My 10000 hours in M&A and Indian startups

Many months ago I had read this wonderful tweet by Kanyi Maqubela‏, a young VC from Colloborative fund on 10,000 hours of his being a VC and I thought to myself that is good way to document one’s learning. Last 18 months my stint was as a Fellow-In-Residence (M&A) at iSPIRT (startup think tank), I…More

Naval is a honeypot for first principle thinkers

Naval is a first principle thinker, his ability to think about anything deeply and articulate them in the most lucid way is unparalleled, very rare to find an individual like this. Many have interviewed him on their respective blogs, podcasts and conference. Several of these places have curated nuggets of his thinking, here is my…More

Bhajan, Gita and Veda level thinking of CryptoAssets and Token Economics

Bhajan, Gita and Veda are hindi words when translated into english it stands for Metaphor, Mental Model & First Principles level of thinking. As I was explaining blockchain, bitcoin, ethereum to few folks interested in ICOs I found it useful to explain it through above three levels of focus. Being a new space there is…More

We wanted ‘Google from India’ instead we got …

I was meeting a classmate from college after many years who is now a senior engineer at the Mountainview office of Google. We were toasting his 10 year anniversary at Google and our conversation shifted to Indian startups. Pretty soon his exasperated question to me was – “Where are the big startups that we have…More

Story of three Indian product entrepreneurs on a beach

[posted on 8 Jan 2017, migrated from ubedge.com] I get to meet and hangout with many product entrepreneurs in India across a wide variety of spectrum (wannabe, early stage all the way up to category leader). I have been one and have crossed a few early stages myself, based on my experience I see 3…More

Technology has always been political

[original post date 25 Dec 2016, migrated from ubedge.com] Rants are not worth responding but I have known Nikhil for 10 years and have the highest respect for him, after Om Malik he is my most favourite technology journalist for his deep and incisive views. I also admire his courage to deliberate topics which are…More

Liquidity of Indian startups compared to US & Israel

[original post 3 Apr 2017, migrated from Ubedge.com] Recently was having a conversation with a Private Equity friend and was trying to explain the challenge that has captured my imagination and full attention, ie exits for software product startups in India. He felt that the data about the exit structural deficit that I was trying…More

Will your product survive a silicon valley product teardown ?

[original posted date on 20 Mar 2017, migrated from Ubedge.com] Answering following 10 questions that can withstand a silicon valley product teardown ? Use this a framework if you are building a world class product. Who is the one user or customer ? also called the unit of one. Name him or her. What is the job…More

If CBInsights did a proper market map of Indian startups

[Original post date 2 Apr 2017, migrated from ubedge.com] If CBInsights were to do a market map of software product startups in India it will look something like below. For Indian startups that map should be done based on broad markets available to an Indian founder and not slicing of sectors that CBInsights normally does…More

M&A is the story of when fear meets greed on a treasure hunt voyage.

[posted on 28 Mar 2017, migrated from ubedge.com] “Startups are bought never sold” Like many others I have used this aphorism in every M&A Connect conversation in last 8 months. It sounds intelligent, pithy making some one saying that look very smart however I was stumped when my 7 year old nephew asked me what…More

Are we there yet ? Innovation Accounting

[Original Post date 6 Oct 2014, migrated from WordPress post on Ubedge.com] Innovation Accounting for startups was introduced by Eric Ries in his famous book ‘The Lean Startup’, however is as case with many thing written about in the book it is poorly understood even if it is acknowledged as an important and useful thing…More

Choosing right market can save upto 18 months of runway

[original post 20 Sep 2016, migrated from ubedge.com] Starting point of a startup is an idea and it goes through a journey of product releases and pivots to reach its product market fit and further scale. Source of this idea is a brainstorming session or hot flavor of the season (FoodTech, Fintech etc). Sometimes it…More

My cognitive dissonance with Network Neutrality

[Original Post date 7 Feb 2016, migrated from Ubedge.com] I am silent on Network Neutrality as I am split on the side to take irrespective of the hat I wear. Understanding the underlying science makes it harder. Entitlement of Ownership of Network that feels like a public good Network neutrality is a battle of ideas…More

Mobile App Stores – The next wave – is it ?

Since the last few months I have seen an  increased chatter about how mobile app stores are the next big thing. Last year and before it was the topic of mobile advertising ( claimed a  couple of billion dollar industry globally and with CAGR over 30% ) that had caught the fancy.  With the deep…More

Calling All Innovator |Forum Nokia

Forum Nokia has a launched an enticing program called “Calling All Innovator” and I am planning on giving a serious look  to it this time. Thought I will share this with all as I  mobile enthusiasts might find it very interesting. Here is about the event from the website. “Forum Nokia, Nokia’s global developer programme…More

Indian Idol – Why zero sum game?

I am hooked to Indian Idol this season as well but what causes a lot of uncomfort to me is the fact that Indian Idol ( and all other singing talent show in so many other languages)  is a zero sum game. There are many forces driving such a show – discovery for new talent,…More

Someone told me markets will all save us

Well how can that be look what markets gave us. There are massive failure of institutions at large, the pinnacle of which was these events that unfolded in the financial sector over the  weekend. While it is a well known fact that communities/networks become unstable at large scale ( we have seen it in ample…More

Chrome – what abt it ?

I have seen the tech media go crazy about Chrome’s release last week but I don’t  get what it is about. Installed Chrome over the weekend and gave it a run, certainly it has a small footprint and runs faster,  it is based on webkit and has some key features as Firefox blah blah but…More