The Exchanges

Q And what happened like after the COVID years, like from then till the time you raised the massive round at five billion?

A Um, I think it was just keep on, keep your head down, and, and we, so, 20, 20, late, 20, 20 was, we, we made our first major acquisition also. We acquired a company called Slintel. Um, and that was also interesting. So we were in this thing where we always gave out company level information, right? We identify which companies are coming to your site, which companies you should be selling into, who should your sales team prioritize. The moment we started giving insights to salespeople and we started building a sales UI, the first question we got from salespeople was, okay, I know IBM is in market. Who at IBM should I talk to? IBM is so big. So we didn't have that data. We had their data from their CRM, but CRMs are so bad that they might still have your old job from 20 years ago in somebody's CRM, right? So we're like, okay, we can't do this thing. So we started working with other vendors and other partners who would bring that data. And we realized that this space, twenty-twenty now, Everybody's trying to enter each other's space. Money is like flowing through the system. Everybody wants to build every product. And so we like, okay, our partners are either going to get bought out by our competitors, or they will start entering our space. So we decided to go out and acquire a company. That's when we acquired Slintel, which was a sales data and a sales intelligence company. And s…

AI assessment note: “late, 20, 20 was, we, we made our first major acquisition also.”

Q But I was, I'm still not able to understand what was your motivation besides the VC to get another co-founder?

A Oh, so one was, so we were, um, trying to get, so we had never done B to B sales and doing that B to B sales was hard. Right. And so we were still trying to figure out how to, and then we wanted that vertical solution that we were. And then when I met Amanda, I realized that there is a, Park in general, like, in terms of how we want to work together, I can be the technical person, she can be the GTM person, and she had the customer connects, and knew the problem, and done all the research and everything, right? And so that was the other part, which she said, like, hey, this seems better. Versus us trying to find a different way to do business, because the only other path we saw was, We saw that because we were doing this analytic stuff, the only thing we could have done is competed with mixed panel or competed with like heap and other people. Right. But we felt like this place is too crowded. Why go and compete there? You want to do something else. And our, our DNA was bringing a lot of data together and doing predictions. Right. And so we thought that maybe that is better for us. And that's when we connected together. Obviously fundraising is to just get to the next stage.

AI assessment note: “I can be the technical person, she can be the GTM person”

Q And right now, like today, do you see the same kind of wave in AI after three years?

A I laugh on these things because, in 2013 when we raised money, we raised on MLAI. There was also big data at that point. Now the wave is all still about AI, but now it's generative AI, and very different thing. It is actually that time, I would say it, it was still easier to start companies, but it was harder to, uh, build more, or like you have to spend a lot of money to build more data was hard to get to. Now, I actually think AI has actually made it so simple with Gen AI that you can actually build a lot of things like the simple, 20 13 companies, what they were doing, you could probably build this today with one person company.

AI assessment note: “Now the wave is all still about AI, but now it's generative AI”

Q Yeah. And the last piece is, you know, ah, we discussed both between the American companies and the US-India corridor. Why do you think there is higher probability for US-India corridor to succeed in the future? Or there is not, your take on that?

A I mean, I personally think there is. I mean, you can call it bias. You can call it, uh, my roots. I have also invested in, as I said, I have gotten exits from companies from there. Um, I would say a few things, right? Um, there is a part where there is high agency in a lot of people, and India went through a big transition over the last 15 years where it went from services based companies to a lot of product based companies, SaaS companies to this thing, right? So there is that talent pool that is generated and other things, right? I think information spread and other things have become very, like when I went through YC, there were hardly any Indian companies. I don't think there were any Indian companies until And then it started, and then you can see there's so many Indian funds, so everybody's gotten that exposure, and everybody's figured it out. I think the second part of this equation right now is, as I said, like the fast fashion of software. You can create a lot of software quickly. Before, the challenge was for us to create software, then to get the distribution. Now, all you have to worry about is a lot of things around distribution. The, the thing that the Indian founders will have to figure out and this thing will happen is how do I get my, if they're going to US markets, how do I get the distribution in the US markets? And you can get it via community building or li…

AI assessment note: “I personally think there is... India went through a big transition over the last 15 years”

Q Thank you. So a few things that I want to discuss which are technical in nature. If you have to advise a founder on why now for something technical on the data and the AI side, what would that be? I mean, what?

A Timing wise. Um, I think, um, so I'll start one part which I have fundamentally started believing in more. Two years ago, if you asked me this question, my answer would have been different. I actually gave It was more a close talk with like the, uh, peak XP folks and others, and I had given this thing and I said like, uh, with Rajan and others saying like, there'll be different modes and how you build, right? I actually think the modes, the tech modes are disappearing. Yeah. Right? You, I think if anybody believes that they can create a tech mode right now, it's hard. I mean, even the foundational model companies can't create tech mode, which is like the most important thing to run this AI stuff, right? I would say, If you want to build, um, a company which can survive, because there'll be so much competition, uh, you saw Sam Altman tweeting before GPT-Fi, okay, this is going to be the fast fashion of software.

AI assessment note: “I actually think the modes, the tech modes are disappearing.”

Q You think there's a right time for vibe X?

A And I, I think it is, right? I think, um, also you have to think about what is that unit of work you are generating. That is the other key part, right? Because In vibe coding and software development, the easy part was I can give it some instructions and it generated code which I could easily test. It's not always that easy in a lot of other fields, right? Not every field has that. But what is that thing that you can do and you can short circuit their time to do certain things that they were taking longer cycles? Can you cut it short? That allows you to get to that vibe mode. And you can figure out a way to charge based on the unit of work done. And shortening of time helped you get the efficiency gain. Now, We are all living in a different world. Uh, all the hundred million ARR, you said, is it real ARR yet? Uh, is it, is it like annual contracts or is it like last days revenue multiplied by three 65?

AI assessment note: “And I, I think it is, right? I think, um, also you have to think”