• 1 hour 10 minutes
    The Battery Everyone Uses Is The One They'd Never Build | EnerVenue x HiNa | WTF are Batteries?

    I went to Dalian with a selfish question. I run a fund that invests in energy transition, and I've come to think energy isn't the problem moving it and storing it is. So I sat down with Henning Rath, who runs EnerVenue out of Silicon Valley and is building his first gigafactory in Changzhou, and Tang Kun, who runs HiNa Battery, a sodium-ion company spun out of the Chinese Academy of Sciences that's now ten years old with 600 people and a gigawatt line. I told them I don't know anything about batteries and asked them to teach me. We started at what a cell even is, went through why the entire industry standardised on LFP and what a thermal runaway actually does, and then Henning told me something I hadn't heard: the world had over 14,000 LFP fires last year alone. I asked whether I should start an electric car company or a battery company when I get home. Both said battery and Henning was blunt about it: don't build anything that needs rare earth. Fifty million dollars to start. We got into nickel-hydrogen at 30,000 cycles, sodium carbonate at a tenth of what lithium carbonate costs, why solid state is still at level four out of nine, and the idea I keep coming back to that your car sits idle 98% of the time with a battery and a stack of chips doing nothing, and there's a version of this where every parked car is a micro data center.


    00:00 Introduction

    06:45 China's bet on chemistries beyond lithium

    12:14 Cell chemistry and the trade-offs it forces

    17:15 Thermal runaway and the limits of LFP

    22:44 Production quality and how long a battery lasts

    27:07 Why China won the electric car

    33:54 Decoupling a battery business from lithium and rare earths

    38:50 Sodium's cost advantage and its energy density ceiling

    43:51 Recycling nickel and renting the metal

    48:17 Where generation, storage and demand should sit

    54:05 Decentralization and the car as a grid battery

    1:00:19 Three super cycles and AI's power demand

    1:05:30 Automation, jobs and China's social contract


    Footage Courtesy: World Economic Forum (WEF) CC BY-NC-ND 4.0


    Source: https://www.weforum.org/videos/amnc26_summer_davos_highlights/


    Henning Rath, Chief Executive Officer at EnerVenue


    • Kun Tang, Executive Chairman of HiNa Battery

    LinkedIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kun-tang-52a52327/


    Nikhil Kamath-Co-founder of Zerodha and Gruhas

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


    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


    #WTFareBatteries #EnerVenue #HiNaBattery #SummerDavos

    10 August 2026, 5:12 pm
  • 55 seconds
    Why The Next Battery Won't Need Lithium Or Rare Earth | Nikhil Kamath | WTF Is A Battery

    I went into this wanting one answer, if I were starting something today, should it be an electric car company or a battery company and what I got back was narrower and more useful than I expected: don't build the thing that needs rare earth. We got into why sodium carbonate sits at roughly a tenth of what the equivalent lithium inputs cost, what $50 million actually buys you if you're starting this from scratch, why the world saw over 14,000 LFP fires last year alone and what that says about the chemistry everyone standardised on, and the part I keep coming back to that your car is parked 98% of the time in front of your house, and there's a version of this where that's not a dead asset but a micro data center. Every car a token factory. I didn't see that coming.


    Henning Rath, Chief Executive Officer at EnerVenue


    Footage Source: BYD footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0oMa2jWXaM

    Tesla footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50PU-cQx7j0


    Nikhil Kamath-Co-founder of Zerodha and Gruhas

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


    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


    #WTFareBatteries #EnerVenue #HiNaBattery #SummerDavos

    9 August 2026, 5:26 am
  • 1 hour 35 minutes
    Abundance vs Scarcity: We Built 20 Brands With 30 Strangers In 90 Days | The Foundery

    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'


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


    Kishore Biyani – Founder & CEO of Future Group


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


    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

    26 June 2026, 4:00 pm
  • 1 minute 15 seconds
    We Gave 25 Strangers ₹4 Crore Each To Build 20 New Brands | The Foundery

    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


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


    Kishore Biyani – Founder & CEO of Future Group


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


    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

    23 June 2026, 3:47 pm
  • 2 hours 51 minutes
    Why One New Drug Takes Ten Years To Make | Mankind x Dr. Reddy's | WTF is Pharma?

    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 Introduction

    04:27 Rajeev Juneja's path from medical-store apprentice to building Mankind

    10:11 Mankind's contrarian OTC and bottom-up market strategy

    16:23 G.V. Prasad on science and the Dr. Reddy's lineage

    23:06 Segmenting the industry and how generic drugs are made

    29:15 Why drug purity standards are shared but enforcement differs

    36:40 Why India is the pharmacy of the world by volume, not revenue

    41:00 How margins are split across the pharma value chain

    45:17 Whether online pharmacy and consumer brands are real openings

    53:15 Whether hospital roll-up valuations are justified

    59:10 Tariffs, Jan Aushadhi and drug price controls

    1:03:21 How China built a pharma-innovation ecosystem in a decade

    1:10:02 Long-horizon governance and removing entrepreneurial fear

    1:15:40 China's incentives, talent and leverage over the US

    1:22:01 Why the Ayush and wellness market outgrows pharma

    1:25:05 The evidence, quality and standardisation debate around Ayurveda

    1:35:13 The sexual-wellness opportunity and the stigma problem

    1:40:26 The fertility, IVF and egg-freezing opportunity

    1:43:45 The API narrative debate and how a drug is synthesised

    1:50:54 Biologics, monoclonal antibodies and vaccines explained

    1:55:57 Stem cells and peptides, separating therapy from hype

    2:00:06 The semaglutide story and how GLP-1 works

    2:05:01 Mankind's ethical-selling philosophy on GLP-1

    2:08:06 Why India leads in small molecules but lags in biologics

    2:15:07 Where a young founder can enter the GLP-1 wave

    2:23:38 The yin and yang of innovators and generics

    2:29:05 Diagnostics, CDMO and the China-plus-one opportunity

    2:37:18 Applying AI to pharma and the expired-medicine problem

    2:43:01 Why founders should never copy a set formula

    2:45:30 Succession, home diagnostics and the microfluidics frontier

    #nikhilkamath Co-founder of Zerodha and Gruhas

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


    Rajeev Juneja-Vice Chairman & Managing Director at Mankind Pharma Ltd


    G.V Prasad Reddy-MD & Co-Chairman at Dr. Reddy's


    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

    17 June 2026, 6:27 pm
  • 2 minutes 15 seconds
    Generics, Ozempic & The Fear Holding India Back | WTF is Pharma? | Trailer

    I 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 Gruhas

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


    Rajeev Juneja-Vice Chairman & Managing Director at Mankind Pharma Ltd


    G.V Prasad Reddy-MD & Co-Chairman at Dr. Reddy's


    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

    11 June 2026, 9:31 am
  • 1 hour 24 minutes
    We Backed 17 of India's Brightest Young Founders with ₹20L Grants | WTFund Cohort 3

    Spent a few hours with young bright founders below the age of 25 from the 3rd WTFund cohort. WTFund is a non-dilutive ₹20 lakh grant. From over 3,000 applications, we shortlisted 8 startups. We spoke about what they’re building, but also about doubt, ambition, money, and the uncertainty that comes with starting early. Some clear ideas. Some unfinished thoughts. A conversation that felt more real than structured.


    https://www.allthingswtf.com/wtfund


    00:00 - WTFund Bootcamp

    02:02 - Intro

    03:20 - Prava - AI-Led Transactions

    10:22 - Astraeus Innovus - Preventive Cancer Screening

    18:45 - Turocrates AI - AI-Driven Diagnostics

    26:35 - AntiMattr - Voice-First Computing

    32:12 - O3 security - Securing AI Systems

    39:05 - Bloom Rehab - Tech-Enabled Recovery

    42:00 - Journey to Building

    46:22 - Philosophies of life

    50:31 - Placestation - Automating PCB Assembly

    55:32 - AEYI : AI-Powered CCTV Monitoring

    57:50 - Q&A with Nikhil

    01:04:14 - AI Girlfriend & Dating

    01:05:35 - Schools of Psychology

    01:08:26 - Nikhil's Birthday Plans

    01:09:11 - Golden Hour

    01:10:10 - Healthcare & Longevity

    01:12:33 - Trading

    01:16:32 - Advice for Young Founders 


    #NikhilKamath Co-founder of Zerodha, Gruhas Host of ‘WTF is’ & ‘People by WTF’ Podcast


    WTFund India’s premiere non-dilutive grant fund for emerging entrepreneurs.


    O3 Security A security platform that stops software supply-chain attacks in real time — whether it’s AI-generated or human-written code to production.


    Aeyi Aeyi is a GENAI-powered system that turns normal CCTV cameras into real-time safety and monitoring tools.


    Antimattr AI-powered earbuds for hands-free audio computing.


    BloomRehab Rehabilitation robots for neuro and ortho recovery.


    Astraeus Innovus A ₹100 saliva test that screens for oral cancer in under 5 minutes.


    PlaceStation A desktop system that automates PCB assembly for faster, accessible electronics manufacturing.


    Prava A payments infrastructure layer built specifically for AI shopping assistants and agents.


    Turocrates Improving patient outcomes using a digital and AI-driven operating system for diagnostic labs.


    #WTFund

    30 January 2026, 10:46 am
  • 1 hour 42 minutes
    Nikhil Kamath ft. H.E Omar Sultan Al Olama | The Case for Youth in Politics | Special Ep

    I sat down with His Excellency Omar Sultan Al Olama, the UAE’s youngest minister and the world’s first AI Minister, to unpack how modern governments think about the future and the role younger leaders play in shaping it. A last-minute conversation in Dubai that opened up a thoughtful discussion on youth in politics, leadership, and how AI is beginning to influence the way nations are governed. Big thanks to @IndiaGlobalForum for creating the space for conversations like this, and Manoj Ladwa, a dear friend and a rare connector between India and the rest of the world. People like him, through IGF are helping frame the ideas that will define this decade, and bring them to life


    00:00 – Introduction 

    01:24 – Why AI Changes the Power Balance Between Countries 

    05:05 – Jobs, Intelligence, & What AI Takes Away From Humans 

    13:20 – Why This Conversation Happened at IGF 

    15:42 – Making of a Minister 

    22:18 – Why does anything matter? 

    24:42 – Machiavelli 

    30:23 – Fear or love? How are Leaders Remembered? 

    33:26 – UAE's Legacy & It's Perpetual Importance 

    38:04 – How UAE goes about it's diasporic Governance 

    48:13 – Taxes, Value Exchange, and What Citizens Expect 

    55:09 – Education, Work, and the Path to Government 

    1:12:19 – The Phone Call That Made Him AI Minister at 27 

    1:14:22 – Corruption, Incentives, and Power Structures 

    1:24:46 – AI & Governance 

    1:27:55 – Global Neutrality, Building Bridges & Restraint 

    1:37:49 – Blockchain, Discourse, and Closing Reflections 


    #NikhilKamath Entrepreneur & Investor Host of 'WTF is' & 'People By WTF' Podcast


    #omarsultanalolama : Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy and Remote Work Applications at Government of the UAE


    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

    11 January 2026, 6:28 am
  • 1 minute 26 seconds
    The Case for Youth in Politics | HE Omar Sultan Al Olama (One of the World's Youngest Ministers)

    Came for a conversation, Left with a shift in perspective. A solid case to prove that age isn’t the barrier we think it is. A big thank you to  @IndiaGlobalForum  for hosting this dialogue. And to Manoj Ladwa, for being the bridge that makes conversations like this happen. 


    #NikhilKamath Entrepreneur & Investor Host of 'WTF is' & 'People By WTF' Podcast


    #omarsultanalolama : Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy and Remote Work Applications at Government of the UAE



    #WTFiswithnikhilkamath #PeopleByWTF #WTFOnline

    8 January 2026, 1:06 pm
  • 3 hours 36 minutes
    Tira, Bombay Shaving Co., Inde Wild | WTF is Fueling India's Beauty & Skincare Revolution? | Ep. 25

    Three founders leading India’s skincare wave – Bhakti Modi (Tira), Shantanu Deshpande (Bombay Shaving Company), and Diipa Khosla (Inde Wild) join me to share the highs and lows of building beauty and skincare brands and the trends shaping this booming industry.


    Timestamps:

    00:00 - Intro

    02:39 - Bhakti’s journey & love story

    05:14 - Diipa’s road to Inde Wild

    10:34 - Persona’s role in brand building

    15:07 - How Shantanu started

    20:48 - Valuations & industry secrets

    27:30 - Decoding the salon industry

    34:58 - How Inde Wild made Champi cool again

    38:01 - Market size & shifting narratives

    45:14 - Marketing quality & building a community

    52:41 - Why fragrance is exploding

    1:00:42 - Community’s role in branding

    1:08:04 - Cracking the BPC industry

    1:22:26 - Omnichannel: A must-have?

    1:27:15 - Tariffs, growth & social selling

    1:31:00 - Can Indian brands go global?

    1:34:51 - Cracking influencer marketing

    1:42:15 - Sampling, distribution & minis

    1:48:07 - Sustainability: Do founders still care?

    1:52:54 - What’s the next wave?

    2:04:39 - How the world perceives India

    2:09:48 - Tech’s role in customising

    2:16:10 - Nikhil’s & Diipa’s tattoos

    2:18:14 - Why founders need grit

    2:19:47 - Bhakti & Tira’s origin story

    2:34:10 - Inside Tira: From concept to customer

    2:38:34 - Do celebrity brands work?

    2:44:51 - Why Diipa started Inde Wild

    2:48:25 - Mass, premium, prestige: Which segment is winning?

    3:05:45 - Quick commerce & Tier 2 markets

    3:11:11 - Ayurveda: Still a novelty?

    3:14:43 - The making of Bombay Shaving Company

    3:21:39 - From idea to product: Manufacturing & patents

    3:30:14 - Advice to aspiring skincare founders


    #NikhilKamath - Investor & Entrepreneur

    Twitter: [https://x.com/nikhilkamathcio] (https://www.youtube.com/redirect?even...)


    Bhakti Modi - CEO, Tira

    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bhaktim679/...

    LinkedIn: / bhakti-modi-98a32293 


    Diipa Khosla - Founder, Inde Wild

    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/diipakhosla...

    LinkedIn: https://in.linkedin.com/in/diipa-khos....

    Website: https://india.indewild.com/?utm_campa...


    Shantanu Deshpande - Founder, Bombay Shaving Company

    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shantanudes...

    LinkedIn: / shantanudeshpandebsc  

    5 November 2025, 1:06 pm
  • 1 minute 55 seconds
    Inside India's Booming Skincare Industry | Ep. 25 Teaser

    Bhakti Modi (Tira), Shantanu Deshpande (Bombay Shaving Company), and Diipa Khosla (Inde Wild) joined forces to answer one question:


    What should 25-year-old Dilip build next?


    Bhakti Modi

    CEO, Tira

    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bhaktim679/...

    LinkedIn: / bhakti-modi-98a32293 


    Diipa Khosla

    Founder, Inde Wild

    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/diipakhosla...

    LinkedIn : https://in.linkedin.com/in/diipa-khos....


    Shantanu Deshpande

    Founder, Bombay Shaving Company

    Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/shantanudes...

    LinkedIn : / shantanudeshpandebsc 

    5 November 2025, 4:30 am
  • More Episodes? Get the App