This episode discusses the ground realities and daily challenges of moving to the US to build your startup as an India-based founder. We cover everything from the first 90 days, logistics & compliance issues, acquiring early US customers, evolving the product roadmap from Indian to US customers, setting PMF goals & KPIs, relationship-building & other US GTM tips. Joining me for this discussion is Prashant Mahajan, an accomplished product leader and founder with more than a decade of ...
Mar 05, 2025•46 min
Most investors try to “slot” startups in their heads, whereas extraordinary venture outcomes lie in the “slot violations”. Source post - https://operator.blog/2025/02/13/insight-arbitrage/ *Audio Overviews generated via NotebookLM. ***** Check out "An Operator's Blog" (https://operator.blog/) for weekly posts on Startups, Investing, and Life. I am a venture investor focused on the US-India corridor. Feel free to reach out on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/soumitrasharma5/) a...
Feb 14, 2025•13 min
This episode goes in-depth into building a US-India marketing tech startup. We cover everything from finding & engaging with 0-to-1 design partners, building MVPs, using Indian customers as a springboard to global markets, US GTM best practices & case studies, how to differentiate against global competition including the value of product craftsmanship, org. design, pricing, and finally, learnings from VC fundraising. Joining me for this discussion is Srikrishna Swaminathan, Co-founder an...
Feb 04, 2025•1 hr 3 min
Eliminating weak links that introduce the possibility of Ruin is key to thriving in the real world. Source post - https://operator.blog/2025/01/15/avoiding-risk-of-ruin/ *Audio Overviews generated via NotebookLM. ***** Check out "An Operator's Blog" (https://operator.blog/) for weekly posts on Startups, Investing, and Life. I am a venture investor focused on the US-India corridor. Feel free to reach out on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/soumitrasharma5/) and follow me on X (@soumitra_shar...
Jan 15, 2025•14 min
This episode goes in-depth into the current state of the AI Agent landscape and how US-India SaaS founders should manage this AI transition. In the 1st half, we cover key facets of the agentic market, including horizontal and vertical use cases, how customers are adopting them, challenges in going from zero to demo to production, and what startups can do to stay relevant in this fast-evolving opportunity. In the 2nd half, we discuss how US-India SaaS startups can pivot and survive in the post-AI...
Jan 08, 2025•46 min
Presenting a compilation of my best ideas & observations from 2024. Source post - https://operator.blog/2024/12/26/my-best-ideas-of-2024-a-compilation/ *Audio Overviews generated via NotebookLM. ***** Check out "An Operator's Blog" (https://operator.blog/) for weekly posts on Startups, Investing, and Life. I am a venture investor focused on the US-India corridor. Feel free to reach out on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/soumitrasharma5/) and follow me on X (@soumitra_sharma)....
Jan 06, 2025•34 min
From my vantage point as a US-India venture investor, sharing what I observed in 2024 and my expectations from 2025. Source post - https://operator.blog/2025/01/02/us-india-india-to-the-world-2024-recap-2025-expectations/ *Audio Overviews generated via NotebookLM. ***** Check out "An Operator's Blog" (https://operator.blog/) for weekly posts on Startups, Investing, and Life. I am a venture investor focused on the US-India corridor. Feel free to reach out on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/...
Jan 06, 2025•22 min
This episode explores the playbook, mindset, and tips to fundraise as an immigrant founder in Silicon Valley. We cover everything from dealing with cultural baggage, getting warm intros and building trust, prepping your startup to be venture-fundable, storytelling to stand out amongst the crowd, leaning on peer founders and mentors, going from leads to warm conversations to money in the bank, the “right” mindset and attitude to have when pitching VCs and finally, a 5-step framework for fundraisi...
Dec 04, 2024•43 min
This episode goes in-depth into building a US-India robotics startup. We cover everything from how to build robotics MVPs, acquire early US design partners, structure and manage a global supply chain, US GTM approaches, hire deep tech talent, and finally, tips and playbooks for fundraising in Silicon Valley as an Indian robotics startup. Joining me for this discussion is Abhinav Das, co-founder and CEO of Orangewood Labs, a YC-backed, US-India robotics startup that builds affordable robots that ...
Nov 05, 2024•56 min
This episode explores GTM strategies and learnings for US-India B2B SaaS startups. We cover everything from finding design partners in the US, scoping MVPs, figuring out what ICP to focus on, navigating the unique challenges of early PMF, GTM hiring in the US, and finally, working towards creating M&A exit options. Joining me for this discussion is Satya Ganni, an experienced SaaS founder and operator who has successfully built and sold five companies and led two acquisitions as a buyer. He ...
Oct 10, 2024•45 min
This episode goes in-depth into various aspects of community-building as a US-India startup. We cover everything from should 0-to-1 founders spend time on community-building, what type of community-building initiatives to focus on, best practices from Airbase’s ‘Off the Ledger’ community of CFOs, how to drive tangible business outcomes from community events, and finally, some learnings on relationship-building in Silicon Valley as a US-India founder. Joining me for this discussion is Anand Krish...
Sep 26, 2024•41 min
This episode is an in-depth discussion of going 0-to-1 as a US-India dev tool startup. We cover everything from how to identify market gaps, ways to think about dev tools MVPs, leveraging the India developer market to build global products, comparing various GTM channels like Hacker News, GitHub, Reddit, LinkedIn & open-source communities, learnings from shuttling between the US and India and finally, harnessing the power of open-source. Joining me for this discussion is Pranay Prateek, co-f...
Sep 12, 2024•1 hr 1 min
This episode goes in-depth into contrasting the product ecosystems of Silicon Valley versus India. We cover everything from similarities & differences between product leaders in both ecosystems, their product-building philosophies, what they can learn from each other, and a bonus section on how US-India founders should approach community-building and networking in the Bay Area. Joining me for this discussion is Suhas Motwani, co-founder of The Product Folks, one of Asia’s largest Product com...
Aug 29, 2024•56 min
I am experimenting with a new format in this episode. To surface truly helpful operating tips and insights for India-based founders looking to expand in the US, this discussion goes in-depth into case studies across a startup’s lifecycle and based on real scenarios I frequently encounter as a US-India VC investor. This episode covers everything from how an idea stage founder starting up in India should approach entering the US market, hard pivots from India to US customers, to US sales hiring an...
Jul 25, 2024•1 hr 5 min
This is an in-depth discussion on how US-India startups can use curated events to drive US GTM. It covers topics such as what type and stage of startups are most suited for leveraging an event-based GTM strategy, operating learnings around event design and planning, a deep dive into the CXO roundtable format, and tracking the ROI of these events. Joining me for this discussion are Nivas Ravichandran and Nitya Baskar from the Marketing team of Spendflo, a SaaS spend management platform backed by ...
Jun 20, 2024•36 min
This is an in-depth jamming session on how Indian startups should look at AI, including real addressable opportunities, how to differentiate and compete against global competitors, what pre-AI SaaS startups should do to stay relevant, the India domestic AI opportunity, and finally, operating learnings for US go-to-market. Joining me for this discussion is Thiyagarajan Maruthavanan (Rajan) - Managing Partner at Upekkha, an AI SaaS Accelerator that has invested in over 100 early-stage startups fou...
May 30, 2024•48 min
The first half of this episode covers best practices and frameworks used by best-in-class fintech companies like Square and Mercury to build products and drive go-to-market. In the second half, we discuss insights and learnings for PM career planning in fintech, including ways to prepare for the potential impact of AI on product jobs. Joining me for this discussion is Rohini Pandhi - Product Lead at Mercury and ex-Product Lead at Square/ Block. She is also a prolific angel investor, and co-found...
May 08, 2024•33 min•Ep. 2
This episode covers the brass tacks of doing 0-to-1 as a cybersecurity startup. We are joined by two venture-backed founders in the space, both of whom are also experienced engineering leaders in the domain: (1) Buchi Reddy (Founder and CEO, Levo.ai; ex-Traceable AI, ex-AppDynamics) (2) Ruchir Patwa (Co-founder and CEO, SydeLabs; ex-Google, ex-Mobile Premier League) TIME STAMPS: (00:00) Intro (02:05) Choosing whether to go enterprise or SMB (06:04) Assembling the right initial team (12:02) Think...
Apr 23, 2024•40 min•Ep. 1
