E131: Ashok Hariharan (CEO, IDfy)

The Desi VC with Akash Bhat

Ashok is the Co-founder and CEO of IDfy, an online fraud detection and identity platform that provides background verification services to banks and financial institutions. He started his career in semi-conductors, building high-speed network processors. His MBA degree took him away from Engineering and into the world of Business Strategy. He worked with British Telecom in London for 5 years before deciding that his heart lay in creating value grounds-up.

The company has raised over $54M from IndiaMart, KB Investment, Blume Ventures, Elev8 Venture Partners among many others.

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Episode Notes:

1. Introduction (2:00)
2. Was entrepreneurship part of Ashok’s career plan (3:04)
3. Early influence of entrepreneurship (4:40)
4. Learnings from building (13:50)
5. What does entrepreneurship teach you about failure and setbacks (25:00)
6. Struggling with mental health as founders (30:00)
7. Evolving as a founder: Doer to enabler (39:45)
8. Building a ‘change culture’ (44:01)
9. Impact of entrepreneurship on personal life (51:35)
10. Advice to self and other founders (54:29)

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Social Links:

1. Follow ⁠⁠Ashok on Twitter⁠⁠
2. Follow ⁠⁠⁠Ashok on LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠
3. Follow ⁠⁠⁠The Desi VC on LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠
4. Follow ⁠⁠⁠Akash Bhat on Twitter⁠⁠⁠
5. Follow ⁠⁠Akash Bhat on LinkedIn