Ananya Jain’s Post

Topmate's website saw ~1.82 million visits in just August this year. Met the founders a long time ago- both IITians- smart and dedicated. Top 3 observations re: the creator economy: 👉 Any biz that develops a solution to allow creators to monetize 10x more will see high creator retention + dominate (possible w/ AI). Defensible AI IP + network effects in the product = winner creator economy startup. 👉 Having a biz model around taking a commission rate% on products sold by creators always faces creator departure. Top creators leave to find better rates = rate commoditization. Since top creators still make a majority of the money (power laws), having them depart can be disastrous. 👉 Creator economy startups have 2 routes to success: innovate biz model to manage these power laws, or enable a growing middle-class of creators as a long term bet. Instead of creating a fancy tip jar, startups that think deeply about these problems before they build— are most likely to succeed. What do you think? Linking my “topmate.io profile” in the 1st comment. I’m trying it today 😃 Website stats from Semrush. #creatoreconomy #ai #startups

Tom's TED talk has 14 Million+ views. We’re both founders. 6 things I’ve learned from being friends w/ him for 6 years: 1👉 In silicon valley, iterate your network like you iterate on product.  2👉 Simplistic concepts don’t lead to oversized returns.  3👉 Brute force persistence will not always get you far.  4👉 Compound interest applies to all relationships. 5👉 Generosity is the ultimate form of leverage. And: 6👉 Non-commoditized knowledge acquired through intrinsic motivation beats external trends. I’ve seen Tom focus doggedly on the AR/ VR space for years over all external trends. If I ever have a question about the state of electronics, especially AR/ VR, he is the person I go to. Tom recently revealed some of the latest products he's been building as CEO of RAVN Resonance, at an exclusive launch party. Incredible stuff. Love to see friends doing well. Go Tom!  cc: Thomas Suarez #augmentedreality #technology #founders

My US visa was approved under “Exceptional Talent”, and I was fast-tracked to US citizenship. Only 0.036% of all immigrants in the US are granted this every year. The US Government approved me a while ago. I was one of the youngest people to get it. Other folks who’ve been granted similar privileges: Daniel Radcliffe (from the Harry Potter movies) // Elon Musk // other major scientists, actors, entrepreneurs. Sounds fancy? Sure. Fancy behind-the-scenes? Absolutely not. This is the price I paid for it: 👉 $$$ for any vacations → went to multiple lawyers. 👉 Sacrificed 99% of holidays for 6.5 years straight. 👉 Countless tough conversations w/ ppl I love. 👉 V. little peace of mind. Was bald at 19y old. 👉 Not seeing my family as often as I could. I've come to terms with the price I paid. I'm happy with where I am in life. And I’m extremely grateful to the US Govt. This is a reminder that for every “victory”, there’s a price paid, that most ppl conveniently forget to mention. So before you start thinking you’re behind in life: Ask people to give you the full price they paid for their “I’m proud to announce” posts on LinkedIn. Every victory has an hidden cost. Only chase victories which you’re comfy paying the price for. #immigrants #siliconvalley

Turns out: you can crack really bad jokes, and still raise $11 million in capital. Gorish is living proof: He just raised his Series A for his startup, Sybill. Been close friends with him for long time, and his jokes have not improved. On a more serious note: Data <> vertical AI is one of the more enduring AI application spaces. Verticalized AI is already showing massive effects on systems of record in enterprises. Makes me really happy to see how far he’s come with his team. Seeing friends do well in life brings an immense amt of joy. Cc: Mehak, Nishit, Soumyarka #siliconvalley #ai Hopefully Gorish's jokes improve after this capital infusion... We can only hope... 😂

In the last few years, I’ve met 80+ unicorn CEO’s, billionaires, & people of note. I picked their brains over the years, and now I’m compiling essays with them: (not ON them— but with them.) (and NOT on trending topics, but on more timeless themes.) Themes like: 👉How to think 👉First mover (dis)advantage 👉Problem solving: Writing vs. Speaking Why? Posting on linkedin is great, but it tends to be bite-sized to be digestible. I also didn’t want to hop on trending topics. TLDR: was craving something deeper/ more meaty. The first essay is already live on my personal website: Link in the comments below. There are 1.8 billion personal websites anyway: Mindlessly adding another one to that list today. #essays #siliconvalley

Life is really hard. Having a really dark sense of humor is a real survival skill. (It makes surviving the absurdity a lot more entertaining) (And being entertained is of prime importance) Even more important than “i’m proud to announce”// “i learnt 3 B2B sales tricks from chatGPT”. That’s all folks.

My last 8 months: Time spent with immigration lawyers > Time with people I love. Top 3 lessons I learned the hard way: 1 👉 Legal-induced relationship contraction 2 👉 Legal-induced logomachy 3 👉 Legal-induced liminality In detail: 👉 Legal-induced relationship contraction 100% of my relationships went through intense strain. Hated + loved it. Strain shows how elastic each relationship is. Inelastic deformation of a relationship is awesome: best to know where people really stand. 👉 Legal-induced logomachy Former engineers (like me) have a distinct way of thinking (ie, problem solving). But 8 months spent with lawyers taught me a new thinking mechanism: how to dissect complex arguments. New transferable skill: unlocked. 👉 Legal-induced liminality Liminality (from anthropology) describes the in-between phase where people are no longer what they were— but have not yet become… what they will be. Liminal phases are painfully lonely, because of high levels of uncertainty + an intense growth spurt. In all liminal phases, the best survival mechanism? Optimize to be around ppl who give good hugs. Hugs will save your life. #founders #immigration #law #hugs

Hot take: Most successful people today talk about “work life balance” and “mental health”. This is total bullshit, especially coming from them. Michael Phelps talks tons about “mental health” today. He’s created a whole “Michael Phelps Foundation” for it. What isn’t talked about as much: His brutal training years. In high school: He lost too much weight in the water. Had to start shoving down 8-10k calories/ day. To put it into context: That means shoving down 4.5x more food/ day. His training years: He was in the pool for 6 years straight. Didn’t miss 1 single day. This includes xmas, birthdays- everything. If you think that kind of life doesn’t shake you to the core, stress your relationships to the edge, and cause changes to your internal psyche- you’re a fool. Sure, Phelps may talk about “mental health” today. But you can be damn sure mental health chats were a luxury to him before he was successful. 100% of all billionaires, celebrities, and star athletes I’ve met in the last 400 days have gone through an intense period of ~15 years in their lives of ABSOLUTE misery + suffering. The come out the other side. Find some semblance of mental stability. And start screaming about the importance of mental health. Getting sucked into their messaging is problematic. Sure- if you want an ordinary life (which is 100% ok): Go ahead and optimize for sanity + balance. If you want something even slightly different: Create some mental frameworks & support systems, But quit optimizing for your mental health right now. Escape velocity is achieved by those who know the laws of physics: Without an immense amount of force and pressure- You’re not going anywhere great. #escapevelocity #mentalhealth

I’ve met 96+ investors who control $8.3B+, in the last 7 months. Here are 10 (unconventional) phrases you’ll hear at dinners- that most founders don’t know: 👉 Ergodicity  👉 Antifragility  👉 Amara's law 👉 The Gini Coefficient  👉 Black Swan Farming 👉 Cargo culting/ quilting  👉 Complex science systems 👉 The Cost disease Diagram 👉 The Sandpile Metaphor by Per Bak  👉 The Pareto Principle (Or the 80/20 rule) Don't get caught off guard next time.  At min., know these to increase your odds of having a deeper convo. (This list is different from investor-speak around ARR, LTV, CAC, etc) (Those are the basics I'm assuming you know in n out already) If you don’t have time to figure these ones out, drop your email id: I’ll send you a 1 pager: snippy info on each term. You can print & keep it in your hand... before you head to dinners w/ them this weekend. Hope this helps another founder out there :) #siliconvalley #founders #cheatsheet

Paul has helped founders raise $250M+. Has authored 6 case studies for Harvard Business Publishing. Top 3 unconventional insights from our 20 min chat: 👉 Smart founders don’t look for problems.  There are lots of problems to solve in the world- you need to pick which ones are financially lucrative, especially long term. Look for opportunities- not problems. 👉 No need to innovate biz model Products change lots, but biz model don’t. Subscription models have been around since before 1881, and are king. “Pay per use” is only picking up speed now, w/ new AI products. 👉 Most ideas end up working (in time) It’s more a question of ‘when’ not ‘if’. Eg: TheGlobe{dot}com (1995-2001) came before Facebook (2004-now). Webvan (1999-2001) came before Instacart (2012- present). Many more examples. Timing makes a huge difference in startup success. Paul launched his book today. Will link it in the comments. This is not a sponsored post— I like Paul because he seemed genuinely interested in sharing deep insights. I respect people who teach me something. Pic: With Paul at Stanford