# Saurabh Nigam, author of People-Powered Startups: Building a Culture of Collaboration, Innovation, and High Performance.

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-indian-startup-show-1026402/saurabh-nigam-author-of-people-powered-startups-building-a-culture-of-collaboration-innovation-and-high-performance
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-indian-startup-show-1026402/saurabh-nigam-author-of-people-powered-startups-building-a-culture-of-collaboration-innovation-and-high-performance.md
Podcast: [The Indian Startup Show](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-indian-startup-show-1026402)
Published: 2025-03-05T00:00:00+00:00
Episode link: http://www.indianstartupshow.com
Audio file: https://cdn.simplecast.com/audio/5a8e79e6-61c1-44d1-9a82-337838b6b0d3/episodes/cb74ae28-0a23-44f5-9584-77553c9f18d5/audio/45ef9c00-a944-4339-a4f0-81b3d1f79ef6/default_tc.mp3?aid=rss_feed&feed=6dj1W8C2
Processing state: not_requested
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-indian-startup-show-1026402/episodes/saurabh-nigam-author-of-people-powered-startups-building-a-culture-of-collaboration-innovation-and-high-performance
Duration seconds: 2151

## Resource

In this episode, I sit down with Saurabh Nigam—HR leader, angel investor, and author of People-Powered Startups: Building a Culture of Collaboration, Innovation, and High Performance. With over two decades of experience, Saurabh shares actionable insights on building a thriving startup culture, avoiding common HR mistakes, and hiring the right people at the right time. We dive into: Why startups struggle with HR—and how to fix it. The role of AI in recruitment. How to retain top talent and manage toxic high performers. Managing mental wellness in a high-growth startup environment. The three non-negotiables in any startup culture. Red flags that indicate a new hire isn’t working out. The best time to hire your first HR professional and much more.

## Actions

- request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-indian-startup-show-1026402/episodes/saurabh-nigam-author-of-people-powered-startups-building-a-culture-of-collaboration-innovation-and-high-performance/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
- read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-indian-startup-show-1026402/saurabh-nigam-author-of-people-powered-startups-building-a-culture-of-collaboration-innovation-and-high-performance.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed.

## Transcript

Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.