Nitin Bajaj

Hey, everyone. Welcome to the industry show. I’m your host, Nitin Bajaj. And joining me today is Kirthiga Reddy. Kirthiga, welcome on the show.

Kirthiga Reddy

I am so excited to be here.

Nitin Bajaj

Super excited to have you here. Let’s talk about who is Kirthiga.

Kirthiga Reddy

Nitin, from a personal level, I am an optimist, a technologist, and an adventurer. At a professional level, I identify as being a builder. My 1st decade professionally was building on the engineering and the product side. The next decade was on the business side as a tech executive, 1st employee for Facebook in India. They are managing director for India and South Asia. And then this past decade has been that of being an investor and a founder, 1st female investment partner at SoftBank Vision Fund, cofounded a social impact initiative called Liftry focused on working mothers and am the founder and CEO of Virtualness, a gen AI and blockchain platform that is redefining authentication, monetization, and engagement.

Nitin Bajaj

And I’ve never heard so much in a minute. So many things accomplished, so many firsts and so many more successes to come. So again, thank you for being here to share your journey and story. And let’s talk about Virtualness. Tell us what the mission, the vision is, but also and I know it’s it’s relatively early days, but you’ve had some phenomenal traction. So give us a sense for the size and scale and and where you and the team and the product is headed from here.

Kirthiga Reddy

Yeah. So, Nitin, I talked about identifying as a technologist.

Nitin Bajaj

Mhmm.

Kirthiga Reddy

I’ve seen several technology driven transformations. The first wave of the Internet era was about a read era where the giants like Google where you read information. Then you went into the read write era with giants like Meta and Facebook where you are not only reading information but interacting with brands, sports, media. And now we are going into the Reddy, write, own era with the advent of blockchain, where you not only have the opportunity to read and write, but also for the first time, you have the ability to have authenticated digital assets. People, when they think about NFTs, they think about boarded your club. They think about scams, but there’s a lot more to blockchain than that. Again, for the first time, you have the ability to have an authentic digital asset. It’s like a mini computer. You can build functionality into it. I have teenage girls. When they get their degree certificate, Nathan, they might get a piece of paper as they walk the stage, but their actual degree certificate will be an NFT that’s validated on blockchain. So we are taking that promise. And having seen the last two waves of technology shifts and having been part of onboarding a region of brands, creators, sports Reddy onto web to social mobile. We are doing the same thing with blockchain and gen AI. So that’s where Virtualness comes into play. We are an end to end mobile first platform. So the likes of Liga 1 which is the largest football league in Asia to, working with the Asian Academy Awards where for the first time, they had not just a physical trophy, but also an authenticated digital trophy. 2, most recently, I was in Atlanta where we partnered with Guinness World Record, with Women in Cloud where they had the most number of concurrent vision boards, and we were the authentication partner, Nitin. So that’s the range of clients that we serve and we’re Reddy, very excited about this new wave of not just read, write, but also own and about being the platform and the infrastructure that enables that.

Nitin Bajaj

That’s phenomenal. And what I love about this is it’s not just happening in US, in Silicon Valley. It’s across the board. You briefly mentioned to me the Mumbai Tech Week, where you said there were people from 18 countries and and many different, what about sixties, 65 cities. And, that’s that’s phenomenal. That percolation, that spread of technology to pretty much across the world and Virtualness is the enabler for that, that’s quite something. And all of this is in a span of how many months that you’ve been able to accomplish this?

Kirthiga Reddy

You know, a year and a half. So we bootstrapped for a bit. And then, by the way, even as we were bootstrapping, we were across 4 countries. Myself in the United States, my cofounder in Singapore, he used to lead the creator economy for Asia Pacific for Meta, and we have incredible team in Dubai and in India. Now we have a team in 7 countries which includes the Philippines, which includes Indonesia given our large deals there. We have members in Argentina, and it is top type, top 5% talent across the different functions across the world. And the big unlock, Nitin, that Virtualness provides is the fact that we we have a team that understands both scale as well as simplicity. So we have had partners who have come to us and said that they have wanted this kind of functionality for years. But until now, it was shrouded under all of the complexities of you need to have a wallet, you need to understand blockchain, you need to put things together with 5 different tools. And we brought all of that in one tool. You can log in using your regular social media channel. In a minute and a half, you can create your own authenticated digital storefront and put it up for gifting or for selling and make it available to over a 190 countries all in a minute and a half, Nitin. Jeez.

Nitin Bajaj

That is time to value. That is time to awesomeness. That’s phenomenal. Congratulations.

Kirthiga Reddy

Thank you. I love the fact that you said awesomeness because sometimes when people ask me, what is the name of the company? I said, it’s Virtualness. It rhymes with awesomeness. It rhymes with happiness. And it’s all of that.

Nitin Bajaj

Love that. Whoever came up with the name? Genius.

Kirthiga Reddy

My cofounder. Big kudos to him.

Nitin Bajaj

That’s awesome. Now let’s talk about as we talk about the phenomenal things that are happening, I’m sure there is also many challenges that are coming up because in many ways, this is you’re not just at the cutting edge. You’re defining the edge. So tell us about the one big challenge you’re facing.

Kirthiga Reddy

Nitin, I would say the one big challenge is, as you said, this is a new area and every new area has many good actors, some bad actors, and the bad actors then really slow down the industry. Mhmm. So this whole industry went through a huge, negative sentiment, especially in the United States. Of course, things have turned around. As the beginning of the year, I was here at CES when, the SEC approved the the ETFs. And that has caused a huge sentiment shift in the United States. We see a much more positive sentiment across more developing countries. And so it’s great for us to be having this global perspective so that we can see what’s happening in different markets and make sure we are doubling down at the right time. I would say that’s the biggest challenge is all of the sentiment side that then obscures the pure value of that technology. But I will also predict, Nitin, that all of us will be using blockchain even without knowing about it, And maybe you likely already are.

Nitin Bajaj

I agree. Now on the flip side of challenges come opportunities. And there’s so many, especially when you are the 1st mover in such a big domain that, as you said, is probably already impacting us. What’s the one shining opportunity that you would like to call out?

Kirthiga Reddy

Nitin, actually, one, I would say that we actually I I think I’d call ourselves the second mover. I think we saw a whole wave of companies in, call it, the 2020

Nitin Bajaj

Mhmm.

Kirthiga Reddy

And the 2021 time frame at the hype cycle. I am so glad personally to be building in this space

Nitin Bajaj

Yes.

Kirthiga Reddy

Where the hype is gone and it’s about pure value.

Nitin Bajaj

Yes.

Kirthiga Reddy

One of the biggest opportunities that we see is around the whole area of authentication of awards, events, memorable. It wasn’t even something that was a key focus area when we started, but take the example of Mumbai Tech Week. Take the example of the Guinness world record. The whole notion of being, you know, a DocuSign kind of business where we are helping authenticate all of these different sentiments. And I look forward to, for example, getting authenticated blockchain digital keepsake from this podcast recording

Nitin Bajaj

Yes.

Kirthiga Reddy

And be able to share it with all of our audiences listening so that they have this momentum that’s forever. I will contrast it to 3 weeks ago, I I ran the Las Vegas half marathon.

Nitin Bajaj

Mhmm.

Kirthiga Reddy

At the end of it, I got this medal. And by the way, there is nothing that authenticates that medal as really having been made by the rock and roll, marathon nor the fact that I actually ran it. Someone could have picked it up. Mhmm. All of that is gonna change. LinkedIn in a few years will not allow you to just put anything up there as honors and mentions. That’s the biggest opportunity that we see, and we’re very excited about that area and how it percolates to helping authenticate moments from creators, brand, sports, media, entertainment.

Nitin Bajaj

That’s huge. That is amazing. And I’m glad that you’re really excited. Yeah. And I’m glad that you’re at the heart and center of this because you obviously have the background, the experience you’ve done this, not just here, but across the globe. And you have many first to your hats already. So super excited about that.

Kirthiga Reddy

I reflect on, you know, you know, Steve Job talks about dots connecting in the hindsight.

Nitin Bajaj

Yes.

Kirthiga Reddy

And, truly as I think about what I get to do and the people that I get to work with, I feel that everything that I did before, whether it’s on the engineering side, whether it’s on the business side, and then what I did on the investing side all comes together so beautifully in what it is that I’m able to do today, Nitin.

Nitin Bajaj

That’s awesome. That’s your ikigai. Those three things kinda coming together. The the talent, the purpose, and the magic that comes out of it. Amazing. Now as we were looking forward and talking about what’s next, I wanna pause, take a moment and reflect in the rearview mirror and have you share a couple of moments. One where things did not work out as you had expected. There was failure, a lesson. And on the other end where things blew beyond your imagination and it became a success that you hadn’t even imagined. So please, if you can share us, share with us those two moments.

Kirthiga Reddy

When you talk of failures and lessons learned, 1, so many come to mind. And if I had to pick 1, it would probably be when I was a product manager, had worked really hard over the year, and was looking forward to my annual rating. And come my annual rating, the the rating was not what I expected it to be. It was lower. And in that conversation, the feedback that I got was about, like, one particular meeting that, that did not go well to which I looked back and said, you you know that there were 20 different things going on at that time. And I was actually having my second child then. I was counting my contractions, and I still got this done. And to which the response was, it’s always about quality. Never sacrifice quality for quantity. And, of course, there are moments where done is better than perfect. But at those moments, make sure that you’re aligning with the other person, because otherwise, the other person is going to expect a higher quality.

Nitin Bajaj

Mhmm.

Kirthiga Reddy

In the rear view mirror, Nitin, I’ve realized that the performance reviews that I’ve cried the most are the ones where I have learned the most because that has been a lesson that I have taken to heart. You spoke about, Kirthiga, in that one minute, you spoke about 5 different things that you have done. I’m always very conscious that I never take on more than I can outdeliver and out execute on the quality. And if ever there is a time where that is not going to be true, I have an explicit discussion upfront and align with my stakeholder. There is a power of 1. You know, people extrapolate from a single interaction about about what the person can do, what their ability is, what their quality bar is. So while things aggregate, making sure all of us are deeply indexed in the power of 1.

Nitin Bajaj

I love that. That’s a very important lesson that one, you don’t wanna spread yourself too thin. And if you go into something, you want to blow it out of the park because that’s what people will remember you by. Right? Not how many things you took on, but the one thing that you did and you did extremely well that essentially defines and sets the standards. So thank you for sharing that. These are not easy moments to experience, to remember, and more importantly to share. So really appreciate the vulnerability, the transparency.

Kirthiga Reddy

And, Nitin, I have a lot more where that came from. And, we will have a separate podcast just on all my learnings and all of the things that I could do differently.

Nitin Bajaj

I would love that. Now please boast a little bit the one thing that, blew your own expectations.

Kirthiga Reddy

Again, so many. I will go back to my work at, Meta, India Facebook India, where I was at an event. And it’s great that you always meet people who have either a Facebook story, an Instagram story, or a WhatsApp story to share. In this case, the founder of the Mask Kalandar fast food chain came up to me, and she said, Kirthiga, my many of my cooks, they don’t know how to Reddy. They don’t know how to write, but they know how to use the phone, and they know how to use Facebook. For a minute, I was so puzzled. I said, what are they doing if they don’t know how to read and write? Mhmm. She showed me their profile pages. And sure enough, there were pictures of their children. They were and there was interaction about festivals with media, with entertainment. And here was a beautiful example of how technology was being used to transcend literacy barriers. So, it was a moment where that whole vision that we worked for so hard and kudos to Mark, and and and the entire founding team for the mission of giving people the power to share and making the world more open and connected. And this was a manifestation of that. It really taught me the power of technology. That’s 1. And 2, Nitin, I look back on having, you know, build one of their 4 one of Meta’s 4 global operation center that together now serves over 3,000,000,000 people, took the company’s revenue in India from the beginning to several $100,000,000. Now it’s, you know, several 1,000,000,000. And it taught me the power of thinking in decades, which is going I’ll come back to it in my top five takeaways, like, think in decades.

Nitin Bajaj

It’s such a beautiful story, but also so powerful in in what you’re able to bring in terms of transformation, not just individually, but to a community. So thank you for sharing that. Now what do you do for fun?

Kirthiga Reddy

I love my running.

Nitin Bajaj

Mhmm.

Kirthiga Reddy

I have usually a goal of 50 to 10 k runs a year. I have always signed up for a next half marathon. The next one that I’m going to be doing is actually going to be a self paced one in Edinburgh in Scotland. As I make my way back from India, I couldn’t find one that matched the timing of when I wanted to run a half. I said I can just create 1, and so I’m going to be doing a half marathon in Edinburgh. I love my time with my family and with my friends. I also enjoy cooking. I don’t often prioritize it, but when I have the chance to do it, I enjoy my cooking.

Nitin Bajaj

That’s amazing. We do need our moments to de stress, relax, disengage. And I think especially the running and the cooking, I can see how it helps rejuvenate. That’s nice.

Kirthiga Reddy

I want to know what you do for fun.

Nitin Bajaj

Oh, wait. I’m the one asking the questions.

Kirthiga Reddy

That’s okay.

Nitin Bajaj

I do like to run. Not as many as you do. I do my 5 k’s every so often, but my go to is, stand up paddle boarding. So you see my paddle in the back. So that’s my weapon of choice. And, I like to do maybe 3 or 4 in a week. And that keeps

Kirthiga Reddy

incredible.

Nitin Bajaj

That keeps me sane.

Kirthiga Reddy

That’s incredible. That takes quite some skill, and I’m not even going to go venture into that space given the kind of skill that that takes. I’ll stay I’ll stick with my writing.

Nitin Bajaj

It’s fun. Now onto my favorite part of the show, we call it the one line life lessons. Kirthiga, I would love for you to share your life lessons with us.

Kirthiga Reddy

Let me share a few on the personal side, and then I’ll share a few on the professional side. On the personal side, I have 3 lessons based on the stage of life that you’re in. 1, if you’re at the stage of life where you’re thinking of a life partner, not that anyone necessarily needs a life partner, but if they are thinking of a life partner, the partner that you choose will be the most important career decision that you make. Not the industry, not your first manager. I wouldn’t be here on the show if not for incredible support from my better half, my my husband there.

So that’s 1. 2, if you start thinking about having children, again, not that you need to have children, but if you do, I postpone things in the 1st few years for the smallest reasons. I am going to a conference. I can’t be pregnant. I have to go for a wedding. I can’t be pregnant. And then I realized that when you’re ready, it does it doesn’t just happen.

So both my girls actually were, with the help of IVF and so very grateful to technology for the gift of motherhood. But my lesson there, my my one line lesson there is if you wanna have children, there will never be a perfect time. And so conversely, it is always the perfect time nature will conspire to support you in making that goal happen. So that’s 2. 3, the superpower that I wanna give your audience, Nitin, is once you have children, nothing tests your multitasking ability as much as as as having children. And the superpower there is the power of the and versus the tyranny of the or. What do I mean by that? I remember wanting to nurse my second child, for the same period that I did for my first child. I was working. I had to travel. I agonized about whether this is the moment that people talk about that you have to make a decision between personal and professional goals. And And I realized one day that I don’t have to. So for the 1st year, I traveled with her. And everywhere I went, air almost magically came together for her. I’m not saying people need to make the same choices I do. I’m just saying that when presented with the or choice, just think about it. Not it’s you can’t always convert it into an and, but more often than not, with some out of box thinking and with a whole lot of support from the village, you can. So that’s on the personal side. So if you keep the personal side aside, on the professional side, be bold. If your dreams don’t scare you, you’re not living up to your potential, so be bold. Nitin, my mother did not have the opportunity to finish her high school education, because her parents said you only need enough math to do the grocery bill. Her brother, by the way, had a postgraduate degree. So it’s not that they didn’t understand the value of education. Fast forward last year, I had the opportunity to ring the New York Stock Exchange, opening bell, for one of the, IPOs. And my mother joined us over Zoom. So here was my mother at the New York Stock Exchange with her daughter who was ringing the bell and her grandchildren, granddaughters who were there on the podium with me. And it was a surreal moment and a moment of realizing how much change one generation can make. So be bold. Take advantage of every opportunity given to you. Make opportunities happen. Think in decades, we spoke about that Reddy. When I was working with the founders at SoftBank Vision Fund, that whole that whole notion of what they were driving and what their visions could bring about was extraordinarily motivating for me across my investments in quantum computing, additive manufacturing, enterprise health tech, and more. The last one that I will leave it is is always make sure that you understand the nitty gritty of the work because that is what will give you the, the knowledge to operate at the 20,000 foot level. So every place that I went at Facebook, I made sure I understood what was happening in the operations queue. At SoftBank, I did all the modeling, for the first few deals myself. My analysts were puzzled about why I was doing it myself and why I was taking more time asking them questions and them just doing it themselves. But it was really important for me to have that baseline knowledge to then be able to make decisions at a strategic level. And I’m wishing the audience the very best in all of their endeavors and all of their big bold goals, Nitin.

Nitin Bajaj

Kirthiga, thank you so much for sharing your journey, your story, and your life lessons. And congratulations again for all of the successes so far. I know this is just the beginning and there’s many more to come. And we would love to bring you back on to talk about more of these successes. Thank you once again. We really appreciate it.

Kirthiga Reddy

Nitin, excited to be here. I echo your sentiment that the best is yet to come. I have several more decades and the best is yet to come. And if there was one parting lesson that I’ll share, it’s about the practice of defining a big, bold vision and sharing it. So fast forward to the end of the year, reflect back on what you want to have accomplished. Write it down. You actually are 47% more likely to make it happen if you actually write it down and even higher if you share it. So, Nitin, I look forward to hearing everyone’s big bold visions, and, to seeing them make it come true.

Nitin Bajaj

Amazing. Thank you so much, Kirthiga.

Kirthiga Reddy

Thanks, Nitin.