Kishore Gopalakrishna

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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One unintended consequence of 'software as a service' is that selling software is becoming more and more like selling services. Historically, software: 1. Has relatively few competitors per category, because creating a product was expensive. 2. Differentiation has been in the product features and capabilities 3. Product differentiation was sustainable for a reasonable period of time 4. Buyers often bought based on one competitor being able to better meet specific technical requirements 5. Pricing was relatively opaque Historically, services: 1. Have an endless number of competitors, from gigantic companies to one person in their basement 2. Differentiation is in the brand, people, process and experience 3. Technical parity is the norm 4. Buyers buy based off their purchasing experience 5. Pricing is relatively transparent (i.e. if you have 3 big agencies bid or the big 3 consulting firms.....they will all cost about the same) More and more, the two are converging. How does this align with your experiences?

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Truly inspiring to listen to Dax Dasilva tell the story of Lightspeed Commerce on 20VC. With $900M in ARR I was thrilled to learn that Dax bootstrapped the company for 7 years to get to $10M in ARR. I hope it doesn't take us 7 years to get Liquid360 there but it makes me feel better about the 3.5 years we've put in to date. For me these stories are deeply encouraging. When you're building something very big it can take time to get to launch. A couple of weeks ago we met with a global player in the VC world. They were looking to invest $5M - $10M and we said we weren't there yet. We'll get there but it wouldn't be the right move today. They then jumped to another conclusion. The wrong one. I get it. They have a multi-billion dollar fund and capital to deploy. We have a company to grow and too much cash will not help us do it right. We've made good decisions being lean. Our customers are starting at $500K. This is an enterprise/gov't product. We have to satisfy a very discerning customer. No bugs, no glitches. A dependable and reliable product. We are excited by the feedback. We are making the world safer. Harry Stebbings suggested that Lightspeed is one of the most misunderstood companies. It's market cap is $2.6B which seems really low relative to the ARR. Very interesting episode.

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Startup decks vs Business plans. It's accepted that a startup needs a deck. Dax Dasilva of Lightspeed Commerce made an important point on 20VC. Writing a business plan - including financial projections - is an important step. It requires discipline. It provides a rigorous framework for thinking deeply about the problem you're trying to solve. Harry Stebbings countered that he doesn't even want to see a deck since it's all dreams. We spent a lot of time and energy on our business plan with the expectation that we would show it to no one ever. The business plan was part of our roadmap for the company. We researched customers - including having 50+ conversations. We wanted to understand them: their background, their interests, their presence on social media. We also wanted to understand how they were evaluated by leadership and how integrated they were with the business of the company they were protecting. We researched pricing both with potential customers and other products in our industry to find out if OpEx or CapEx was a better fit. How did they buy today? How would they like to buy? We did market research to understand the verticals and map the right entry point - we were wrong but that doesn't reduce the value of the research. We looked at competitors in depth to understand what they were seeing that we weren't. Dax is right. This is an invaluable document that should be updated every year - the company is changing, the market is changing, there's more feedback about price and ICP. It's not for sharing with the outside world. It's a map for driving forward. Decks won't get you investment - VCs invest in people. We make decks but we know they don't tell our story. The deck is a calling card. Dax and Harry are both right. https://lnkd.in/e25M82xY

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the *mirage* of the india software ipo for global b2b companies over the last few quarters there has been increasing chatter in the indian ecosystem that indian software companies building for and selling to the US/global markets will be better off registered/flipping back to being an indian registered HQ and going IPO in india than (struggle to) meet the high bar that is required for an ipo in the US. the key points are these: (1) if indian companies can get to say $100M ARR with decent 15-20% EBITDA they will be considered heroes by the indian retail investors (2) however, with these numbers it is not possible to go ipo in the US (3) indian market is hungry for tech and will continue to award much higher valuation to these companies. i don't know what the right answer is in the long run. it is also possible that there are different right answers for different people. and by no means am i an expert so take this view as just one view, but based on seeing all of this very closely while working with the top 1% talent in India. here's why i personally believe this is unlikely to work and/or may be long term harmful for indian software product ecosystem that is looking to build globally relevant companies. 1 - top tier founders who I checked with said “hell no” to this option. for them it is like accepting defeat before even getting started. the ecosystem is finally closer-than-ever to figuring out how to build US-native companies to be globally relevant/respected brands in their categories and this entire thought process of "aiming for an low bar indian ipo" is opposite of what is going on in their minds and what is driving them today. 2 - once you set the $100M ARR, $20M EBITDA as the *goal*, it is likely to immediately lower the bar mentally for everyone in the company and it can be a negative spiral when you set a local maxima as a *great outcome* - the entire ecosystem then aims for this and overall we will soon start to build small companies instead of large outlier companies that are globally respected. 3- the outcome of this strategy *on average* will create #7 #8 #9 companies in their respective categories at best and that too *when things work out* and that is a hard position to be in as we all know. even if they go public in india i am not sure how long they can hold their valuations if their position, brand and standing in their categories is mediocre at best. CONTINUED IN THE FIRST COMMENT -->

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if you know, you know Vinod Khosla of Khosla Ventures. nerd. founder. wise. man. been there done that sv. wisdom. it's missing. let's face it. it's always been missing over time. for.ever. so it's a blessing truly to have an o.g. that keeps it for reals. yes we are a fan. much like Jensen Huang Fei-Fei Li ilya sutskever ...and other good people in sv. they are the ones who make this place so special. indeed they do. here https://lnkd.in/exWqey9K we have sam i am that's all that i am sam (alt)man having a 1-1 with the man. this is a must watch to provide a foundational (no llm required here) mindset as to how sv is at it's best (and worse). caution. watch out for the truth bombs. vinod is (in)famous for this style and we <love> him for it. thank g-d he exists. if you meet the dbags in sf/bayarea your experience you will be quickly lonely, dazed and confused. best to listen to these wise words from vinod and from that determine your spot in the sv landscape. with an insight on the sv playbook from a master. well. need i say more. it's about the very spirit of sv that makes it so special. and this is indeed embodied in a few who are masters. deserve our attention. yeah. yeah. i know attention is all you need. although what happens if your attention is being distracted from building. being in the company of those who will join your mission ala brian chesky of Airbnb. missionaries. search for the good missionaries in sv. keep away and keep in mind of the mercenaries. they are there. pg. he's another gift (as opposed to the grifters) paul graham wrote about this too https://lnkd.in/eEYmQwqZ - being a chesky-esque missionary. these are good things to follow on the path of achieving escape velocity as an (ai) startup. oh. hollywood has entered the ranks of sv. yes it has. so there is a bit of performance art that is required. not enough that you've created something that's novel (truly, novel). also requires a bit of showmanship. audacious in fact. it's a well known sentiment that audacious ideas motivate people. sun microsystems. audacious. juniper. audacious. OpenAI. vinod as an early investor. audacious. Vinod Khosla was born audacious. so fitting he found a place in this world where many have benefitted from this sentiment. perhaps years ago a bit on the abrasive side. now with those white hairs. the elder statesman. non-diplomat. rules, the roost of that which allows for others to flourish. note if you manage to thread the needle of vinod means that it's a very very very good beginning. nothing is guaranteed of course. as my lawyer 'friends' like to say. * buyer beware. be aware. Vinod Khosla is. are you (ai)? are you?? perhaps yes. perhaps, non. < . >

As machine learning models continue to expand, memory optimization has become essential for effective deployment and scalability. Tejas Chopra from Netflix will delve into practical techniques for conserving memory in ML tasks, including cutting-edge methods to reduce memory usage in Large Language Models (LLMs). From foundational optimizations like pruning, quantization, and distillation to advanced strategies in memory allocation, this talk covers everything you need to enhance model efficiency without compromising performance. 🎯 Why This Matters: With the rise of resource-intensive models, especially LLMs, memory constraints can create significant barriers to deploying ML solutions at scale. Optimizing memory can lead to cost savings, faster processing, and more accessible deployment options for organizations of all sizes. Tejas’s insights will empower teams to scale ML applications efficiently while overcoming memory-related challenges. What You’ll Learn: - The memory footprint of typical ML data structures and the nuances of memory allocation during model training - Techniques like data quantization, model pruning, and efficient mini-batch selection to conserve memory - How to manage the unique memory demands of LLMs during inference with practical strategies like model distillation, dynamic memory allocation, and efficient caching - Hands-on approaches using PyTorch to apply these techniques in real-world applications This session is crucial if you're: Deploying ML models in resource-constrained environments, working with Large Language Models, optimizing ML infrastructure costs or scaling ML applications to production. #MachineLearning MLOps World Generative AI World

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I am happy to announce that Pepsales has closed pre-seed funding led by Chiratae Ventures 🙌 🙌 🙌 As a founder, you’re often told that it’s a lonely road—filled with long days, tough calls, and countless challenges. But with the right people, it doesn’t have to be like that. Throughout my career, I’ve been incredibly fortunate to work with visionary leaders who believed in me before I even believed in myself. Along the way, I’ve been inspired by teammates from around the world who pushed me to do better every day. But when it comes to building a company, that’s a whole different game. It’s about embracing uncertainty and hoping you’ll find the right partners who share your vision. When Abhinandan Sahgal and I started Pepsales just six months ago, in a challenging macroeconomic climate, finding those partners felt like an uphill climb. Then one day, Venkatesh Peddi, Naimil Shah and the team at Chiratae Ventures came along. Their conviction in us was truly a game-changer. Every conversation with them has been insightful, and when they offered to invest in Pepsales, it was one of those “pinch me” moments that founders dream about. But let me be clear—this is Day 0. The road ahead is long, and we’ve barely scratched the surface. We’re laser-focused on continuing our mission to empower sales teams with AI that transforms how they sell. There’s so much more to build, more problems to solve, and more milestones to hit. That said, the right partners make all the difference. Whether it’s brainstorming ideas or navigating the challenges of scaling a company, having that support is invaluable. Here is to everyone who believed in us—thank you. We’re beyond grateful, and even more excited for what’s ahead. This is just the beginning. And now, a shameless plug: if you’re a B2B SaaS company looking to empower your sales team to drive and deliver a world-class experience with every demo—without the hassle of digging through mountains of data to find that one key insight—we’d love to have a conversation. We’re here to help you add real value to your sales funnel. #FounderJourney #SaaS #AI #Pepsales #Gratitude #DayZero #B2BSales Link to our announcement - https://lnkd.in/g5V7j2Nh

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🎉 The Clientell Family has some exciting news to share 🎉 We're thrilled to announce that Clientell has successfully raised $2.5 million in a seed funding round led by Blume Ventures, with participations from our existing investors, including Chiratae Ventures, Artha Venture Fund and from Z5 Capital. https://lnkd.in/gZukPBUg This investment marks a significant milestone in our journey to redefine Revenue Operations. At Clientell, we envision a future where autonomous AI agents handle the entire spectrum of RevOps tasks. These AI-driven agents will serve as copilots, enhancing productivity and efficiency for RevOps teams everywhere. While our vision is expansive, the road ahead is filled with opportunities for innovation and growth. We are gearing up to dive deep into the development phase and are enthusiastic about the impact we as a team can create in this space. We're hiring! To realize our ambitious goals, we are expanding our team. We are looking for passionate, innovative minds ready to join us in shaping the future of RevOps through cutting-edge technology. If you are excited about AI and making a significant impact, we would love to hear from you. Career's page: https://lnkd.in/gwPXQhjZ A special thank you to Venkatesh Peddi from Chiratae Ventures for taking an early bets on us in our first round as well as being the pillar of strength and voice of reason across the pivots and hard decisions. Lastly, the only thing that I'm really proud about here is the stellar team we have who are building this company. It's a whirlwind ride it wouldn't have been possible if any one of them wasn't there. Since it's their company as well so won't say thank you, but I really appreciate the opportunity of building a company with each one of them: Aryan Trip. Ruthuparna K. Prathik Shetty Sayak Samaddar Shivraj N. Ayush Singh Chauhan Palak Jani Penchala Tharun 🚀 Kirti Bhatia Malaya Sahoo Ankit Deshwal To our investors, partners, and the entire Clientell community, thank you for your trust and support. It is an exciting journey and we look for to sharing the same with you all. #Clientell #FundingNews #RevOps #AI #StartUpLife #WeAreHiring #Innovation

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https://lnkd.in/e3ww9YWd - spot on. major issues currently in R of RAG in today's ecosystem. Enter subtl.ai , with our stack now validated across SaaS OEM use cases In BFSI and Healthcare. want to run your own perplexity.ai style engine on your own cloud? Reach out! 50% lower TCO + go live in 15 days! Bye bye uncertain RAG rollout timelines ✨

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My session on "Debiasing the Data Lifecycle" from the recent PyTorch Conference is now live! It's a quick 11-minute video. Check it out and let me know what you think 😃 #pytorch #dataBias #womenInData

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Adam and Santosh at RB2B have focused on sharing progress in terms of real numbers and *learnings* whereas most other founders are focused on sharing pictures from events and dinners and some product feature screencasts. i don't get it. i get it that not everyone can have a hockey stick happening from early on but if you are building correctly you will always have insights and learnings - those will be far more valuable to share and connect with your users than hawking product updates. content is the easiest way to cut through the noise and yet almost everyone does it the wrong way. think about what you write and if it will make anyone pause and read. if not, delete the post.

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We solved off-ramp in India Off-ramping to India is not as easy, even if there are large exchanges like WazirX We tried paying out employees of Web3 companies in India using USDC, and partnered with local fiat off-ramps to convert that USDC in fiat. Our early users hated it. Why? Because India has a 30% "crypto tax". These web3 employees did not want their money coming in from an exchange because they were afraid they would have to report it for their tax filings as "sell of crypto", and get charged 30%+ in taxes! We solved it by doing the conversion off-shore. We convert USDC > USD outside of India, funnel that USD > INR into India. The money shows up as remittance (as it is!) in the employees bank statement. Indian government = happy, because USD is coming into the country. Employees = happy, they are not dealing in crypto. Us = happy, because this is a unique product that doesn't exist in the market.

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#BuildingInPublic 20: VCs advice founders to focus and build a single product to $10M ARR. However, more and more founders these days advise on multiple products as early as possible. Met with Girish Mathrubootham today and his advise was... Be a Multi-product company. Happy to say.. Tick, ThriveStack is a Multi-product company from get go! Of course his second advise was, Win and retain Customers.. We have lot to work on there 😊

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#BuildingInPublic 20: VCs advice founders to focus and build a single product to $10M ARR. However, more and more founders these days advise on multiple products as early as possible. Met with Girish Mathrubootham today and his advise was... Be a Multi-product company. Happy to say.. Tick, ThriveStack is a Multi-product company from get go! Of course his second advise was, Win and retain Customers.. We have lot to work on there 😊

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Episode 9 is out ! Data Science Dialogues Full Pod on : https://lnkd.in/ggs9YhF5 Ft. Saurabh Sharma and Amber Guglani Powered by : Data Science Pathshala In this pod we talked about : 📊 Data Science Journey 🤔 Perception Among Colleagues 🌟 What Sparked Your Interest in Data Science? 🚗 Gen AI's Impact on Automobile Automation 💼 Assessing Gen AI's Workforce Efficiency 🧠 Challenges Presented by Gen AI 💰 Investing in Gen AI for Startups 🔮 The Future Landscape of Gen AI in 10 Years 🛡️ Regulating Gen AI for Public Safety 🔄 Addressing Scalability with Gen AI 📚 Learning Pathways for Gen AI

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Almost 3k people signed up within a day! 🚀 That's how quick our newest initiative (India Multipliers) scaled last month, we announced it. This was a WhatsApp community, with the intent of building a collaborative discourse and fuelling insights on the rising India Story, that so many of us are invested into. .. But, unfortunately, for reasons unknown to date, WhatsApp decided to take down the community groups just the day after the community went live. .. However, we were down, but not out. As Jayant mentioned in one of the interactions after this, builders don't break down, but build on. .. Delighted to re-introduce you to India Multipliers as a newsletter series. Subscribe here for regular doses of insights on niches and sub-niches that make the rising India Story so special: https://lnkd.in/dz3KMyFX Looking forward to welcoming you in! .. PS: We at Dexter Ventures ($50k-$500k early-stage investments) and Dexter Capital Advisors (advise $3MM-$100MM) are always eager to work with like-minded founders, angels and other members of the PE/VC/Family Office ecosystem. Do reach out to us at [email protected] keeping anuradha@dexter[dot]ventures in CC if there is anything we can help you with :) Best, Anuradha Tags: Devendra | #Startups #VC #IndiaStory #Funding

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