Now: Pre-Seed Investor @DeVC_Global || Prev: Founder @VerakInsurance (acq. by ID) || Views are my own
BOM 🏡 BLR 🏢SFO 🛫 NCR 🏭
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I’ve automated 80% of my 2024 desk job. AI now saves me 600+ hrs per yr.
On 30th June 2025, I shared my 10,000 hours of AI goal. I’m now 750+ hours into this journey.
My set-up costs ~$12k per annum and saves ~$60k in notional labor costs i.e. a base case ROI of 5x on labor cost savings and upside benefit from faster & 24x7 work completion.
I now have ~3.5 hrs of additional time per day to focus on outbound activities e.g. getting on the plane, meeting founders & experts F2F, going to events etc
Here’s a quick summary of my work OS:
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We served TWT protein shakes to our LPs this week!
At our AGM each year, LPs get to sample F&B products from our portfolio companies and get a carry-home hamper which has non-food products from the portfolio.
This year, the TWT protein stall saw the highest footfall because of the plant-based vegan option (which was launched after last year’s AGM)
One of our LPs casually mentioned that whenever they visit India, they stock up on TWT to carry back to Europe. Most of them ended up taking a few samples from the stall
This year’s LP hamper told the story of TWT:
(1) Light Cocoa flavor traces back to their OG whey powder launch in Oct '23.
(2) Mango Milkshake was their 1st seasonal (now evergreen) flavor which came in May '24 (mango season!)
(3) Pista Badaam marked their TWT’s move into plant protein in July ‘25
No pictures are allowed at the AGM but you can see the last set of boxes against the backdrop of Singapore’s Sentosa Island
It has been a hectic week for the team between SuperReturn Asia, our AGM and annual Offsite. Now, back to work ✈️ 🇮🇳
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Prashant & Rasika made ~₹70 crore selling their 1st venture Soulfull to Tata Consumer.
It was a 10 year journey from idea to exit in Feb 2021. Tata Consumer (TCPL) paid ~₹200 crore to acquire the company behind a hero product: Ragi Bites Choco Fills!
TCPL retained the husband-wife duo. Together they scaled the biz 5x from ₹25 cr in FY21 to ~₹125 cr in FY25 (before the company was fully merged into TCPL)
On 3rd Nov ‘25, TCPL disclosed Prashant’s resignation as President for Tata Soulfull. We finally know what’s next for him.
The duo has started a new company called Arovia Foods. Fireside Ventures has given a ₹100 crore commitment to this concept ⤵️
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Prashant’s insights behind the House of Brands are as follows:
(1) The Haldiram’s Effect - With PE involvement in our country’s snacking category leader, a lot more promoter families are now open to the idea of selling. The trigger is also more clear: generational transition i.e. the 3rd gen wants to run a family office and not the family factory. It has become much easier to approach targets for acquisition.
(2) Regional is the new Mainstream - Quick Commerce has allowed brands to expand rapidly nationwide (it has catalyzed a brands bonanza in India). QC is an economies of scale play (working capital, relationships & data) which isn’t favourable for standalone or small brands. Btw, I have personally seen how QC has driven growth for a regional snack foods brands (Moms Made from the DeVC portfolio)
(3) Convenience in India will look different from the West - Prashant believes Indian consumers want RTC (Ready To Cook) & not RTE (Ready To Eat) i.e. we will buy spice mixes, sauces, ready-to-cook bases and other cooking aids. Whereas, in the West, customers look for microwavable meals.
Therefore, Prashant & Rasika want seek to build a House of Brands centered around regional packaged foods
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This duo has deep conviction: Post the TCPL acquisition of Soulfull, they re-invested ~₹23 cr (more 60% of what they made from the acquisition) into buying the preference shares for their earn-out.
They made a sizeable gain of ~₹57 crore from the earn-out 3 yrs later. They’ve been successful in building a brand from 0-1 and scaling it inside a large conglomerate. There are 100s of small but critical lessons they have learnt along the way.
But, roll-ups are different. Executing a PE roll-up playbook requires price discipline & the conviction to walk away from a relationship nurtured over years.
I believe this duo has the right mix of operating chops & patience to make the model work for them! Fireside is a great partner to have on the journey. I am rooting for their success 🙏
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Day 2 in Singapore 🇸🇬✅
SuperReturn Asia (big conference for LPs in VCs & PE funds) is going on right now
Gym, lounge, breakfast buffet, lobby everything is a circus
Had a lovely day in the city!
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I started long form Breakdown videos on YouTube two years ago.
It was a disheartening experience: Hours spent doing research for 8k to 10k views. Whereas, I would get 100k+ views on some 2-minute random quote tweet.
LinkedIn & Twitter reward posts which are concise, opinion driven but backed by numbers. It has taken me 8 years to build this muscle.
YouTube & Video requires a very different muscle:
(a) Narrative over numbers
(b) Storytelling as a craft
(c) Conversations and not conciseness
I kept complaining to Varun Mayya. He reminded me every time we met of our Sept 2024 conversation: “2 years, Trust The Process.”
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It took me a good year to understand, acknowledge & then appreciate this difference.
I started working with a coach on how to present my perspective as a story and not a post. It has been a slow journey but the results are slowing appearing.
Breakdown had its first sequence of videos crossing 100k+ views in the first 7 days
Breakdown has been a 2 year journey exploration for me. I pick macro topics which are India focused that pique my curiosity & which are relevant to my public markets investing.
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The Aeos Media team working on Breakdown deserves a lot of credit: I am an opinionated presenter who records at odd hours on my way & fro from the BLR airport. The raw files look very different from the polished work they put out.
I believe there is a long way to go here: Improvements in script writing, storytelling, presentation etc are overdue.
But, compounding is a journey which requires you to do one video at a time 😇
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Instinct has insane traction:
- $1bn of booking value (annualized)
- 50% of txn volume is Travel
- 40% users give CC data in 3 weeks
- Growing 10% daily (nil marketing)
23 yr old founder Noah spends 40% of his time procuring compute
The highlight is Noah's clarity on the path forward i.e. users shouldn't develop a parasocial relationship, A2A comms between Instinct agents to plan activities & keeping the agent free for 1bn+ people 🤯
This is a must-listen conversation on the future of personal agents & consumer AI
Excellent QnA by Patrick!
My conversation with Noah Shinn (@noahrshinn), founder of Instinct.
Noah is building a personal AI assistant. It's still invite only, has spent nothing on marketing, and is growing roughly 10% A DAY.
This is his first long conversation about the company.
We discuss:
- Why Instinct doesn't have an app
- Buying compute months ahead of exponential demand
- How users learn to trust it with a credit card
- Safety and security
- Agents coordinating with other people's agents
- Instinct's business model
- Apps built on consumer inertia
- and more
Enjoy!
Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
4:11 What people are using AI agents for
15:07 Rethinking travel, reservations, and the internet
22:43 Trust, privacy, and personal data
27:50 The business model behind Instinct
38:04 How existing businesses will adapt
47:55 Designing a personal assistant people love
53:15 Growth, compute, and competing with Big Tech
1:11:44 What’s next for Instinct and personal AI
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Kalyan Jewellers opened their 1st ATM store in Chennai last month
My initial reaction was the same as yours when I read the headline: WTF is an ATM store?
ATM stands for Akshaya Thanga Maligai (அக்ஷயா தங்க மாளிகை) which translates to “The Palace of Gold” in Tamil
Kalyan has committed ₹300 crore to build 5 ATM stores in TN to take on the ₹16,000 crore regional giant Thangamayil
Kalyan has a great reason for doing so ⤵️
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Kalyan’s sub-brand playbook traditionally looked like a 1st copy of Titan
However, the decision to launch ATM now makes it look very different.
By initially launching Candere, Kalyan was following the same customer X use-case X price ladder which underpins Titan’s house of brands
Most competitors have collections within their master brand which cater to different communities (e.g. Rajashree by Indriya for MH, Aalo by Titan for WB)
However, NONE of Kalyan’s competitors have launched a regional sub-brand!
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Kalyan laid out the overall strategy: the subsidiary KJG Brands Pvt Ltd was incorporated to “operate jewellery retail showrooms focused on regional customers under separate brands, in one or more Indian states”
ATM will be the first of many regional sub-brands launched.
It is conventional wisdom that Jewellery has deep regional & local influences.
However, Kalyan’s strategy of creating dedicated regional sub-brands is unconventional.
It is very early days for ATM. I personally look forward to hearing from management in Nov 2026 about the launch & customer reception so far!
Discl: Views are my own. Shared for informational purposes only. This post is not financial advice. I am not a direct shareholder of any company mentioned above. Family & affiliates may hold shares in companies mentioned.
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1st time flying from BLR Intl terminal
Stunning lounge! Great way to start this trip to SGP!
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Are digital lenders really lenders?
Public market analysts have put Kissht, MoneyView, Fibe & KreditBee in same category.
Kissht went public on 8th May 2026; share price is up 105% from the IPO band. Investors love the business: high RoE (24%), decent NPA (2.16%) and acceptable PB (2.7x).
MoneyView’s IPO application ends today. GMP is ~42%. Everyone is pattern matching Kissht’s journey.
However, these two companies are VERY different:
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There are 3 core differences:
(a) Kissht is a lender, MoneyView is an originator: Kissht has 50% off-book AUM whereas MoneyView has 75% off-book AUM.
(b) MoneyView is 3x the overall AUM of Kissht. In fact, despite having only 25% on-book AUM, MoneyView with ₹5,650 cr AUM on-book is larger than Kissht with ₹3,500 crore AUM on-book.
(c) Kissht has a healthier balance sheet: 24% RoE and 2.12% GNPA versus 17.9% and 2.74% respectively for MoneyView.
MoneyView has overhang due to CEO compensation & a cyber incident.
Its normalized FY26 PAT is ~₹397 cr and its coming cheaper at 2.3x PB.
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The bull case for MoneyView is that the market is mispricing its origination business (which is 75% of AUM).
Origination businesses get valued on PE, PEG & Earnings CAGR. On a normalized basis, MoneyView’s PEG is ~0.3x versus Kissht’s 1.1x.
If you invest in MoneyView today, you have to believe there will be a re-rating driven by the origination business and value unlock from shifting AUM from origination to its own balance sheet.
It is so rare for a public market investor to get 4 similar (but not identical) businesses going public within a short 18 month timeframe! I’ve covered this topic in detail in the video.
Let me close by reminding you: Buyer Beware. Not all digital lenders really lenders!
Discl: Views are my own. Shared for informational purposes only. This post is not financial advice. I have applied for MoneyView under HNI quota from multiple accounts. I don’t hold shares of Kissht.
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