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From coding on paper to building one of India’s leading edtech startups — GUVI’s founder Arun Prakash joins Sriram Selvan on Being Scenius to reveal the real story behind startup success.
In this raw and honest episode, Arun breaks down:
* The unseen struggles behind fundraising and investor pressure
* How founders lose control after raising VC money
* Why Indian startups need a different playbook than Silicon Valley
* His journey from Honeywell engineer to entrepreneur
* Lessons on scaling, failing, and staying authentic in the chaos
A must-watch for anyone dreaming of building a startup or curious about the other side of funding, founder burnouts, and real entrepreneurship.
🎧 Watch. Reflect. Build smarter.
About Guvi:
GUVI, co-founded by Arun Prakash (an IIT Madras & IIM Ahmedabad incubated entrepreneur), is transforming tech education in India by making coding and software learning accessible, fun, and career-focused. Known for its Guinness World Record achievement, GUVI empowers learners to gain practical skills and land high-paying tech jobs without traditional barriers.
🚀 Kickstart your tech career today!
Book your free career consultation call here:
https://link.guvi.in/sriramselvan02465
Guest Arun Prakash Handles ⤵︎
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arunprakashm/
Host Sriram Selvan Handles ⤵︎
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sriramselvan/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_sriramselvan/
Twitter: https://x.com/sriramselvank
Mail: [email protected]
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Amazon Links:
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Book suggestions from guests: https://www.amazon.in/shop/_sriramselvan/list/3PIR2AZZQ0XL6
Books for Startup Founders: https://www.amazon.in/shop/_sriramselvan/list/YKJ4XJMNIZF0
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Timestamp
0:00 Coming up
1:41 – From Engineer to Entrepreneur
5:25 – First Exposure to Startups!
8:40 – How College Days Shaped Me!
20:30 – Corporate Lessons that Prepared the Founder
25:00 – Don’t Take Silicon Inspirations Blindly!
36:50 – Does a Corporate Career Help Before Startup?
44:40 – Startup Is Like Your Baby!
45:30 – Why an Ed‑Tech Startup?
57:34 – My Incubation Days in IIT Madras!
1:03:10 – Financial Literacy Every Founder Misses
1:06:40 – Drifting Away from the Original Idea?!
1:14:50 – Hiring—A Founder’s Lessons
1:20:20 – Fundraising Realities
1:31:45 – If I Could Go Back in Time
1:41:20 – Thinking with Exit in Mind
1:52:00 – Rapid Fire & Reflections
About Being Scenius Podcast:
Being Scenius Tamil Podcast is a podcast that features interviews with successful people from Startups, Entrepreneurship, Content Creation, and more. Learn from successful people, get inspired, and achieve your goals.
Subscribe today!
What’s guvi revenue??
Being am an Investors community ,All VC ,shark tank,equity investment all bullshit and gambling..
Keep doing the great work.
I can't express how much i loved this discussion – why did i loved it if you ask? this talk is filled with actionable information not even single bluff about starting a startup. the conversation nailed the reality in every part:
Credibility matters and it's going to be hard without a IIT/IIM tag but if you can prove yourself then it becomes a different story – the path exists, just harder.
I wished Arun said this clearly – he came closer to talking about it – it took him 5 years to realize he took a hard path by inspiring from Sridhar Vembu (Zoho). But let's keep that aside. If you're out of college wanting to build a startup, you need more than couple of AI tools and ability to question everything.
Let's take example of Sridhar Vembu (Zoho) – you see a news that says he's operating from a village and most of you guys go "wow inspiring!" But let's talk the FACTS: this guy did his education in IIT and Princeton University, he was in Bay Area before coming to India, and then he makes products from India selling to US and other European countries.
It's same with Elon Musk – used his connections and Peter Thiel was part of it. Mark Zuckerberg was genius with the network. Falguni Nayar of Nykaa had years of experience. Understand WHO you're taking as role models, WHERE they came from, and dig deeper – you'll understand the stories built around them are just PR.
Connections give credibility, credibility builds stronger connections. If you're lucky you get good connections from your college itself but that's a rare case most of the time. Think it wise versa – would you trust someone very new to bet crores of money? Your credibility builds connection and your connection builds more stronger credibility.
If you don't have anyone to teach or show you the right path – reverse engineer the person who is already where you want to be in 5 or 10 years and follow the path. To be more clear – steal it by reverse engineering their complete journey, not just the headlines.
I really enjoyed this conversation, and we are looking forward for the pitch deck decoding session!
super sir
Kindly make for mechanical production videos plzzzz for startup
Didn’t feel bored even for a minute. Arun’s journey is truly inspiring ..
Tamilians are incapable of speaking Tamil without mixing English words in EACH AND EVERY SENTENCE while speaking Tamil. So, Tamilians are themselves flushing Tamil pride into the toilet likr kakkaa. Yes, just like kakkaa. Yes, exactly like kakkaa.
Best startup business for the Dravidian Tamilians. Dravidian Tamilians are always 24/7 frustrated because Fair & Lovely cream does not change their "condition". Invent a cream or permanent skin paint which will change the skin colour of Dravidian Tamilians from black to white 😂😂😂
Good podcast. Thank you for doing this. So many insights from Mr. Arun Prakash, from being a typical naïve Tamil school kid to the attitude of winning till how reality works when it comes to societal expectations in business/ life. Couple of years ago by accident I ended up as a custodian for a discord server and till now I had little clarity to what to do with it but learning the distinctions of the cultural impacts and how technology binds them all, I hope Mr, Prakash does go forward with the Geek network initiative.