So this happened last night at
@SaaStrAnnual
. In
@mrgirish
's keynote, he spoke of me as an example of how Freshworks had hired fresh, unproven talent, and how that paid off. 😮😭
What made this even sweeter was that
@amnigos
and
@AparnaChugh
were also right there!
A young woman dies in the middle of India's startup city because an underpass floods up. She paid her taxes, didn't she? Who's accountable? Who answers to her family? The planners, the corporation? No one, that's who. And we just move on, until it happens to us. What a society.
Folks in their early 20s on here talking about side hustles and investing and learning hacks and career claptrap, WHAT ARE YOU DOING? Go fall in love and read books and walk along the beach and be emo and do stuff you'll not get to do again, man. What's wrong with all of you?
Tax terrorism from this govt, that's all this new 20% TCS rule is. Pay when you buy, pay when you sell, pay to use highways, pay cops, pay fines, run from pillar to post for compliance. After all of this, get treated like a common criminal. Getting more and more tired of this.
In a Bangalore bar a few months ago, a friend told me that the problem with life as we grow older is that it is both overwhelming and underwhelming at the same time. I've thought about that line everyday since.
Musk astounds me. Man runs 3 ambitious companies, actually delivers the stuff he says he will, dates actresses and musicians, and still has time to do things like fuck around with Twitter. Just thinking about all this makes me tired.
Something I miss about living in Chennai is that you could decide to go for ice cream at 10 pm, and just get up and go. In Bangalore, a trip to an ice cream shop has to be planned like an expedition.
I once had an Afghan soldier driving my Uber in the US. He had bad PTSD from fighting the Taliban, and took pills and therapy. He sent all the money he made to his children in Kabul. When we talked about Afghan cricket was when he smiled. I wish joy to him and his people today.
Shoe people, help? I walk a lot (10K steps everyday is the norm), and also play cricket on weekends. I'm a big guy and my feet are taking a battering, mainly (I think) because of my footwear. What should I do/get?
In the wake of that Ashwin interview, I'll say again what I've been saying for years: There's no way he would be treated this way if he was from, say, Bombay or Delhi.
Some folks having a meltdown that Indians want to watch Oppenheimer and not Barbie. Maybe it's because Nolan is a bigger draw than a doll? Maybe it's because Barbie had little to no marketing? And maybe you don't have to drag your half baked socio-cultural analysis into it?
In 2017, Amit colleagues planned Ooty trip from Pune. Flew to Bangalore, then took a bus. On return, when I asked the exhausted lot why they didn’t fly to Coimbatore, I realised some didn’t know Coimbatore existed. They also asked a local for weed, so he took them to his house.
That partnership with Vihari in Sydney, that leave to take a wide off Nawaz, and today again, hunkering down with Shreyas to take India home. Only the greatest can do this consistently under pressure. Ravichandran Ashwin, legend.
Thoughts on a yellow dawn.
One day, maybe, when my son is older, if he likes cricket, I'll tell him stories of this team and what it meant to his old man. I'll tell him the legend of MS and why we call him Thala, the leader. I'll tell him stories of Suresh Raina's lofted sixes..
Two roommates are now legit startup founders. One is bootstrapped and already profitable, and the other, who I also went to school with, is funded and moving at incredible speed. You'll hear a lot about both of them very soon, and I'm going to be a rather proud friend.
Ullathai Alli Tha is a Tamil pop-culture cornerstone that needs to be celebrated more. Absolutely nothing original in the movie, every song was stolen, yet all of it was super fun! Made Sundar C's career, and gave us Gounder's legendary 'yov millitary' line. GOAT.
You know which company I want to see stage a comeback? Cafe Coffee Day. There's brand recognition, prime locations, millennial nostalgia. So much can be done. And the market only seems to be booming, with Third Wave doing so well. Worse brands have returned from the dead.
I hate it when people invite you to parties and then say it's board game night or dumb charades or some other similar fuckery. No, just no. Why is it so difficult to do nothing? I don't want to play, I don't even want to think. Let me please just sit in a corner and drink.
Better writers and journalists will analyse the decisions, document the journey, and add to the legend of Girish and Freshworks. I don’t need to.
But I did write about something they can't: the kickass early team that Freshworks is built on.
There is always going to be friction between the life you are leading and the life you want. That friction will make you uncomfortable, fidgety, restless. And that's fine. Know that navigating this, your own feelings about who you are and who you want to be, is your life's work.
Something I've realised as I have grown older is that people are busy. If someone doesn't respond to something you asked or said, it's not out of spite or because they don't like you: They are just busy doing other things. Follow up.
Coffee shop in HSR, meeting a friend. At the next table comes and sits a celebrated founder/CEO whose company is headed for IPO. Then my friend's old mate, a VC, turns for a meeting with a founder about a pre-Series A. Bangalore is beyond parody.
Have to get something off my chest. This is definitely a rant, so proceed with caution.
Here's a mind blowing idea: Don't shit on things to show off. Stop being stupid what people create. Don't like something? Great, go and create something better, make your own audience.
Since a lot of y'all are back at college or are moving to Bangalore or other cities, here's some random tips for male specimens of our species who are living by themselves for the first time. Also because you've been home too long. Trust me, just read and do the things you can.
Once upon a time, if the best friend and I met in Bangalore, it would only have been to get absolutely shitfaced. Today, we arranged to get health screenings done, and then discussed life and careers over lunch. I do not recommend adulthood.
How the fuck do I get out of my own head, from the pressure I created, with a deadline I thought up, and an unnamed anxiety about achieving a vague goal I don't know if I care about or not?
I absolutely love how glamourous the other teams are, with smart analysts and gorgeous owners and legendary coaches, and how right in the middle is CSK: 5 mamas with phones. Never change, beloved team of mine, never change.
In school, I asked my old man for a motorcycle. He said okay, but instead of the Yamaha I wanted, got me a TVS XL. I shrugged, printed 'Sai' in a ridiculous speed font on the backlight, filled it up (33 Rs/litre), and terrorised my town. Never was stupider, cringier, or happier.
As everyone's been obsessing about Kamala Harris, I've actually been more excited about news of another Madras girl's rise. University of Madras grad Dhivya Suryadevara will be taking charge as CFO of Stripe. What a career!
Always ask for more money. In job interviews, in consulting conversations, in appraisals, anywhere. Don't ever think that my manager/leader knows my work, they will figure this out and be fair. If they can pay, they will. If they can't, they'll tell you. You do your job. Ask.
I hate how true this is. Just yesterday I was telling someone why I was putting myself through the stress of 0 to 1 again. Because it's a drug. You build something that didn't exist, people buy it, use it, a company rises. Imagine that! It's bloody hard, but it's also fulfilling.
Cringe is a superpower. There's just no arguing with this. Anyone willing to look silly and put themselves in situations where they may end up looking foolish has a huge advantage over everyone else. This applies to a lot more contexts than we think.
Adulting is basically just being overwhelmed all the time, then working yourself up to finish one thing which then exhausts you so much that you have to switch off, but you can't because you have other things to do so you are overwhelmed all over again. It's a scam.
I know and understand the tremendous positives that remote work brings to the world. But God knows I miss the office man. I'm not saying I loved it, just that I miss it. I miss the coffee, the banter, the meeting rooms, everything. I miss the stupid familiarity of that routine.
So
@atomicworkhq
is now officially part of the HSR startup crowd. Took some time to get our first office exactly how we wanted it to be, but it's done now, and we love it! :)
Malayalis should not be allowed in hair-health conversations. You'll be crying about losing hair and going bald, and if you ask them what they use, with their full hairline and black-as-death manes, they'll say Boroline or something. So unfair.
The hon'ble minister of minority affairs is visiting Kargil. Walking alongside him in this video, in uniform, is SSP Kargil Shreeraam Raghavan, my younger brother.
Received some clear, specific feedback from my boss this morning, and I'm sure he was confused by how happy I sounded. I was delighted because feedback that immediately helps you improve is so rare and so useful. Usually all we get are vague fillers that confuse us even more.
Confused my Uber driver thoroughly by telling directions in Hindi, talking to my mother in Tamil, and then loudly singing along to Huttidare Kannada Nadalli Huttabeku.
If I could write a note to my cocky 25 year old self, these two sentences would be up there:
1. Don't confuse your knowledge for experience, and your intelligence for wisdom.
2. Shut the hell up, you don't know anything.
Annoyed about how the way we work these days, and the pace of it all, leave no time for learning and reflection. We have to steal time away for this, find pockets and in-between places, and sometimes take away from life. Can't help but think this is unsustainable.
I've worked in startups/tech all my life, and if there's anything I believe, it's this: Founders deserve respect. By default. The courage to dream, to create, to wager it all, is a remarkable thing to possess and wield. It is on the founder, the builder, that the world runs.
A rule I followed in 2021: Be ruthless. It wasn't about work or ambition. It was just a simple, constant reminder to put myself first. For someone who has always put his needs/goals second, this was an important mental shift. And I want to keep doing this in 2022: Be ruthless.
At times I feel there's just too much life-improvement shit on, pressuring folks to be better, cooler, more efficient. Let people be mediocre if they want to, man. Not all of us have to chess grandmasters. Some of us just want to work, have a family, drink a beer, and go to bed.
An ongoing list of things I miss, in no real order or importance:
I miss laughter. Like at school when your teacher couldn't say the word journey and when he did it left you and your friends in splits, ending in the lot being thrown out of class.
And maybe, one day, he takes out my old yellow shirt from a closet somewhere, and remembers that to be loved, you have to give. That to get respect, you have to earn it.
And that to become who he is meant to be, he should never forget where he came from.
CSK, Champions 2023.
My sprint on Content Marketing just went live for the current
@StoaHQ
batch. The course took me about a month to think about and plan, plus a week to write the original essays I will be using. Looking forward to teaching and learning!
If you are producing B2B content, either a podcast or videos, or even blogs, please don't put out teasers or social posts saying 'coming soon'.
No one cares.
B2B content is 'work'. Give it to your audience immediately. Don't make them wait. They'll forget, and won't come back.
Here's something I learnt the hard way, after fucking up too many important things: Have the hard conversations early. In your career, relationships, anywhere. Confront your own bullshit, and have those conversations. Indecision is a disastrous trait.
Something I've noticed working at a VC firm is the sheer number of startups born and sustained from deep friendships made at work. Chai breaks, offsites, and informal discussions come up again and again. I wonder if such connections are still being forged. I hope they are.
It astounds me how tired everyone in tech is. Everyone I speak to tells me the same thing. Founders are tired, engineers are tired, marketers are tired. And yet everyone also seems to be on the hamster wheel all the time, 'building' or 'hustling' even on weekends. Fascinating.
I've been realising how little time I've had in the last half-decade to just think. The head has been so full of something or the other. This has to change. I need to make for myself spaces and places to dwell, be still, listen, think, write. There's only so much life left.
Execution at work, even at a startup, is at times slow and boring. That's the job. It won't be exciting, new, and 'innovative' every single day: It's surprising to me how even experienced folks forget this.
While Indian startups are busy celebrating exponential growth of unicorns, per capita income of the country is down.
Without growth in per capita income or jump of female participation in labor force, unicorns will disappear at high speed too.
Literally every important Tamil Hindu festival involves eating meat. Deepavali is for idly and mutton curry. The Tamil new year is for kari urundai and chicken. Ancestral rites are done with meat on the leaf. I could go on. My culture, my inheritance. Matha peru mooditu pogalaam.
So we at
@atomicworkhq
just announced our $11 million seed round. :) It's been a whirlwind month, trying to get our story right and take it to the world, but it's been worth it.
Thanks,
@catherineshu
for the
@TechCrunch
coverage - .
We need to keep repeating this to ourselves, especially us folks in the startup bubble, even if just as reminders to keep our feet on the ground: We are a poor country, and we are a minority living privileged lives in a poor country.
Utterly enthralled by founders who want the same marketer to do SEO, paid, email, social, AND content, but also want to pay for only one of these roles.
Surprised how hiring managers think they have the luxury of insisting on detailed, painstaking assignments. Want a demonstration of capability? Interview better, use that time. Candidates usually have a full time role, they can't do more work! The good ones just won't bother.
As I told the
@StoaHQ
batch last weekend, content marketing is the easiest non-tech way to break into startups and do well early. Why? Ability is instantly demonstrable. The work is tangible, visible. Impact is measurable. Very few roles have this kind of clarity.
Any social media managers on here looking for full time roles? Great opportunity for a well known, well funded brand. DM for details. Please RT, folks.
"If I were hiring for marketing and there was a kid who could take an Instagram page from 0 to 10k followers, that kid is awesome. Most CMOs don't know how to do this."
@thetanmay
Some startups are confusing LinkedIn/Twitter cred for culture. I'm absolutely an advocate for making noise about new hires/the swanky office, but please pair that with great employee onboarding, role clarity, fair pay, and solid insurance. That's the real work, not social media.
"Karan Bajaj sold his company for $300 million to Byju’s. But he sent his own children to a school that taught the opposite, giving them a screentime-barred childhood. Sorry to borrow the name of Ashneer Grover’s recent book, but this is classic Doglapan."
My first cousin, the little kid who used to follow me around at school, became a big boy today. So proud!
Third from left, Shreeraam Raghavan IPS, 73rd batch of the Indian Police Service.
The first marketing hire in a startup should almost always be a content marketer. Why? One, it's ridiculous how much there is to write at an early stage startup, or any startup for that matter, and two, having someone trying to write all this down forces founders to clarity.
Sahil is right. I come from a small town, didn't know much, didn't know how important where you went to school was. And believe it or not, getting to a good school for my master's was when my career began. I found my way, but constantly see how a big degree opens doors. Get it.
I've never been asked for my degree. I didn't go to IIT/IIM. I was super lucky to have figured a path that worked out for me. There are many like me, but in the larger picture, we're a one-off, and not the norm.
The big name institutes/companies open doors. Get your education.
Okay. I can't believe this. I was walking on the other side of Silver County Road in Haralur as TWO WHEELS CAME OFF A RUNNING SCHOOL BUS, and the bus just tanked on its side! It's a miracle no one was injured. The kids are fine, but WHAT THE FUCK?
Yash Dhull is 19 years old, led India to the Under-19 Cricket World Cup title earlier this year, has a first-class average of 119.75, and can play shots like this. Terrifying.
#IPL2022
..and how Bravo's slower delivery dipped. Maybe I'll be telling him about Pathirana and Deshpande and Rutu.
And maybe, I hope, he supports the Chennai Super Kings. I hope he understands how much joy this team gave to his father and his people...
..of Matthew Hayden's walk-down-and-smash, of Michael Hussey's calculated, clinical assaults. I'll tell him how Ravi Ashwin made his name, I'll tell him how Jadeja became India’s greatest all-rounder. I'll tell him why Faf was always at the boundary..
Founders, managers, please look around you, read the damn room. Your employees are tired, burnt out, and have a million other options. If you are giving them silly appraisals, stupid feedback, and a bad experience, they will leave. You'll be stuck, not them.
Something I hate about adulting is the need to understand and accept being constantly overwhelmed and anxious. I don't do this well. I have a need for certainty, to have no loose ends anywhere. So I struggle. I need to get better at being a grown-up.
You stay in certain WhatsApp groups not because you need them or because you want to communicate, but because it reminds you of something - a friendship, a project, a plan - from long ago that you can't bear to let go of just yet.
First time at the
@Accel_India
office as part of the team! Been here several times as a Freshworks employee, and I know it well. But this feels different, feels good. :)
We are still a few months away from opening up the office, though. Can't wait!
From time to time, I send a note on WhatsApp to my boss with what I’m working on, or what I got done. Easy to do, keeps my manager up to speed without meetings, helps him make decisions. Most times your manager doesn’t know how busy you are or how much you are doing. Help them.
One of the surprises of this season and the last is the emergence of Hardik Pandya as a leader in the Dhoni mould. Calm, supportive, eloquent, sincere. He's not acting the part, this seems to be who he is. India's LOI captaincy will open soon, and he's putting up a worthy hand.
Rant.
I understand fools, I understand mischief-mongers, and I understand cowards. But there's a particular kind of cretin I don't understand at all: these out-of-touch positivity shills.
5 mistakes I made in my career that I want you to avoid.
Thread from the newsletter.
1. Not playing the long game - Your career compounds game. Stick with roles, companies, and let yourself grow.