MAM
Webchutney co-founder &CEO, Sidharth Rao reveals the incredible stories of India’s most successful digital entrepreneurs in his first book, ‘How I Almost Blew It’, published by Westland
MUMBAI: CEO and Co-Founder of India’s leading digital agency, DentsuWebchutney, Sidharth Rao today, announced the releaseof his first book ‘How I Almost Blew It’, an anthology of the myriad stories of India’s highly admired entrepreneurs. Encapsulated by this well-known digital honcho and published by Westland Publications (an Amazon company), the book narrates the heart-stopping stories of speckled industry tycoons and their critical life lessons.
The book is an account of how some of the most successful entrepreneurs of India built their businesses such as Sanjeev Bikhchandani (Info Edge and Naukri.com), Deep Kalra (MakeMyTrip), Deepinder Goyal (Zomato), Ashish Hemrajani (BookMyShow), Sahil Barua (Delhivery),Kunal Shah (FreeCharge), MurugavelJanakiraman (Bharat Matrimony), Ajit Balakrishnan (Rediff.com), Anupam Mittal (People Group), Brijesh Agarwal (India MART), Jitendra Gupta (Citrus Pay), Pradeep Kar (Microland), SatyanGajwani (Times Internet), Rajesh Jain (IndiaWorld), Alok Mittal (JobsAhead.com), R. Ramaraj (Sify) and Girish Mathrubootham (Freshworks) —that will shock, reveal and inspire.
Delighted to being a first time author, Sidharth Rao, CEO and Co-Founder of DentsuWebchutney, says, “I consider myself privileged to have had the opportunity to pick the brains of so many icons of India's internet story. Webchutney and I have both been on the other side of the table with some of these founders and their companies as marketing partners, and now I'm excited to tell their stories about their fortitude, courage, hard work and sometimes dumb luck that helped them succeed. I will forever remain grateful to them for freewheeling conversations with me that helped me write the book. I hope it will be liked by the readers and to those who have the potential to start their own businesses.”
How I Almost Blew It is a light, non-fiction read and a guide containing lessons, wisdom and insight into the industry for your own start-up. Alluring to young and older readers of the business world, these spell-binding and intriguing stories of near-fiascos are industry wisdom, yes, but also critical life lessons.
MAM
Smytten appoints Shishir Varma as CEO of Pulseai Research
Rebranded AI platform scales with 150 plus clients and 30 million users.
MUMBAI: In a world obsessed with what consumers say, Smytten is betting on what they actually do. The company has appointed Shishir Varma as chief executive officer of Pulseai Research, signalling a sharper push into AI-led, behaviour-driven consumer insights. The move comes as Smytten rebrands its insights vertical from Smytten PulseAI to Pulseai Research, marking a shift away from traditional, project-based research towards a more continuous, intelligence-led model.
Varma brings over 30 years of global experience across APAC markets, including India, China and Japan. Most recently managing director, Insights at Kantar Japan, he has built and scaled consumer insight businesses across geographies, including playing a key role in establishing Millward Brown in India. His mandate now: turn Pulseai into a category-defining platform in a space still dominated by surveys and static reports.
The pitch is straightforward but ambitious. Instead of relying on claimed responses, Pulseai Research taps into observed behaviour leveraging Smytten’s ecosystem of 30 million users built over a decade of product discovery, trials and purchases. The idea is to close the long-standing gap between what consumers claim and how they actually behave.
The numbers suggest early traction. In under 18 months, the platform has onboarded over 150 enterprise clients across sectors, pointing to growing demand for faster, more reliable alternatives to legacy research models.
Under the hood, the platform blends behavioural data with AI and large language model-led analysis to deliver real-time sentiment tracking, scalable qualitative insights, faster quantitative studies and always-on brand intelligence. In practical terms, that means compressing research timelines from weeks to days without sacrificing depth.
The ambition extends beyond FMCG. Pulseai Research is positioning itself as a cross-category intelligence layer, spanning auto, education, gadgets and emerging consumer segments anywhere behaviour-rich data can sharpen decision-making.
For Smytten, the leadership hire is less about optics and more about direction. With Varma at the helm, the company is leaning into a simple but powerful premise: in the age of AI, insight isn’t just about asking better questions, it’s about watching more closely.
