A Note on Resurfacing After 2 Years and What’s Next!

Hello Friends, Enemies, Lovers, Haters, New Acquaintances, and all those in between,

Photo by Ben Soyka on Unsplash

It has been nearly two years since I have been underground. Many of you reached out to me asking what was going on, and I could tell some of you were genuinely concerned with my sudden ‘disappearance’. I appreciate it, and even more that I am lucky to have such folks in my life whose concern and care are evident to me even over phone calls or messages. Well, I have been focused on new beginnings, and like most of you know, I have never really been active online. So, as I start again, I thought of writing this blog, to get back in touch, provide some updates, and also make a new beginning as a socially, both offline and online, more active person!

It was at the beginning of 2023 that I decided to step away from what I had founded and many of you in Indian retail and e-commerce know me for. The incredulous tone of some of you not believing it, because most of you associate me with retail listings, still rings in my years. But it was time to try out new things, and Kipling taught me early on to have the ability to make one heap of all my earnings, lose them in one turn of pitch and toss, and then start again at the beginning.

The first thing I did was take a break. It sounds cliched, but I had worked non-stop for a decade building businesses, a period where many of you have noticed the tiredness on my face when I met you for the fourth or fifth meeting of the day after catching the red-eye, and after the hundred other things that a startup founder does, I needed to get some sleep. But then, I got straight back to working on my next thing.

It turned out to be things.

I must have evaluated some seventy-odd ideas in the last year and a half, even launched a few of them, but then put the lid on them when I saw some key ingredients were missing. This was after the skeptical me had thought it would work! One learns to mean business after being in it for so long. Eventually, a few did stick on. I am still working on them, at times limited by a team of great folks who also mean business (I am always looking out for them).

The other thing I have done in the last year is to read up on the art of narratives and branding. If I could change one thing about my past, I would choose to drive a narrative for myself and what I was really doing. Being off it is stupid. So I was. Great products mean little if the narrative isn’t right.

I also worked in mentoring a few startups through their initial days and saw some spectacular results, more of duds. I am yet to make up my mind whether mentoring and guiding work for startups or if it’s a waste of time. I like the teaching aspect of it, but I get restless on account of the inability to get my hands dirty and get it done, for not being able to shake up the founders enough to see the light! Knowing little, overconfidence and the perceived ability to get away with it without doing the work is a sure shot path to ruin, I can tell. I have always been at the frontline like many of you know. Remember, how many of you resisted calling my team and still insisted on talking to me?!

Getting to the present, I have two businesses lined up. One is in personalizing education, in an industry I have little knowledge of (that’s why it’s fun) and the other one is a parent company under which I am creating a micro-investment fund for folks who typically do not participate in the current available investment opportunities, who would love to though, and even more so if their investments are hedged for risks. Think more like investing in startups on one side and real estate, or anything with intrinsic value, on the other side. My family background in real estate and construction, and my experience with startups, give me this perspective. This second one is a fairly large endeavor and will be in place over this year and the next, with some of the subsidiary ventures launching soon.

As a part of the second business, I am also creating a centre of excellence, which will fit into the above puzzle, from branding and narrative building to other critical areas that startups need guidance on. It is not an incubator or an advisory firm. I dislike ninety-nine per cent of those. These are businesses I typically also participate in and they get the value of insights and a team to work with, on things they don’t have a clue, and with someone to hold them accountable. Most of us know that board meetings don’t help at all, and anyway, these are startups that haven’t reached that stage.

From a different angle, think of the top 2 or 3 per cent of startups out there, and I see that for 90+% of them, the founders have no clue about how to drive their own and their business narratives. Because of my own experience, it bothers me. So, why not dive in, sleeves rolled up and fix it, making sure there’s enough business value in it!

I am also going to create content. My art has been writing and calling trying out businesses, and somehow, my resolve is to get out of my introvert safe space and do something about it. I am looking forward to creating value all around and getting back in touch and in the action! The energy and madness that comes with me that most of you like is going to be more this time round!

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