I’ve been delaying writing a post for so long now that it is kind of embarrassing. So I’ll start with a quick recap of what’s been happening these past many weeks, other than writer’s block which happened soon after my last update was out. The short version is that nothing “new or notable” happened in March that I hadn’t already written about, and then April was a lot of travel and things I’d want to write about, which is what this update is about.
- We recorded a couple of Hindsight Podcast episodes, but then my co-hosts got busy, and some of our future guests also got called away by work/life, and we let it slip a bit. We are still determined to produce 10 episodes, and will choose guests with different career paths. Recording these sessions is so much fun, that we don’t mind whatever viewership we get later.
- I spent a decent amount of time helping a tech startup think about growth and pivots, and they are looking good to raise a seed round soon. I’m excited to see their progress, and feeling great satisfaction for my tiny role in their evolution.
- I came across no new consulting/ paid gigs, but did spent time with several startup founders talking about what they were building, and offering help where I could. In the process, I got ghosted by 3 startup founders after what seemed like very engaging problem-solving sessions, held at their request. Bummer. In related happenings, a Xoogler tech lead who’s now a freelancer spent many hours with me thinking through a problem for another company that I’m advising, without any payment. This didn’t translate into a paid engagement for him, but I made sure to thank him profusely, and owe him the favour back when he needs it. These experiences, albeit few, cleared away any straggling thoughts I had of being a pro freelancer, any time soon.
- And, we did a short trip to south Europe to enjoy warmer weather (though, after an April India trip, I’m laughing at how subjective “warm” is).
Coming to April, then: As mentioned in my last post, a couple of months ago, I’d begun to see a plan for a plan emerging. Add to that the uneventful March above, and I was feeling sufficiently well rested and creatively bored to start chasing down some ideas and introductions. In some particular order :) …
- An expert network for startups: Not novel at all, the idea here was to find ways to connect startups/ small teams with “experts” as defined by anyone who they want to talk to to help them build. Typically this might be industry incumbents, tech experts, people-who-have-tried-this-before, etc. I tried to articulate this in a LI post, and a couple of people with an interesting spin on this reached out. We discussed why we think current networks don’t work well, how accelerators/ VCs solve or don’t solve for this, and also whether making a DAO around this, to provide financial incentive and alignment to experts, might be interesting. I’m not pursuing this idea, though I’d want to be a member of such a community more than I’d want to build it. A friend is likely to build something in this space this summer, though - I wish them luck!
- Drones as a service: Nothing necessarily new (DaaS buzzword definitely isn’t) but the people with whom I was fortunate to discuss this have very storied drone experience. I enjoyed bringing my consumer-tech and Waymo experience to the table in thinking of how DaaS might be built, who/where to sell it, and how to built a scalable offering. Regulations and safety are big operational hassles, though, and also very regional in nature.
- A martech-web3 product to optimise CAC: I got connected with some folks who have been in the marketing tech space for many years, and separately, some others who share the Google Ads background with me. We’re looking at the problem of all the digital advertising dollars spent (and wasted) on customer acquisition (CAC) and thinking of how new paradigms made accessible by web3 could create solutions to help marketers reduce effective CAC. I am particularly excited about the customer retention and engagement potential that some of our solution pathways might create. This post by Unusual VC, which I came across as I was googling for adjacent ideas, covers several of the ideas we’re looking to combine. For now, I know I need to put together a deck and talk to many people who can critique and enhance the thinking. And find co-founders. Or invalidate the idea :)
- A promising startup introduction: Can’t talk specifics. Friends I respect and like, who are now investors, made an introduction, and I met more people I’m beginning to like. They’re also building something I like thinking about. Let’s see. And since people > problem > $$ for me, this method of startup dating makes a lot of sense.
Last but not least, I had a fantastic India trip in April. Highlights include
- Two weddings, two senior birthdays, and scores of related family events
- Visiting Goa to get a one-day glimpse into work-from-beach life that a dear friend has managed to achieve
- Visiting Mumbai: meeting old friends, visiting IITB campus after more than a decade (also, finding out that Hostel 8 is decrepit :( ), and generally surviving the heat much better than I thought I might
- Liking how I still feel “at home” in Mumbai. Probably something about the humidity and Marathi road signs…
In more important news, Niki turned two in April, and celebrated it by sleeping and looking cute: