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WTF is with Nikhil Kamath

WTF is with Nikhil Kamath

Written by: Nikhil Kamath
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"WTF is" is a podcast series where Nikhil Kamath hosts friends and industry experts and holds casual yet intellectually stimulating conversations. The podcast covers a broad range of topics of particular current relevance, including technology, social media, renewable energy, electric vehicles, philosophy, gaming, psychology and more.

Copyright 2025 Nikhil Kamath Economics Leadership Management & Leadership
Episodes
  • Abundance vs Scarcity: We Built 20 Brands With 30 Strangers In 90 Days | The Foundery

    Abundance vs Scarcity: We Built 20 Brands With 30 Strangers In 90 Days | The Foundery
    Jun 26 2026

    The street believes struggle makes the founder, so we removed the struggle — twenty-five strangers, a brand and four crores each, ninety days in one house in Alibaug and then sat down to ask the only question that scared us: does a head start make a founder, or unmake one? Nikhil Kamath, Kishore Biyani and Ronnie Screwvala audit the model, the equity split everyone questions, the two philosophies built into this house, and what the three of us will do if twenty brands don't sell.


    00:00 Introduction

    06:18 Is The Foundery a selfish bet?

    12:29 Why building new beats the capitalist high

    18:28 How the company-builder model formed

    24:47 The new consumer categories driving the bets

    30:41 What happens after Day 90

    35:13 The equity split everyone questions: 25% vs 75%

    43:11 Where the ideas come from, and how the gates work

    50:56 Founder–idea fit and the flaws each founder owns

    58:05 Why equity beats an endorsement fee

    1:05:14 What happens if the brands fail

    1:11:08 What actually drives Nikhil

    1:17:46 Abundance vs scarcity in one house

    1:23:54 Social mobility and India's bubbles

    1:28:54 What the founders are unlearning

    1:33:09 Twelve months out: what they'd change


    #NikhilKamath

    Co-Founder of Zerodha and Gruhas

    Host of 'WTF is' & 'People By WTF'

    • Twitter: @nikhilkamathcio on X
    • Instagram: @nikhilkamathcio on Instagram
    • LinkedIn: Nikhil Kamath LinkedIn
    • Facebook: Nikhil Kamath Facebook


    The Foundery is a venture builder that forges entrepreneurs into co-founders and builds companies with them from the ground up.

    • Website: The Foundery
    • Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@UCtJssM5FzLXSWIf5VWUmT2w
    • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jointhefoundery/?hl=en


    Kishore Biyani – Founder & CEO of Future Group


    Ronnie Screwvala – Co-Founder & Chairperson of upGrad, Founder of UTV Group

    • LinkedIn: Ronnie Screwvala LinkedIn


    Watch 'WTF is' Podcast on Spotify

    WTF is Podcast on Spotify


    Watch 'People by WTF' Podcast on Spotify

    People by WTF Podcast on Spotify


    Watch 'WTF Online' on Spotify

    WTF Online on Spotify


    #WTFiswithnikhilkamath #PeopleByWTF #WTFOnline
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    1 hr and 36 mins
  • We Gave 25 Strangers ₹4 Crore Each To Build 20 New Brands | The Foundery

    We Gave 25 Strangers ₹4 Crore Each To Build 20 New Brands | The Foundery
    Jun 23 2026

    So we ran an experiment. We call it The Foundery. Sixty days ago, twenty-five people we'd never met moved into a house in Alibaug — each one handed a new-age consumer brand, four crores, and ninety days to build a real business with us. Not a college, not an accelerator: a place where we become your co-founders and build the company alongside you. In this first conversation, Nikhil Kamath, Kishore Biyani and Ronnie Screwvala get into why we built it, what we're risking, and what happens if none of it works.


    #nikhilkamath Co-founder of Zerodha and Gruhas

    Host of 'WTF is' & 'People By WTF' Podcast

    • Twitter: https://x.com/nikhilkamathcio/
    • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nikhilkamathcio/
    • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikhilkamathcio
    • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nikhilkamathcio/


    The Foundery is a venture builder that forges entrepreneurs into co-founders and builds companies with them from the ground up.

    • Website: https://www.thefoundery.in/


    Kishore Biyani – Founder & CEO of Future Group


    Ronnie Screwvala – Co-Founder & Chairperson of upGrad, Founder of UTV Group

    • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ronniescrewvala/


    Watch 'WTF is' Podcast on Spotify

    https://tinyurl.com/4nsm4ezn


    Watch 'People by WTF' Podcast on Spotify

    https://tinyurl.com/yme92c59


    Watch 'WTF Online' on Spotify

    https://tinyurl.com/4tjua4th


    #WTFiswithnikhilkamath #PeopleByWTF #WTFOnline
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    1 min
  • Why One New Drug Takes Ten Years To Make | Mankind x Dr. Reddy's | WTF is Pharma?

    Why One New Drug Takes Ten Years To Make | Mankind x Dr. Reddy's | WTF is Pharma?
    Jun 17 2026
    I got two of the biggest names in Indian pharma into one room, Rajeev Juneja of Mankind and GV Prasad of Dr. Reddy's, who'd somehow never actually met before this, and what came out was part masterclass and part origin story, from why being relentlessly contrarian beat following the herd, to how a college dropout from Meerut turned everything he hated about a medical store into a pharma giant, to why a chemical engineer who says he owes his career to his marriage spent decades chasing one original molecule, and somewhere in between we got into why India makes the world's generics instead of discovering its own drugs, what it really takes in time and money to bring a single drug to market, why GV thinks the AI-will-cure-everything story is overstated, where GLP-1s go next, and the one thing they'd tell a 25-year-old trying to build in pharma.Timestamps:00:00 Introduction04:27 Rajeev Juneja's path from medical-store apprentice to building Mankind10:11 Mankind's contrarian OTC and bottom-up market strategy16:23 G.V. Prasad on science and the Dr. Reddy's lineage23:06 Segmenting the industry and how generic drugs are made29:15 Why drug purity standards are shared but enforcement differs36:40 Why India is the pharmacy of the world by volume, not revenue41:00 How margins are split across the pharma value chain45:17 Whether online pharmacy and consumer brands are real openings53:15 Whether hospital roll-up valuations are justified59:10 Tariffs, Jan Aushadhi and drug price controls1:03:21 How China built a pharma-innovation ecosystem in a decade1:10:02 Long-horizon governance and removing entrepreneurial fear1:15:40 China's incentives, talent and leverage over the US1:22:01 Why the Ayush and wellness market outgrows pharma1:25:05 The evidence, quality and standardisation debate around Ayurveda1:35:13 The sexual-wellness opportunity and the stigma problem1:40:26 The fertility, IVF and egg-freezing opportunity1:43:45 The API narrative debate and how a drug is synthesised1:50:54 Biologics, monoclonal antibodies and vaccines explained1:55:57 Stem cells and peptides, separating therapy from hype2:00:06 The semaglutide story and how GLP-1 works2:05:01 Mankind's ethical-selling philosophy on GLP-12:08:06 Why India leads in small molecules but lags in biologics2:15:07 Where a young founder can enter the GLP-1 wave2:23:38 The yin and yang of innovators and generics2:29:05 Diagnostics, CDMO and the China-plus-one opportunity2:37:18 Applying AI to pharma and the expired-medicine problem2:43:01 Why founders should never copy a set formula2:45:30 Succession, home diagnostics and the microfluidics frontier #nikhilkamath Co-founder of Zerodha and Gruhas Host of 'WTF is' & 'People By WTF' Podcast Twitter: https://x.com/nikhilkamathcio/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nikhilkamathcio/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikhilkamathcio utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_appFacebook: 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 Spotify https://tinyurl.com/4nsm4eznWatch 'People by WTF' Podcast on Spotify https://tinyurl.com/yme92c59Watch 'WTF Online' on Spotify https://tinyurl.com/4tjua4th#WTFiswithnikhilkamath #PeopleByWTF #WTFOnline
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    2 hrs and 51 mins
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All stars
Most relevant
good sensible talks...enlightening. love to listen daily. love to hear more on varied topics. Its an info and knowledge podcast yet entertaining

Nikhil Kamath

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