AjeetK

We all know it, but keep reminding yourselves:
Just because you read something on social media doesn’t mean it is true.
Repeat that in your head a few times if required.

According to me, one thing that seems to help overcome founder loneliness is
Talking to people, who’ve seen similar cycles
Not for advice, but for perspective.

Founder loneliness isn’t just about being alone.
It’s about making decisions, no one else fully understands.
That weight compounds quietly.

Time will change

Simple test:
Can someone explain your product
in one sentence to a friend?
If not, clarity might be the bottleneck
not quality

I’ve seen products struggle not because they were bad
but because they were hard to explain.
If it takes too long to understand, it rarely spreads.

In a lot of cases I’ve seen,
products don’t fail on quality,
they fail on whether people talk about them
When that doesn’t happen naturally, growth tends to get expensive later.

Something that’s become clearer over time:
Products don’t grow, conversations do
If people aren’t talking about it, growth usually feels forced.

JOB opportunity / CONSULTING opportunity
Many organisations, small and large, are looking to improve their operations using AI.
While most people have heard of the common AI tools, and can use them to some extent, what I’m looking for is people who can help small and large businesses incorporate AI to increase productivity or reduce costs.
If you are an expert at any AI tool and can demonstrate the business use-case of such expertise, I can connect you to potential recruiters for full-time or consulting opportunities.
I’m not the recruiter here, but have come across many business people ask

That’s a crazy fall!

A small test I like:
“What did you learn recently
that no one asked you to learn?”
The answer usually says more than a resume

Early hiring mistake I’ve seen:
Overvaluing experience from bigger companies
What works there doesn’t always transfer here
Startups often need builders
not operators

On many of my previous birthdays I have published “lessons” from experience. Some friends reminded me about it and demanded this year’s lesson. So here goes:
The most pathetic failure is the intelligent person who erroneously believes their confident ideas are pretty good.
The problem: no one is buying into their ideas. The ideas are baseless, untrue, and mere whims.
These intelligent people often have other intelligent people in their surrounding that could have helped them. One half of these intelligent colleagues don’t care about helping them and merely provide hollow encouragement. The o

In fundraising conversations I’ve had with founders, one pattern keeps repeating.
Raising money often feels like validation. A large round, a strong valuation, or a well-known investor can make it feel like a clear signal of success.
But capital quietly changes the structure of a company. Expectations increase, time horizons shorten, and decisions begin to carry new constraints.
What once felt like optionality starts becoming obligation.
Investors are not just writing a cheque. They are buying into a future outcome. And that changes how founders think about risk, speed, and direction.
What cha

One thing I pay attention to now:
How someone talks about their past work
Blame-heavy stories vs ownership-heavy stories
tend to predict very different futures

In early teams, I’ve rarely seen perfect hires
But I’ve often seen people grow into the role
Makes me think hiring is less about fit
and more about trajectory

In many startups I’ve observed, growth doesn’t reduce ideas. It reduces decision speed.
At first it’s subtle... more conversations, more validation, more alignment. Each step feels reasonable.
But collectively, they slow things down.
And decision velocity is one of the biggest advantages a young company has.
Startups don’t win by being the most certain. They win by learning faster which means deciding before everything is clear and adjusting quickly when wrong.
Where have you seen decisions slow down the most?

If you get tired, learn to rest, not to quit.
~ Banksy