Recently came across a fascinating Twitter thread from June 2020 by Dave McClure, ex-founder of 500Startups, where he talks about how “investing with conviction” is a myth. This tweet captures his sentiments well: I agree with several arguments in this thread: 1/ Picking winners in early-stage investing is really hard. Power laws govern the best ..read more

Earlier this year, my younger son got admitted to the same preschool that the older one attended in SF. As parents, we were elated! Our older one loved this school, we know the Principal and teachers really well, and it significantly reduces uncertainty for us given this school goes up to Middle. A win-win in ..read more

Growing up in India, where inherent chaos makes sure most things don’t go according to plan, I got organically trained to always have a Plan B. The classic fallback option – the bylane you take when the main road is clogged because a minister is scheduled to pass through, the backup college seat you block ..read more

I recently tweeted a really interesting insight I heard from Mike Maples, Jr of Floodgate at a recent Draper University closed-door event: This is so true, and a common mistake that founders & product leaders make while building new products. Looking back on my own startup, while I rigorously tried to execute Paul Graham’s “Do ..read more

2022 definitely felt like the end of an era. A decade-long party for US tech, fueled by low-interest rates -> increased availability of risk capital -> price inflation across asset classes. The last chapter of this post-GFC era was perhaps the craziest – an unprecedented pandemic -> widespread lockdowns -> more fiscal stimulus -> injecting ..read more

Recently, I was in a shareholder’s meeting of a portfolio company. It has been a gut-wrenching last 3 years for the leadership. Unfortunately, the company’s market pretty much shut down during Covid. Significant liabilities built up & the team saw significant churn. To survive, the company had to raise a bridge at a major haircut ..read more