Akhil Sharma

"Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together" GalaxEye announced investment by MountTech Growth Fund - Kavachh, a $60 million Category-II AIF, has made its inaugural investment in GalaxEye’s $10 million Series A fundraising round. GalaxEye, founded by a dynamic and skilled team from IIT-M, is on a mission to revolutionize space-based surveillance with cutting-edge, multi-sensor (SAR and MSI) fusion technology. With the first LEO satellite launch slated for mid-2025, GalaxEye aims to meet critical security and commercial needs, showcasing the power of innovation driven by purpose and precision. This partnership exemplifies our commitment to supporting trailblazing solutions that address pressing challenges in surveillance and security. GalaxEye’s ambition to leverage SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) and MSI (Multispectral Imaging) fusion for space-based surveillance aligns well with the evolving demands of both defence and commercial sectors. Their innovative approach with LEO #satellite constellations promises to address critical security and monitoring needs with unmatched precision and real-time insights. Backing a driven and skilled team like GalaxEye, rooted in a legacy of innovation like Avishkar Hyperloop, speaks volumes about the fund's dedication to fostering groundbreaking technology. This partnership not only reflects the fund's commitment to advancing national security infrastructure but also highlights a forward-looking vision that appreciates the convergence of innovation and practical impact. The anticipated satellite launch in mid-2025 is set to be a milestone in this collaborative journey, and it will be exciting to witness the tangible outcomes of this strategic alliance! #space #venturecapital #investment #india #strategic https://lnkd.in/ggZuW2xs

83

1 Comment

Our vision at Niti AI is to empower the next billion (non) developers to build and ship products with AI! Whenever I reflect on ambitious goals like this, I'm reminded of the below quote from The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. Hari Subramanian | Aravind R. | LoopX

15

The total number of NRIs and PIOs stands at about ~3.3 crores, possibly the best Indians to sell any homogenous Indian product. Just the top 6 countries account for ~1.9 Crores. The minimum income/month would be around 1-1.5 Lakhs, and net-worth easily 30 Lakhs+ Should Finsire map their net worth across geographies?

39

2 Comments

GM GM my #LinkedIn Fam!! I'm thrilled to announce that I've joined Push Protocol | Previously EPNS India as an #Ambassador! I'm incredibly excited to be a part of Push Protocol | Previously EPNS's mission to build a #decentralized notification infrastructure for #Web3. Web3 has the potential to revolutionize the way we interact with the internet, and Push Protocol is playing a vital role in making that happen. In my role as #PushAmbassadorIndia, I look forward to: 👉 Contributing to the growth of the Web3 ecosystem in India. 👨‍🏫 Educating and empowering the Indian community about the potential of Web3. 🤝 Collaborating with Push Protocol to build a more robust and accessible notification system for dApps. I'm confident that together, we can make a significant impact on the future of Web3. #Web3 #PushProtocolIndia #Ambassador #Decentralization #Blockchain #PushAmbassadorIndia

122

13 Comments

"possible nahi hai to mat karna, aur possible hai to tung mat karna" Over the past many years, we've seen founders face numerous struggles that should not have been in the first place - from the liquidation process to ODI transactions to KYC/FIRC of foreign inbound wires to demat documentation for foreign investors and much more. All of these were simple processes that instead led to long and painful journeys consuming 100s of hours - and several times holding up critical round closures and what not. After seeing these closely for a few years, we got involved and looked at the problems closely, identified relevant providers, and asked them to provide clarity on what is possible and what is not possible and how to avoid bureaucracy and get stuff one - we did it all constructively but since we had a large volume of cases across each category, we were in a position to show examples of what was going wrong and how resolutions can be achieved smoothly. Thanks to so many of our partners many of the above processes are now 10x smoother than before -- but we haven't been able to solve for everything yet and the work will continue. Our mantra with working with providers was simple -- we wanted clarity on how anything is to be done and if we did that it was upon them to get it done. If they themselves don't have clarity, then they should let us know ahead of time instead of misguiding us forever. Simply captured in this -- "possible nahi hai to mat kar, aur possible hai to tung mat kar". Grateful to all our PoC across providers who follow this to the t :)

53

11 Comments

Trying something new… I will be shortly recording an episode on “Finding your first design partners in the US as a US-India startup” with an accomplished serial founder in the SaaS/enterprise space. What questions should I ask? Thoughts please 🙏🏽 PS: more specific, the better!

22

8 Comments

Zepto announces its $ 665M Series F financing at a $3.6bn valuation yesterday. They started as KiranaKart (part of YC's W21 program) & re-branded to Zepto; the firm has defied all funding winters with crazy momentum ⤵️ June '20: $50K Contrary Capital fellowship Nov '20: $125K YC W21 program  Jan '21: $700K Seed round Oct '21: $60M Series A/B round Dec'21: $100M Series C round May '22: $200M Series D round Aug '23: $200M Series E round Zepto's investors include Y Combinator, Nexus Venture Partners, StepStone Group and even Glade Brook Capital (former investor in Zomato). 📈 And, their metrics in the last few months have been astounding: (1) ~4.5M (i.e. 45 Lakh) Zepto Pass subscribers in 3 months - Initially this was free, then they began charging > ₹99 per month (2) 75% of ~350 dark stores are EBITDA positive - Time to EBITDA breakeven per store is down from 23 months to 6 months (3) ~28% market share in Quick Comm - Impressive given they are an independent company (versus Instamart or Blinkit) ✅ And, Zepto is just getting started:  (a) Entry in non-metro cities next (b) Entry into private label (Zepto Cafe & Meats) (c) Going to x2 the number of dark stores ➡ What I've seen lately in the key metro cities: There is a shift from e-comm to QC. I think it is only going to accelerate as QC co's bring in more categories & tap into long tail SKUs via larger warehouses.. Product searches first moved from Google to Amazon, now they may move from Amazon to Zepto et al. incredible to see how the Power Law plays out - these folks are going to change Commerce in India. Congratulations Aadit, Kaivalya + team Zepto! #startups #india #venturecapital

76

3 Comments

Final AMA for AIR5 For the @AntlerIndia Residency #5, apps from individual founders are due Aug 2nd. Existing teams can continue to apply (rolling decisions). Nandini Vishwanath & I are doing one final AMA this evening (July 29, 6-7 pm IST). We cover all things Residency - the best way to move from your -1 to 0 phase to an investment decision. https://lu.ma/7n35d1z5

42

2 Comments

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

5

Santosh Sharan famously said, “Gains from the best (GTM) practices decay over time” After experiencing this firsthand over the last year, I completely second this. We've seen various go-to-market motions adopted by different companies. In my first journey at Innovaccer, we used an outbound email go-to-market motion, which was successful back then. However, even after knowing this method worked in the past, trying it for six months at kim.cc proved it wasn’t the right fit, and we had to stop. This reinforced my belief in the importance of finding your mojo - a GTM motion that aligns perfectly with your current market conditions. For example, Adam Robinson successfully used LinkedIn as a go-to-market motion. Others have leveraged SEO for inbound, while some have used Shopify. The key is understanding where your customers are and ensuring your positioning or pitch resonates with them. What GTM strategy has worked for your startup, and how did you discover it? #gtm #businesslessons #startups #dtcbrands #entrepreneurship

32

1 Comment

🌍❤️♾️🗝🔓⚡️🌅🧬🌌 My apologies to all sending msg's to my inbox. I have been quite busy as of late. 🌍🌅🌌⚡️📞☎️ Real #GENESIS #EPOCH "System Contracts are contracts initialized during the Genesis block." 0x-System Contract Installation- MasterKeys- Genetic Energetic Codex validation implementation #DIVINE MECHANISMS #GalacticTrust #MasterRoot #BlockchainUniverse #PureQuantum #CryptoScience #QuantumNodeNetwork

5

2 Comments

Building on Mrunal Jhaveri's insightful reflections, I am compelled to share some thoughts on the dynamic landscape of venture investment through family offices—a domain not many venture into but one that holds immense potential for long-term impact. The road to establishing Ice.vc, as Mrunal describes, is paved with practical lessons that resonate across investment strategies and personal experiences alike. The clarity in focusing on core competencies rather than getting sidetracked by trying to offer everything to portfolio companies is something that resonates deeply. In an ever-evolving market landscape, flexibility and adaptability remain crucial. Furthermore, maintaining structured policies and decision-making frameworks isn't just a best practice; it's imperative for avoiding unnecessary disruptions. Clearly defining roles within the family office setup, just as Mrunal does with his brother, ensures seamless operations and clarity in execution. The essence of this journey, however, transcends financial metrics. It is about aligning investments with personal values and the overarching vision one cherishes—creating a legacy that's more meaningful than mere numbers. These insights continue to shape the future of investments and offer a beacon for those brave enough to innovate and invest in line with their own values.

1

Listen in to this meaningful podcast 'Hard Thing about Hard Launches' , where I speak with two founders - Akshar Shah of Fixerra and Trivesh D. of Tradejini open up on the opportunity set of the Indian fintech market. It's a very interesting contrast as Akshar is focusing on building a fixed deposits marketplace and Trivesh is building out discount broking tapping the equities. What we discussed : a. Fintech is not a winner-takes-all market - why and how? b. Is verticalization better in financial services space. Why? c. Is frugality a good strategy? d. The fear of compliance and what does it mean to be a fintech founder now ?

9

5 things broken in the India VC system. 1️⃣ Low Returns over the years: The cat is out of the bag. The returns delivered by most VCs back to their LPs have not been stellar. This makes them much more risk-averse and likely to be less entrepreneurial and more conservative money managers 💰 2️⃣ Lack of operators in the high chairs: There is a telling lack of ex-founders, operators, and ex-entrepreneurs in the top echelons. With the tech changing rapidly, anyone who has not operated for over a decade, it is hard to stay in touch with the shifting grounds of tech, marketing, post-sales customer success etc. Being a successful operator of '90s or early 2000s is good for pedigree, but may not be great for prevalent realities 🏆 3️⃣ Very little Indian Money: Most of the VC money in India is from US/EU/ME etc. The share of Indian money is very low. Since the VCs have to answer to the money, there are constraints on what they can and cannot do. In some cases, they are responding to the US overlords' wishes - surely not a great sign 💸 4️⃣ No dedicated tech specialization: There is hardly any sector-focused VC in India that can bring deep sector expertise on the table to spot the naughts and, more importantly, breakout techs. The same goes for general tech (AI, SaaS, mobility, etc.). Hardly any VC firm has a CTO office to inspect the innovations deeply and spot the snake oil claims vs real breakthroughs 🎯 5️⃣ Momentum and trend worship: The only game in town is momentum and conforming to trends (AI in recent days). These are the only two parameters that have got the job done in the recent past 🔍 VC = Vision + Capital. It is a game where the bets need to be entrepreneurial with deep tech diligence as the right to win rather than ultra-focus on distribution as the lynchpin (GTM - a pure function of money). Without that, they are destined to perpetuate the underwhelming past results 😐 #VC #startups #founders #funding #India

79

12 Comments

Are we headed to a future, where s/w product development as a "segment and skill" will morph or rather evolve into software assembly? Bumped into this Sequoia deliberations on Gen AI and its future. Take a look in the second line of the image/chart for "code" Software platform and product development has following stages. - Specification - Design and Architecture - Wireframing for UI and UX - Data modeling and data structures - UI design and UI development - Middle-tier and backend development - Quality and release GenAI is already exceptional on image creation. It has started delivering decent code pieces on prompts. Text to code capability will be improving leaps and bounds. Are we looking at a future, where s/w is produced with "Text to Code" == "Specifications to Code" And, conventional roles will transform into assembly of the s/w components into a functional product. Traditional software development role as we know it, will morph into software assembler. The skill sets needed in such a world, will be very different than what we have today. Composition of software products has been a mix of art and tech for long time. Assembly of the s/w product will need much more understanding of the new world stacks. It will either expand the scope and definition of the DevOps roles or else a new class of software workers will come about, who will work deeper with DevOps. What are your thoughts ? #llm #genai #promptengineering #ai #ml #aiml #chatgpt #gpt #machinelearning

14

ZK or Opt: Solving ETH Scalability differently. With Ethereum congestion continuing, ZK-Rollups and Optimistic Rollups promise hope but achieve it divergingly. ZK Rollups share a common ground- they verify transactions without revealing inputs. But they maintain strong security using zero-knowledge proofs. Optimistic Rollups also bundle transactions but adopt a "trust but verify" approach. Optimistic Rollups assume honesty until dissent. Transactions go through instantly while fraud-proofs are generated for later verification. ZK Rollups prove validity before accepting batches. Performance also varies - Optimistic Rollups can handle up to 2000+ TPS while ZK targets 6k-16k TPS. But ZK wins on data availability - your funds are retrievable even if the Rollup provider fails. As DeFi continues expanding, choosing the right solution means understanding your priorities. Speed or security? Upfront proofs or rapid reactions? #zk #optimistic #blockchain #ethereum

2

About 2 years ago I was in a tough spot. As a founder, I could either kickstart Levo.ai’s GTM efforts or keep iterating on the product even after the core development (something needed in our hyper-competitive space). And it was Vamsi Nerella who saved us from compromising on either. A college alum and a dear friend, my first introduction to him was almost 18 years ago on the campus of Osmania University. He was pursuing a master's degree at the same college where I was a bachelor's student. While I never spoke to him while in college, much was spoken about him and his academic excellence by others. As Vamsi had bagged a placement at The D. E. Shaw Group something that was mostly reserved only for the 1-2 students who topped the engineering program. Despite being on different teams, we finally spoke when I joined D.E. Shaw a few years later. Owing to his sharp analytical skills and deep understanding of virtually everything, I developed a deep sense of respect and admiration for him. Over the next 9 years, I immigrated to the #US to work in startups and he went on to do great things at The D. E. Shaw Group, Wells Fargo , and Bank of America. So when looking for someone to fill in my shoes and lead our team of engineers it only felt natural to speak with him. Strong technical skills, experience of leading big and agile engineering teams, understanding of how enterprises work and most importantly the enthusiasm needed for an early stage startup- Vamsi had it all. Today it’s been two years since he joined Levo and has not only maintained the development velocity but accelerated it. Allowing me to spread the word about Levo while also having a strong product that has attracted and retained industry leaders. I am super grateful to Vamsi Nerella for taking a chance on me as well as his dedication and relentless efforts to make our vision a reality. Here’s to taking Levo.ai to the next dozen customers together! #tech #gratitude #appreciation #team #appreciation #engineer

294

29 Comments

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.

8

1 Comment

𝐒𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐨𝐧 𝐕𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐲 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 🇮🇳'𝐬 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐨𝐟 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲-𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐱 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐬 - 𝐐𝐮𝐢𝐜𝐤 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐞 / 𝐙𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐨 / 𝐔𝐏𝐈 Suhas Motwani and I turned the common question of "What can India learn from Silicon Valley?" on its head in an episode of An Operator's Blog. (Full AOB episode link in comments)

18

3 Comments