arnav

Founder. Building Leap. Sharing what I learn. Journaling the funny bits.
One moment at a time

[arnav @arnav_kumar]

Can't stop thinking about this.

[arnav @arnav_kumar]

Of all roles, product management has the greatest correlation with academic achievements (test ranks, college tier)
It is just the unfortunate harsh truth.

There will always be exceptions, but it just seems harder to find great product managers outside of top colleges.

That is not the case with other roles, including engineering and design.

There is something about Product Management that makes this correlation strong.
Maybe it is the unbounded ambiguous nature of the problem.
Maybe you need a very large context window to be good at it.
Maybe you have to be good at many things to be a good PM.
Maybe you need to be good at contradictory things (be great at technology but also be good at stakeholder management and user psychology)
Maybe you need to be in the top 1% in structured first principles thinking

I don't know what it is
In my experience this correlation is very strong.
I am not a big believer in ranks and pedigree was never an important consideration for us, but I have been proven wrong when it comes to Product Manager hiring

Obviously if you disagree you can prove me wrong by applying for a PM role
Or by referring great people

As a product manager I am always happy to revisit my assumptions when presented with opposing data points

[arnav @arnav_kumar]

Of all roles, product management has the greatest correlation with academic achievements (test ranks, college tier)
It is just the unfortunate harsh truth.

There will always be exceptions, but it just seems harder to find great product managers outside of top colleges.

That is not the case with other roles, including engineering and design.

[arnav @arnav_kumar]

Right now, I go to the gym only for this

[arnav @arnav_kumar]

The best thing about being a founder is that you don't have to ask for permission.
You can pour all your love, attention, craft, will, energy, emotion and trauma into your work.
This is the gentle, nurturing part of entrepreneurship that attracts misfits and the crazy ones.

The worst part of entrepreneurship is that you don't have to ask for permission.
Which means you can work 20 hours a day for weeks and still feel you are not doing enough.
You can feel like a perpetual imposter.
Not smart enough, not hard working enough, not passionate enough, not crazy enough, not ambitious enough, not creative enough.
This can be a long list of loathing.

This is the corrosive psychological burden of entrepreneurship.

Entrepreneurship is uniquely hard because there are no limits and boundaries to this vocation.

An athlete will not practice more than 4 -6 hours a day.
Anything more is bad for their body.
An artist will not create art all day.
They know that is not how creativity works.
A sales whiz will maybe take two high stakes meetings in a day.
A factory worker will work their shift and log off.

All jobs, all sports and all creative endeavours have well set natural limits.

Except entrepreneurship.
The psychological poison of entrepreneurship stems from its lack of natural limits.

An entrepreneur will often do creative work, do product, write code, do sales, make high stakes decisions, design operation systems, do people management, do unpleasant conversations, review others' work, and more... All in a day.

They will do it for 20 hours and still hate themselves for not doing enough

This is the scary aspect of the permissionless nature of entrepreneurship.

There are ways to manage one's psychology to avoid these corrosive, harmful aspects of entrepreneurship.
But it takes a lot of work and a certain mindset shift.
This is especially important for young, first time founders.

Maybe I will write about that mindset in another post.

If what I wrote rings a bell, lmk and I will write an article 😊

[arnav @arnav_kumar]

@ponnappa Yeah. Don't do it with regulators 😂😂

[arnav @arnav_kumar]

For founders, asking for forgiveness is a better strategy than asking for permission.

[arnav @arnav_kumar]

Why startups have to be modeled on sports teams.
Not on families.

[Arun Nayyar @ANayyar16]

@SumedhaUppal Bashir Badr Sahib - " Kisiko parkhana mat, parkhane mein koi apna nahi rehta ... "

[arnav @arnav_kumar]

Couldn't have a better start to Monday.
Banger workout.
Great session.
Met an old friend who is doing so well.

This will be a good week

[arnav @arnav_kumar]

@Zishaan My bad.
:)

[arnav @arnav_kumar]

The genius of the Mani Ratnam–A R Rahman pairing is that the films end, but the soundtrack doesn't.

The music lives in your head, rent free for weeks

• O Kadhal Kanmani
• Saathiya
• Yuva
• Dil Se
• Guru
• Roja

[arnav @arnav_kumar]

What keeps life exciting is a challenge at the end of your capability.
Build that life.

[arnav @arnav_kumar]

You aren't starting a company.
You are hatching a conspiracy to change things.
To make the world a little better.

[Naval @naval]

You aren’t starting a company. You’re laying bricks in the foundation of a skyscraper.

[arnav @arnav_kumar]

@_sehermehta So sweet of you. And very flattering.
I love Dalquer, especially his chemistry with Nithya, and his mannerisms in these songs

[arnav @arnav_kumar]

The right ARR to maximise in life is to maximise listening to AR Rahman
❤️

[arnav @arnav_kumar]

Show up on the days you don't want to.
The only strategy you need to win.

[arnav @arnav_kumar]

A chad business move would be to bid for a new IPL franchise for Bihar + Jharkhand combined.

Vaibhav Suryavanshi might well be the next mega star.
Lock that in.
Build a franchise around him

Think of a Mumbai Indians built around a Sachin at 16.
Would capture the country's imagination for two decades

[शिवाय @mohbhangpiya]

Ishan, Vaibhav, Saqib and many more players from Bihar are now making their mark in mainstream cricket. Looking at this rise, it feels like Bihar will give Indian cricket many more players in coming years. What do you think is the biggest reason behind this change?

[arnav @arnav_kumar]

Bachpan se bas sun rahe the.
Is IPL dekh liya.
"Ek Bihari sab pe bhaari" ❤️

Jokes aside, really counting for Vaibhav to become the role mode for kids across India.

Especially for kids from Bihar/Jharkhand.

Because we have few role models from Bihar and need a lot more.
And while you can find inspiration anywhere, it gives you more belief if your inspiration looks and walks and talks like you do .

I hope he becomes a wonderful ambassador for Bihar and its talents.

[arnav @arnav_kumar]

Our youngest intern cooked this up ❤️
Maybe we should give her a full-time offer.

Go Leap 🚀
Thanks for the shoutout @IPL

[arnav @arnav_kumar]

@ponnappa The rock gets bigger.
The slope flattens so you make progress when you toilet/ push
No?

[arnav @arnav_kumar]

Pov : Building a startup till you find PMF

This is a feature of building, not a bug
This is how it is supposed to be till you find PMF

[critter @BecomingCritter]

how it started how it's going