The discussion highlights the transformative power of community-driven innovation and entrepreneurship, particularly in post-conflict regions like Northern Sri Lanka, emphasizing the shift from traditional employment to self-driven creation enabled by technology and AI.
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Even youngsters if they can start
building on their own I think they can
do even bigger things instead of the the
old playbooks of trying to find a job
where you can fit in as an intern or a
junior might not exist it it might
change but like if you want to build
something there is a entire world in
front of you where you can try and even
if you fail people are going to happy to
take you in because you come with a
[music]
>> Sand welcome to the show.
>> Hi Shafra. Glad to be here. Thank you
for having me.
>> If you can tell a little bit about
yourself, how you got started, where did
you study and then also how was your
corporate life was like? I was uh born
in Japna but I studied in Candi and then
I I ended up at uh uh in the corporate
world in Colbo. Um so if you really look
at um sort of my journey with respect to
education I specialized in computer
science and also in parallel I uh did my
CMA as well but I never practiced but
although I have that knowledge and then
I got into the corporate world I think
that's where we met long time back soon
after I finished my A levels I was
playing around with uh we had a lot of
time left on our hands. So I was playing
around with software and uh and then I
thought it was easy to start building
software and and I I started building
stuff without any knowledge. Uh and that
was almost like love at first sight with
software. I thought like okay this is
amazing that I could sort of start
building things and since then I've
continued to sort of try to build
software on one hand and then later on I
think I also stumbled upon
in a professional context and also in a
not for profofit context into uh into
into community building. So uh I've been
very fortunate that I've been able to
experience building products on one hand
and also building communities. Um so
these are two things that I've enjoyed
doing a lot.
>> Son you did CIMA while you were studying
uh computer science. So it seems very
interesting and different sort of two
different angles in education. So tell
us a little bit about what made you get
into like CMA and then any stories
behind it. uh it it was a trend at that
point of time. Everybody asked me CMA.
So I I thought like why not and uh so so
my mother asked me whether if I want to
do CMA and then I said uh yeah why not
and and then uh we had a small
disagreement because her expectation
about how to study that and how I want
to study that was very different uh
because uh for her it was uh important
that I went to classes and studied
whereas for me I assumed that she was
okay with me doing it as a self-study.
So we had a disagreement on that and and
then we agreed that I I went and said in
case if I fail the exams then you don't
have to sort of pay for it. So she gave
me that chance where okay you study and
if you get through then I'll pay for the
next stage. So it was all fun it was
going well and it came to the
I think till strategic level I don't
recall failing any of the exams and then
we have a the final exam is a case study
that we'll have to do. Uh so it's funny
that I actually failed the case study thrice.
thrice.
It's not just once. I failed it thrice
and then for the life of me I couldn't
understand it. I failed it with 50 was
the pass mark and I failed it like 46 47
45 or something like that like it's all
in the 40s like upper end of the 40s and
for the life of me I couldn't figure out
why I was failing and then somehow
there's this uh session that happened in
Colbo where C had this uh session in
Colbo where the examiner from the UK was
here and there was a half a day workshop
so I attended that workshop and there
was this aha moment in the workshop
where he said something which is
profound and which has actually helped
me in my career a lot. He said
in business it's not about making sure
you get to the best decision but within
the time limit you need to make a
decision and get it executed.
Like the mistake I have been making in
all those papers was that I was making
sure that all the steps the calculations
are right the analysis are right and
every time I've been running out of time
to come up with the decision or the
proposal of my decision in the paper at practical
practical
purposes what you need to be doing is
making decisions within time
constraints. It's not going to be
perfect even with partial data you'll
have to make decisions in life in
corporate life in business and all of that.
that.
That was a profound sort of experience
and now looking back probably it was
worth failing it thrice because I
learned that and it has actually helped
me with my career progression due
because sometimes people are reluctant
to make decisions whereas because of
this uh experience that I've had of
failing the exam. uh I I understood the
importance of making decisions even if
it's right or wrong you need to make
decisions in a timely manner and then
face the consequences or or sort of live
with it or or adapt based on what's
happening. So when you look at the
corporate world and the businesses there
are a lot of ambiguity uh with less data
you have to make quicker decisions like
especially in a day and age like now um
where things are very can be very
uncertain and also not everyone knows
>> [music] >> load.
>> load.
>> You had a vision and the team had a
vision to make Japna the next Silicon
Valley. So that's sort of like a moto
that you have for Y hub. How this whole
concept of Y hub came about? Um what was
the sort of initial thought and then how
did you go about it?
So first of all I need to
be very clear that um no single
individual including myself gets should
get any credit for what has happened
with the idea with its magic at at play.
It is beyond any of us and and um and
also the reason why I don't think anyone
can take credit for it is because a lot
of people thousands of people volunteer
every year. um people are putting their
money into it in the form of
sponsorships and partnerships none of
them get anything in return to be honest
um people who who who are putting money
time and and it's it's actually a
community effort a collective effort in
heaven we we use this term which says
which basically means it's a chariot
being pulled by the community so that's
what's exactly happening and to give
some context for for everyone um
northern Sri Lanka was primarily the the
theater of the war. We had a 30 year
civil war and after the end of the war
after a couple of years of the end of
the war we started the all here. Uh the
reason we started was because we wanted
to create uh economic prosperity in the
region and and and opportunities for the
youth to sort of pursue and we felt that
technology, innovation and
entrepreneurship are the tools which can
transform the community and help in the
process of healing. Even today if you
look at uh the the the statistics the
north and the east uh eastern provinces
are the highest in terms of poverty uh
the worst in terms of GDP the worst in
terms of um um per capita income. uh so
this is the context in you operate and
and and having said all of that the most
encouraging sign that we see as part
of's work is that um there's clear
momentum where the children and the
youth are taking to technology
innovation and entrepreneurship. So 15
years ago when we started the idea we
launched a competition because we
understood that this is a lot of work
and generational work that need to
happen. So we we understood that we need
to seed this idea of all the children
and and start at that level. So when we
had the GC junior 14 years ago, we had
just 13 kids turning up for it. Uh and
and today like last year in 2025,
we had 2,500 plus children applying for
it. And uh now every year we see 30%
increase in participation.
So for example when we ran YGC1 15 years
ago for pitch as a pitch competition uh
we had a handful of sort of teams coming
and participating none of them actually
became a startup immediately.
Whereas today fast forward uh there are
more than 100 companies run by alumni of YGC.
YGC.
They employ thousand plus people outside
of Colbo. uh Japna has the most number
of uh startups in technology
uh which is uh still early momentum but
there's a clear momentum on the ground
in terms of participation and talent
which is emerging which is very
encouraging to see youth sometimes if
you really look at the structure of
education here only about 18 to 20% will
get into universities or would have the
money to get into private universities
is so we designed this technology school
which is called we we designed this
technology school where we take them in
it's a 100% scholarship
they sort of uh learn to program they
have personal coaching they learn
English they learn the basics of
business and they build a piece of
software and during that uh the six
months they do it end to end and um and
then they they go in either as interns
into tech companies or they had become
founders. So there are actually 30
companies founded by people who had gone
through the six months program out of
our technology school. Um so so these
are programs that has been designed and
run and this is entirely by the
community. It's like volunteers coming
together partners putting money on it
and and making this happen. So that's
why I again want to reiterate that it
it's it's beyond any of our
imaginations. I have been to Yal Geek
Challenge um five times or four or five
times. Yalit hub and then Yal geek
challenge whenever that I attended I
returned back to Colbo with a lot of
inspiration. I I returned back with a
lot of stories to tell to rest of the
Colomb. So it was very interesting. Um
and at the same time you pointed out
like how small things started off. uh
you only had 13 kids uh from the school
level and then you only had very few
people who actually didn't line up. You
didn't didn't have a lineup of people
who jumped in and want to become
entrepreneurs, right? It's also a
mindset um that you when you want to
become a entrepreneur uh you should be
able to like take challenges. Um that's
not how being taught in Sri Lankan
culture, right? uh you study, go to
work, work under someone uh but I think
you have been changing mindset also um
over past few years when we look at YGC
uh like the latest season that you concluded
concluded
um I think some of the big names in tech
some of the big investors
um are attending uh YGC now and then a
lot of big companies in Sri Lanka
are also partnering up with this. What's
your secret sauce? How did you get them
to be a part of this program?
>> It's it's funny now we we have the
luxury of seeing all of this. But when
we started was just a handful of
companies who actually supported and we
thankful for them for doing that and
organizations who came on board, the
early supporters. We even at one time
went uh thought that we want to raise
funds and stuff like that. We want to go
and pitch and and then we we didn't get
good results. So [snorts]
uh what we did was we just went back and
did what we did properly and to be
honest like the platinum sponsors today
of it hub uh people like IT foundation
people like Cinnamon Global people like Musk
Musk
AI to Northern Uni even um Nebara all of
them actually found us the work that we
are doing and then came and approached
to become a partner.
So that was just magic happening because
like uh we we wouldn't have been able to
go and convince any of them but they saw
the work that we do and then then they
came. So I think um uh the the the
recipe that is hard like I think when
things become successful it's easy to
sort of uh say that this was the recipe
and then all of that but like there are
few things I think it's repeatable.
Obviously one big factor has been we've
been lucky. So I think that I need to
confess but then um um one one one thing
was the vision of what we wanted to do.
I think it resonated and it connected
quickly. You like that's the first time
you said right about our idea we just
remember it very easily. >> [snorts]
>> [snorts]
>> uh the vision was clear and and and and
the vision uh was clear and then I think
most importantly we were very lucky I
don't know what happened but we actually
defined our values up front distributed
decision making at all levels because
the values are clear and within those
values you can do anything within the
hub and it's very flat we don't have
designations as such and all of that
unless you are a full-time employee
who's dedicated your career to it all of
us are volunteers and and then if you
look the values we also defined a value
like let's say being apolitical. So um
operating this kind of an environment it
was very lucky that we made that
decision to be apolitical. So we've
stayed out of all of that and and that
has allowed us to independently operate
in the way we want to operate. We've
stayed corporate and technology
independent. So it's a platform for all
of them. So likewise and these values we
defined 15 years ago. We were just lucky
that we we made that decision and that
has helped us in decision making
especially in a distributed way and and
and also we stayed transparent so people
can come in contribute with ideas
everyone could chip in and and everyone
rolls up the sleeves and does things
like for example even still now now I
think you should visit by GC it'll
happen in August we have 20,000 people
attending so it's just grown to be
something and there are like if you look
at Japna still the infrastructure is not
there. We don't have event management
companies and so forth. So even from
taking out the garbage to arranging the
chairs, it'll be the CEOs of the
companies of the alumni companies and
volunteers who's rolling up their
sleeves and doing it right up till 10:00
or 11:00 in the night. So it's beautiful
to see this and and people who come in
like like like even yourself to all of
that. It became addictive for a lot of
people to keep coming back because they
just enjoyed. I'm sure if you were not
uh if you not moved out of the country
you would have also continued to come.
So most people are like that like who
who who are part of this journey has
been coming and and being part of this
year after year. It's almost become like
a pilgrimage for coming to the YGC and
the B competition and now of course the
innovation festival. So so it's grown
and and I think those are probably the
characteristics which allow this
community to sort of build into
something sustainable.
>> Wow. 20,000 people. That's almost like
one of the biggest tech events that
happens in uh in APAC. Something that I
really vouch for is the involvement of
the volunteers. Uh they roll up their
sleeves and then they say, "Okay, I'm
going to help uh to execute this." And
they've been executing this for 15 plus
years now. Um so that execution like
every time every year when you have your
execution uh going on I I think it
compounds over time um and then it adds
value um as well like when things
compound as almost like a sort of law of
attraction kind of thing that happens uh
over a period of time as well that's
something that I've seen people who have
moved out who are based out of Japna
moved out to uh uh work in Silicon
Valley in the US and Europe also uh like
very passionately uh helping out this
cause because they want the region uh to
be successful. They want this making
Japna to be the next Silicon Valley a
reality. I think that comes out of lot
of like I think passion. Um so coming up
to like some of the success stories
right you mentioned about like 100 plus
startups. I know Senzag grow is doing
some amazing work when they started off
also. Um even Miller had like
connections to like India they were like
trying to do stuff in India as well
which is pretty amazing. So any of the
interesting startups that has come up
from IHub uh that you want to share?
>> Go shopping with SnapIt and grab
unbelievable rewards from the brands you love.
love. >> [music]
>> [music]
>> So I'm not going to name companies right
now because I didn't ask for them for
the permission but I'm sure they are all
going to turn up in your podcast in
future [laughter] and they will talk. So
so I'll let them sort of refer it but
I'll give you context of this. So one of
the beautiful things that has also
happened is there's hundreds of
companies and I just want to pick a few
and and and and all of them are doing
amazing work and and you you named
already uh sense made sense agro and and
stuff like that which which is doing
amazing work u there's a lot of
companies who actually now now come out
of this some of them established very
well 100 people companies and and so
forth which is in operation 100 engineer
companies and and so forth which is
doing amazingly well uh one of The
beautiful things is the fact that uh the
most uh sort of rewarding there are two
things that has actually come out of it.
There was this uh
donor organization which actually was
talking to us and evaluating the work
that we did. So they were doing due
diligence on us and then they they came
and uh they said something which was
very interesting. So this was the first
time they actually saw a program where a
beneficiary their terminology they call
it as beneficiary has actually come back
to become a sponsor of the program.
So at YGC one of the beautiful things
that has happened is that we have
sponsors now who are alumni companies.
So that's something which I I think is
is remarkable. Secondly, something that
makes us very happy and this been a
rewarding experience is to find juniors
who came while they were at school. So
they were at school when they came and
competed at by GCU junior and the fact
that we've run for 14 years. We have
people who participated junior who are
now CEOs of their companies running
companies with 25 people, 30 people, 40
people which is another like sort of a
rewarding experience. This is what we
sort of envisioned at some point of
time. Anything that you do when you keep
doing it consistently the compounding
loss of compounding sort of kicks in and
then when you turn back and look at it
it looks like magic that has happened
even across programs because now we have
expanded even like we even run
entrepreneurship clubs at schools. I
don't know whether you would believe
that we actually give cash to children
at school where they design businesses
and run businesses and we run a
competition at the provincial level
where we reward the school which has
made the most amount of money using
that. We give another award for the team
the the the club which has made the most
amount of impact with that money and the
third award for the best business model
innovation. So children are actually
designing and running businesses. That's
the best way you in which you can sort
of learn entrepreneurship. So so that
there's a lot happening currently.
>> That's actually a culture change as well
because that's not how been brought up.
Parents would pamper us and then they we
really don't know the value of money.
But like once you have money once you
spend start spending start earning at
the early stage they definitely need to
learn about like financial management
and all sorts of things which are like
very very useful uh that every school
should be teaching at early stage.
>> Yes. So there are actually 65 schools
which actually have entrepreneurship
clubs with this model in the northern
province today. And uh it's amazing like
we we have this uh uh thing at the 5G
innovation festival where they come and
showcase what they have sort of done. We
have uh schools from like even some of
the islands who actually came up with
massively innovative business model innovations
innovations
and and they they they run all kinds of
things. You would expect them to
sometimes run a business like like
running a bookshop or something to make
money. But they were running cricketer
tournaments, excite cricketer
tournaments and getting money out of
sponsorships and making money out of it.
Another school was actually running
puppet shows to make money out of it. So
they they understand that now all of
this can be business like we when we
were kids we never thought that cricket
can be a business, right? So so they
they are thinking very differently. So
it's very encouraging science for the future.
future.
That's very true and especially that's a
very good sign for northern province um
as well. Um so uh Son I have not seen
this model elsewhere even across the
world and then across the region also
like there's one uh s story a similar
story uh in Vietnam where uh the people
who are going through this program they
tend to kind of encourage the alumni to
come back and help um other people out
and then to recruit etc. I think the
same model is happening in YDC as well.
But if someone wants to like sort of
replicate the same model um can be in
Sri Lanka or maybe elsewhere um like is
there a way for them to do it? Should
they be in touch with you? How does it work?
work?
>> So that's actually an offer that we've
been making to everybody. So it's just
that we don't have the bandwidth to
replicate ourselves. But we've learned a
lot of things along this journey and we
are happy to share all of this with
anyone who wants to sort of replicate a
similar model a communitydriven
community uh driven uh uh innovation
model and um a lot of things that we do
uh we actually even opensource it and
know for example we run a book program
for grade 6 to9 students. It's a
gamified program because with COVID we
saw a massive drop in participation from
schools in in YGC junior. So we wanted a
rural participation to come back again.
So we designed this program where the
first level of the programs doesn't have
anything to be do with technology. It's
basically like it it would have a work
item to say go and collect different
types of flowers in the garden tabulate
the number of petals in it and then we
introduce Fibonacci numbers to them.
Then we showed them how Fibonacci
numbers is used in architecture. So they
started something very primitive but
learned something very advanced at the
end of that sort of worksheet. So what
we have done is we we run this like we
designed such programs and they complete
level one and then they get into level
two and then get they get into level
three. Level three they introduced
programming and stuff like that like
like last year's level three was one of
the levels was quantum computing. So
this is for grade six to nine students.
they they complete. Okay. So, this book
program has more than 5,000 people part
5,000 students year on year
participating on it. So, uh and and they
can send it by post. So, they don't have
to even send it by or they have the
option of sell it by WhatsApp, Viber and
all of that as well. So the the point I
was trying to make is this book program
the design of the book and everything we
actually release it with the most
lenient creative common licenses
because we want actually people to take
this and replicate it anywhere they want
to replicate
along with this I'm just taking this
book as a one example of thing that we
open source but like everything that we
do we are happy to share because uh we
feel that although um it's not seen it's
highly possible for people to replicate
this in other places. You'll have to
tinker it, customize it, localize it,
but there are some highle fundamentals
which will stay the same.
>> Like you mentioned, the whole program
has been open source. Uh and I'll leave
uh a link to the program if someone
wants to sort of get in touch or maybe
contribute. Um this book idea is very
interesting. Um so how do you create
these type of like worksheets? Can
people get involved in helping out to
create worksheets like this?
>> Absolutely. So what happens is we have a
research team who anchors the project
but then we have volunteers who actually
chip in with ideas with worksheets and
also reviewing that. So like even all
those parts are done completely
voluntarily. So they they sort of get
involved in that and and it's a
different book every year. So it's three
levels of book and a entirely different
book every year. So that it's it's a new
experience. they learn something and and
it's the theme is very different from
year to year and so forth. So we would
love to have participation from more
people. There's so much scope for people
to volunteer and sort of get involved
and and also by learning if they can
replicate in their own communities
anywhere in the world. We would love to
see that happen. there across the world
there are different markets like similar
conditions what uh Japna had and and has
as well because what we have seen is
what happens in the US like the
communities that are being started off
easily gets replicated but hey come on
in Sri Lanka there's a totally different
social communitydriven innovation model
that people can take in and run into
while you were building entrepreneurs in
Japna uh you let go of corporate life
and became an entrepreneur yourself now
uh with Mantra Aai. Um so which is
interesting uh that's an AI startup. Do
you want to share a little bit about
what you do?
>> Sure. So so I didn't actually quit my my
corporate job to become an entrepreneur.
I I quit my job thinking that I want to
retire. [laughter]
So I was like I had a target that okay I
need to have more time on my hands and
one of the the the things was like we
were doing up and and stuff like that
but always I was missing living in Japna
so I wanted to sort of move and live in
Japa. So that was the main reason I quit
my full-time job and I moved to Japna.
Once I moved here I was just playing
around with technology and I had more
time to build. So I spent a lot of time
building stuff and then first I actually
spent a lot of time with blockchains
trying to understand and all of that and
then I found that it's it's a brilliant
piece of maths that is waiting for
problems to be sort of where it could
fit in to solve very early on I got into
AI and and I I started experimenting a
lot with AI and then what happened was
while I was in my corporate life at
Applua one of the things I had to do was
like um I had to look at some of the
operational aspects which also included
managing inside sales teams. So I come
from a technical background and I had no
idea managing a sales team. So it was a
suffering for me uh because um sales
numbers fluctuates people do demos
sometimes it doesn't close. It's hard to
sort of put a finger and say exactly
this is why sales numbers are not sort
of working out this month. and a top
performer sometimes it's very hard to
differentiate from a low performer give
feedback to the low performer we found
it very hard and then I realized that I
I love chess I play a lot of chess as in
not that I'm a good chess player
probably rate myself as an average club
player uh but I I love the game when I'm
just sort of stressed I would go and
play online chess uh my my coping
mechanism I suppose so u so I I love
chess and one of the things that I
realized This was like when you want to
sort of improve in chess, you you either
figure out where your deficiencies are.
So in a game of chess, you might have a
deficiency in your opening, middle game
or end game or you might have uh
deficiencies in detecting certain
patterns like techniques. So you might
not see a fork or whatever. Sales is
similar. So when you have a sales
conversation, a demo, you have a
structure to it. Some people are good at
explaining or elicitating the customer's
requirements but they are bad at asking
for the sale. So they do everything well
but they don't ask for the sale so the
sale doesn't close or sometimes what
happens is they they do all the parts
well but then they don't uh handle
objections well. They might bring up an
objection about a competitor and they
don't sort of answer that well or they
have issues in sales techniques. So for
example, they might not be doing
mirroring or they might not be doing
value selling or they might not be using
social proofs in their conversations. So
I realized like okay this can be this is
a nice fit for AI for for inside sales
teams doing this. So I I started
building manga it was not I just
building a solution for it and then
there were people who said like okay
this is interesting. I analyzed a few
companies data and showed them. They
said like okay we ready to pay for it
and I didn't have a company. So I just
registered a company just because people
were ready to pay for it. So that's how
I sort of got into entrepreneurship sort
of journey as as such and then I was
also fascinated by AI. I wanted to see
as an individual how much you can push
even today
uh I I work on it full-time. there's a
teenager who's actually um handling the
content and social media part of it and
uh the rest is I'm I'm trying to see how
much as an individual you can push uh
this using AI and and and it's it's it's
a fascinating journey because uh I
myself uh from a skills and learning and
all of that learned a lot and also it's
contributing as in it's it's helping
businesses because one of the latest
features that we launched was live
coaching. So, while you're on a a call,
a demo, you could actually have an
overlay on your call, which is actually
listening in and pulling up your battle
cards, pulling up your deficiencies to
remind you, don't forget to uh ask for
the sale. This particular thing came up
in the conversation. The customer
mentioned, you have missed it. You might
want to just address it. So, instead of
giving this feedback later on, it's
actually doing it live. Um so building
those kind of stuff has been fascinating
because it's fun. Uh so it's early days
uh but u it's a fun journey and I'm
enjoying it.
That's pretty fantastic like especially
the overlay part look at different
aspects of the sale and then like try to
close at the end of the day right with
AI I think you pointed out like a very
important point is that like you
dabbling with the whole idea after uh
sort of retirement I would say um but
the thing is like you were able to like
build something up very quickly and then
uh push it out and then see how the
market would react and you've been also
So like a very vocal advocate about AI
and then you were talking about um
especially about the the new intern the
human AI co-creation and then you also
have this India
uh analogy uh etc. So you are pro AI uh
type of a person. So in your opinion
like how does like future of software
development looks like?
>> Right. I'm not sure whether if I want to
call myself a pro AI person but I think
I will call myself a technology
optimist. So normally I have an
optimistic sort of outlook on
technology. I can go wrong on this with
especially with AI it can go anywhere.
So one of the things I I I think is it
actually technology has pushed us
forward. It has helped us uh that the
net has been positive is my view on on
technology of obviously technology has
its sort of drawbacks issues and all of
that but like if you look at overall at
at a massive scale at a at a macro scale
it has been a net positive and and and I
feel that AI is a is a pivotal moment in
in in in the history of humankind and
also I think that um software industry
as a whole is is having it Kodak moment
it it's it's going to turn it on its
head and um I don't think the software
industry is going to sort of disappear
but uh the software is going to get commoditized
commoditized
uh so for example there are places where
software couldn't go in earlier because
the unit economics of building that
software didn't work but now it's
possible to take software to those
places where software couldn't go in uh
because it's become faster cheaper uh to
build Right now the the the challenge is
in actually taking it to market making
it work making it useful for people
making lives better with it and so
forth. So like like very quick example
that I'll show you like on and y we
always wanted to have a platform for
ourselves which we couldn't but now if
you look at we have a complete platform
for ya where you can register you can
have a QR code now we can track the
impact across all our initiatives. We we
can we can now track that this person
came as a junior participant
came to a senior then was part of
accelerator and all of that is
completely tracked and even their
attendance to everything is tracked on a
single platform. None of the CRM could
actually do this for us. Now with the
help of AI it's wcoded and built and
it's on production. I was just checking
out like we've not even publicly
announced but there's about thousand
plus sort of already uh registered and
using that. So this is something that we
couldn't have done. We are a not for
profofit. We don't have that luxury of
like massive budgets to build a software
project in the past right but now we
have this opportunity to build the
software for a specific purpose make it
work a place where software unit
economics didn't work earlier. So
likewise there's a lot of new
opportunities for software to go into
places where it didn't make sense
earlier. So so I I think that's going to
change and it's going and and also more
people are going to build software and
what I had realized now is if you have
clarity of thought on what you need it's
easy to build software now that's the
biggest issue. uh so when we don't know
what we want then you can't build but if
you know what you want to build it's
it's easy to sort of orchestrate the the
AI uh and get it done and it's going to
get even more easier because you need to
know that this is actually an
exponential sort of growth that's
happening last year probably people were
arguing that it was good for code
completion but now it has actually
changed a lot more you can do a lot more
and and almost like you can module
generation is almost on the brink and
probably there already. I would argue
that it's already there and and and and
and you if if you know what you want to
build. One of the things that I did
recently was uh we we did recently was
that we ran a workshop called build with
AI for people who don't come from
technical background.
So this was part of reality program. We
had about 50 plus participants. So there
was a teacher who came for that program
who actually ended up building a startup
for teaching
and this teacher never thought that he
could actually build software by himself
to to make it work at this level. So I
find that to be fascinating when these
tools are given to people who have this
problem that they know exist they are
the specialist in those domains. Now
when the superpower of building software
is given to them, they're building
amazing stuff solving a real problem
which is out there. It's an opportunity
if you really look at and if you have
the agency to sort of learn that and and
do that uh and embrace it. I think it's
an opportunity. So there's going to be a
massive difference between people who
embrace and people who don't embrace it.
Um I understand that there are
limitations, there are issues uh which
you need to be careful. I'm not playing
any of that down. But it's also opening
up a lot more new doors. It's is a
revolution right at the brink of it.
Especially if you are an entrepreneur,
it's an interesting sort of phase to
because all the old playbooks are sort
of been thrown out. So it's everybody's
in like at the same starting line almost
right now. So So that that's the
opportunity I see.
>> AI has made the playing field level for
everyone who can like they can just
start it off. uh and then especially uh
sanen uh like uh when you look at like
throughout the human history uh
technology has like changed and then has
made uh jobs redundant and then new one
pops up as well which we don't see now.
Um like if you look at like a couple of
years ago like w coders or w programmers
they weren't like a thing. Uh now it is
a thing as well. There's also this
notion of um young graduates thinking
about hey are we going to lose jobs um
etc too just because of AI uh but the
thing is the next wave of like jobs like
similar to software engineers might come
in in the future uh we don't know how it
looks like um so you are writing a book
u like a AI natively the uh the book is
a live book as well um So um I'll leave
a link to that book if anyone wants to
read it. It's a very interesting one.
Talks about like different aspects um of
this AI and then journey uh too. What's
your vision for northern province?
>> So I I think probably more than a vision
I think vision is clear. We want to
somehow create the the north to be an
innovation h that's sort of the vision
that we work on in order to achieve
that. I think if we can sort of somehow
instill in everyone
the need for agency to take ownership
and execute things and and and be
curious uh to to explore and try and
it's it's okay to fail even somebody who
tries and fails is a hero we can sort of
instill that thought process at scale I
think that could be the best outcome
that we can get I think that's the most
important outcome even with AI I
one segment that is very hardly going to
be replaced is is entrepreneurs.
So, [snorts] so that opportunity is
going to be there. Rules I think would
change as you said even youngsters if
they can start building on their own I
think they can do even bigger things. Um
so so I think the uh instead of the the
old playbooks of trying to find a job
where you can fit in as an intern or a
junior might not exist. it it might
change but like if you want to build
something there is a entire world in
front of you where you can try and even
if you fail people are going to happy to
take you in because you come with a
self-taught MBA so so that's sort of the
opportunity I see and I hope that uh
there are more people um who [music]
would actually take agency in anything
it doesn't have to be entrepreneurship
but like whatever they want to execute
to to take accountability take
responsibility and do and and [music]
then that would create like a domino
effect of more people sort of getting
inspired by them and doing that. So
that's what I wish for.
>> Thank you Sanden for joining today. Um
and then wishing you all the very best
for all the future endeavors.
>> Thank you so much Shaflas. Thank you for
the support over the so many years to
reality hub and and then professionally
and and and [music] thanks for that and
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