Welcome to to episode 31 of First Principles!

If you’ve been listening to us for a while, you’ll notice that this was supposed to be an off week for us as a fortnightly show. We used to release new episodes every other Thursday. And last Thursday was our episode with Ritesh Agarwal of OYO Rooms.

But starting this week, First Principles is now a weekly podcast. We’re going to bring you a fresh conversation every Thursday.

But in a slightly different way.

Well, the supply of truly original, accomplished and candid founders and business leaders in India is what we believe, a finite resource. So while we’d love to – at some point – have a roster of guests talking to us every single week, that isn’t possible right now.

And so, we’re now increasing the duration of our conversations with the leaders we meet to roughly two hours each.

Only to split it into two distinct conversations and episodes.

That’s where this episode comes in.

A couple of weeks ago you heard our episode with Karthik Jayaraman – the co-founder and CEO of WayCool Foods, an agri-tech start up that distributes and processes fresh produce, grains, staples and milk.

It was a wonderfully candid and authentic conversation in which Karthik spoke about complementing, instead of disrupting; treading lightly while making decisions; and starting up at 40.

In fact, we’d urge you to check out the episode – or, if you'd like to go through the full transcript. You can click here to do so.

But what you didn’t hear in that conversation is what we’re releasing today as episode 31.

We talk about why Karthik took such a big risk at 40 by jumping from automobiles into a completely different sector, agri-tech. He also reflects on his career, what got him here, and what keeps him going.

We talked about who Karthik is – as a leader and a CEO. What are the habits that he’s picked up? What has he been reading, and why?

We’ve tied all of this together for today’s episode – a Part 2, on Karthik’s life, career and values.

Check out the First Principles Newsletter, a weekly Sunday read on entrepreneurship, mental models, leadership and reflection here.

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This is episode 31 of First Principles with Karthik Jayaraman, Part 2—The Ken's fortnightly leadership podcast.

The Ken is India's first subscriber-only business journalism platform. Check out our deeply reported long-form stories, insightful newsletters, original podcasts and much more here.

Part 2: Karthik Jayaraman of WayCool looks back on his career, starting up at 40 and building leaders

First Principles