Siddhant

Building dots, will connect later | On a learning curve🏃🏻

[Rohan Nayak @RohanNayak2]

In mid-2024, Pocket FM was at $200M ARR, growing 50% YoY, and we decided to kill its business model.

Revenue flatlined for six months, we turned cash flow negative, and investors were writing us off.

But then, Pocket's ecosystem exploded.

Our reasoning and why this happened:

What constrains Netflix's growth is content. They spend $17B+ on content production yearly, but many shows don't make it to the final stage. Of those that do, only a few become blockbusters. And those few are the reason subscribers stay on Netflix.

So we started thinking. Pocket was growing nicely. However, what limited us was how many new users we could add and retain at scale. The only solution we came up with was increasing the number of blockbusters. Blockbusters drive user growth and retention at the same time.

To get more blockbusters, Pocket FM needed more production.
That's why we pivoted to only AI Content production.

This did a number of things:
1. More content gets produced because we removed a lot of friction from doing so. It's easier for writers to maintain daily production. And for writers who still haven't found their hit show, testing and pivoting becomes less time-consuming. From taking several months to test even one show, you can now test 3-4 shows in one month.

2. Content quality increases. The more content gets produced and consumed on Pocket, the better the engine gets. We continuously monitor retention and other engagement metrics. When we detect something is working, our writing copilot learns it.

3. Unlocked hundreds of thousands of writers; Pocket's writing copilot is built to help writers without storytelling training.
This is in contrast to Netflix's model. While their budget gets allocated among a limited number of studios, Pocket's supply side is getting flooded with writers. Over 500k writers are producing on our platform.

4. Made it easier to cross-create ads to attract users. Better shows are easier to sell to people who aren't yet using Pocket. And the same data that feeds our copilot goes on to feed the engine we use to create ad videos, which is also self-reinforcing.
_____________________________
After making the change, ARR flatlined for six months and we started losing money. It was extremely painful, but then growth and the whole ecosystem exploded.

- Hours of content produced per year went from 35k to ~2.5M.
- New titles added yearly more than tripled from 120k to 400k+
- Millions of new users joined Pocket.

The obvious risk was opening the gates to AI slop. That's why we have an extremely rigorous feedback and moderation process

Ultimately, the only thing that matters is whether users are enjoying the content that's being uploaded. Metrics don't lie:
- 12-month revenue retention went from 44% to 76%.
- Avg daily streaming time went from ~25mins to 150+ mins.
- DAUs/WAUs from 30% to 51%.

I think we're extremely early, and I'm excited to see how Pocket's flywheels continue to accelerate from here.

[Sam Altman @sama]

GPT-6 Astra is here.

We hope it will begin to enable a new generation of entrepreneurship, scientific discovery, and building.

We believe it is the best model in the world for computer use, professional work, science, coding, cybersecurity, and more.

It took us some extra time to ensure that we could meet the safety and alignment standards required for this capability level, but we think you’ll find it worth the wait.

It scores 98% on FrontierMath Tier 4, 99.9% on ARC-AGI 3, and 100% on ExploitBench.

[Gaurav Munjal @gauravmunjal]

Six years ago today, Unacademy became a unicorn. Today, Unacademy has closed its acquisition by UpGrad for just over $200M. We raised at a peak, but sold at a fraction of that. I'm not going to dress these facts up. But I am proud of what this team did between those two numbers.

When @RomanSaini and I started Unacademy with @hemezh and @sumjain, the mission was to democratise education. We didn't end up capturing all the economic value of that mission. But we changed what online education looks like in this country, and the products we built became the template for the entire sector.

Unacademy's free platform created a generation of celebrity educators. Educators are a cornerstone of any economy, and they should be celebrated, and our platform enabled that in our country. Their YouTube videos crossed 10 billion views. That's a milestone I am proud of. Airlearn, in under two years, became one of the top 3 most downloaded language learning apps in the world. We always wanted to build a global consumer product out of India. We did.

With a topline of around 400 crores, most businesses profitable or near-profitable, and 900 crores in the bank, we had every option to keep going independently. Nobody was forcing this. But sometimes, you are drawn towards a path that is more exciting than the one that makes you more money.

After meeting Ronnie over the years, understanding what he's built with UpGrad in higher education, and getting inspired by his vision for education in India (and more), I always walked away with the thought that it would be fantastic to work with him. And because there was no pressure of running out of money, we could take the time to actually think it through. The more we did, the clearer it got: this is a better path for the ecosystem, not just for us.

I'm looking forward to the path ahead, and I am very sure that our shareholders will create immense value from the merger hereon. My heartfelt thanks to every employee who stayed when it would have been easier to leave. To everyone who worked with us in the past. To our educators. To our investors. To my co-founders. We did four ESOP buybacks that created real value for our employees, even though the founders and investors didn't create much for themselves in the process.

A special note to a few people without whom I would have personally given up when things got really hard: Shailendra Singh, Deepinder Goyal, Bhavin Turakhia, Sujeet Kumar, Bhavish Aggarwal, Aakrit Vaish, Mukul Arora, Shantanu Rastogi and Karthik Reddy.

Also a huge shoutout to family and friends. And most importantly, my wife Reema, and my co-founder and close friend of almost 20 years, Roman. Thanks for sticking around during my lowest and my cockiest moments. You two make me better 🌞

[Siddhant @SiddhantDavda7]

@ritendn Unfair advantage 🙌🏻

[Siddhant @SiddhantDavda7]

@ritendn Case study in making 🚀

[Sparsh Agarwal @sparshselim]

For everyone writing off Zepto (and it seems everyone loves to write about them), worth remembering that they single handedly created the QC sector in India.

Zepto made Amazon, BigBasket, Swiggy, Zomato, dance (to borrow Satya’s phrase).

I would not bet against @aadit_palicha just yet.

[Siddhant @SiddhantDavda7]

@bajpai_177 @BangaloreRoomi @fmrbangalore Hi, unable to DM

[Siddhant @SiddhantDavda7]

@markmeyourze 🙋🏻‍♂️🏃🏻

[Siddhant @SiddhantDavda7]

🚨Looking for a pre-occupied 3bhk in Bangalore, Electronic City - Phase 1

25 | Working in Growth at Scaler | Vegetarian | Non-smoker

Prefer a spacious, well-maintained place with chill flatmates.

Any leads please DM 🙏🏻

@BangaloreRoomi @fmrbangalore @flenthomes

[Pratik Agarwal @_pagarwal]

There is a subtle lack of pride in Indian venture.
“US is more exciting.”
“They build trillion dollar companies, we build dhanda.”
“Big ideas are gone.”
This view misses a crucial perspective.
Let me explain.

1/n

[Harsha Bhogle @bhogleharsha]

They never went anywhere. They aren't going anywhere. Rohit Sharma. Virat Kohli

[Siddhant @SiddhantDavda7]

@aviralbhat @ritendn 🚀

[Siddhant @SiddhantDavda7]

Thankyou @ritendn @FuelerHQ for the Diwali hamper🔥
Loved the cookies especially ❤️

[Siddhant @SiddhantDavda7]

@yourguy_shanks 23rd street pizza

[Siddhant @SiddhantDavda7]

One of the best pizzas in Bangalore

[Heam @ShahHeam]

@Flipkart @flipkartsupport
What’s the point of buying a TV, paying all kinds of fees, and being promised “free installation & demo” — only for some random guy to show up and demand ₹3,000 for installation? 🤦‍♂️If this is your idea of “service,” it’s a SCAM…

[Siddhant @SiddhantDavda7]

5km night run and ended with a kulhad chai ❤️

[Siddhant @SiddhantDavda7]

@siddharthb03 @BangaloreRoomi @fmrbangalore Is it still available?

[Siddhant @SiddhantDavda7]

@nothingindia @grok Nothing Phone (3)

[Siddhant @SiddhantDavda7]

@ritendn @KritikaA1430 Always rooting ❤️