S5E61: Social Entrepreneurism, Water Intelligence & Being a Change for Good with Meena Sankaran

Episode Summary

Founder and CEO of KETOS, Meena Sankaran joins the show to discuss her passion for leveraging disruptive technologies to make an impact as a social entrepreneur. KETOS is a vertically integrated water intelligence platform that is on a mission to transform how water operators measure, manage, and forecast water quality.

Today, Harry and Meena talk about Meena’s inspirational immigration story, launching W.IN.S (Women INner Strength), and her passion for doing good and solving existential problems.

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Key Takeaways

07:14 – Harry welcomes Founder and CEO of KETOS, Meena Sankaran, to discuss where she calls home, her experience with culture shock, and her hunger and fire to do better

17:19 – Meena reflects on her background in electrical engineering and the culture of entrepreneurism

25:26 – The concept of ‘Help and Let Help Live’

30:18 – The inspiration to launch Women INner Strength (W.IN.S)

33:49 – The origin story of KETOS and understanding water intelligence

48:26 – Challenges and wins for Meena and KETOS

57:14 – How Meena has grown as a leader and entrepreneur

59:02 – Harry thanks Meena for joining the show and Meena makes a specific ask of the audience

Tweetable Quotes

“I think for me [what called me to the States was] the drive to make my parents’ lives better, the hunger within me to collectively make the world a better place for India.” (11:32) (Meena)

“I would say the ideation process, to me, is the most intriguing part, because people have millions of ideas. An idea isn’t worth a penny unless you can execute on it.” (21:12) (Meena)

“I truly believe that women are such strong souls and you have so much inner strength that is untapped. And, if we are able to uplift each other, we would be unstoppable.” (32:19) (Meena)

“What I was doing was really thinking through my mind of what is it that I want to do? Which area do I really want to dive in? And that was getting narrower and narrower. And, it actually came back to my childhood because I looked at what areas are going to make an impact and I thought it had to be in the space of water, air or food. It had to be that important of a challenge in terms of serving the community and solving a real challenge that’s affecting the planet.” (34:25) (Meena)

“I believe that regardless of the outcome of where your startup ends up, it doesn’t matter, because what your experience and what your journey has been is so unique to you that no other job could have ever given you that experience.” (38:34) (Meena)

“It’s a humbling experience every step of the way, what you think you know versus what you think you don’t know. You don’t even know what you don’t know. That has been a humbling experience.” (57:26) (Meena)