Try GOLD - Free
INDIA'S BEST CEO - Building The Future Of Experiential Innovation
Outlook Business
|July 2025
In the ever-evolving world of digital media, where trends fade faster than they arrive, few leaders have consistently rewritten the playbook like Avinash Mudaliar. A product maverick and hardcore serial intrapreneur, Avinash blends strategic foresight, consumer empathy, and executional excellence to turn ideas into industry-shaping platforms. As Co-Founder and CEO of HT Labs, he is redefining how India experiences media, entertainment, and information.
-
From Disruption to Reinvention: A Legacy of Firsts
At HT Labs, he's building a future-facing innovation engine inside one of India's most trusted media houses. With platforms like OTTplay, Slurrp, Mint Genie, and HT School, he's addressing deeply felt, often unmet consumer needs across entertainment, food, personal finance, and education. “At OTTplay, we didn't build just another OTT service. We built the layer of intelligence that helps users make sense of the fragmented OTT universe,” says Avinash. “The goal is always to simplify complexity — whether it's subscription chaos or platform fatigue — and offer personalized, Al-powered solutions that feel intuitive.”
This story is from the July 2025 edition of Outlook Business.
Subscribe to Magzter GOLD to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 10,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
MORE STORIES FROM Outlook Business
Outlook Business
Coffee Meets Comfort
A quick-service restaurant chain, Nothing Before Coffee, is redefining how small cities and towns experience the café culture
3 mins
May 2026
Outlook Business
Tapping the Bathroom Space
From a small unit in Delhi's Walled City to eight plants now, Jaquar has banked on growing consumer demand to expand its portfolio and footprints
4 mins
May 2026
Outlook Business
Labour Pangs
As inflation rises and wages stagnate, India's contract workers are struggling to survive. Protests across industrial hubs reflect growing frustration over low pay and job insecurity
4 mins
May 2026
Outlook Business
An Unlikely Shock
A new research paper finds that districts that were more exposed to contraction in microfinance lending experienced a decline in education
4 mins
May 2026
Outlook Business
The Sound of Success
A game of pickleball or cricket with family and friends is a simple but fun way to reset and recharge for Pocket FM's co-founder and chief executive Rohan Nayak
2 mins
May 2026
Outlook Business
AI can improve production of solar and wind power
Priya Donti, assistant professor, MIT, and co-founder and chair of the non-profit Climate Change Al, talks to Nabodita Ganguly about how AI can help fight climate change, collect data for climate-tech start-ups and more. Edited excerpts
3 mins
May 2026
Outlook Business
Decoding Capital
Capital of many stripes-with varying risk appetites and return expectations- is entering different layers of India's nascent AI data-centre ecosystem
5 mins
May 2026
Outlook Business
'Next Decade will be About More Ways to Work'
Sashi Kumar, managing director, Indeed India talks about five shifts that will define India’s recruitment sector in the next decade and how hiring will become more transparent
1 mins
May 2026
Outlook Business
No Exit?
PE investors in India's IT services are taking a hard look at their portfolios as IPO markets turn selective and AI disrupts the sector
5 mins
May 2026
Outlook Business
Conscious of growth, but not at the cost of the brand
After a record year, Santosh lyer, managing director and chief executive, Mercedes-Benz India, speaks to Yuthika Bhargava on sustaining growth amid rising costs and changing demand. From pricing pressures to younger buyers, he discusses what is shaping the luxury-car market. Edited excerpts
3 mins
May 2026
Listen
Translate
Change font size