Nilotpal Boruah

There are only 4 major drivers of competitive advantages in building a D2C business in 2025. 1. Category creation 2. Distribution moats 3. Ecosystem dynamics 4. Founder brand But if you're just starting out, you really only have one option. Founder Brand Why? -> Category creation is the ultimate prize but demands massive capital. At any given moment, based on market conditions and investor appetite, only a handful of companies can sustain this burn. Most implode trying. -> Distribution moats are beautiful in theory but nearly impossible to build from scratch. Getting to true escape velocity in distribution requires either vast resources or perfect timing. Usually both. -> Ecosystem dynamics seem promising, but the modern stack is brutally efficient at commoditizing partnerships. What took 5 years to build in 2015 gets replicated in 5 months today. This puts early-stage founders in a bind. If category creation needs endless capital, distribution moats need perfect timing, and ecosystem plays get commoditized instantly, what's left? -> You lean into the Founder brand. This makes technical founders deeply uncomfortable because it can't be engineered or automated. But that's precisely why it's POWERFUL. Because it takes time. Because it’s difficult. And because it’s very hard to fake. It is the reason why folks like Shantanu Deshpande and Satyajit Hange are leading their companies to such strong performance. You couldn’t fake being either one of them for a second. They are simply themselves. Brands leverage the power of trust. And in a world of digital exhaustion, trust is the most precious resource there is. DO NOT STOP INVESTING IN YOUR BRAND The velocity of trust = Velocity of growth = Reference = Momentum That's how the Founder's brand becomes a scaling engine. If you want to build something enduring, your early customers need to bet on you before they bet on your solution. The game has evolved. Early companies chasing venture-scale outcomes must weaponize their founder's natural magnetism. A perfect product is table stakes. Your escape velocity comes from being an undeniable force in your space. The ones who embrace this rise above the noise. The ones who resist become ambient noise. Choose wisely. #startups #entrepreneurship

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****99% of PMs don't get this. As a PM you should build your muscle to identify trends before they become mainstream***** Eg. 2008 - Mobile vs Desktop 2010 - Identity rails/KYC 2016 onwards: Video content consumption esp. India 2 2017 onwards: New Payment Rails 2020 onwards - Financialization of investments No I am not talking about trends that have already become super mainstream every person is talking about AI/ML I am talking about non obvious trends playing out currently E.g. Telehealth for India2, Micropayments, Live streaming, Tooling in AR/VR with multiple applications, Gaming Follow me for high quality content, not product philosophy but practical insights https://lnkd.in/gHweK_q7 AND also here https://lnkd.in/ggUKftFq My Channel - https://lnkd.in/gs6qnNUJ My Playbook - https://lnkd.in/gHzyN-Xc

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We have case studies of companies scaling after a good amount of slow growth Pintest took 3 years before it started scaling Stripe founders were manually transferring money behind the scenes for an year Airbnb took few months to get their first employee Kunal Shah spent an year researching before starting CRED Sam Altman said their best companies that scaled in Ycombinator came from companies That wanted to solve a smaller problem With a small audience, And some how Ycombinator people convinced These companies to think global When I was working at Truepush, we had 6 months of halo time before we scaled and Became profitable At current company it’s took months to find a winning ad and we could bet on them for a long time after that. —— When you know what things to work on - KPIs - Retention - Your high paying clients - Repetable clients - Channel fit - Positioning to them And working on unit economics. You will have a unstoppable growth. This process doesn’t gurantee success, But it avoids you from big failures. And that’s 90% work done. You just need to get all these right, once. Until then focus on keeping costs low, Generating retention and revenue. When you get that, scale.

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How to build a growth system? You see, growth is the output of every product. Retention - acquisition and monetisation are the inputs. You cannot build a growth system for a dumbass product, the product should create great value to the user so that the user organically comes on to the app with their natural frequency to experience the value. You then build a system that not only increases this natural frequency (increasing retention) but also building acquisition and monetisation loops while the user is experiencing the value of your product. These three things, retention - monetisation - acquisition, wont act like a funnel, rather they work as a system of compounding loops driving sustainable, repeatable and massive growth over time, but it all depends on creating product value first, if you're pre-product market fit, get to product value fit first, then a growth system. Now, how to build a growth system? We have a process and to keep it straightforward we call that the growth process. This process is specifically designed to make sure that we are removing human biases from the equation so that we can understand how to intentionally pull the levers within our growth system to produce more growth rather than trying things at random. for example, for driving retention - along with the product value - the growth process uses design and leverages the user psychology to create consistent positive experience in every screen, setting up the user for experiencing the value so the user genuinely feels delightful and aha, and build natural and manufactured loops (like notifications) to create a habit and experience the product value again and again for driving retention. In the same way, for acquisition - we have our growth models and for monetisation we have experimentations. Covering one by one, going forward.

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Why PMF (Product Market Fit) is Important? 🧠 1. PMF helps establish real credibility when fund raising by showing “early adopter” 🙋and “revenue numbers.” This in turn sets stage for “rapid scaling” 📈 where funds raised against equity are supposed to be put in. 2. A less known metric I have personally discovered across travels to 17 countries (different geographies - Asia, Europe, Middle East, Americas) is that of “Founder Market Fit.” This term is becoming increasingly popular. ✅ Key factors under FMF include language, cultural nuances, market entry barriers such as key partnerships & relationships to name a few. 3. It is incredibly important to spend enough time “being physically present” in a specific market / hire the right local people (which reduces the need for you to go on ground and talk to 1000s of people). 🛫 A job / educational pathway in a new country (what people term experience) is usually a good way to fulfill this criteria. However, cons of this methodology include developing a “servile mindset” which itself derives from a concept in psychology: brain develops a coping mechanism for every environment one is put into (an evolutionary mechanism meant for self preservation). 🧠 The solution? Fostering a Growth Mindset, avoiding Analysis Paralysis + Decision Fatigue alongside having an eagle perspective (most important). Many people go with a “YOLO” approach never to return to a new country however with the pace at which global macroeconomics and geopolitics is evolving, we never know! PS: On a GCC countries tour this month, was able to internalize Pt. 2 strongly being Asian. Attached picture is from the “startup metrics guide” by Speedinvest Pirates. Comment below and I will put in the link to the full guide! What do you think of pt. 1, 2 and 3? Any takeaways? :) #productmarketfit #foundermarketfit #scaling #zerotoone #venturecapital #bootstrapping

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Why are D2C founders hesitant on sharing their unit metrics? I understand they don't want to share it with any tom dick or harry but with the agency that you are hiring? This only helps us understand your unit economics better 6/10 d2c founders hesitate on sharing their numbers with us, even AFTER GETTING US ONBOARD! 😐 knowing your unit economics will only help us craft offers better and scale better

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Matchmaking or dating events companies looking to hire devs or building a CRM solution ... . . . In this week, I've read posts from three different matchmaking / dating event companies in India seeking developers or expressing that they are building a CRM solution. With 15 years of experience working with startups and scaleups and over a decade as an Engineering Leader, I've led projects ranging from small 5-member teams to large-scale F&B delivery platforms similar to Swiggy and Zomato in Saudi Arabia. I understand the challenges founders face in getting the right product developed, especially when outsourcing or lacking tech expertise. Since engaging with companies in the relationship space, I've encountered multiple stories of failed app development attempts, resulting in significant loss of time and money. I'm passionate about making a meaningful impact in the relationship space, driven by personal experiences, and I'm eager to put my tech expertise to good use. I'm exploring collaboration opportunities with anyone looking to build tech-based solutions in this domain. Here’s how I can help: - Acting as a CTO / Fractional CTO: I can hire, mentor, and groom a tech team, delivering the right solution tailored to your needs. - Bespoke Solution: I can work closely with founders to offer a custom solution free of cost for a year, with a nominal subscription fee thereafter. Data privacy is assured under all circumstances. Let's connect and discuss how we can transform the relationship space to be more meaningful and spread love 💕 #matchmaking #matrimony

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The startup ecosystem is crocked. We have incubators being ran by large institutions who couldn’t incubate a sodding egg, let alone an innovative startup. We have disingenuous ‘investors’ who haven’t got any actual money to deploy but need their ego massaging. We have failed founders dishing out stale advice like it’s confetti. And by ‘failed founders’ I don’t just mean people who’ve failed at business - even great founders do that. I mean founders that are *terrible* at being a founder. A level of incompetence so bad that they ought to hang their heads in shame and go earn an honest living. But, what do they do instead? They lean even further into the startup ecosystem where the community will pat you on the head, let you get away with murder and allow you to reinvent yourself as an industry expert with absolutely zero due diligence whatsoever. And, what are they doing in the startup community? They’re advising new founders. Often in these incubators. Or swapping out the narrative and becoming a penniless investor instead. I keep seeing it. People that I know full well never built a business. It wasn’t that they built something and then it all went wrong (because there are a lot of helpful and genuine learnings to pass on from that). These are folks who’ve barely even got out of the starting blocks. Trips back and forth to the US - a handful of paying customers after years of fund raising. Series of posts about the podcasts they’ve listened to or books they’ve read - yet they haven’t even heard of a some of the basics, like a CRM, never mind implemented on after Lord knows how many years. And now their startup has gone down the pan (like I could’ve told you it would years ago) they’re reimagining themselves as valuable advisors to startups, investors and whatever new thing they can pretend they’re credible in. It’s the startup equivalent of cat-fishing. You think you’re getting advice direct from a modern day Steve Jobs, but you’re actually getting suckered in by the latest Charles Ponzi. I’ve always said startup founders are in an incredibly vulnerable position. Please, don’t become a victim. Do your due diligence. Ask questions. Ask for proof. Need help, just shout ✌️ #founders #investors #incubators

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{New pod 🎤} "𝐆𝐓𝐌 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐔𝐒-𝐈𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐚 𝐁2𝐁 𝐒𝐚𝐚𝐒 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐩𝐬" This episode explores GTM strategies and learnings for US-India B2B SaaS startups. We cover everything from finding design partners in the US, scoping MVPs, figuring out what ICP to focus on, navigating the unique challenges of early PMF, GTM hiring in the US, and finally, working towards creating M&A exit options. Joining me for this discussion is Satya Ganni, an experienced SaaS founder and operator who has successfully built and sold five companies and led two acquisitions as a buyer. He is currently serving as CEO of Beamer and Userflow. Beamer is developing a cutting-edge product-led growth toolkit tailored to product leaders at SaaS and digital-first companies. They recently acquired Userflow to augment the business. TIME STAMPS: (01:15) Satya’s journey as a repeat US-India SaaS founder and operator (04:38) [Case Study: 0-to-1] Finding US design partners (11:09) Scoping B2B SaaS MVPs (15:42) [Case Study: $10k-100k ARR] Identifying which ICP to focus on - SMB vs mid-market vs enterprise (22:23) [Case Study: $100k-$1Mn ARR] Navigating the unique challenges of early PMF (27:18) [Case Study: $1-5Mn ARR] Building a US leadership team post-PMF (34:33) [Case Study: $5-20Mn ARR] Working towards creating M&A exit options  (38:46) Learning to become a proactive relationship builder YouTube - https://lnkd.in/guGQeBwA Spotify - https://lnkd.in/gAg7XeF4 Apple Podcasts - https://lnkd.in/gkYEDpED An Operator's Blog - https://lnkd.in/ggGbzSKY

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🚨Zepto Raises $665 Mn From Avenir, Lightspeed, and avra (Anu Hariharan new fund) at $3.6 Bn Valuation While startups are struggling to raise funding at a higher valuation, Zepto's valuation jumps ~ 2.5X -> 2024: Zepto bags the biggest fund raise in 2024 -> 2023: Becomes the first Indian startup to turn unicorn in 2023 #Zepto #Funding #Indianstartups #Quickcommerce #Valuation Inc42 Media (To read more, click the article link in the comment section 👇🏽)

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For founders who say - “If I get investments, I will gain volume in B2B. I will keep margins low. But overall will have good profits daily.” - 1. Don’t just look at volume and margin. Look at barrier to entry too. If money is your moat, there are much larger money-whales out there to push you out 2. You are probably reaching out to the wrong investors. You should create some traction and apply for a cheap bank loan. Check for collateral free / susbsidised schemes. An Angel investor will expect 60%+ returns, a bank - 10-12% returns. Even if your ROCE is 30% (which is great), the Angel will always be dissatisfied, while the bank will be more than happy to help you grow. 3. For businesses where capital is generating 30% free cashflows YoY, look at 7-10 years of organic growth. I have not seen anyone who has stayed long enough in their game not do well. 30% compounding over 10 years gives you a 12-13 times return. Over 30 years? 2000+ times 😬 4. Figure out products that have shortest cashflow cycles, and products with highest margins. A healthy mix of these two will improve your annual rotations and help compound at 2x speed. It will also ensure you have regular cash flows to pay your staff / team. 5. If you are optimising for cashflow by keeping margins low, make sure you only sell to the most trusted customers who pay on time. Also, it will really help if you mentally consider only “cash received” as “sales done” for low margin products. For B2B product businesses, capital erodes faster because of rotation issues than product issues per se. 6. Once you have figured out the market and spent enough time, you might just figure out a white space where you would want to double down and create a product / service to serve that need. You will already know the right vendors / players in the supply chain to partner with. And who to sell to. You can self-finance it, or raise institutional capital to grow. This could then become what we call an “investible business” for angels/VCs etc. P.S: Recommendations based on auditing tons of B2B businesses, evaluating pitches from founders who are trying to figure B2B, and watching my own family members run B2B product businesses. As boring as B2B product businesses are, especially trading businesses, they compound wealth at 30-40% p.a. when starting capital is less than Rs. 1cr. Great way to create generational wealth. Slow, patient game. Feel free to add to / challenge the above points. #enterprise #business #cashflowmanagement

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Good post. Apart from what has been mentioned in the post, A/B tests don't work because companies don't invest in building quality experimentation infrastructure. 

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5+ Cr in investment. Team in 3 countries. 18 months in the making - Layers is going bigger in August 2024. It all started when we first launched Layers in 2022, we had 0 experience of - D2C, Branding, SKUS and everything in between. We hustled, failed, but ultimately figured things out building India’s largest skins brand—100% bootstrapped, selling over 2.5 lakh skins. (The Neel who scored -2 Marks in JEE would have never imagined this.) But, the entire experience taught us 3 core things: > The confidence to succeed in markets that never existed > The freedom to think long-term and take bets in short term > The understanding of a creator-led D2C brand’s potential It wasn’t easy, but that’s the fun part. And now, we’re taking on the next big challenge. LAYERS IS LAUNCHING ITS FIRST TECH PRODUCT! In all honesty, building a tech product is ten times tougher than building the skins business. We had to revisit our entire strategy—pricing, distribution, customer service— and most importantly, the right innovation to stand out in the market. In the skins market, we had little competition. But here, we face giants with 1000X resources and decades of experience. Competing with them and building a superior tech product - bootstrapped with a lean team, is a huge challenge. I am quite nervous and afraid. Don’t know what’s gonna happen.. Until then, feel free to guess what the product is! :)

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Learning from India's Great but Failed Startups Day 3 | AskMe.com 💼 AskMe.com once aimed to be the go-to marketplace for everything under the sun—from local listings to e-commerce. It grew fast but soon ran into financial trouble and internal issues that led to its sudden shutdown. So, what went wrong? AskMe.com expanded rapidly, but cash flow issues and unresolved conflicts with key investors left the company struggling. Without steady funding and strategic alignment, the company couldn't keep up, leaving employees and vendors in a lurch. The lesson? Growth is exciting, but sustainability is key. Expanding too quickly without a solid financial base can lead to disaster. Aligning with investors and keeping a close eye on cash flow ensures you’re building a business that can weather the storms. ⚖️ That’s Day 3’s insight! Let us know your thoughts below, and stay tuned for more in this series! 🚀 #AskMe #IndianStartups #StartupFailures #Entrepreneurship #StartupLessons #India Disclaimer: This is an entirely AI generated video.

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Who exactly is losing market share in the hotly contest grocery commerce? I thought it must be the now-not-so modern retail, but I'm not so sure. Zepto raised $665 Mn at a valuation of $3.6 Bn, and is in talks to raise $250 Mn more. And their cofounder and CEO Aadit Palicha recently commented that they can beat DMart - Avenue Supermarts Ltd on GMV in the next 12-18 months. Swiggy Instamart also is growing, and Blinkit is likely to be more valuable than their owner Zomato itself - so they are all doing well, even if Dunzo isn't. Sure, no idea what JioMart Digital is doing, but deep pockets. Same with Tata Digital and their weird assortment forced to converge on Neu. bigbasket.com is trying to unlearn and relearn, and it just might. And Flipkart Grocery and Amazon Fresh are also upping their game - launching faster deliveries, discounts, improved fill rates, and selection. So I wonder if it is the modern-trade players? The likes of More Retail Private Limited, Spencer's Retail, STAR BAZAR, and SPAR Retail that are suffering? The nearest Spencer's to me is definitely a sore sight, now reduced to a shell of it's former glory - I think they aren't even replenishing inventory now. And we all know what happened to Big Bazaar - Future Retail. But Dmart itself isn't doing half bad - with pareto presence in just 23 cities, and no presence in UP (except NCR), Bihar, and West Bengal, they have considerable headroom, still. And they haven't yet quite solved for ecommerce, so while The Ken says that they are lost, they may find their way, eventually? I also don't think that the real consumption is growing, if at all, it may even shrink with the K-growth. Thus, some one _is_ losing share. And if it is not modern trade, then is it the regional chains? The single kiranas? The corner-store? The hand-cart? I'm not entirely sure because this data is hard to organize, and get. Would you know? Image created by AI in Microsoft Bing Copilot.

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🚀 Masterclass on navigating 0 to 1 product building + GTM for startups. 🚀 Here is the WEEKEND OFFER valid till Sunday Midnight only. Join our Product Management Workshop on Building Product Startups and gain the skills to take your startup to the next level. 📅 June 29th, Saturday 📍 IIM Kozhikode ⏰ 10 AM - 5 PM 🎟 https://bit.ly/HSKwkp3 Who is this for? For Founder/Teams building: 1. B2C/B2B Marketplaces 2. B2C Tech Solutions 3. SaaS Products Not Relevant For: - Offline-first distribution startups - Tech/Non-tech services businesses - Hardware Startups Hands-on session to cover: 1. Problem Discovery & Qualification: 2. Finding the First 10 Power Users & Defining Tablestakes Roadmap for V0 3. Identifying Metrics That Matter 4. Hard Skills That Matter for Founders/Founding PMs 5. Development Approach 6. Building your team Register Now: https://bit.ly/HSKwkp3 Hamad Jowher Nevin Robert Mittu Tigi Sana Thayyil Rabin Baby Murshid Basil Muhammed Haris T M Reema A Raheem Ashwathy Venugopal Geethu Agit Vaishnav Nair S IIMK LIVE Abraham Varghese Jofin Joseph

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Which startup has achieved the best product-market fit (PMF) in the last two years? 🇮🇳 > What truly defines a successful startup goes far deeper than just a high price tag - It's about a product seamlessly integrating into users' lives, solving a real problem in a simple and impactful way. > Zepto - This quick commerce leader has skyrocketed to household name status in just two years. Their secret sauce? A perfect blend of these product-market fit ingredients: 1/ Unmatched Speed: > Zepto's 10-minute grocery delivery caters directly to the urban consumer's desire for instant gratification. 2/ Curated Convenience: > Zepto understands that speed shouldn't mean sacrificing choice. > They offer a carefully chosen range of essentials and everyday items. No more browsing overload. Just high-quality groceries for immediate needs. Makes decisions a breeze. 3/ Frictionless Experience: > Zepto's app is refreshingly simple. A few taps, groceries ordered. Integrates with popular payment options. > Frictionless experience keeps users coming back. Perfect for busy schedules or sudden needs. 4/ Strategic Network: > Zepto's secret weapon? Smartly placed dark stores. > Stock essential items for quick picking and packing. This fuels their 10-minute delivery promise. Network efficiency translates to lightning-fast groceries. - They identified a clear audience (busy urban dwellers), addressed their core need (immediate groceries), and delivered it in a way that's both convenient and personalised. ♻️ Which other companies have hit seamless product market fit in the recent years? #quickcommerce #ecommerce #startups #zepto #venturecapital #LinkedInNews

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Who would invest in founders who have wasted $50M? Koo, an Indian microblogging platform, recently shut shop after raising $50M in capital. Everyone has their views on why Koo failed. IMO, the biggest reason behind its failure was a lack of PMF (Product Market Fit). Koo spent much money on marketing and didn’t build a product people wanted. It kept harping on nationalism, a Twitter for Indians, made in #India. This approach failed. However, this doesn’t mean Koo’s founders aren’t smart or intelligent. I wrote in an earlier post that we shouldn’t be surprised if Koo’s founders raise fresh capital for a new startup. To many of us, this might seem grossly unfair. Millions of smart, hardworking founders are struggling to raise capital while investors are backing failed founders who have wasted millions of dollars. How is that fair? It confirms the widely held belief that the #venturecapital industry is broken and corrupt where a few people with the right connections get all the capital while others don’t see a dime. It shows that the VC industry is a closed group, a cabal where who you know matters more than anything. While these are just complaints, most people who criticise VCs don’t understand how startup investing works. VCs welcome failures. They embrace them because they know failures are inevitable. When VCs invest in 20 #startups, they know 15 will fail. The goal is to invest in startups that can give them a 100x return. Failures are part of the game. They are unavoidable. The aim is to back founders who can build such 100x return companies. Hence, failures are not looked down upon in the VC industry. It’s similar to the American culture where society appreciates the people who take risks, and it easily accepts personal bankruptcies that result from this risk-taking approach. There’s no taboo in failing in the USA and the VC industry. I’m sure Koo’s founders have learnt from their mistakes. It’s an expensive mistake and not everyone is so lucky to have this luxury to spend $50M on their education. ;) However, most VCs will back Koo’s #founders because these founders know how to raise capital and they know how to not build and scale tech companies. Their past failures have improved their chances of future success. In the VC industry, Failure is Good.

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Most popular dating apps face one big problem. After 2-3 exchanges, users shift to WhatsApp or Instagram to take the conversation forward. Time spent on the app drops, and thus, user retention decreases. At flutrr this is rarely an issue. We’re building for the youth in India’s small towns—an audience that isn’t very confident about talking to the opposite sex. They’re shy, take things slow, and rarely ask to exchange personal details, letting conversations flow on our app itself. To strengthen user experience, we’ve also introduced AI-driven sentiment analysis. If you’re chatting with someone, our AI understands the sentiment and helps craft responses aligned with the tone—ensuring longer, deeper conversations. Plus, we’ve added generative AI features for music creation and love quotes for moments when words fall short – making connections more meaningful. All these features are not there either on Insta or on WhatsApp. So our users will continue to chat with the app. And this is a first in the global dating industry This is something no other platform offers, and that’s the promise flutrr is built on—enabling genuine, meaningful relationships through innovation. #startups #india #datingapp #genai #product

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