Giving Back to the Educational community

Our founder, Naveen Athresh, has a lifelong vision of sharing his early successes and product/platform-building learnings with scale companies. Naveen has a rock-solid product career and has been there, done that a/c all types of corporations across myriad verticals.

He strives to improve the quality of products folks churned out of Indian B-schools and work with the corporations that need this niche skill. In this endeavor, he regularly (for the past decade) takes time mentoring youngsters (purely non-profit) graduating from technology/business schools to take up product platform building as a profession.

Naveen has been involved in getting mentored by the best of the best since his early days in B2B/B2C (business to business/consumer) product management back in 2010 from Marty Cagan of the Silicon Valley product group. Marty is recognized as one of the top hands-on product management coaches worldwide.

Over the years, Naveen has set audacious goals for himself. He easily surpassed the goal of training 20000 students on product management by end of 2022. As he exited 2023, he had excelled in training over 155000+ participants/viewers of his product talks.

Some of Naveen’s stints include:

Volunteering

November 2024

NMIT
Gen AI Judge
Sponsor
Science and Technology

Liquidmind® AI was proud to be both a silver sponsor and our Founder & CEO, Naveen Athresh, the GenAI judge along with the finale judge across all the tracks including GenAI, Quantum computing, EV/sustainable energy, Web 3.0 amongst other innovative tracks.

August 2024

MIT Media Lab
Science and Technology
Co-Panelist

August 2024

Guest Speaker
Science and Technology

Naveen participated in this AI / ML and Deep learning conference for AI applied to solving societal problems across different industries and verticals including Deep Tech at the Indian Institute of science Bengaluru.
Was also a co-panelist with Prof Ramesh Raskar from MIT Media Labs Boston MA, USA.

Naveen was at IIT Madras to give a talk to their BTech students on user research and design thinking product thinking. Loved it. Got a detailed tour of the great deep tech work they are doing around hyper loop and electric autonomous vehicles and solar powered vehicles.

Board Member (EPIC - Executive product industry council) - Product
Management Institute of Product Leadership
Science and Technology

March 2024 - Present

Product leadership Institute is a great institute that brings together leading industry practitioners in this niche area of Product Management to help shape their curriculum and mentor their students with effective / generic best practices with a goal to create 10000 product/platform thinkers from the ground up.

Jan 2024 · 1 mo

Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) - Official
Science and Technology

Gave a talk on the current state of the economy, impact of AI/ML on the various industries, the ability to amalgamate / ingrain AI into product/platform thinking and the way forward to a bright bunch of Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, Kakinada IPM students. They have unique programs like the Integrated program in management (IPM) combining the best of MBA-Analytics and MBA(International business) offered by parent IIFT, Delhi/Kolkata. Naveen’s talk was well received and Naveen was honored to be speaking to this acclaimed cohort.

Aug 2023 - Present · 8 mos

Speaker
Entrepreneurship Cell, VGSoM, IIT Kharagpur
Science & Technology

Naveen gave a talk on Product / Platform thinking for 2 hours to a 200 member / student cohort of MBA students of IIT-KGP (VgSOM). Great conversation with the cohort.

Feb 2023 · 1 mo

TEDx speaker
University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering ( UVCE )

Naveen was a TEDx speaker at this UVCE TEDx event speaking on innovation, my life journey and the choices we need to make to be successful as we meander the maze called life and realism. His talk has seen over 150000 views and counting in <2 months. It went viral a few days after it was released by the TEDx committee on their YouTube channel. With his goal of reaching 20000 audience by 2022 (he has personally given talks in person traveling all over India to top B-schools/IIT/IIMs to reach 9000 students in last 6+ years as of 2023) interested in Product Platform building from India for greater good since 2017/18, this is a satisfying metric but a job only 1% done (Sept 2023).

Aug 2022 · 1 mo

Panel Member - AI / ML Digital Transformation
XLRI Jamshedpur
Science & Technology

Naveen participated on an AI / ML conclave where Naveen delivered my thoughts to 200+ participants on the future of digital transformation through AI ML deep learning constructs with very acclaimed CXO’s of peer companies across verticals.

Mar 2022 · 1 mo

Speaker - AI / ML and Digital transformation
IIT Bombay - Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management
Science & Technology

Speaker on REVOLUTIONIZING BUSINESS LANDSCAPE WITH AI AND DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION to over 200 students; a fantastic interaction.

August 2021

Panel Member
SIBM, Bengaluru

CIT-Annual-Report-2021-2022_removed_page-0001 (1).jpg

Jul 2021 - Present · 2 yrs 9 mos

Speaker - Product Management
Science & Technology

Spoke to over 200 students of IIM 2022 graduating MBA batch on why a career in product management is rewarding and fulfilling and one they should pursue. Interestingly when Naveen was there in 2019, 2 hands went up on knowledge of Product (2%). This time it was more like 50 or 25%. Shows our foray into evangelizing Product across Indian B-School campuses is working!

Jun 2020 - Present · 3 yrs 10 mos

Startup panelist / mentor
Conquest BITS Pilani

Conquest, an initiative by the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership, BITS Pilani, is India’s First Student-Run Startup Accelerator. We help the best founders build great businesses and raise money. Our program includes online mentoring to the 10 most exciting startups from across the country over 6 weeks, connecting them with field experts. Following this, the startups undergo a 10 day mentorship program in Bangalore. The program ends with the Grand Finale where these startups pitch before India’s biggest investment firms and media houses.

Oct 2020 - Present · 3 yrs 6 mos

Business Mentor
Systemix: The Systems Consulting, E-commerce and SMAC Club, IIFT

Goal is to work with the Systemix club of my alma mater (Indian Institute of Foreign Trade) to mentor their students.

Delivered a talk to the 200+ participants of the MBA (IB) class of 2021/2022 in October 2020.

It was an engaging discussion with the participants on World Statistics day on 20th October 2020.

The world has come a long way in recognising data as a central pivot and theme around everything we do.

With data comes a lot of interesting challenges. Management of data, the usage of data, the difference between ethical usage, usage by ads where we are the “product”, personalisation, Data privacy acts, trust, transparency, quality of data, closing this trust gap, partnering IT and Analytics to drive transformation, laying out a Chief data officer role for organisations, data as an enabler in International business.

Jun 2020 - Present · 3 yrs 10 mos

Speaker / Product Management mentor
S.P. Jain Institute of Management & Research

Speaker on Product Management (Product / Platform thinking) across a variety of areas to the 2021 MBA cohort.

Feb 2020 - Present · 4 yrs 2 mos

Speaker/Mentor -Product/Platform thinking
Indian Institute of Foreign Trade

Gave a talk to the 2019-2021 MBA (International business) batch of Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), New Delhi. Attended by ~200 students. Mentor on the IIFT, Delhi, Systemix network for Product Management from Feb 2020.

Sep 2019 - Present · 4 yrs 7 mos

Speaker - Product thinking / Panelist - Udgam / Brand Engagement and Customer Loyalty/Insights
Indian Institute of Management, Sirmaur

Jul 2019 - Present · 4 yrs 9 mos

Speaker-Product Thinking, Panelist, Vivaan 2019 - Strategy & Analytics Summit / value of data
Indian Institute of Foreign Trade

July 2019

Speaker at NASSCOM

Speaker on Product Management (Product / Platform thinking)

Jan 2019 - Present · 5 yrs 3 mos

Product Management Specialist
ISPMA e.V.

May 2018 - Present · 5 yrs 11 mos

Startup / Product Management mentor
IAMAI-Mobile10X

Delivered a talk on Product Platform thinking with Tathagat Verma chaired by reps from IIM Bengaluru and ISPMA Chairman to over 150 working execs at IIM B. The International Software Product Management Association (ISPMA) is an open non-profit association of experts, companies, and research institutes with the goal to foster software product management excellence across industries.

ISPMA establishes software product management as a discipline in both academia and industry, and disseminates and maintains a Curriculum and a Certifiable Body of Knowledge (SPMBOK).

The SPMBOK is documented in syllabi that are the basis for training courses and certification exams. The syllabi are available for free for all members. Training courses can be offered by commercial training providers and universities. Certification exams are conducted by independent certification agencies that issue the certificates on behalf of ISPMA.

ISPMA also provides a platform for communication and exchange between its members, be it on conferences, in workshops and working groups, or on the internet.

The Mobile10X hub at Bangalore - GoK Mobile10X startup hub is supported by Government of Karnataka, it has a Testing Lab, Design Lab, Capability Building and Co-working Space. They also provide:

• Mentorship by industry experts and domain specialists

• Advanced tools for testing and implementation
• Specific zones for design, development, testing and monetization

#MakeinIndia
• Regular interactions, seminars and workshops with peers and industry leaders
• Dedicated researchers and advice on monetization

Apr 2018 - Present · 6 yrs

Member
INDIAGLOCAL

INDIAGLOCAL is a collaborative not for profit think tank initiative to enable Indian entrepreneurs and ecosystem to grow globally. As a first step to that end, we have set out to build a global community of Indian entrepreneurs and enablers in form of a network of local Indian entrepreneurial communities across the world.

Apr 2018 - Present · 6 yrs

Panelist / Product Management mentor
Bootstrapped Labs

Part of the panel evaluating startups. Gave a talk on 'Product/Platform thinking' to IIM-Bangalore startup audience as part of their e-cell (NSRCEL) with a video that went viral (>20K views in under 24 hours of publishing) showing the need for hand holding of product / platform startups by Sr. talent in industry

#MakeinIndia

Initially, my involvement with their institute was as a recruiter representing my then company, Capillary Technologies (2013)

Later as an elite member to help plan their intrapreneurship workshops

Hopefully, some of their students will practice the sound principles of Product Management to build the next billion $ product company out of India!

#MakeinIndia

Upgrad is shaping the way Product Management evolves in the coming years to build budding product managers. They are looking to industry experts to raise the bar and collaborate to bring the next stream of Product Talent to the fore by grooming them right with effective mentoring.

- Gave a speech @ Bangalore to aspirants on what good Product first thinking is all about

- Mentored select students of their institute in Product Management

#MakeinIndia

Volunteer as a speaker, mentor and panlist on various panels across Inspiron 19, Inspiron 20 and Impetus 19, 20. Also, participating in the renovation activities of UVCE, Bengaluru to restore its heritage. Proud to support my alma mater.