In this episode, Sunny Ray turns the tables on Naimish Sanghvi, founder of CoinCrunch, who usually interviews others about Bitcoin and Unocoin. Naimish traces his path from a biotechnology engineering degree to a coding role at Infosys, then into Oracle ERP consulting at Deloitte, including a formative stint in Poland working with clients across Europe. He describes the cultural shock of Western directness and work life balance, which pushed him to quit his corporate job in 2016. After a failed OTT news venture, a chance conversation about Chinese Bitcoin mining farms sparked his curiosity, leading him to open an account with Unocoin and dive deep into crypto. He recounts building a blog called Finally Jobless, working with CoinDelta, and launching CoinCrunch in February 2018 right as the RBI banking ban and government statements caused chaos and media misinformation about Bitcoin's legality in India. The conversation covers his early losses in ICOs, lessons learned, and his ongoing fight against crypto FUD in mainstream Indian media.
CoinCrunch founder Naimish Sanghvi shares his untold journey from Infosys engineer to Bitcoin educator fighting Indian media FUD.
Before Bitcoin, what was your story? What were you up to?
I graduated in biotechnology engineering in 2010, then joined Infosys as a software engineer coding in Java. I moved into consulting on Oracle ERP financial systems, then joined Deloitte and worked in Poland for a European client between 2014 and 2016. I eventually quit corporate life in February 2016 to figure out what else I wanted to do.
What were some of the cultural differences you noticed working in Europe?
I learned that Westerners are direct and don't sugarcoat things, unlike Indians who expect to be coaxed. I also learned that Europeans plan vacations years in advance and prioritize living life, unlike Indians, Americans, and Canadians who tend to overwork. Seeing a 45 year old director still working 15 hour days on Sundays made me realize something was wrong.
Do you have any tips for people getting into video editing?
iMovie is a great starting tool, very intuitive with a fixed 1080 ratio. I edited most of my videos on it during my jobless period. I'd also recommend using the black space at the top and bottom of frame for names or calls to action, easily created in Canva with a transparent background and layered into iMovie.
What happened with CoinDelta and why did so many Indian crypto exchanges shut down?
CoinDelta had to shut down because of the RBI banking ban, like many other exchanges. Around 40 exchanges existed in India by the end of 2017. I worked in customer support there, noticed common complaints, and wrote articles about them on my blog, which helped grow my audience significantly.
What were the major issues or standout articles during that turbulent period?
One article connecting CoinX to Penta Capital and PayU predicted they'd launch instant deposits, which happened two days later and went viral. Another covered Razorpay cutting off crypto exchanges overnight, causing panic, people rushing exchange offices, and even calling cops. Then Arun Jaitley's 'not legal tender' statement got twisted by media into 'Bitcoin is illegal,' causing more chaos.
What was your specific role at Infosys?
I trained for six months as a Java programmer, then got selected into a new consulting track, one of 25 engineers chosen from 700 applicants for roles usually reserved for MBAs or CAs. We were essentially the guinea pigs for creating cheaper consulting resources within Infosys.
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