Ep 9 - Chinmay Adhvaryu - Founding and closing Earth Observations companies, Solving a problem people care about, and Bringing Context
Chinmay Adhvaryu is the co-founder and CEO of Influunt, a company focused on providing insights around water damage using Earth Observation data. He previously founded, and then shut down Earthlab AI, a platform to aggregate, preprocess and analyze satellite imagery.
We talk about both of these experiences, how Chinmay learned from the first one and from his previous experience in the world of Internet of Things, which he now applies those to Influunt.
About Chinmay:
Show notes:
Chinmay's Twitter thread on founding an Earth Observation company
Book & Media recommendation:
"Enemy of All Mankind" by Steven Johnson
Time stamps:
2:20 - Episode Begins, Chinmay presents himself
4:05 - Chinmay’s entry into the satellite imagery market
9:10 - Reality check, what customers want compared to what can be done
14:50 - Finding a fitting business model
16:40 - Context is king
22:10 - Staying in Earth Observation after closing a previous company
24:30 - Choosing to work on water damage monitoring
32:30 - How do we move from assessing damage to preventing it?
38:45 - Chinmay’s thoughts on the Earth Observation industry
44:40 - Parallels with the Internet of Things world
47:15 - Microsoft Planetary Computer & Google Earth Engine
51:45 - Chinmay’s ties to India
55:10 - Climate change is tackled by people from all over the world
1:01:25 - Experience at Techstars
1:08:10 - Incremental changes over revolutions
1:12:00 - Book & Media recommendation
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