[00:00:00 – 00:00:08] Nitin Bajaj

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

[00:00:08 – 00:00:11] Preethy Padmanabhan

Thank you, Nitin. I’m excited to be here.

[00:00:11 – 00:00:16] Nitin Bajaj

Great to be here in this beautiful surrounding. We should have been out on the water, but,

[00:00:16 – 00:00:58] Preethy Padmanabhan

hey, too sunny. Right? So tell us who is Preethy? So I’ve been in the US for over 20 years and I Growth up in India, in South India Nitin the Bay area for all of my time in the US. I’ve my Professionally, I’ve been in like 6, 7 companies, like 3 big companies and then 4 startups. The last 10 years I’ve been a marketing executive in multiple startups. And I also have a beautiful family. My husband and my son who is 19 in college right now, and I’m also a singer and also a meditator.

[00:00:59 – 00:01:19] Nitin Bajaj

Awesome. We’ll get you to sing a little bit today. So you are now at Bidgely, and then you also run your own podcast, which you’ve been doing for over 4 years now. Mhmm. Tell us about both. Tell us what is Bidgely? What is the size and scale of the operations? What does the company do?

[00:01:20 – 00:01:53] Preethy Padmanabhan

Sure. I joined Bidgely just 2 months ago. Mhmm. I’m the VP of marketing there running all of marketing. Bidgely actually means electricity Yes. In Hindi. Some of our Indian audiences might know that.

And what we do is we have AI software and analytics for So the vision is to accelerate a clean energy future. And I’ll share more details on how much that has made a big impact on the environment. So our goal is to empower utilities and consumers with the ability to track their especially with whatever is happening around us. So give us

[00:01:53 – 00:02:03] Nitin Bajaj

a sense of the size especially with whatever is happening around us. So give us a sense of the size and scale and also, you know, your team specifically.

[00:02:03 – 00:03:02] Preethy Padmanabhan

Yeah. So the company itself is over 200 people. Mhmm. And the we have over 30 utilities that are our customers. And these are big. Right? Each utility serves either entire states or half a state.

And we also have international customers and they’re growing very rapidly, because there’s more and more demand with the whole EV adoption becoming a huge part. Mhmm. Especially now by 2027, 17 states in the US are going all hybrid for all EV. And so that is a huge need for such technology to be present. Achieved 1 terawatt hour of energy savings. And the amount of offset in CO2 emissions from that is £784,000,000 of coal burnt or 80,000,000 gallons of gas consumed.

[00:03:02 – 00:03:03] Nitin Bajaj

That’s huge.

[00:03:03 – 00:03:13] Preethy Padmanabhan

Isn’t it? And also in terms of trees, which I love, as of end of this year, we might get to about 19,000,000 trees planted. Wow. So that’s the impact.

[00:03:13 – 00:03:16] Nitin Bajaj

That is massive. Yeah. Thank you. Amazing. Congratulations.

[00:03:16 – 00:03:17] Preethy Padmanabhan

Thank you.

[00:03:17 – 00:03:30] Nitin Bajaj

And a big part of this is making sure that there is awareness around it. There is communication around it. So more people can join in and including the utility companies, because I believe they also have a fair share of the

[00:03:39 – 00:03:59] Preethy Padmanabhan

I believe the team has been doing this for over 10 years and I’m excited to be part of it. And you were asking me about my team, my marketing team. I have a really good team, over 10 people in the team. And they’re like managing revenue and campaigns as well as product marketing, digital, brand, all the aspects.

[00:03:59 – 00:04:21] Nitin Bajaj

That’s amazing. And as I said, I love the name. And it’s very impressive how Bidgely means electricity, but it is not spelled in the traditional Indian way, it is very global. Great. Now, tell us about your podcast, you have been doing that for just over 4 years. What got you started and, where is it now 4 years later?

[00:04:21 – 00:04:30] Preethy Padmanabhan

Yeah. So 10x Growth Strategies it came as a COVID baby. Yes. Right? I started it in 2020.

[00:04:30 – 00:04:31] Nitin Bajaj

Mhmm.

[00:04:31 – 00:04:38] Preethy Padmanabhan

And the reason I started it was I’ve been in 2, startups that went IPO. The growth was Phytonx

[00:04:38 – 00:04:38] Nitin Bajaj

Yeah.

[00:04:38 – 00:05:12] Preethy Padmanabhan

With Nutanix and Freshworks. And I’ve also been very passionate about growing businesses, leaders Nitin the companies. So I really believe in people aspiring to go 10x about themselves. So that the idea was that I love reading books and there’s so many books that help people grow. So in this podcast, in every episode, we capture the essence from one book. Either it could be the author talking about their book Mhmm. Or it could be a leader who loved that book and wanted to share how it helped them grow.

[00:05:12 – 00:05:24] Nitin Bajaj

That’s amazing. This is you’re essentially bringing a book to life and, letting people understand the key points and how they can implement those in their personal and career choices.

[00:05:24 – 00:05:34] Preethy Padmanabhan

Exactly. When you read a book, you might not feel that you got the entire essence of it, but if you see it in action and application in somebody’s lives, it’s easier.

[00:05:34 – 00:05:46] Nitin Bajaj

That’s amazing. It’s really cool. I will ask you a question on this a little down the line. It as an entrepreneur as an executive, I’d love for you to share with us. What’s the one big challenge you’re facing?

[00:05:46 – 00:06:55] Preethy Padmanabhan

It’s only 1. One of the biggest challenges that I have faced time and again is managing expectations. As leaders and as people, we all have certain goals that we live up to Growth in our personal lives or in our professional lives. Even if we haven’t qualified them, we still have certain goals that we work towards. And when that is not in alignment with the other person or you don’t see a way to bring it together, then that causes a lot of conflict Yes. In teams, in work. Mhmm. And often they say that you’re always negotiating.

That’s the Growth of life. You’re negotiating if you want to go buy something for the family or you wanna go on vacation, you’re negotiating where you wanna go. And all the way to negotiating your team with, you know, across teams and companies. So that’s what the goal alignment and ability to actually overcome that challenge is what I consistently see and what I think as a leader I’ve learned on how to do it better. You always learn every day on how to get better at it.

[00:06:55 – 00:06:58] Nitin Bajaj

So true. It’s an ever growing challenge.

[00:06:58 – 00:06:58] Preethy Padmanabhan

Yes.

[00:06:59 – 00:07:01] Nitin Bajaj

Now on the flip side of challenges come opportunities.

[00:07:01 – 00:07:02] Preethy Padmanabhan

Mhmm.

[00:07:02 – 00:07:04] Nitin Bajaj

What’s the one that you’re most excited about?

[00:07:05 – 00:08:12] Preethy Padmanabhan

So you talked about the podcast, which I’ve been doing like about 4 years now. I also started an in person event series in the Bay Area. And I’m looking at it as an extension of the 10x Growth podcast. And the idea was that, look, the online aspect captures a lot of global audiences. And we’ve been fortunate that we’re now close to 80 episodes. Nice. We posted the 79th episode and I have the 88th episode ready to post next in a couple of weeks.

And so we’re really fortunate that there’s a lot of audience interested in listening around the world. At the same time, I felt what was missing was the ability to connect live with each other. So as of last month, end of May, we started this in person series and I’m partnering with different organizations. As I’m on the Thai board, so we hosted an event at the Thai Silicon Valley office in May. And we talked about women VCs. We talked about investing in women entrepreneurs and both men and women coming together to increase the number of investments in women run companies.

[00:08:12 – 00:08:13] Nitin Bajaj

Well, congratulations on the launch.

[00:08:13 – 00:08:29] Preethy Padmanabhan

Thank you. And yesterday, we had an event at my house with another partner, Ignite GTM Mhmm. Where we hosted an event with LPs and VCs in the valley. So that’s what I wanna do. I wanna support investors and entrepreneurs to grow their businesses forward.

[00:08:29 – 00:08:55] Nitin Bajaj

That’s amazing. It’s really exciting.

Now I wanna, as we look forward, take a step back and look in the rear view mirror and ask you to share 2 moments in your career or your personal life where one exceeded your expectations, became a success beyond what you had imagined Yes. And one that did not work out and instead became a lesson.

[00:08:55 – 00:10:00] Preethy Padmanabhan

Sure. I think I can talk about, the journey I had at Nutanix. Mhmm. It was pretty phenomenal. I joined when the company was about 200,000,000 in revenues. In three and a half years, we had hit 1,200,000,000 in revenues.

It was a huge success story. And I got to lead all the vertical marketing as well as some of the large use cases. And I got to do like 3, 4 different roles in that short time frame and that’s what happens in startups, right? You actually have to wear different hats. So that is one big moment that I had where I got in as an individual contributor and then I grew to a director level in the company and I was able to actually learn how to actually 10x a business. That’s like the foundation of how I actually was able to create that impact. I also have one more additional piece to share, which is I took that learning to Freshworks, wherein I was able to now take it to the next level and help a SaaS company achieve the same from a product marketing perspective.

[00:10:00 – 00:10:04] Nitin Bajaj

That’s amazing. Now anything that did not work out?

[00:10:04 – 00:11:20] Preethy Padmanabhan

Yes. So I would say it was more like a learning and a stepping stone on how actually, to do things better. I had actually made some bad choices in hiring. And it’s very, in fact, my boss at the time used to say hiring is the most difficult thing and we all make mistakes in hiring. And I had made some big mistakes in hiring and had some team members who were not aligned and were causing so much friction within the organization. And I did not step in to actually have some very difficult conversations that were needed and to also stop what was happening that was derogatory to the organization. And that was a lesson learnt and that was what I was able to apply to create a culture where people can aspire to grow themselves, but it is done in a manner that is conducive to the team.

And so much so I can tell you that we have grown. I still have my WhatsApp group and we talk about taking vacations together. And we’ve been doing that. We went to Goa last year and that’s when a team has really arrived. When they wanna spend time outside of work with the same people.

[00:11:20 – 00:11:21] Nitin Bajaj

Yes.

[00:11:21 – 00:11:28] Preethy Padmanabhan

So that’s what I think I was able to learn from one place and apply it and actually help a lot of people.

[00:11:28 – 00:11:57] Nitin Bajaj

That’s amazing. One, thank you for sharing the difficult phase you went through. A lot of people don’t want to talk about it, let alone in public. So acknowledging that, accepting that is one key thing to towards growth. So really appreciate you sharing that. And 2, congrats again on the success in bringing all of those lessons forward. I’d love for you to share with us What are your one line life lessons?

[00:11:58 – 00:12:15] Preethy Padmanabhan

One line life lessons. Actually, you made me think. We often come through life through many lessons, but we don’t codify them. So this was great. Thank you. My first life lesson would be Growth leaders ask good questions.

[00:12:16 – 00:12:16] Nitin Bajaj

Love it.

[00:12:17 – 00:12:19] Preethy Padmanabhan

And I you want me to elaborate on it?

[00:12:19 – 00:12:19] Nitin Bajaj

Please.

[00:12:19 – 00:13:56] Preethy Padmanabhan

So oftentimes when I go into meetings, many people are in there. If they people don’t know what they have to achieve from the meeting or they don’t know why they are there, oftentimes just by asking simple we come to terms with what’s happening and take the step forward, right? So that’s what I found, right? Because I don’t need to know all the answers. That’s one big discovery. Often times as I’m an engineer by training, we have to know everything, that’s the mindset we come up with. So that’s what I discovered that I don’t need to have such a mindset and just I have to ask questions to people who are smarter than me and can give that. That’s one.

The second is live in the present moment. And this is something I have discovered through meditation. It’s very difficult, but when you med when I meditate, I’m able to achieve that. Being able to be there doesn’t matter if there’s 10x things that are happening in life. If I can be here right in this moment with you, with the audience, then I know it’s a successful moment. The other lesson is Growth mindset. It’s been talked about a lot and especially the book Mindset by Carol Dweck is one of my favorite books.

And so having a growth mindset, knowing that where you are is not where you can be in the future. The past does not define the future. So that is the growth mindset.

[00:13:57 – 00:13:57] Nitin Bajaj

Yeah.

[00:13:57 – 00:13:59] Preethy Padmanabhan

I think I might have hit 2 in that.

[00:13:59 – 00:14:00] Nitin Bajaj

Yes you did.

[00:14:00 – 00:14:31] Preethy Padmanabhan

Exactly, growth mindset and fast does not define the future. And the final one is comfort zone is the enemy of innovation. So if you’re comfortable in your life, in your work, then that’s it. There’s no more innovation. So are you ready to break out of the comfort zone as an individual, as a team, as a company is the question.

[00:14:32 – 00:14:40] Nitin Bajaj

Amazing. Preethy, thank you so much for sharing and we’ll come right back to you singing a small song for us.

[00:14:41 – 00:15:02] Preethy Padmanabhan

Alright. This is one of my favorite and I think it will resonate with international audience. On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair. Warm smell of coal eaters rising up in the air. Welcome to the Hotel Hotel California.

[00:15:04 – 00:15:04] Nitin Bajaj

Thank you.

[00:15:04 – 00:15:05] Preethy Padmanabhan

Thank you.

[00:15:05 – 00:15:21] Nitin Bajaj

Priti, thank you so much for hosting us at this beautiful home, for sharing your journey and story with us and our audience. Kudos to you on all of your success, and really good wishes for this continued journey. Thank you.

[00:15:21 – 00:15:26] Preethy Padmanabhan

Thank you, Nitin. What you’re doing is fantastic capturing all these lessons. I’m really excited