arkadeepkumar

Applied Materials| nano-manufacturing|UEC @molecularfndry| former ITRI-Rosenfeld Fellow @BerkeleyLab @UCBerkeley| PhD @GeorgiaTech| Energy, Water, Environment

[Marc Randolph @marcrandolph]

The most important skill of an entrepreneur is the ability to make decisions based on incomplete, inconclusive, and frequently contradictory information.

[arkadeepkumar @arkadeepkumar]

@naresh_sunkara Insightful. Thanks Naresh!

[arkadeepkumar @arkadeepkumar]

@udaysy Thanks for the nuanced perspective, followed, look forward to see more builds

[Hemant Mohapatra @MohapatraHemant]

Today's a special day for @LightspeedIndia. Introducing INDIA ASCENDS'2026, a program purpose-built for India's youngest (>25yo), boldest, cohort of world shapers & change makers. If you are one of them, put your headphones on, turn to volume to max, click on the video, and read on :)

Building something is hard but building something the world has never seen before is nigh impossible. There is this concept of not just building a kingdom, but building a kingdom at the edge of a precipice -- founders who want to go all the way to the edge of what’s possible, beyond which there is no land, there is no road, the compass stops working, and they look into the abyss, and say ‘yes, this is for me, this will be my life’s work’. These are the rarest of birds that take the plunge and know they’d fall before they fly, but when they fly, oh how glorious do they look.

We @lightspeedindia have been fortunate to partner with several of these founders. We met @PixxelSpace when the founders @awaisahmedna @kshitijgokul were just 22yo. We backed @Airbound_Aero when @TheRealNamzoo was just 17. We’ve backed many others doing their life’s work at absolute cutting edge of what’s possible - @Arun_Vinayak_S of @ExponentEnergy, @pratykumar & @vivekrag of @SarvamAI @devdutdalal & @XaviLaguarta at @MittiLabs and more. Beyond our portfolio, there is some amazing founders doing their life’s work - @PawanKChandana @SkyrootA , @sohamsankaran @PopVaxIndia , @khushhhi_ @AsperaAero, @nagokul @CynLr00, @adrnschm @sarlaaviation, @deepigoyal @lataerospace & @temple, @Manu_J_Nair @EtherealXTech & many more.

We need more of these founders coming out of India. Not just that, we need to fill gap that exists in this market which is in backing really young (<25yo) founders who are tinkering in school or college labs, or spending their weekends building, experimenting and failing fast, and are truly building globally competitive and de novo tech that, if it works, can have huge consequences in the world. To that end, we are proud to launch INDIA ASCENDS'2026 -- our flagship yearly program for the most cracked young builders in the country doing incredible cutting-edge research in robotics, quantum, space, energy, AI, bio or more.

Our program applications open today and we’ll select 12-15 of the best, boldest ideas that we think has the potential to shape the future. We’ll bring them all to BLR for a 2-day program. Each participant will get ~$100K in support from our partners @AnthropicAI @GroqInc , @googlecloud @awscloud and we’ll also select 3-4 winners who will get venture funded to build their dream starting from $200K all the way to $3M and almost $500K of non-dilutive credits & grants from our partners. We look forward to seeing the boldest ideas you've been working on. Link to apply in the first comment:

[arkadeepkumar @arkadeepkumar]

@ishaanpreet Admire the deadline kept as 12th Jan, being National Youth Day commemorating Vivekananda birthday!

[arkadeepkumar @arkadeepkumar]

.. "all the mental energy... Could be far better used.."

[Z Fellows @zfellows]

Co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz: Nobody Cares

[arkadeepkumar @arkadeepkumar]

@jefielding Got the old adage of asking advice from my college HOD years back. Seems still works!

[Applied Materials @Applied4Tech]

It’s a bird, it’s a crane! The world’s largest crawler crane has landed in Silicon Valley to help build Applied Materials’ new EPIC Center. 🏗️ Standing as tall as two Statue of Liberties and just a few feet shy of Seattle’s Space Needle, this powerful crane will help to lift the roof trusses onto our state-of-the-art lab later this summer. #AppliedEPICSiliconValley https://t.co/tdzq742Ven

[Sandy Kory @sandykory]

Early-stage market analysis for tech startups is often useless and misleading. Take Canva and Adobe. Instead of having its market share cannibalized by Canva's stunning growth to over $3B in ARR, Adobe's value has 8X-ed since Canva launched.

We tend to treat markets like fixed pies where one company's gain must be another's loss. But the reality is much more interesting. When Canva made design accessible to millions who had never touched Photoshop before, it created new users. It expanded the very definition of who could be a designer.

Canva massively expanded its TAM.

We can see similar patterns across industries.
• Uber created a market of people who'd never hailed a cab while multiplying the number of professional drivers
• Airbnb unlocked millions of empty rooms that were never part of the hospitality market

Great technology products create their own demand.

The same principle applies even more dramatically with the proliferation of AI. Those tiny niche markets that seem too small to matter can become enormous when AI makes previously impossible things possible.

Of course, there are limits. No matter how good your software is, it's not likely to reverse an end market that is in terminal decline. AI for post offices is unlikely to expand the post office market. But generally speaking, I've learned to be extremely open-minded about market size, especially when great founders are involved.

That's because the best founders push the boundaries of any market they enter. That's what Canva, Uber, and Airbnb did. And that's what the next generation of AI companies will do.

So when evaluating opportunities, I ask myself: What could this market become if this product succeeds?

While the traditional VC playbook says to analyze TAM, SAM, and SOM, those metrics assume static markets.

The most successful startups create new markets or radically expand existing ones.

[arkadeepkumar @arkadeepkumar]

@naresh_sunkara Thanks for calling out the contrast. And insightful post!

[arkadeepkumar @arkadeepkumar]

Great to see Dr. Melkote take on leading ME Georgia Tech- excellent leader to lead the department! He has been my PhD advisor, and beyond grad school he has been a mentor, champion, overall a great human! @MEGeorgiaTech @gtalumni @GeorgiaTech

[Georgia Tech College of Engineering @gatechengineers]

Long-time faculty member Shreyes Melkote will step in as interim chair of @MEGeorgiaTech starting May 15. Dean @rbeyah says Melkote's achievements &amp; dedication make him an ideal choice to lead through this time of transition in the Woodruff School. https://t.co/DCP4iRAXmf

[arkadeepkumar @arkadeepkumar]

Materials Science and Mechanical engineering students coming up with a PCB board manufacturing alternative! Go jackets @gtalumni @MEGeorgiaTech more here: https://t.co/R1u8b2sIOn

[Georgia Tech @GeorgiaTech]

Team Convexity won last night’s 2025 InVenture Prize, taking home $20,000 and a U.S. patent for their game-changing electronics 3D printer that revolutionizes printed circuit board manufacturing. ⚡ | https://t.co/pw9LkckCmO #WeCanDoThat #InVenturePrize

[arkadeepkumar @arkadeepkumar]

@DeveshRanjanGT congrats! And thank you for being one of the most inspirational leaders from GT! From connecting with him in 2014 (I was PhD student),getting to know over the years, I am fortunate for his mentorship. @MEGeorgiaTech will miss you! @GeorgiaTech @gtalumni

[UW-Madison College of Engineering @UWMadEngr]

We’re thrilled to welcome back alumnus @DeveshRanjanGT as the 10th dean of the College of Engineering @UWMadison! He comes from @MEGeorgiaTech, where he led one of the country’s largest and highest-ranked engineering programs.

https://t.co/Dpt6lbbzBB

[UW-Madison College of Engineering @UWMadEngr]

We’re thrilled to welcome back alumnus @DeveshRanjanGT as the 10th dean of the College of Engineering @UWMadison! He comes from @MEGeorgiaTech, where he led one of the country’s largest and highest-ranked engineering programs.

https://t.co/Dpt6lbbzBB

[arkadeepkumar @arkadeepkumar]

@SarbajitBanerj1 @ETH_DCHAB @ETH_en @psich_en Congratulations @SarbajitBanerj1 ! All the best for the times ahead!

[Devesh Ranjan @DeanRanjan]

We are proud to once again be ranked as the #1 Public Mechanical Engineering program in the nation and No. 2 overall. It's an honor to work alongside members of the Woodruff School community — remarkable students, faculty, staff, alumni, and friends — who make this all possible.

[Applied Materials India @Applied_India]

Advancing decarbonization is critical to the future of the semiconductor industry. In our latest blog, Chris Librie outlines three priority areas where systems engineering practices can move the needle in the right direction. Read more here: https://t.co/Zo04zC8tnm

[arkadeepkumar @arkadeepkumar]

@Applied4Tech #Applied55

[arkadeepkumar @arkadeepkumar]

@molecularfndry Awesome, congratulations 👏 Sarah!

[arkadeepkumar @arkadeepkumar]

@molecularfndry @sineatrix Awesome, all the best to the Foundry connections!!