Anurag Agrawal

Building a fintech, laughs too much, big time foodie, Information Junkie. ....Tweets are Personal

[Anurag Agrawal @aganurag]

@AjaiChowdhry So inspiring @AjaiChowdhry I was even born after 4 years since you all started making computers in #India

[Uday Kotak @udaykotak]

Google which is cash surplus, just announced an additional capital raise of $80 bn.
Google annual profit is $160 bn, last quarter $62 bn, and market cap $4.5 trillion. That is close to total profits and market cap of all Indian listed companies put together.
It’s a wake up call to all companies to invest into the future, whatever the present maybe.
Now that IPL is done and dusted, time for India to focus on business of business.

[Anurag Agrawal @aganurag]

@coachutsav 100% true Food is amazing and GangaJee view is priceless

[Mangalam Maloo @blitzkreigm]

This is a crazy use case for AI!

CCTV Footage overlayed with pattern recognition at a coffee-shop to monitor customer time spent and employee productivity.

I’m sure, with better cameras, they’ll also identify revenue per table.

Super interesting!

[Anurag Agrawal @aganurag]

Recd this fraudster msg showing e challan

[Anurag Agrawal @aganurag]

Very true and it is their biggest strength. At the same time @IndiaMART is using the best of technologies including #AI to make its marketplace best and easy to use @DineshAgarwal

[Arjun Malhotra @BadCapitalVC]

IndiaMart has survived for over 25 years by refusing to get fancy - no AI recommendations, no complex bidding systems, no trying to own transactions end-to-end. Instead: "Here are suppliers for what you're looking for. Contact them."

While competitors tried building full-stack B2B marketplaces"with payments, logistics, credit - and burned through cash - IndiaMart stayed a directory - boring, profitable and impossible to disrupt.

Why? Because Indian SMEs don't want platforms managing their purchases. They want contact information, then they'll handle the relationship themselves. IndiaMart understood this from day one and 25 years later, that constraint is still true.

[Anurag Agrawal @aganurag]

This is really happening where companies are only looking to move to AI without checking the exact use case #AI

[Peter Girnus 🦅 @gothburz]

Last quarter I rolled out Microsoft Copilot to 4,000 employees.

$30 per seat per month.

$1.4 million annually.

I called it "digital transformation."

The board loved that phrase.

They approved it in eleven minutes.

No one asked what it would actually do.

Including me.

I told everyone it would "10x productivity."

That's not a real number.

But it sounds like one.

HR asked how we'd measure the 10x.

I said we'd "leverage analytics dashboards."

They stopped asking.

Three months later I checked the usage reports.

47 people had opened it.

12 had used it more than once.

One of them was me.

I used it to summarize an email I could have read in 30 seconds.

It took 45 seconds.

Plus the time it took to fix the hallucinations.

But I called it a "pilot success."

Success means the pilot didn't visibly fail.

The CFO asked about ROI.

I showed him a graph.

The graph went up and to the right.

It measured "AI enablement."

I made that metric up.

He nodded approvingly.

We're "AI-enabled" now.

I don't know what that means.

But it's in our investor deck.

A senior developer asked why we didn't use Claude or ChatGPT.

I said we needed "enterprise-grade security."

He asked what that meant.

I said "compliance."

He asked which compliance.

I said "all of them."

He looked skeptical.

I scheduled him for a "career development conversation."

He stopped asking questions.

Microsoft sent a case study team.

They wanted to feature us as a success story.

I told them we "saved 40,000 hours."

I calculated that number by multiplying employees by a number I made up.

They didn't verify it.

They never do.

Now we're on Microsoft's website.

"Global enterprise achieves 40,000 hours of productivity gains with Copilot."

The CEO shared it on LinkedIn.

He got 3,000 likes.

He's never used Copilot.

None of the executives have.

We have an exemption.

"Strategic focus requires minimal digital distraction."

I wrote that policy.

The licenses renew next month.

I'm requesting an expansion.

5,000 more seats.

We haven't used the first 4,000.

But this time we'll "drive adoption."

Adoption means mandatory training.

Training means a 45-minute webinar no one watches.

But completion will be tracked.

Completion is a metric.

Metrics go in dashboards.

Dashboards go in board presentations.

Board presentations get me promoted.

I'll be SVP by Q3.

I still don't know what Copilot does.

But I know what it's for.

It's for showing we're "investing in AI."

Investment means spending.

Spending means commitment.

Commitment means we're serious about the future.

The future is whatever I say it is.

As long as the graph goes up and to the right.

[Bharati Chaturvedi @Bharati09]

Dear women of Delhi

I took an @Uber_India from Vasant Vihar to sarvodaya enclave to the doc. The pin stopped near Essex farms, driver agreed to drop me minus pin. But began getting irritated and yelling and suddenly turned while i asked him to go straight for a u turn.

Asked him to stop and he refused. I opened the cab door to make him stop. He turned around, grabbed my arm and twisted it.

Called 100 but no response. Called uber safety and was asked to call 100. Also Sanjana said will involve entire team to assess action. Outrageous.

@DelhiPolice how do women contact you when in need?

PS- Driver didn’t take payment.

@gupta_rekha @Uber_Support

[Anurag Agrawal @aganurag]

Seems Delhi-NCR will cove the quota of last few years in crackling fire crackers tonight #Deepavali2025 #DelhiNCR

[Anurag Agrawal @aganurag]

शुभ दीपावली 🪔

[Anurag Agrawal @aganurag]

Full credit to @myogiadityanath ji administration and working

[Indian Tech & Infra @IndianTechGuide]

🚨 Indian states revenue surplus/deficit.

Top 5 highest surplus,

Uttar Pradesh - Rs 37,000 crore
Gujarat - Rs 19,865 crore
Odisha - Rs 19,456 crore
Jharkhand - Rs 13,564 crore
Karnataka - Rs 13,496 crore

Top 5 revenue deficit,

Andhra Pradesh - Rs 43,488 crore
Tamil Nadu - Rs 36,215 crore
Rajasthan - Rs 31,491 crore
West Bengal - Rs 27,295 crore
Punjab - Rs 26,045 crore

[Anurag Agrawal @aganurag]

@IndiaMART 👌

[Inc42 @Inc42]

💸 Startup Report Card: Who’s Raking It In & Who’s Bleeding Out?

FY25 has revealed some stark financial truths — while Indiamart, Zomato & PB Fintech are cashing in with massive profits, the other end of the spectrum sees heavyweights like Swiggy, Ola Electric & Ather posting jaw-dropping losses.

From ₹550 Cr profit to ₹3,100+ Cr loss — the spread shows just how wide the gap has grown in India’s startup landscape.

This financial snapshot offers a brutally honest look at how India’s tech startups are navigating the profitability curve — and who's actually winning the long game.

Source: Inc42 Financials Tracker

#Startup #India #Profit #Loss #FY25 #India #Tech #Swiggy #Zomato #Startupecosystem #Financials #Inc42 #Atherenergy #Olaelectric

[Anurag Agrawal @aganurag]

#kingkohli #RCBvPBKS @imVkohli

[Anurag Agrawal @aganurag]

Sector 62 C Block , half of the road capturerd by parking contractor
Daily morning and evening jam @Noidatraffic pls see to it

[Anurag Agrawal @aganurag]

Every Indian seems happy on #Pakistani #ceasefire violation #IndiaPakistanWar2025

[Dinesh Agarwal @DineshAgarwal]

Coming soon...

[Deepika Narayan Bhardwaj @DeepikaBhardwaj]

FINAL DESTINATION......

[Anurag Agrawal @aganurag]

@DineshAgarwal @Naukri @makemytrip @IndiaMART Congrats @DineshAgarwal @IndiaMART on 29th Anniversary. I felt proud working with sir for 20 years. Still Always a #Indiamartian by heart

[Anurag Agrawal @aganurag]

After #Mahakumbh again 66 Crore watching India to #ChampionsTrophy2025 Finals #IndvsAusSemifinal

[Anurag Agrawal @aganurag]

Good Luck for your next assignment @sshreyas.

[Shreyas Srinivasan @sshreyas]

Today is my last day at @Paytm and August was my last month at @insider_in_ !

This marks the end of a glorious personal journey. A journey that began in April 2010, when i joined NH7. As a technologist, applying technology to influence pop culture was a super exciting challenge. NH7 taught me how concerts work, how businesses are built and more importantly the joy of building consumer experiences. Thank you Ajay!

In 2014, NH7 led me to Insider. At that time there was no platform dedicated to live entertainment and I was uniquely positioned to build a product in this space. Building a new platform needed new solutions in every part of the ticketing stack. It took us 3 years to build a platform (product + operations + marketing) to compete with the best. In 2017, Insider had started getting meaningful traction. To continue growing, we needed a partner who would champion us. It took all of 3 hours for @vijayshekhar and @mdeora1 to back us and I owe them a great deal of gratitude. Insider couldnt have become the success it did (psst: Zomato deal) without their backing.

In 2018, Insider became Paytm Insider and by 2020, we were a force to be reckoned with. We had already become market leaders in sports ticketing and we were a close second in other categories. With Tulika, @neeharv and me at the helm, it felt like we were unstoppable but like all good stories, this had a twist too. Covid happened and this booming business went to 0 quickly.

The first 6 months of COVID taught me a few valuable lessons

1. Great teams figure out a way to stay alive
2. Great culture allows you to grow coming out of a crisis

Post COVID, Insider split into 2 parts. The first team moved to working on the Paytm product. This team was full of stellar leaders like @neeharv , @abhishekmadan , Prashant, they not only seamlessly transitioned to a new product but quickly became of the senior most leaders running large teams at Paytm.

The second team stayed back and built a digital events business to stay afloat, and quietly sharpened their nails waiting for live entertainment to come back. We also discovered amazing new leaders like @varun2603 , Dipti and Yuvraj who lead this transition. Once things opened up, this team went on an absolute tear and grew this business more than 4x in the last 2 years.

I worked across both these teams, I discussed business deals and monthly PnL with Varun and UPI Success rates and retention with @neeharv and @abhishekmadan . I also got a chance to work with amazing people across Paytm and see first hand what it takes to build a gigantic business in India. I loved every moment of doing this!

In august, when the deal between @zomato and Paytm Entertainment closed, It felt like the right time to take a break, fix tech debt of my body and re-discover a passion i can chase for the next 2 decades.

So with a heavy heavy heart, i say goodbye my friends at @Paytm and @insider_in_ . So long and thanks for all the fish!

~Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
The battle outside ragin'
Will soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'~