Read by people from the top venture capital firms and startups in India
1. Why this?
Everything needs an origin story. Here’s one for this newsletter.
I landed in product management mostly by accident.
My first job out of campus was in supply chain finance at Flipkart, this was just about when things were starting to get crazy in e-commerce and the tech ecosystem in India. I spent a few months getting my bearings but quickly realised that this was not my thing. My next two roles were in marketing at Zoomcar, and then everything non-tech at a seed stage startup, before I accidentally ran into product management. My first real product role (complete with a PM title and everything) was at HolidayIQ (travel reviews) building consumer product, then three and a half years at ShareChat building social media for the non English speaking user, and then the last 18 months at Apna building professional networking for the Bharat audience.
Over these years I’ve been privileged to have a front row seat to the evolution of consumer product in India, and specifically built things for the Bharat user. I’ve failed a lot, built some successful products, worked with great people, built stellar teams, and in general have had to figure out a bunch of stuff from first principles. Some examples below.
What does the typical Bharat user want? What really is an MVP? Can consumer products for the next billion make serious money? What are trends that work in non English speaking India? How important is design and UX? Where are the inroads in distribution?
This newsletter is an attempt to answer these questions and more.
2. Why now?
This is the first time in the last decade or so that there has been such a hard reset in the tech ecosystem. Layoffs, funding crunches, fraud - its not great. There are a lot of unanswered questions - PMs are asking themselves if they should have quit their consulting career, founders are understanding what PMF looks like, engineers are getting used to ‘normal’ appraisals, and venture capital is pulling back. It’s a great time for serious people to ask serious questions, find and solve large problems, and create actual value. This is me shooting my shot, so to speak :)
3. Who will this newsletter be valuable for?
If you are someone working in the tech ecosystem in India, and especially in consumer product, there will be some alpha here for you. My addressable market is people from the tech ecosystem in India (founders, VCs, PMs, builders, designers ++), and a lot of things I talk about will assume that readers are a part of this ecosystem. Even better if you’ve built consumer products!
4. Here are some of my top posts
5. How often will I get something in my inbox?
TBD. One of the names I toyed with was ‘The Irregular’ because I couldn’t really pin down a frequency. It should be nominally once a week, but I won’t publish unless there is something valuable to talk about. There’s too much content out there in any case.
If you think someone you know will find value from this newsletter, please share this with them!
I hope you enjoy reading these as much as I enjoy writing!
PS: Check out my other newsletter featuring insightful conversations with product leaders from top Indian companies. Link here.
