Dharmesh Ba

Tech • Design • Ethnography
Weekly Indian consumer insights - The India Notes 🇮🇳 (17,000+ subs) 👇

[Dharmesh Ba @dharmeshba]

We're building a research panel for one of India's largest banks.

If you're selected, you'll get to test upcoming banking products before they launch, share your feedback directly with the product team, and get paid for your time.

Takes 3 minutes to sign up. 👇

[Dharmesh Ba @dharmeshba]

Need /one-wish-willow skill for @claude!

[Echo ↬ @vikku60879]

#Obsession is a great movie for understanding why prompt engineering matters.😭

#Obsession

[Dharmesh Ba @dharmeshba]

@vikcr1703 Interesting

[Dharmesh Ba @dharmeshba]

Calling India price sensitive is lazy.

Yes, price matters. Of course it does. In a resource-constrained country, every rupee has a job. But people are not simply optimizing for the lowest price. They are optimizing against regret.

Will this product fail? Will the return happen? Will my family blame me? Will I look foolish? Will I lose money? Will the cheaper option become expensive later?

That is why the same person who bargains for two rupees on vegetables may dream of an iPhone. The same household that compares grocery prices may buy a dishwasher. A Tier 2 buyer may buy a premium fridge because it solves a household problem and signals progress.

Value is not price. Value is price plus trust plus aspiration plus reliability plus social meaning.

In India, price is visible. Regret is hidden.

The best brands understand that the consumer is not asking, "What is cheapest?"

They are asking, "What will I not regret buying?"

[Dharmesh Ba @dharmeshba]

@vikcr1703 Say more. What are you building?

[Dharmesh Ba @dharmeshba]

Cool hack.

But the Good Morning message design is wrong! 😅

[Abiral Jain @AbiralJain]

What if my dad's GM images were AI-generated & auto-scheduled?

Built this with @claudeai : daily task → generate fresh sunrise → auto-send to groups + status.

Zero missed mornings. Infinite aunty approval. The automation nobody asked for but every Indian household needed 😂

[Dharmesh Ba @dharmeshba]

@ku1deep Brb. Framing this appreciation tweet.

[Dharmesh Ba @dharmeshba]

Joining as a judge in @GrowthX_Club's voice AI buildathon. Looking forward to witness India AI use cases.

Bullish on voice AI for India.

[Dharmesh Ba @dharmeshba]

I have lived 78 years with my family.

Me and mom - 36 years
Me and dad - 36 years
Me and wife - 6 years.

Great families are built in pairs.

[Dharmesh Ba @dharmeshba]

@kawal279

[Dharmesh Ba @dharmeshba]

People don't only go to Instagram to see friends anymore. They go there to discover brands, compare styles, check founders, stalk product pages, watch how things are made, and decide whether a brand deserves attention.

Google search used to be active: "I need something, let me search." Instagram search is more ambient: "I did not know I wanted this, but now I am curious."

That changes shopping behavior. The feed becomes a marketplace before the marketplace. People may discover on Instagram, verify on reviews, compare on Myntra or Amazon, and finally buy where trust or discounts feel strongest.

The brand page becomes a showroom.

The tagged posts become social proof. The website becomes the final exam.

This is why D2C brands misunderstand Instagram when they treat it only as distribution.

The purchase begins when a product earns a place in someone's mental future.

[Dharmesh Ba @dharmeshba]

@ActivateSignal @soaibgrewal @aakrit @177pc 🔥🔥🔥

[Dharmesh Ba @dharmeshba]

Will AI agents be put in bench?

[NDTV @ndtv]

TCS To Have As Many AI Agents As Staff In Next 3 Years: N Chandrasekaran
https://t.co/QA4gKzTuHK

[Dharmesh Ba @dharmeshba]

In India, most people are introduced to new systems through another person.

A bank manager helps update Aadhaar. A mutual fund broker explains insurance. A shopkeeper teaches UPI. A local agent makes the form less frightening.

The West over-indexes on DIY. India has always been mediated.

This is why many digital products fail when they assume the user wants independence. Often, the user does not want independence first. They want assurance. They want someone to say, "This is correct. Click here. Don't worry."

The middleman exists because systems are intimidating, language is confusing, consequences feel expensive, and trust is social.

Good Indian UX often has to replace the middleman.

That means clearer confirmations, human-like guidance, visible trust markers, assisted flows, easy reversibility, and language that reduces fear. The best interface in India is not always the shortest interface. Sometimes it is the one that holds your hand at the right moment.

A product team may think the broker is inefficiency. But ethnographically, the broker is assurance infra.

If you remove him without replacing the trust he provided, the user does not become empowered. They become abandoned.

[Dharmesh Ba @dharmeshba]

https://t.co/GpLdb6xQ4t!

[Vikas Goel @vikaspgoel]

good move by titan! wondering if the series has positively impacted titan’s sales.

which other indian startup has a scope for full fledged web series?

[Dharmesh Ba @dharmeshba]

con-call?!

[Dhruv Madia @DhruvMadia6]

Ahhh, really ??

Taken from Ola Electric concall.

[Dharmesh Ba @dharmeshba]

People do not use social platforms interchangeably.

Instagram is mood, discovery, aesthetics, memes, brands, reels, and shopping curiosity. LinkedIn is work identity and professional learning. Twitter is opinion and news. Reddit is depth and community knowledge. WhatsApp is real life: family, friends, groups, logistics, intimacy.

This means every platform carries a different version of the person.

The same consumer may be passive on Instagram, careful on LinkedIn, opinionated on Twitter, private on WhatsApp, and anonymous on Reddit. They are not being inconsistent. They are managing context.

This matters for brands because communication does not travel unchanged across platforms. A hard sell on Instagram may annoy. A founder story may work. A professional insight may belong on LinkedIn. A product question may get answered on Reddit. A transaction may close on WhatsApp.

And social platform have developed these unsaid rules or personalities.

The best consumer brands understand the room and leverage it. They know that the consumer is not one stable identity moving through apps. The consumer is constantly adjusting posture: public, private, professional, curious, bored, cautious, aspirational.

Marketing fails when it treats all attention as the same. Attention always has a context.

[pj @BeingPractical]

Old VC Pitch story from 2012 when I was building Wishberg, but I still remember this one.

Two very popular super angels called me to pitch to them for a meeting at a very high-profile, super-rich bombay club. My first visit to any club of any kind whatsoever, it was intimidating anyway. I arrived early and was asked to wait until someone called for us. It was supposed to start around 7 pm or something, but I remember I had waited nearly 30-45 minutes already.

Managed to glance through and these two gentlemen were sitting and already hearing the pitch of another, of a famous-celeb-founder. Nope, I am not judging - they were. Both of them were visibly drunk and laughing or cheering animatedly with that founder.

They called for me. Went inside - it seemed that these angels have been there for all evening and ours seemed to be their last meeting for the day. Started the conversation, one was sloshed and was already telling his group of friends - wait just 5 mins, I will get done with this. No being from IIT or IIM or Ivy League (it was a thing back then) - had put them off already.

Second one spoke about himself for 5 mins and rest of the time - cut me on every slide this won’t work, you haven’t seen the world, etc etc. 12-15 mins, and they were done. All through the meeting, had drinks, food and snacks and no one offered even glass of water or even bothered to remove food and glasses from the last pitches. The first drunk guy kept checking out passing women, and 10 mins into the pitch he left to join his friends. The second guy in all his arrogance said - buddy, do something meaningful in life.

Long story short, the two gentlemen are still in the industry - over time while building Raise (knowingly or unknowingly) had tried to connect, but of course, I found a way out. Yes, the famous-founder was funded by them and over few years the venture folded silently. No big deal, we also folded Wishberg after few years.

Those 15 mins of my life - I remember being treated as Bharat Bhushan in the movie Bheja Fry (in case you know, you know) who gets paraded as talent for weekend evening fun by a rich guys.

I am not against strong feedback or refusing to fund - we founders face rejections all the time, but showing basic respect & humility that one should display in interactions with people is the minimum expectation.

[Dharmesh Ba @dharmeshba]

@NavSha True. You need a judgement layer and an intuition layer both of which comes with quick iterations.

[Dharmesh Ba @dharmeshba]

@NavSha And that’s still a sign of building something no one wants.