The Rise of Chief Everything Officers

Bengaluru, the Silicon Valley of India, has always been the nerve centre for tech startups. Step into any cafe or bar, and you are likely to overhear either a startup founder pitching his idea to a potential investor or people discussing their products with each other.?

If LinkedIn were a city, it would be Bengaluru.?

Another interesting phenomenon is unravelling in the city, especially in HSR Layout. It’s the Rise of Chief Everything Officers (CEOs).

“Bangalore is the place, where if you hear ‘let me call my partner’, it could mean your VC partner or otherwise,” posted Shravan Tickoo, the founder of Rethink Systems. He added that if someone calls their product manager, “it can mean a PM or even an engineer who was told that he’s a PM but now has to do the engineer’s work too since we don’t have money”.

“Can happen only in Bengaluru :) Especially in HSR Layout,” he added.?

Balkar Singh , who is a product manager at Oracle, said, soon the job listings would say: “We’re looking for a Chief Everything Officer (CEO), with responsibilities including making coffee, coding the next billion-dollar app, securing funding, finding an apartment, and more such tasks.”?

Nishith Shah added, “When your plane touches the runway and [you] see people staring at LinkedIn right after landing… Welcome to Bangalore.”

Here, “let me call my intern" can mean a student learning the ropes or your only other team member or cousin who is handling coding, marketing, and sales.

The funny part is that it’s all true.?

HSR is all about AI startups

We’ve all heard about the vibrant AI scene in San Francisco, the Bay Area energy, and the coffee shops in Alamo Square, where discussions about OpenAI and Midjourney thrive. Just like how startups are founded in garages there, in Bengaluru, startups start with flatmates and roommates sitting together and randomly discussing ideas .?

And add to that, their neighbour sometimes turns out to be a VC!

Software engineer Hardeep Gambhir stepped into a cafe in Bengaluru and couldn’t help but draw parallels. The vibe in the cafe immediately teleported him to San Francisco.

Bengaluru is the SF of the East?

What sets Bengaluru apart is not only its impressive line-up of startups but also its substantial venture capital funding. In 2020, Bengaluru attracted over $10 billion in venture capital investments, surpassing leading hubs like San Francisco and London.

Undoubtedly, HSR Layout is all about AI startups . To illustrate, Srikrishna Swaminathan, the CEO of Factor.AI , wrote on LinkedIn: “One building, and all AI companies. Factors.ai can claim to attract all AI here, as we were the first occupants,” tagging Amal Mishra and Urban Vault.?

The Urban Vault building is now officially the first AI building in the city . It currently houses five notable AI startups, namely Loop AI, Factors AI, Raga AI, Frinks AI, and Actyv AI, thereby, alluding to HSR’s pivotal role in nurturing AI startups.?

Ganesh Gopalan, the CEO and co-founder of GNANI.AI , highlighted that they wished to establish the startup in HSR, calling it a hub for tech talent. That pushed AIM to pen the petition to rename HSR to HSR.AI .

Read the full story here.?

Stop Wasting Time on LeetCode

LeetCode is slowly but surely losing its charm. An avid software engineer, Caleb Mellas , recently posted on LinkedIn that many top companies, including Accenture, Airtable, Betterment, and GitLab, are moving away from LeetCode-style interviews to more practical assessments.?

Is it so? Read to find out.?

INDIA?

• AstraZeneca recently opened the world's largest Global Centre in Chennai, creating 4,000 jobs and boosting Tamil Nadu's reputation as India's knowledge capital.
• India is on track to becoming an AI global hub. Vivek Dahiya of Cushman & Wakefield recently said that the nation's 30% lower data centre costs, high data consumption, and tech-savvy workforce are the key driving factors.
• Hexaware Technologies recently announced its plans to hire 4,000 employees in India this year to support its global expansion efforts.