LONG on #Indians 💙 It does not matter where we are across the world, where our lives have taken us in the pursuit of achieving. It also doesn’t matter whether we own a piece of land, in the defined boundaries of what we call ‘a nation’, belongingness is not material.. India, & being #Indians - is rather a supremely powerful feeling, an unbeatable world conquering tribe, that makes us live, fight, think, care, believe and win - like only we do! 🙏🏻 Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam 🌳

Demand & Supply-side Economics / will they evolve? Some thoughts: *This came up as I was reading about Pinduoduo, one of China’s largest e-comm, & their thoughtful approach around supply. So basically, a result of “instant gratification” in customers like us, leads to ....the big retailers ONLY buying from big wholsesalers, cutting down small guys. Since it needs to be a certain quantity at one go. Since it’s time bound. Which takes $$$$! But what if the behaviour at the customer’s end be made to change? To alter supply-side economics?This could lead to the big retailer order across 50 small orders. And all the small order folks can also compete among each other for better quality of whatever the good/product is. -> we get more synchronised distribution (a new way? Or back to the old ways?) + also ofc much better quality in the hands of the final customer. 👆🏼it’s what Pinduoduo does, and they call it C2M (consumer-to-manufacturer)Now going to think about how this analogy can be taken to other related spaces too, including what we do :) 🤔

The End Of Big Cities - that did not upgrade - is here. When you can do business anywhere, might as well choose to be in a beautiful place where you can breathe deeply without inhaling poison. Access to collaborative work-together tools, Zoom et al make it easy to switch...Thinly populated places with high standards of public health and low-cost production of food & renewable products - like New Zealand and Argentina - which also have temperate climates, large arable land per head -- will enjoy huge comparative advantages. Coming soon!

Had a chance to be in a @davidbnz classroom again after 6 years today, thanks to @DSGCP ’s session / @dishahdadpuri @nadimmuzayyin 👊 Some of my most relatable takeaways: 🧵

.. was crazy 2 months, lots of 3 AM texting nights with K. Few offers in, we took a call, & decided to🤝 @TomorrowCap I ‘treasure’ time with @bkartred , & every word in this relationship is worth its weight in gold for me, has always made me dream bigger, be fiercer!

Another in the #DavidsVsCovid Series. Great to learn from Aditya every single time I have met him in the last. Though today was the deepest set of learnings across all the last times. Moderated by Karthik Reddy & in attendance, a lot of us on his invite list. Excerpts re what I found most relevant/ super useful: What is that one big objective that you are chasing? With Indigo: Scale of Market, Southwest example The drive towards larger goal + thought process around ‘Why’ – should be translated to every single employee over the years.

I had an opportunity to attend a “Mindfulness” workshop with Shyamal Vallabhjee earlier this evening (on Day 15 of Work-From-Home), a South African born sports scientist and an EQ consultant, who has worked as a performance coach to various high-profile athletes, assisting them to enhance their competitive edge. Like: Mahesh Bhupathi, Rafael Nadal, Amitabh Bachchan, Sachin Tendulkar, etc. Thanks to our investors (& mentors) at Blume Ventures for this.

4 Rules for Identifying Your Life’s Work – from The Atlantic by Arthur Brooks – summarising what I loved: Arthur gives this advice to every graduating student (& his own son): “Find your marshmallow” The Marshmallow experiment (in the image below). Result: “Good things come to those who wait—and work, and sacrifice, and maybe even suffer” But hey, what did you sacrifice/suffer for? What’s your marshmallow?

In marketplaces, always “own the demand”, like @bgurley always says Interesting insights around the same rule (& more) from this cool call with @lennysan@Airbnb & as for the initial supply growth: #HackThyMarketplaces. For us at @leverageedu – the original innovative one was “supply creating demand” – students came to our platform because we had the BEST MENTORS from around the world to help them find success! And that’s more of demand broken down: Minus what’s not on the images – a) supply driven demand & b) good press (thanks to the kind people in early days).. – both of which worked for us at @leverageedu for initial believers.

Watching “The Founder” tonight (finally!), always been a fan of legendary sales ninja Ray Kroc (who built Mc Donalds 🍟), & what mad customer obsession can do! Going to use this space to share notes / learnings / personal interpretations / what I love🥤:

There has been a lot happening around us this year. Professionally, and in all our lives personally. There has also perhaps never been a better time for us to think out straight deep, about why we do something, what does it really mean, what’s our “moral construct”, and what is the “meaning” in our every day.

I lost my Nanaji this morning. I had a soul connection with him. I was his favourite. And he was mine. I remember the campa cola machine as a 2 year old, of which we both used to drink cola, me breaking my hand with the glass while copying him one day. They all took me to Goa then. I remember all the times Nanaji used to come and stay with us, and we would play chess and carrom. I remember how much he loved mango shake. I remember how he always wanted to wear colourful clothes, shave, keep a comb with himself at all times, look young. What a fine gentleman.

FOOTBALL & FESTS / & how they helped me build some Life Principles -a 🧵 Some of my strongest memories – at school are from football (dozens of tournaments, travel, blood & dust!), & at college are from the fest circuit (another full life in its own right!). So here I go:

Nice new piece @ryancraigap thought it’s time higher-ed ‘overhauls it’s fee structured’ even with the unbundling that’s bound to happen next. Love the ‘Upside Down Degrees’, ‘Off Ramps’ (funny it needs push!). Last Mile Training is 💯, have made leaps there!!

This to-do list, of course, is magic. I’ve largely found comfort in dashboards, & a whole lot of numbers / but find this ‘adding subjectivity’ bit, ‘project by project’ bit very cool too. The DRI bit (@Apple) helps. Didn’t know about it before. Beauty. Loved this hedge fund analogy / & the “power” behind being able to change opinions & not being stuck. It literally is ‘a skill to build'.