Managing Partner at @Aheadvc. Writing pre-seed checks in applied AI -agents, voice, robots, infra. Always up for coffee. IITB alum.
Palo Alto
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A lot of folks who grew up in countries where english was not spoken actually use a lot of "written-first" words in their writing because that is how they learned the language.
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One of @sama's writings that has stuck with me for a long time is this -
"I am willing to take as much time as needed between projects to find my next thing. But I always want it to be a project that, if successful, will make the rest of my career look like a footnote."
This OpenAI + IO announcement feels like one of those days.
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Startups are fine but a solid, stable job is massively underrated.
You can pay your bills, take care of your health, take care of your loved ones, cultivate hobbies, do good work. That’s a good life!
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Dang, I did not have Derek showcasing a young Amitabh Bachchan on my 2024 bingo card! Love it :)
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I've known Lalit for over 20 years. At a party after the Groww IPO, an investor asked me how I would describe him. It took me a second to say -
Understated and intense.
He is one of those exceptional founders who are very grounded as a human. No airs, no status games.
At the same time he carries extreme ambition and intensity to build not just a product or a business at Groww, but a generational institution.
🚨Groww founder Lalit Keshre, a farmer's son, becomes billionaire after stellar IPO
By @rravindia
moneycontrol.com/news/busine…
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Fun fact - when Groww incorporated in the US to participate in YC, my home address was the first address for the company!
This has been a crazy (good) journey to see! As an investor you get a few opportunities to be a part of exceptional companies and I am thankful to see the company from the earliest days.
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Yup, non-native speakers learn from movies, books, blogs - anything captured into a reusable medium. That is exactly the source for LLMs to learn language as well.
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The Indian startup ecosystem of 2021 feels like 2015.
Same frantic energy. Same funding madness. Same euphoria. Hard to tell apart the best founders from the tourists.
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Keyboard - Ctrl + C , Ctrl + V was the best thing to happen to computers.
AR - Hold my beer
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Mom passed on last Friday after a year long battle with a grade 4 brain cancer. Her name was Shobha. It is hard to translate the word exactly in english but it means a mix of beauty & grace that shines.
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Vipassana is the practice of quiet meditation where for days you don't speak, and don't even make eye contact with others.
Yet...
Everyone who does it just CANNOT stop talking about it.
🤷♂️
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What an amazing story!
Even more amazing is that a senior political leader does something like this for their city and speaks publicly about it.
We need political leaders to be the leaders bridging public life and business life.
I extend my congratulations to the Indian School of Business (ISB) on the occasion of their 20th anniversary celebrations. Glad to know that Prime Minister Narendra Modi Ji will attend the graduation ceremony of the Post Graduate Programme Class.(1/17)
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"What your people do when you leave them to their own devices, that's culture" @bhorowitz #startupgrind
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Kinda like the first person and third person views of the same reality in a video game. Super fun to experience side by side!
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This is so wonderful to see!
Yet, also feel that product teams are leaving a whole section of users behind. We need to serve our elderly users better.
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US needs UPI (like India!) As a somewhat recent transplant to the US from India, it is a shock to see the antiquated payment systems here!
Great WeChat summary. Everyone should read. Integrated payment + communication is key. To get there in US, we need Fed to deliver on its recent faster payments initiative. Both the credit card rails and the ACH rails distract from innovation (& represent regulatory capture).
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I graduated & was looking for my first job in 2002- right after the original tech crash and 9/11. I got started on my startup in 2009 - right after the '08 crash.
Crashes suck. Hard.
Figure out how to survive. Figure out what is in your control, and focus on that.
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Flipped point (h/t @sama ) - When planning your next project in life, pick things which, if successful, will make your life so far feel like a footnote.
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The most consistent advice I give to new founders is NOT to build tech. Don't build the website. Don't build the app. Don't build that extra feature.
Push forward as much as you can, while building as little as you can.
Tech is a liability. Don't take it on, till you have to.
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The Kardashev scale is one of those ideas that needs more awareness.
Nothing else quite encapsulates the the enormity of possibility ahead of our (or any) civilisation.
This is a fun video that introduces the idea piped.video/watch?v=rhFK5_Nx…
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This is going to be a super-inside joke, but when 2 guys from IITB talk , their second question after “oh you want to IITB” is “which hostel”. Hilarious!
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I work closely with technical founders and persuasive storytelling is often a challenge for them. Came across this simple framework recently and thought this is interesting. This is called the Enrollment Method.
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At Mygola, we used to take the whole team, with families on a week long workation. We would eat together, make production releases, then go play with all the kids and families on the beach. Extremely fun and memorable times. Brought us together like nothing else.
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Mixed feelings about @iamsrk's movies but am in awe of the guy. Watch any interview of his, he shines! Want to be as cool as him #lifegoals
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Such a delightful illustration series - Everyday Olympics by @adehogan
Love the barista volleyball 😂😂😂
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Caption - Raise your hands of you think @parul8ue is awesome 😀
Congrats on a super #SpringboardRise conference!
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I've worked with engineers for 17 years and I disagree with almost all of this. I've not seen any correlation between communication style, hating meetings, working late nights and quality of engineering output. First-time founders, engineers - Please don't buy too much into this.
10x engineers
Founders if you ever come across this rare breed of engineers, grab them. If you have a 10x engineer as part of your first few engineers, you increase the odds of your startup success significantly.
OK, here is a tough question.
How do you spot a 10x engineer?
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In 2015, I was in Bangalore. Had sold my startup and had a few years of earn-outs ahead of me. @parul8ue's startup was starting to take off and she needed to be in the Bay Area to run it. I said goodbye to the money, and we moved. Incredibly good decision!
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And the best evidence of skill is what you build not what labels and degrees you collect, though many often confuse the two.
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I have a different take.
I say Engineering should be slow. All code, once written, is a liability.
We have to maintain it, we have to train teams to understand it, we have to add to it.
We should be slow in taking on new liabilities, and do it only if it's worth it.
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Do the young people who reach out to you cite the conditions as a reason to move?
India has its challenges but in my experience, I have seen young people move for ambition rather than escape tough situations. They are driven to the US right now because it feels like a special moment to build here.
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Got the mygola gang together after a LONG time! Thanks for putting this together @parul8ue
Good seeing you @kaddyiitr @DeTalking @rahulg @nitin_pande @bapnaa @snehavachhaney @Bhoomitt Gaurav Deep Richa!
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Angels - please act like angels! Definitely don't act like demons.
Founders, this might read like a horror story, consider this a trigger warning.
A portfolio company is being acquired and there is this "angel" who has constantly created hurdles for the founders.
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Amazing hike today in Pacifica. Views of the Pacific on one side and the SF airport and the Bay on the other. Bay Area is blessed with the bounty of nature!!
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10 years ago, @kaddyiitr and I built a stupid poorly working but fantastically named version of this at a hackathon.
We called it Fake My Trip!
introducing Travel Photo AI ✈️🏖️
Travel Photo AI takes photos of you at famous tourist spots around the world.
now you don't need to go to japan to take a photo of you with Mount Fuji (i know you actually wanna be there but it's time-consuming and not cheap)!
all you gotta do is upload photos of yourself —
photos taken at tourist spots around the world will be in your hands.
for social media, tinder, etc
link in the reply 😉
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Every public pitch I see from a commerce startup in India talks about WhatsApp being the secret sauce/growth engine.
Every private conversation I have with founders, they talk about HOW MUCH it sucks to build anything on WhatsApp.
🤷♂️
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Got to hang out with the amazing @kevin2kelly today and experience his amazing library and studio.
Abir got some excellent advice, in conversation and also in a book that Kevin so generously gifted him.
Kevin is a national treasure!
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I don't know how many times I've shared this but can't get enough.
piped.video/watch?v=kYfNvmF0…
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My rule of thumb, after series A, founders should be able to cash out 1-2% of the valuation. So if company raising Series B at 100m valuation, founders should be able to cash out 1-2m.
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Was at @saasboomi earlier this week. What an event!
The real highlight for me was the people. Met an incredible array of builders in the ecosystem. Came back energized and excited with the ambition grounded in deep execution ability.
Here is a shoutout to the builders!
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What a show @saasboomi in Chennai this year! The energy continues to explode, thanks to all the nurturing by @avinashraghava and the whole team.
The heart of the event is the founders, both young and experienced. The ambitions to build, the desire to learn and the instincts to support each other is unique to the SaasBoomi spirit.
The bonus for me was all the serendipity. Bumped into so many friends - some expected and many unexpected!
@dkhare @Zishaan @Goyal4Gagan @sanjaynath @spatro @DevReveler @MotwaniSuhas @ku1deep
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I mean if you are rich and connected in SF, this is what the friends and family round looks like :D
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@MohapatraHemant that was an excellent, wide ranging conversation with @balajis!
Asked a question about India's role in a solving problems related to longevity, got a 2 min tutorial on how to practically solve for reincarnation. Yes, you read it right, reincarnation. Loved it!
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When a founder comes and pitches a travel startup to me, it triggers some residual anxiety from the time I ran a travel startup.
Weirdly, my system-1 response to travel startups has become it's a bad idea.
Hard to battle against the curse of knowledge but totally worth it.
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It is time to say goodbye but only in a way. She lives, in my memories, in my values and in my genes. There is still a lot that I have to do to show her that she lives in me.
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Love it! I've realised that I am able to get better answers when I ask "what do you value?" vs "what are your values?"
The "do" changes the context to actual demonstrated action as opposed to just thoughts in someone's head.
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Ok this is insane. Someone pulled of a real life Ocean’s 11 style heist.
Stole the French Crown Jewels, at the Louvre in Paris. If someone was writing a movie script showing this, it would have been too predictable.
Thieves used a portable lift to access a window, broke in, grabbed the jewels and escaped on motor cycles in Parisian side lanes. All done under 7 minutes in broad daylight. Even dropped a crown with about 1200 diamonds on the way out because why not.
As I said, insane story. Link in the next tweet.
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Here is a musical experiment. I listen to LOTS of very diverse music and love sharing with friends. I listen to rock, hip hop, indie, bollywood, jazz, pop, old, new...
Thinking that every few days, I’ll share 1 song + a short note about it.
If you would like this, let me know!
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Good point! Another conversation that needs to be had is when and how much should founders be able to cash out.
Startups are long slogs and many life responsibilities - buying a house, kids, care of parents - are often put off.
Cashing out partially can reduce pressure.
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This is THE biggest reason it is hard for me (and other non resident investors) to invest in companies incorporated in India.
One of my investments actually went through this same cycle. Took several weeks of phone calls between US bank, India bank, the founder and me to fix.
I never thought I'd share our fundraising news as a rant on Twitter. But, if you're an Axis Bank customer, you should be open to possibilities.
This thread is addressed to you who dreams of AtmaNirbharBharat. Something needs to be changed & I can't do it alone.
#supportSaad
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The oldest friendship in this pic is 2 decades old, and the newest one is 1 decade old. Wonderful day in Napa hanging out with some of the old mygola gang. instagr.am/p/ClalreTOkyu/
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Grew up in India and the way to get into the best engineering schools was to just do well on the entrance test - JEE. It was hard, competition was fierce but the outcome was extremely diverse class. My class looked like the India around me.
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The founder archetype you encountered is a heat-seeker. They are aggressive, quick-followers, trend spotters, fund raisers. They can win in markets that are established & need execution. They win in bull runs and usually exit in bear markets.
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A meeting 20 years in the making with Prof @SawhneyMohanbir
Back in 2001, I was an undergrad at IIT Bombay and organizing the annual Techfest. I convinced an illustrious professor at a top MBA school to give a talk at my fest.
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Even the most advanced AI on the planet knows that @saasboomi are the SaaS experts!
Way to go @avinashraghava!
Had a chance to play around with @openAI’s ChatGPT, and I'm absolutely blown away!
Curating the best SaaS content for founders could get a lot easier!!
Here are a few SaaS resources ChatGPT came up with:
@saastr
@TheSaaSCFO
@saasboomi
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On an international flight.
The gentleman ahead needs more time to put in his bag and turns around and says - one nimisha.
The girl across the aisle put in her AirPods Pro and started listening to almanack of naval.
Yes we’re going to Bengalooru ❤️
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This is why I am long Nvidia :)
Automated marketing call - Nvidia dollars
Customer solving algo problems on the call- Nvidia dollars
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This feels like a moment. Indian mangoes now available at the Indian grocery stores in the US!
First of this season for us - Banganapalli!
More to come, oh yes many more to come.
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Been on both sides of this - as a founder and a founder's spouse. Partners who support founders are the unsung heroes in the startup world.
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On the flip side, the raw emotion of unfiltered, unedited voice comes through so strongly on Clubhouse. Can't capture that in 280 characters.
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Founders and Product folks - You often find yourself in situations where you have to make sense of a new situation- launch in a new market, build a roadmap for a new product, start a new business unit.
One of the simplest tools that you can use is "partition the space".
1/n
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That first line made me think that you were making a metaphorical point about brain drain or some such. But no, it was literally just planes :D
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I look at her photos and feel that she is still here, just in a parallel dimension that I can’t quite reach. I can see her, but not touch her. I can speak to her but can’t hear back from her. Had not realized how much of a mindfuck death really is. Spoiler - it is a massive one.
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What a run @parul8ue ! So proud of you and inspired by you every day ❤️
1/ It's the end of an era. After 8 wonderful years, I am taking off my operator hat @Springboard. Will continue on as a board member & big cheerleader
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Eating Ramen, while wearing a Batman and Ramen ( get it😉) shirt by @threadless . Next level dad-ness unlocked 👨👦💪🏻 ift.tt/2xlsb4N
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Oh my! Such penmanship! So much love! Definitely the best part of the birthday ❤️🎂 ift.tt/2nZ3EQp
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A challenge for non-native speakers - your written language informed writing now creates an impression that it was written by an LLM.
A lot of folks who grew up in countries where english was not spoken actually use a lot of "written-first" words in their writing because that is how they learned the language.
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I did not imagine that one day I would see Tim Cook eating vada pav with Madhuri Dixit but I’m loving it!!!
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JP Morgan executes it’s 1st live trade on a public blockchain and they chose @0xPolygon .
Big step for institutional DeFi and big win for cross-border web3 from india!
Cc @jdkanani
WORLD! J.P. Morgan has executed its 1st *LIVE* trade on public blockchain using DeFi, Tokenized Deposits & Verifiable Credentials, part of @MAS_sg Project Guardian 🙌🚀🔥mas.gov.sg/news/media-releas… Many world 1sts here, & since this is public ⛓ here’s a transparent🧵on what we did:
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What's the german word for when you are in a coffee shop to meet someone, and you realize that the next person you are meeting also set up an early meeting at the same coffee shop and you see each other and smile in silent acknowledgement of over-optimized productivity.
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The biggest thing about startup life that I miss in investor life?
A team of nitwits, having the audacity that they can build something that the world absolutely loves, working their asses off, running on dosas and coffees and beers, enjoying every minute of the madness.
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Hosted a dinner in Palo Alto this week for the cross-border community. A small group of amazing humans sat down to chat about life, universe and everything in between. The conversation was wide ranging and full of life and laughter.
We discussed bootstrapped journeys and venture growth arcs. We talked about the hype and opportunities of AI wave. We talked about how the entrepreneurial energy is expanding to tier-2 towns in India. We shared our passion of everything from Indian street food in India to Indian street food in Fremont.
The power of small gatherings is unparalleled. Ultimately, the scarcest resource is human attention. Small gatherings help you really focus your scarce attention on the human next to you. Nothing builds bonds better than that.
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Consumer teams in india - who has built a high growth or high engagement experience on whatsapp in the last year? Would love to learn more!
Cc @anmolm_ @dkhare @viditaatrey
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This is my first 4th of July as a citizen. The day isn’t very different from yesterday, but it feels like a big moment. I wanted to share my top three most awe-inspiring things about this country.
America is the home of founders. We all talk about Silicon Valley and maybe a little bit about Cerebral Valley now, but the idea of founders goes all the way back to the founding of the country. How amazing is that!
America is run by immigrants. I recently moved houses, and my movers were Chinese, my internet technician was Eastern European, and the handyman was Mexican. Farms, factories, stores, services, businesses – all are powered by the energy that immigrants bring from all over the world.
America is blessed with nature’s bounties. Before moving here, I used to joke, like many, about how little Americans typically travel beyond America. After living here, I understand why. This continent-sized country is blessed with mind-boggling gifts of nature, gifts that the country has lovingly conserved in national and state parks.
This year, I formally adopted America, even as the country has adopted me over the past many years.
Happy birthday, America!
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Rang the IPO bell with the team yesterday and can 100% confirm this. Long time investor, and continue to be a long time holder in the future
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