Thribhuvan Lokesh

'That's a million dollars, dude.' 🚀 'Around ₹5 crore.' My heart stopped. 'What?' 'That's a million dollars, dude.' 💡 Trivia: Varun Agarwal's 'How I Braved Anu Aunty & Co-Founded a Million Dollar Company', would have a different title if it were to launch today because a 'million dollars' would be more than ₹5 crores! ⤵️ ➡️ $1 = ~₹50 (January, 2012) ➡️ $1 = ~₹83 (July, 2024) I believe this book should be recommended to aspiring first-time founders, before any other "technical" book on entrepreneurship. Varun walks you through the sheer bravery of a twenty-something, while startups and all that jazz was still in its infancy in this part of the world. More importantly, his story keeps it human. Not every journey leads to extravagant success, and founders shouldn't be seen as perfect, larger-than-life characters. (at least, not all) His book is an impactful narration and might be better read than the tales from the West. It hits home — more than most other founders' biographical chronicles. It is one of those books on startups, that most readers would actually 'finish'. I'm not saying the probability of finishing a book determines its quality, but what I'm emphasizing is the fact — that this is a human-to-human anecdotal account of — one of India's earliest startup poster boys. ✨ Varun Agarwal | Rupa Publications India | Alma Mater Store- Custom T-Shirts, Hoodies, Sweatshirts, Varsity Jackets #startups #startupbooks #founders #founders

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As I sit with son on factorisation of polynomials... Example: a-square -5a -6 The trick is to multiply the coefficients of a-square and the constant term. You get -6. And then find the numbers that on multiplication gives -6 but on summation gives -5 Now he ponders on 3 and 2 the more obvious ones. Soon he realises that since the signs need to be opposite, they cannot on addition get you to -5. That 1 is a factor of all numbers and the number itself is then recollected. So you get 1 and 6, one of which needs to be negative. Now you come to an interesting part. Which one is to be kept negative? Things are a bit involved by now and so the attention doesnt come on the obvious point. After some pondering, it took some pointing attention to the fact that to get to -5 on addition, it is the bigger number that needs to be made negative. It was a wow moment, even if it was obvious... As i observed him solving subsequent problems, he started remembering this new rule, which he knew from earlier, but just got reinforced. Point 1 - Mathematics Education Now one thing is what it tells us about Mathematics education. The 100 small things to which attention need to be paid to, to get Maths right. It is cognitively taxing. You need supervisory/facilitating human attention, which is the simplest way to motivate a child to go through with it. It can become fun, but only if you get it right often. And like in all learning if you dont get it right often enough, it can make one lose interest. Point 2 - Neural net learning But to come to my soapbox, the neural networks also seem to be learning a 100 small things. The combination of getting trained where a pattern repeats and reinforces is what makes learning happen. The rule is not what we memorise. The rule is the compression of patterned enumeration. But human beings seem to internalise it, not based on memorising rules. We seem to internalise it based on the repetition of the enumeration and the fact that, now you can jump the step and not have to enumerate at all. The Rule is not what is either Taught or Learnt. The Rule is what you arrive at through a process. The process is the observation of the repetition of the enumeration and then suddenly being able to "see" the pattern. And for the LLM to learn any new Rule, we need to give it the Data which has this Patterned Enumeration. We thought in 2023 that we had some generalised Intelligence. We thought wrong. Anyone spending 1000s of hours with LLMs now knows that the LLM is not able to get into too much of generalisation. Neither are most Human Beings able to do that when they Learn! I will be very curious to know how AGI can be achieved. Because like the Ring in the Lord of the Rings, it will have to be the Ring that rules them all! How will we manage to pull that off? Does the patterned enumeration of Rules, have a Rule? Do we Humans somehow get it? Can we produce Data that makes this happen for Neural nets? #humanlearning #agi

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India’s Oyo, once valued at $10 billion, is finalizing new funding at a $2.5 billion valuation. This marks a steep decline from its $10 billion valuation in 2019. The startup, which has raised over $3 billion from backers like SoftBank, Peak XV Ventures, Lightspeed, Airbnb, and Microsoft, has struggled to attract institutional investors. In recent months, it has aggressively pitched to high-net-worth individuals after withdrawing its IPO application twice in the past four years. Once a red-hot Indian startup active in markets including the U.S. and Europe, Oyo has now scaled back its international presence. #venture #downround https://lnkd.in/gE2GjYnM

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That was the launch… 🏆 … and we’re just getting started. Every team can now build their developer hub on Hashnode — no more switching between tools or messy infra setups. One platform for your blog, docs, and community. From solo founders to teams of thousands, we’ve got you covered. 💪 Let’s solve real problems together! Get started for free. ✨ #coding #api #programming #developers #docs #ai

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Fintech macro #growth story of India is now a known thing... especially after witnessing #GFF. But when the rubber meets the road, what's the growth like? Well here's a snapshot of what we're seeing in our #Insurance vertical at Freo. #Insurance as a vertical is showing phenomenal growth. With the fundamental building blocks in place - right #regulatory license, #profitability, low CAC and the right #product mix, we're now seeing strong and sustainable #growth. 60% growth in customers and 127% growth in revenue, in the last 6 months! Freo is committed to helping #India get easy access to smart and affordable financial services, with a low cost of delivery. Anuj Kacker Hitarth Saini Rohit Mittal Freo

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Checkout our version of HealthGPT which answers questions on menstrual health using your 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐡 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐱𝐭. We have tuned the model for women health use cases like - period tracking & PCOS management. Some interesting features: 1. 𝐌𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐢 𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧 - We use a multi agent design to break problems into sub tasks that are handled by separate agents. It’s as if multiple LLMs are working in a team. Using a single agent had a whole lot pf problems like - hallucination, forgetting & recency bias. 2. Uses 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐚 - The agent taps into a structured database like Firestore or MongoDB. Not a vector database. Keeping the data structured helps the user interact easily with traditional product flows, and we have given the LLM 𝑡𝑜𝑜𝑙𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑟𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 to fetch the information as needed. - You can see in the 𝐆𝐈𝐅 the user asks for their period information. This is fetched from the db, formatted and presented. 3. 𝐄𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐥𝐲 𝐬𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐬 - The architecture of the bot is easily scalable to other usecases like customer support bot, app guide etc. There are numerous applications of LLMs in healthcare. Really excited to explore more such usecases with interested individuals. You can check out the app here - https://lnkd.in/gDYtQMqH #llms #gpt #healthcare #sakhiAI #generativeAI

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Never work in Stealth Mode for a Startup Idea. Very risky. This is the time that the idea needs a lot of Validation, Understanding Use Cases, Market Insights, Understanding Competition, Adoption challenges, Market Sizing. More prospects/customers in this phase needs to be met. Asking all the right & tough questions. The Foundations of Problem Validation & Value Proposition needs to be clear here. Working in Stealth Mode cuts you off from these inputs. We have worked with 100+ MedTech/Healthcare startups over the last 3 years. Impact : ✅ Some startups pivoted after they worked with us in GTM Readiness. ✅ Few founders even went back to their Corporate jobs realising the problem they were solving was wrong & didn't see a path to PMF. ✅ Few changed their Pricing and Business Model and entered the Market. Explore GTM Readiness Services. Enter the form in the comments section for a discussion.

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PLG by GrowthX®completely changed my perspective on how to approach partnerships. From thinking of cracking partnerships as a set of ad-hoc activities to finding a structured process, I have come a long way. I now have a structured outreach process for every partnership opportunity I want. From figuring out the right partner to finding the right person to take it forward and more importantly, having the right outreach, conversion and, GTM plan, the process has now become a playbook that can be replicated quickly. The outcome? Shortened partnership cycle, improved process efficiency and most importantly, direct impact on revenue (for both, us and the partner). Shout out to folks Bharatsure, Anuj Parekh Sanil Basutkar to have supported in doing this. Also, special mention to GrowthX®, Abhishek Patil Udayan Walvekar for creating this awesome community. If you are looking for a plug-and-play stack to power insurance for your users/customers with a quick turnaround time, reach out to me at [email protected] to understand how we can help you generate additional revenues while providing value add to your clients.

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Zomato's Q1FY25 Earnings Soar: Revenue Up by 74% to Rs 4,206 Crore, Profit Skyrockets to Rs 253 Crore https://lnkd.in/d4YNQHFi Great to see regular profits from startup darlings of India. way to go 🎉🥳 #zomato #startup #india #indiastartup

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Buying gold / silver coins on the auspicious occasion of Akshaya Trithiya come under low frequency - low complexity purchase category. It is a seasonal product bought generally during specific occasions. Zepto Blinkit Swiggy lapped up this opportunity and started selling this with the benefit of quick delivery. No wonder the sales picked up quite well. I wonder how much would it have impacted the sales of larger eComm players. Sales trends from swiggy is already out. I am sure the trend will be similar for Zepto - Aadit Palicha and Blinkit - Albinder Dhindsa I detailed out this approach and more in my notes - https://lnkd.in/gBmvVKy2

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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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🌟 Honored to speak at IIT Delhi’s Research and Innovation Centre! 🌟 As the founder of DYS Family Raksha Insurance Web Aggregators, I recently had the privilege of discussing the essential courage and mindset required to launch a new venture. Starting a business isn’t just about having a groundbreaking idea; it’s about having the tenacity to bring that idea to life. At the event, I shared three key insights: 1. Courage to Begin: Taking the first step is often the hardest. It’s essential to overcome fear and take that leap into the unknown. 2. Resilience: Entrepreneurship comes with numerous challenges. It’s our ability to remain resilient that allows us to push through and keep moving forward. 3. Innovative Thinking: In a rapidly evolving market, innovation is crucial. Embracing change and thinking creatively are vital for staying ahead. To all the aspiring entrepreneurs: remember, success is a journey. Keep pushing boundaries, stay curious, and never stop learning. A heartfelt thanks to IIT Delhi for fostering a spirit of innovation and for their support in nurturing entrepreneurial minds. #Entrepreneurship #Innovation #Startups #Leadership #IITDelhi #DYSFamilyRaksha #Inspiration #BusinessJourney

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In any data driven company, it's the DS folks who tie the various aspects of business enabling eng, AI, Product, Operations to cross function and strategize. To be an effective DS, One of the key learnings I have had is Familiar yourself with the domain to be effective. Even a skilled DS can take 6-12 months to learn the nuances of a new domain. Every domain presents its own jargons, sets of problems, true norths & metrics to optimize. In my 12 yrs stint as a DS, I worked in multiple domains insurance, telecom, security, retail and social media. Well some obvious ways to shorten the learning curve is to engage with your teammates, ask questions, read documentations etc. But some really effective ways are to - Understand your true north, get married to it. The best DSs I know can guess pretty accurately how much a product feature will drive a metric even before ab testing. - Engage with cross-functional teams like product, operations or your users - they are your knowledge mines - Think out loud, throw in ideas and ask questions whenever in doubt. The best way to learn something faster is to be corrected faster. - Review Pull Requests whenever possible - reviewing peer codes helps you understand data sources, and find some hidden business contexts’ Easter eggs - Look at some records in your data sources before you write a line of code. You will be surprised how this simple exercise reduces data manipulation iterations. - Attend all hands horizontal or vertical. Might be a slightly less popular opinion but it really helps you be connected to the - business goals. No Wonder, why 85% of the AI projects across product companies are not aligned to business goals. - Share any insight, tool or technique you used recently with your team and be part of these sharing sessions to learn what and how others have mined in the data. PS: The image is just for fun, improving my prompting skills to test gpt to its limits. #datascience #learnings

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This morning, a 6:30am discussion shed light on the harsh reality of business survival post-disaster. The owner I spoke to is in dire need of immediate financial assistance due to mounting credit card bills (both personal and business) and substantial revenue loss. While insurance may cover damages, lost profits remain a significant concern. Furthermore, enduring a sales drought of 30 days, the owner has had to let go of employees, as customers divert spending away from Western NC. Despite his home surviving the storm, other circumstances jeopardize its future. I am Considering GoFundMe as a potential lifeline for him, but that is only a bandaid. With approximately +500 businesses facing similar challenges, a dilemma emerges. What about businesses untouched by physical damage but crippled by the shutdown of tourism? Is this the 10,000 western nc businesses over next 6 months? #BusinessSurvival #DisasterRecovery #FinancialAssistance #CommunitySupport

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Is AI proven bubble at this point of time? In recent weeks, Goldman Sachs, McKinsey and Sequoia have all warned that AI may be a bubble. I don't get it. Why? Because I've just liked and commented the post of Michelangelo, who is not a human, but AI-generated agent. I didn't know that and his post content looked resonating to me, so I decided to react. Wanted to add Mickey into my network and realized he's got 40 connections so far. Start getting deeper and realized he's opened AI agent. How did I feel about it? Feel happy that I start facing real positive use cases for AI in daily routine - so it works! I don't see much difference with the real person's content, but the efficiency is a way higher! Thanks Aakash Gupta for highlighting the post!

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🚨 Making of a billion-dollar exit 💰 Accel has sold shares worth over $300 mn in Freshworks over the last 12 months, according to research done by The Arc The VC firm had not sold any shares during the IPO in 2021. It still holds over 13% stake in the Nasdaq-listed company 👨‍💻 The returns on this will be a multi-bagger for Accel 🤑 Series A entry price - $0.05 a share Current price - $18.44 a share Accel's average price increased as it participated in follow-up rounds. More 👇 #venturecapital #software #saas #freshworks #accel #vc #exits #returns https://lnkd.in/g65TbjGR

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I used AI to beat insurance companies at their own game - Insurance companies are notorious for hiding critical instructions under their terms and conditions. It's very easy to miss it in the fine print. So, here's what I did - I converted my health policy "Infinity Plan" from Bajaj Allianz General Insurance into a podcast using NotebookLM from Google DeepMind It explains the fine details in a conversational format and asks clarifying questions to ensure I understand it fully. Just look at the 1 minute clip where it clarifies one of my benefits - What does "Choosing your room rent" mean? It beautifully explains the caveats and the implications. If you want a detailed tutorial about this, DM me and I will show you how I did it. #insurance #ai

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🚀 Swiggy Set to Make Waves with ₹11,300 Crore IPO: Key Details and Market Implications 🌐 Swiggy, India's food delivery giant, is set to go public with an IPO launching on November 6, 2024, aiming to raise around ₹11,327 crore (~$1.35B). Shares will be priced at ₹371-₹390 each (around $4.64), with trading expected to start on November 13, 2024. IPO Highlights: Price Range: ₹371-₹390 per share Funds Allocation: Expanding logistics and quick commerce operations This IPO is launching amidst rising tech-driven competition in India’s market. By securing capital, Swiggy plans to advance its quick commerce capabilities, aiming to gain a strategic edge over competitors like Zomato. Market Impact: Swiggy’s IPO offers a unique investment opportunity with strong growth potential, balancing between established dominance in food delivery and quick commerce expansion. Investor Insight: With a grey market premium around ₹25, sentiment is optimistic. As Swiggy steps into the public sphere, it's poised to redefine India's fast-paced delivery ecosystem. #IPO #SwiggyIPO #Investment https://lnkd.in/eyHRRPXh

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𝐎𝐲𝐨 𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐒𝐞𝐞𝐤𝐬 𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐈𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐚𝐭 $3.8𝐁 𝐕𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 Ritesh Agarwal, the founder of Oyo, is looking to invest an additional $65.1 million into the company, which would raise its valuation to $3.8 billion. This investment, made through Redsprig Innovation Partners, is a 38% increase from Oyo's $2.3 billion valuation in June. However, it’s still a long way from the company's $10 billion valuation back in 2019. Key Points: - Redsprig invested $100 million in Oyo’s June funding round. - Oyo has raised over $3.4 billion since it started. - Oyo is planning a third attempt at an IPO in the next couple of months. It will be interesting to see how this investment unfolds. What do you think about Oyo’s future and the hospitality sector? 𝐎𝐧 𝐚 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞, 𝐰𝐞’𝐫𝐞 𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐧 𝐚 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲, 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐥, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐦 𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐬. We’re exploring new ways to improve how businesses and customers interact in these industries. If you’re interested in these sectors, I’d love to connect and talk about potential collaboration. Deftsoft #Oyo #Investment #StartupNews #Hospitality #TechCrunch #RiteshAgarwal #IPO #Travel #Tourism #Innovation #Collaboration

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