My first job was as an analyst at Lehman Brothers. I was bottom rung in the team but being an IIT and IIM grad, I had this grand view of my capabilities and how I should be spending my time. So I used to get very irritated when the VPs and MDs in the team… Continue reading What Can You Learn from It?
Category: Blog
The Joy of Ownership
At Lehman, I was doing $25-50 million deals. I was paid over $100,000 per year. I wore expensive suits and travelled business class. When we started Twish, my first startup, we struggled to generate sales. No one wanted our product so we tried different things. After a few months, one of the colleges expressed interest… Continue reading The Joy of Ownership
Employee to Founder
At Twish, my first startup, we had exhausted our first set of product ideas and leads without traction. I pinged one of my co-founders on Google chat and asked him what I should be working on. I got a very frustrated reply saying there were so many things to figure out – new product ideas,… Continue reading Employee to Founder
Get Out of Your Comfort Zone
At my first startup, Twish, we aimed to use stories and animated content to modernize teaching and add context to what was being taught. When we started the company, my immediate inclination was to dive into creating courses the way we thought they should be taught. My co-founders, however, told me that we need to… Continue reading Get Out of Your Comfort Zone
Sell Before you Build
At my first startup, Twish, we aimed to use stories and animated content to modernize teaching and add context to what was being taught. We decided to initially reach students through MBA colleges around where we lived. I expected the first step was to build out full courses and then start selling it. However my… Continue reading Sell Before you Build
Tell Me a Story
I’ve been reading and thinking lately about stories and narratives and how it shapes us and the world. I hope to create a series of posts exploring this theme. Here, I look at the implications for startups. I recently reread one of my favourite books, The Origin of Wealth by Eric Beinhocker, where he applies… Continue reading Tell Me a Story
Taxonomy of Mistakes
I’m the champion of making mistakes. I could talk for hours about the mistakes I’ve made in my career. As I’ve grown into leadership and mentorship roles, I try to help people do better by working through their mistakes and avoiding the ones I’ve made. I recently started thinking about the types of mistakes we… Continue reading Taxonomy of Mistakes
Somebody to Nobody
I’ve been fortunate to hold leadership positions from early on in my career. I’ve also had multiple self-imposed career breaks. These transitions are very interesting to me. One day, you have stature and people wanting your attention. The next day, you’re nobody. I’ve always fought this in the past, even though I’ve been the instigator… Continue reading Somebody to Nobody
Get Through the Clutter
When I started meditating, the first 25 minutes of my meditation were useless. Absolute waste. I was unable to concentrate on my breath no matter how much I tried. Thoughts just did not go away. On good days, I was able to achieve periods of concentration only after those 25 mins. On bad days, the… Continue reading Get Through the Clutter
Default Different
1. I took acting classes recently that made me realise something – we’re default different. Throughout the class, our instructor would give us lines and scenes to act out. I was amazed to see how people delivered lines that meant only one thing, to me, with completely different setups, meanings and emotions. None of the performances were… Continue reading Default Different