The year 2025 from the Best Place to Build Podcast! Revisiting your favourite moments! | BP2B S2E16

1. SHSharan0:00

   failure and the ability to handle failure. What do I mean by that? Let me split it into two parts.

2. SPSpeaker0:05

   Wear that failure proudly, and go forth.

3. SPSpeaker0:09

   We are the world's only satellite company that's mixing what's called the synthetic aperture radar.

4. SPSpeaker0:15

   And you're mentioning them because Google were PhD students who-

5. SPSpeaker0:18

   Yeah, so we, we are- we were in the same, uh, co- cohort, uh, in the, in the computer science program with Sergey and Larry and all that.

6. SPSpeaker0:24

   I think this is around, uh, school time. Uh, I think I got dumped by my girlfriend back then, and I was very angry, and obviously the next logical thing to do is-

7. SPSpeaker0:33

   If there's a counseling that's done right when students come in to tell them that, "Look, you were sold a lie." [chuckles]

8. SPSpeaker0:40

   Half-truth.

9. SPSpeaker0:41

   Yeah, a half-truth.

10. SHSharan0:42

    So always put the sails out and wait. Wind may come, may not come. How does that matter?

11. SPSpeaker0:48

    Welcome to the Best Place to Build Podcast. Today is the last episode for the year 2025, and as you can see, there is no guest. Our plan for today is to take you through some of the best moments, as per us, of the podcast of the last year. One of the first few episodes we did was with Professor Ravindran, and [chuckles] early on, uh, in the episode, I tell him the story about how we gave him a Best Place to Build sticker, and he immediately ripped it off and put it on his laptop, which was, you know, quite cool. And, um, [chuckles] Professor R- Ravindran recounts it in that episode and says, "Yeah, of course. What else will I do?"

12. SPSpeaker1:23

    I remember that I had given you the Best Place to Build sticker that day, and you immediately put it on your, uh, laptop.

13. SPSpeaker1:29

    Yeah.

14. SPSpeaker1:29

    Yes. That was amazing.

15. SHSharan1:31

    Because I strongly believe that this is the best place to build.

16. SPSpeaker1:33

    Immediately after, I think we met Professor Sathya from the Aerospace Department. And I have a note here. Um, at the time, we were very early in that podcast and, um, we were also trying to figure out how much do people want to listen to, and, you know, this is the low-attention generation. So should we keep it very light? Should we keep it more conversational, or should we actually go into the technical depth? And I think in Professor Sathya's episode, he goes in. He doesn't sugarcoat it, he just goes in. He- whether it's the economics of what he's doing or the technology of what he's doing, or the battery of what he's doing, or bunch of other things, he just, um, got into it, and I appreciated that. He didn't treat me like, um, a podcast host, [chuckles] and he didn't treat you like the podcast audience.

17. SPSpeaker2:21

    And the tech is, you know, crafted for the best business case. That's a, that's a, that's a paradigm. So, uh, if you look at Galaxay, we are the world's only satellite company that's mixing what's called the synthetic aperture radar, that can cut through cloud cover or image during nighttime when there is no solar illumination, as well as a, a multispectral or a hyperspectral camera that will image in the visible spectrum that our eyes can see, and juxtapose them, uh, with deep learning algorithms to figure out if I don't have the illumination or if I'm seeing through cloud cover and there is an obscuration of the visible spectrum camera, um, how can I actually render the, uh, SAR images as if they are visible?

18. SPSpeaker3:08

    He assumed that we are science-curious, which is what I think this podcast is about and our relations is about. I'm science-curious, I'm curious about technology, and I assume that you are. Uh, and that's why we listen to these things. We listen to these entrepreneurs or these builders talking about their work. That sort of set the tone. Every podcast after that was, "Let's go into the technical depth of it. Let's go into what you're doing, and let's not assume that this is a low-attention generation." Sharan's episode. So Sharan's episode kind of was one of the first episodes that got a lot of views for us. Um, while recording it, we didn't think that it will. Uh, some key moments in that episode was very interesting. He- at one point, he says, "You have to be crazy to build silicon." I agree, by the way. [chuckles] But he says it very candidly, and he's smiling and he's laughing. And that was a recurring theme later also that, of course we are building crazy, difficult things, and that's why we are doing it. Um, and Sharan said it so beautifully.

19. SHSharan4:07

    See, making silicon is hard.

20. SPSpeaker4:08

    Okay.

21. SHSharan4:09

    You have to be a special, uh, grade of mental-

22. SPSpeaker4:13

    [chuckles]

23. SHSharan4:15

    ... to, to be, to able, to be able to want to make silicon in today's world. Who else makes silicon? Think about it. Let's see. NVIDIA. What's their market cap again?

24. SPSpeaker4:26

    [chuckles] I don't know. A few trillion dollars. Um-

25. SHSharan4:28

    Largest company in the world.

26. SPSpeaker4:29

    Yeah.

27. SHSharan4:30

    Done. Who else makes silicon? Apple. Whole different league.

28. SPSpeaker4:36

    Right.

29. SHSharan4:37

    Who else makes silicon? Intel.

30. SPSpeaker4:39

    Uh, there's a point where he talks about why they got into it, and his, uh, PhD advisor is Professor Kamakoti, who is now our director. Um, that d- that story was also quite, quite nice.

Episode duration: 51:32