We travel across the world in search of beauty, wonder, and perhaps something sacred. We stand before majestic mountains, endless oceans, and ancient temples. But how often do we truly feel the places we visit? How often do we allow their beauty to overwhelm us, their silence to humble us, or their vastness to dissolve our sense of self? We witness the world, but rarely become one with it. And perhaps that is why, despite seeing so much, we return feeling so little.
Fitness, strangely, suffers from a similar emptiness. We endlessly chase faster paces, higher reps, and greater distances. We become stronger, faster, and more resilient, but to what end? Surely the purpose of building a capable body cannot be merely to make it more capable. What is the point of strength if we never put it in the service of something greater than ourselves?
Yet neither pursuit, fitness nor travel, on its own, feels entirely complete. What if we trained not merely for a better body, but for the experiences that body could make possible?
What if it’s about friends and fun?
The sand, the sea, and the sun.
The self and the Supreme becoming one.
To run through deep forests, cycle along winding coastlines, swim in crystal-clear waters, or climb mountains with friends. To feel the wind against our faces, the earth beneath our feet, the exhaustion in our muscles, and the extraordinary privilege of being able to move through this world.
There is a strange beauty in doing difficult things in breathtaking places. The struggle somehow makes the surroundings feel more vivid, as though the world reveals a little more of itself to those willing to experience it rather than merely observe it. And perhaps the satisfaction comes not from conquering a distance or reaching a destination, but from discovering, somewhere along the way, that we are capable of more than we imagined.
There is something almost meditative about this kind of effort. When the body is pushed hard enough, the mind has little room left to wander. The worries of yesterday and the anxieties of tomorrow seem to disappear, if only for a while. There is just the movement of the body, the rhythm of our breathing, the wind, the landscape, and the road ahead. We are no longer thinking about life so much as experiencing it. It’s a curious thing how we spend so much time seeking peace in comfort and stillness, only to occasionally stumble upon it in the middle of exhaustion. The body is struggling, yet the mind is strangely at ease.
And then there is the joy of sharing these experiences with friends. The conversations between exhausted breaths, the encouragement when someone wants to give up, and the quiet satisfaction of arriving somewhere together. There is something about shared hardship that brings people closer in ways ordinary conversations rarely can. The same journey that might feel unbearable alone becomes a cherished memory in good company. And perhaps that’s another reason these experiences stay with us. We don’t just remember the places we visited or the things we accomplished, but the people we became a little closer to along the way.
I can’t help wondering whether this is, in some small way, a kind of Yoga that these journeys offer us. The body, fully engaged; the mind, finally present; the people with whom we share the struggle; and nature, whose beauty reminds us how small we are. Perhaps when all these come together, something within us becomes a little quieter. The need to achieve, to prove, to become, begins to fade. For a fleeting moment, we stop feeling like separate individuals moving through the world and begin to feel like a part of it.
Maybe that’s what makes an ordinary life feel like a pilgrimage.
]]>Rivers originates from mighty mountains and flows into irrelevance.
It drag along whatever comes in their way as well.
Rivers lack agency, its lifeless.
Trees are full of agency and life.
They rise from the ground defying gravity.
They stand tall against the wind and the sun.
It takes years of discipline to bear any fruit or flower.
And yet once they do yield, they give it away.
The very seed of a tree is rebellion and its destiny is to give.
]]>It is not about validation. It is about respect.
Most people don’t treat you based on who you are as a person. They treat you based on what you have done. It sounds harsh, but it explains reality better than any optimistic myth. People respect you to the extent of your achievements and quietly distance themselves to the extent of your failures.
Money is what separates side projects from startups.
Fame is what separates an actor from a star.
Power is what separates an internet activist from political parties.
Respect is what separates a dependent from an equal.
This is where many of us get confused. We think we are sad or dissatisfied because we lack love, and that love should make us feel complete. But love without respect feels like pity. You can have people who care about you deeply and still feel empty, because none of them look at you with respect. None of them see you as someone worth prioritizing.
Respect is a different currency. You can even hate someone and still respect them because of what they have built or who they have become. Kids don’t break down because nobody loves them. They break down because nobody takes them seriously, because nobody reflects dignity back to them.
It is not wrong to seek respect and work toward it, even if accepting that reality makes you sad at times and the effort itself feels uncomfortable. In fact, it is the morally right thing to do. It is important to feel special, chosen, and respected.
]]>For years, writing long stretches of code or reports was considered real work. It was concrete, visible, and measurable. But AI is changing that. The hard part is no longer typing. The hard part is understanding what to build, framing problems clearly, and guiding the system toward the right outcome.
The person who can think sharply and articulate instructions will produce far more than the person who grinds through endless implementation. Much of what used to count as “serious work” will soon feel like heavy manual labor.
Scrolling or posting once looked like leisure. Something people did to pass time. Today these platforms shape distribution, demand, culture, and even hiring. Being active there is no longer a side activity. It is becoming part of the job itself. Reading the mood of an audience, contributing to conversations, publishing ideas, and staying visible are now real professional activities.
We are still early in this shift, but the people who adapt will feel like they’re working less while achieving far more. The ones who cling to old signals of productivity will feel like they’re working harder while falling behind.
]]>The price of a product depends not only on its intrinsic value but also on how it is perceived. The same is true for people and startups. Your ability to attract talent, capital and opportunity is shaped as much by perception as by capability.
We were taught to never judge a product by its cover. We were taught to be more substance than signalling, to not be a show off.
We were also taught to be obedient, to listen to parents, teachers and authority. We were told that a good kid does not demand much, does not fight, and stays satisfied with whatever they have. To be humble and never brag because empty vessels make the most noise.
Over time we confused humility with self erasure. We started believing that talking about our achievements or potential is arrogance.
In the real world many people with real potential are too humble to boast, while others with the same or even less ability feel proud to brag. The latter get the opportunities because they make it easy for the world to bet on them.
They understood something we did not. Perception shapes opportunity. People respond to how you present yourself long before they get a chance to know your true ability.
We often hold back because we assume it is morally wrong to show a version of ourselves that is still a work in progress. We think building our own brand and narrative is a con. But most of this hesitation comes from fear, not virtue. Fear of judgement. Fear of failure. Fear of being called out as a fraud.
If your intention is to grow and you are willing to put in the work to back up your words, there is nothing unethical about presenting your most ambitious self. It is not deception. It is a clear signal of where you intend to go. And unless there is malice in your intent, it is acceptable to miss the mark sometimes. You reset, you learn and you move forward.
]]>You can leverage anything: network, wealth, technology, reputation, knowledge, tariffs, policies, playing turf, brand, partnerships, or even nationality.
The best badminton player in the world cannot out-earn the best tennis player—not due to talent, effort, or agency, but because tennis plays on a bigger lever of audience and attention.
My explanation:
Agency is powerful, but leverage is a force multiplier. Agency is about taking control and making things happen.
Leverage is about taking risks and making things happen without your control. It’s when your decisions, systems, and incentives start working even when you’re not.
People with leverage don’t just rely on effort or discipline—they place the right incentives at the right points to multiply their impact. Where agency says, “I’ll do it,” leverage says, “I’ll get it done by someone who can do it 10x better.”
Leverage is about respecting external forces not in your control and using them to your advantage. Consider Elon buying Twitter instead of building from scratch, Microsoft partnering with OpenAI rather than competing, or Steve Jobs incentivizing Steve Wozniak instead of building the Mac himself.
Agency has pride in it. It believes it can control the wind through will. Leverage is humble, it respects the wind and simply learns how to redirect it.
Someone with strong agency can move mountains through sheer force. Someone with leverage figures out how to move ten mountains with one lever and the right incentives. It’s the difference between rowing harder and building a sail.
It’s the difference between being the driver of your life and letting someone better drive you to your destination while you enjoy the view or take an important call that truly matters.
]]>We’ve seen this before. The internet created bloggers, YouTubers, indie app developers. Mobile created entire categories of single-founder startups. AI agents and SaaS are doing the same thing now. The difference is that the friction is even lower. A small team can focus on the one thing they’re good at and outsource everything else to SaaS, to AI agents, or to freelancers who manage those tools.
In India, the number of registered startups has grown 300x in the last decade (source). Shows like Shark Tank India gave a cultural nudge, but the real driver is that it’s simply easier and more socially acceptable to try. Success stories like Flipkart, Zerodha, and Zoho are proof that you don’t need to follow the safe path.
Globally, the same pattern holds. By 2027, more than half the US workforce is expected to freelance, up from 36% in 2020 (source). Gen Z isn’t shy about it: they don’t want to work under someone else forever. The SME sector’s contribution to India’s GDP has already grown from 16.67% in 2015 to 26.47% in 2025. And when companies downsize, people often discover they’d rather work for themselves.
Common wisdom says: build for enterprises, that’s where the big money is. But if you look at the data, the contrarian move is building for new founders. Not just “SMBs” in the old sense but the millions of people starting niche products, side projects, and small companies. They don’t want bloated software. They don’t want to hire an agency to set up 10 different tools. They want something fast, intuitive, and powerful enough to let them compete.
This is why I’m building Comarketer. It’s an AI-powered copilot that helps founders launch and market their products without having to stitch together a dozen tools or outsource everything. The bet is simple: the next five years won’t just be about enterprises adopting AI. They’ll be about millions of new entrepreneurs who finally have the leverage to build something of their own.
And if that’s true, the best products of this era will be the ones built for them.
]]>The second time I started from scratch was while building Vedvaani, and again found a couple of good devs after a lot of interviews. I would consider myself lucky to have found them—they helped me ship products within a month in both cases.
This is the third time, and it took me really long to hire—and for the first time, I’m finding it more difficult than ever to hire good folks. A couple of reasons include: the ecosystem is more involved, good folks are often taken by funded US/India startups, and there’s so much noise now with everyone publishing decent enough portfolios using AI-generated code.
A lot of folks joined and also left soon. The reason they almost always mention is that they got a better opportunity elsewhere. This made me realise I need to slow down and reflect on what’s going wrong.
So here is a guide on how to hire not just coders, but people who care about clean work, can communicate well, and are excited about solving real problems. Here’s what’s worked for me so far:
1. Having a Portfolio is Everything If a candidate doesn’t have a portfolio or project links (GitHub, deployed sites, etc.), I usually skip. Even on LinkedIn, if there’s no mention of side projects or tech contributions, it’s a red flag for me. We’re a small team, and we can’t afford to hire passengers.
2. Targeting Motivated Learners I’ve had good luck with folks coming out of programs like 100xDevs. These guys are usually:
You can search:
3. Smart Google + LinkedIn Search If you hit your LinkedIn connect/message limit, just use Google:
site:linkedin.com/in/ 100xdevs react developer bangalore
You’ll get open profiles which you can view and contact without being logged in.
Instead of just saying “30k/month”, I now structure it more professionally. Why? Because good candidates compare offers, and presentation matters.
| Component | Amount |
|---|---|
| Fixed Pay (monthly) | ₹30,000 |
| Monthly Performance Bonus | ₹20,000 |
| Half-Yearly Retention Bonus | ₹30k–50k |
| Total CTC (Annual) | Up to ₹7,00,000 |
| Component | Amount |
|---|---|
| Fixed Pay (monthly) | ₹50,000 |
| Monthly Performance Bonus | ₹35,000 |
| Half-Yearly Retention Bonus | ₹75k–₹1L |
| Total CTC (Annual) | Up to ₹12,00,000 |
This kind of CTC structure:
1. Assignment First I always start with a practical assignment—something close to what they’ll actually work on.
2. Deep Dive Interview Once the assignment is done, the next step is a technical interview. Not just “does it work?”, but why was it written that way? What trade-offs did they consider? I only move forward if I feel confident in their fundamentals.
3. Define the Product Goal First Before you even start hiring, make sure you have a clear goal for the product and a timeline. This gives much-needed clarity to the developer and aligns expectations from day one.
These are non-negotiables for me now:
All of this should go into the offer letter. It protects both you and them.
Hiring your first few developers is hard. You need to find people who aren’t just technically sound, but are aligned with your pace, ambition, and resource constraints.
Sometimes even after all this, you might not be able to find or retain talent. It’s not on you. Sometimes the timing is not right (you have to keep in mind when final/pre-final year students are looking for internships or opportunities—before your competitors take them away). Sometimes you’re just not looking in the right place. Sometimes, no matter what you do, you have to persevere your way through.
Hope this helps you in your own builder journey!
]]>We need to move in the right direction. The choice of direction is extremely important, maybe more important than the speed itself. Moving fast in the right direction is much easier if one is guided by courage and pulled by the ambition. On the other hand, Once we are in the vicinity of a massive mass of mediocrity, it is almost impossible to escape it no matter the velocity.
Hevo is an unreasonable company built by unreasonable people. In my interactions with Sourabh, I’ve witnessed firsthand his ability to be unreasonably objective in assessing problems and incredibly ambitious in approaching them. Conversely, SB sets an unreasonably high bar for discipline in work. He taught me the importance of tracking, documenting, and updating people about the work one does. Lastly, there’s Sarad, someone who I look up to be unreasonably confident and unafraid of solving hard problems.
As George Bernard Shaw said ”The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” I am glad that everyone I met at Hevo made me unreasonable enough to pursue what I feel is right.
The concept of time has eluded me. The last 2 years at Hevo felt like a decade long and still not long enough. It is often said that our time here is limited but I feel quite the opposite. I am incredibly grateful and fortunate to have worked with very hardworking, honest, humble, and happy peers. I have literally spent most of my nights, weekends, and early mornings with them and they have never let me feel that I don’t belong here!
As I write this, everything feels not quite normal. I feel stronger and weaker at the same time. I feel excited and at the same time, terrified. The truth is at this point you don’t know what you feel except you know what kind of person you want to be. It’s as if you’ve reached the unreachable and you weren’t ready for it(taken from spiderman).
]]>I am excited (and terrified) to share these 7 ambitious goals for the upcoming year that I have made for myself. But before that,
Why goals? It is essential to have a definite aim when one takes up any in-depth study; otherwise, it is more likely that the effort will be half-hearted and incomplete.
Why ambitious goals? Sometimes, it is important to have ambitious enough goals just so those small distractions cannot bother you anymore.
Why am I sharing these goals? Cause it is impossible to realize personal excellence without contributing to the common interest (A shared interest in a specific subject that brings people together to form a community), as the nature we are trying to perfect is that of a rational, social animal.
What if I fail? It is not like that I have never failed before (though it may seem so), however it would be fun to see how failing publicly looks like. Nevertheless, a little progress would be better than no progress. And who cares, let’s just do this!
The goals: