What Recruiters Look for Before Hiring You | Kamal Karanth, Recruitment Veteran | Ep 35

How do you build a talent company in an industry with 23,000 competitors, with no Plan B?Kamal Karanth, co-founder of Xpheno, explains how he picked one niche, global capabilitycentres (GCCs), went deep, and grew Xpheno to nearly ₹480 crore in revenue withoutinstitutional funding.Kamal Karanth began in pharma sales in 1994 on a ₹7,000 salary, spent 16 years in seniorleadership at Ma Foi Randstad and Kelly Services across India and Malaysia, then left tostart Xpheno in 2017 with his childhood friend Anil Ethanur. Today Xpheno helps globalcompanies set up and scale GCCs in India.In this Kannada–English conversation with host Vasanth, Kamal covers entrepreneurship,recruitment, hiring trends and the future of work. He explains how rejection in salesprepared him for founding, why he and Anil bootstrapped instead of raising venture capital,and what Narayana Murthy told him when Covid hit. He also gives an insider view of how AIis affecting jobs, why GCCs still choose only six Indian metros, and what tier-2 cities likeMysuru, Mangaluru and Hubballi–Dharwad need to attract them.CHAPTERS 0:00-Introduction and introduction of Kamal Karanth5:07-Childhood days and the connection between Bengaluru and Udupi8:35-Love for movies and the dream of becoming a Bollywood hero10:14-Microbiology background and entry into the sales career13:28-Sales experience and lessons learned from handling rejection17:02-Mafoi and first entrepreneurial experiences20:46-Work experiences in Malaysia and other foreign countries27:58-Inclination towards entrepreneurship and mother's advice34:55-Founding Xpheno and relationship with co-founder Anil39:36-Selling homes to raise seed capital and initial challenges44:23-GCC market and Xpheno's unique strategy49:51-Credit line issues and experiences during tough days54:19-COVID-19 crisis and advice from N.R. Narayana Murthy57:20-Setting up a Centre of Excellence in Udupi1:01:38-A near-death childhood swimming incident and the origin of risk-taking1:04:35-AI disruption in the recruitment sector and its future1:12:38-Gen-Z job hopping and challenges faced by mid-career professionals1:19:20-Tier-2 city talent and job opportunities for Kannadigas1:29:20-Career advice for youngsters and Xpheno's upcoming IPO and growth plans1:42:18-Movies, Kambala, Yakshagana, favorite food, and nostalgic memories