nikhilkamathcio/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-world-bank-group/X - https://x.com/WorldBankGroupInstagram - https://www.instagram.com/worldbankgroup/Watch 'WTF is' Podcast on Spotifyhttps://tinyurl.com/4nsm4eznWatch 'People by WTF' Podcast on Spotifyhttps://tinyurl.com/yme92c59Watch 'WTF Online' on Spotifyhttps://tinyurl.com/4tjua4th#WTFiswithnikhilkamath #PeopleByWTF #WTFOnline
Transcribe →Ajay Banga x Nikhil Kamath | Ep. Trailer | People by WTF
Apr 1800:01:38Tap to summarizeAjay Banga took Mastercard from a $30 billion company to $360 billion, left when he was the frontrunner to run Citibank's 250,000 people, and now controls $120 billion a year as the President of the World Bank Group — the institution that was built after the Second World War to stop poverty from turning into war. He says life is 50% luck but most people leave their luck on the station platform, that India gets under 20 million tourists a year which is insane for a country with beaches, mountains, culture, history, food and what he calls cool people, and that the world is about to have 1.2 billion young people turn 18 with only 400 million jobs waiting for them — and if you don't give them hope, the demographic dividend becomes a freight train. Full episode drops soon.Nikhil Kamath Co-founder of Zerodha and GruhasHost of 'WTF is' & 'People By WTF' PodcastTwitter: https://x.com/nikhilkamathcio/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nikhilkamathcio/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikhilkamathcio/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nikhilkamathcio/World Bank Group:X - https://x.com/WorldBankGroupInstagram - https://www.instagram.com/worldbankgroup/Watch 'WTF is' Podcast on Spotifyhttps://tinyurl.com/4nsm4eznWatch 'People by WTF' Podcast on Spotifyhttps://tinyurl.com/yme92c59Watch 'WTF Online' on Spotifyhttps://tinyurl.com/4tjua4th#WTFiswithnikhilkamath #PeopleByWTF #WTFOnline
Transcribe →Rishi Sunak & Akshata Murty: Dharma, Failure & The Middle Path | Nikhil Kamath | People by WTF
Mar 2503:02:25Tap to summarizeRishi Sunak says patience is a bigger competitive advantage than speed, that every decision that reaches a leader is 50-50 by definition because if it weren't someone else would have made it, that the long term is just a succession of short terms you either survived or got kicked out of, and that the thing he wishes he'd done more of in his career is read fiction — because non-fiction tells you what to do and how to do it but fiction teaches you why and gives you a deeper understanding of people.Akshata Murty says her identity was never her father's name or her husband's title, that the middle path between stoicism and epicureanism is where the answer almost always lives, and that the validation she chases is impact — not position, not wealth, not the approval of people who've already decided who she is.First couple's episode we've ever done, and it went places none of us expected.Timestamps:00:00 Introduction06:04 Foundery: India's consumer brand accelerator12:20 Storytelling as a leadership superpower18:05 Parents' pharmacy inspired political career24:04 Educating children in the AI era30:05 Leaning into human skills over AI36:17 How Rishi and Akshata decide differently42:10 Goldman Sachs to Prime Minister journey48:03 Patience as an underrated competitive advantage54:15 Entering politics: resilience, patience, service1:00:06 Staying unapologetically Indian in British politics1:06:51 Life inside 10 Downing Street1:12:20 AI sovereignty and global trade tensions1:18:32 De-globalisation and supply chain resilience1:24:38 Free trade, tariffs, and level playing fields1:31:17 Akshata's identity beyond famous family1:37:53 Validation through impact, not inheritance1:44:04 Finding balance between desire and austerity1:50:04 Being kind to yourself after failure1:56:42 Identity, heritage, and the living bridge2:03:03 Nostalgic Bangalore food and childhood memories2:09:05 Why young Indians should enter politics2:16:03 Education, financial literacy, and compounding2:22:04 Learning to learn in the AI age2:29:52 How Rishi and Akshata use AI daily2:37:09 Can AI truly be creative?2:44:06 Losing the Prime Ministership: lessons in dharma2:51:30 Poets versus politicians: who should we hear?2:58:17 Motivating young people to shape policyNikhil KamathCo-founder of Zerodha and GruhasHost of 'WTF is' & 'People By WTF' PodcastTwitter: https://x.com/nikhilkamathcio/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nikhilkamathcioLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikhilkamathcio/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nikhilkamathcioRishi SunakYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@rishisunakX: https://x.com/RishiSunak?s=20Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rishisunakmpFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/rishisunakAkshata MurtyYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@akshataonlineX: https://x.com/anmurtyInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/rishisunakmpFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/rishisunakWatch on Spotifyhttps://tinyurl.com/4nsm4eznhttps://tinyurl.com/yme92c59https://tinyurl.com/4tjua4th#WTFiswithnikhilkamath#PeopleByWTF#WTFOnline
Transcribe →Rishi Sunak & Akshata Murty : Marriage, Power & Losing All In Public | Nikhil Kamath | People by WTF
Mar 2300:01:37Tap to summarizeRishi Sunak says he could not function without his marriage, that losing the most public job in the world taught him that the Gita was right about focusing on dharma and not outcomes, and that the blank canvas at 45 is more exciting than the track that got him there. Akshata Murty says she’s not stuck on being her father’s daughter or her husband’s wife, she is clear on who she is than any title ever made her and the answer to most things lives in balance, somewhere between stoicism and epicureanism. First couple's episode. Full conversation drops soon.#nikhilkamath Co-founder of Zerodha and GruhasHost of 'WTF is' & 'People By WTF' PodcastTwitter: https://x.com/nikhilkamathcio/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nikhilkamathcio/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikhilkamathcio/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nikhilkamathcio/#rishisunak Former PM of the UKYoutube - https://www.youtube.com/@rishisunakX - https://x.com/RishiSunak?s=20Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/rishisunakmp/Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/rishisunakLinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/rishi-sunak#akshatamurty Businesswoman and PhilanthropistYoutube - https://www.youtube.com/@akshataonlineX - https://x.com/anmurtyInstagram - https://www.instagram.com/rishisunakmp/Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/rishisunakLinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/akshata-murty-5a04232Watch 'WTF is' Podcast on Spotifyhttps://tinyurl.com/4nsm4eznWatch 'People by WTF' Podcast on Spotifyhttps://tinyurl.com/yme92c59Watch 'WTF Online' on Spotifyhttps://tinyurl.com/4tjua4th#WTFiswithnikhilkamath #PeopleByWTF #WTFOnline
Transcribe →I can't believe I said this
Mar 2300:00:24Tap to summarizeOne of them says the Gita's line on duty over outcomes is what got him through the most public failure of his life. The other says her identity has never been her father's name or her husband's title. They've been together 20 years and still argue about ice cream flavours. First couple's episode we've ever done.#nikhilkamath Co-founder of Zerodha and GruhasHost of 'WTF is' & 'People By WTF' PodcastTwitter: https://x.com/nikhilkamathcio/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nikhilkamathcio/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikhilkamathkamathcio/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nikhilkamathcio/Watch 'WTF is' Podcast on Spotifyhttps://tinyurl.com/4nsm4eznWatch 'People by WTF' Podcast on Spotifyhttps://tinyurl.com/yme92c59Watch 'WTF Online' on Spotifyhttps://tinyurl.com/4tjua4th#WTFiswithnikhilkamath #PeopleByWTF #WTFOnline
Transcribe →Pain, Power & The Game Nobody Wins | Chamath Palihapitiya x Nikhil Kamath | People by WTF
Mar 201:10:30Tap to summarizeI sat down with Chamath Palihapitiya. He sold a company to Nvidia for $20 billion, woke up the next morning, saw $13 billion hit the account, and felt nothing. This is a guy who grew up in a home with alcoholism and abuse, immigrated to Canada with nothing, lost billions on SPACs, rebuilt, and now says the whole game is exactly that — a game. We got into the uncomfortable stuff: why pain is the single best predictor of entrepreneurial success, why investing is never a team sport and anyone who says otherwise is losing money, and why Bitcoin has a structural flaw that will permanently cap its ceiling. Chamath makes the case that Trump is the most effective political athlete America has ever seen, that some form of socialism is probably inevitable if we don't fix student debt and housing, and that his next obsession is building the machine that makes the machine — a software factory for the AI era.00:00 Introduction06:09 Chamath’s Painful Childhood & Hunger11:16 What Actually Matters Beyond Success17:06 Business as a Game, Not Life22:04 The Machine That Makes Machines29:11 Trump, Trade & America’s Political Reset37:30 Investing Lessons: Conviction Over Consensus43:12 Bitcoin’s Structural Flaws & Limitations49:56 The Conceptual Stack for AI Investing55:12 AI Hype, Valuations & Catastrophising58:26 Socialism’s Inevitable Rise & Boundary Fixes1:03:48 Building Sovereign Social Media from India#nikhilkamath Co-founder of Zerodha and GruhasHost of 'WTF is' & 'People By WTF' PodcastTwitter : https://x.com/nikhilkamathcio/Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/nikhilkamathcio/LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikhilkamathcio/Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/nikhilkamathcio/#chamathpalihapitiyaLinkedIN : https://www.linkedin.com/in/chamath/X - https://x.com/chamathWatch 'WTF is' Podcast on Spotifyhttps://tinyurl.com/4nsm4eznWatch 'People by WTF' Podcast on Spotify https://tinyurl.com/yme92c59Watch 'WTF Online' on Spotifyhttps://tinyurl.com/4tjua4th#WTFiswithnikhilkamath #PeopleByWTF #WTFOnline #chamath #chamathpalihapitiya #nvidia #software #ai #business #trump #podcast
Transcribe →Chamath Palihapitiya x Nikhil Kamath | Ep. 19 Trailer | People by WTF
Feb 2800:01:44Tap to summarizeChamath Palihapitiya has made and lost billions. He backed Tesla, Bitcoin, and the Golden State Warriors when everyone told him he was insane. Now he's building what he calls a software factory — the machine that makes the machine. We talked about why pain is a prerequisite for scale, why socialism might be closer than any capitalist wants to admit, and why none of the metrics society uses to measure success actually mean anything. This was not a polished conversation.Chamath Palihapitiya has made and lost billions. He backed Tesla, Bitcoin, and the Golden State Warriors when everyone told him he was insane. Now he's building what he calls a software factory — the machine that makes the machine. We talked about why pain is a prerequisite for scale, why socialism might be closer than any capitalist wants to admit, and why none of the metrics society uses to measure success actually mean anything. This was not a polished conversation.#nikhilkamath Co-founder of Zerodha and GruhasHost of 'WTF is' & 'People By WTF' PodcastTwitter : https://x.com/nikhilkamathcio/Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/nikhilkamathcio/LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikhilkamathcio/Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/nikhilkamathcio/#chamathpalihapitiyaLinkedIN : https://www.linkedin.com/in/chamath/X - https://x.com/chamathWatch 'WTF is' Podcast on Spotifyhttps://tinyurl.com/4nsm4eznWatch 'People by WTF' Podcast on Spotify https://tinyurl.com/yme92c59Watch 'WTF Online' on Spotifyhttps://tinyurl.com/4tjua4th#WTFiswithnikhilkamath #PeopleByWTF #WTFOnline #chamath #chamathpalihapitiya #nvidia #software #ai #business #trump #podcast
Transcribe →