Mayank Krishna

Entrepreneur | A Work In Progress | Author of *Unfolding A Beautiful Life*

Book link:

[Mayank Krishna @mayankkrishna]

India is going to see a mental health epidemic in next 5-10 years.

And the culprit is going to be the growing distance between the digital persona and the real persona.

[Karun Pal @karunpal]

Distance yourself from every person who makes you feel like a lesser being. Someone who makes you edit yourself. Lower your standards. Become a watered-down version of yourself just to make them feel comfortable. They're triggers of what you're trying to leave behind. Let them go. Without guilt.

[Mayank Krishna @mayankkrishna]

@abdullah71 Best ideas come at a time when you just can't write 😃

[Vikas Vij @TheClubJunto]

Vishal Sikka Returns

Dr. Sikka has launched Hang Ten, an enterprise AI services company – the exact business of Infosys & TCS. It has bagged global enterprise clients. Indian IT’s revenue displacement is coming.

Poetic Revenge Is Here

a. Backed by Mayfield (Silicon Valley VC giant for AI), Saudi Aramco, and top angel investors, Dr. Vishal Sikka has launched Hang Ten Systems.

b. Hang Ten’s stated purpose: “To help large enterprises adopt AI, using an AI-native model – to build, change, and run enterprise software at lower cost and on shorter timelines.”

This is exactly what India IT companies do at the upper end (premium segment) of their services model (using an army of interchangeable labour).

c. CEO of Siemens Gamesa (one of the global clients Hang Ten has already bagged) said: “Every enterprise I know is looking for trusted guidance on AI and help with dramatically improving major operational programs. I am very excited to see Vishal and his team tackle this challenge with Hang Ten.”

Where It Competes with IT

a. Vishal Sikka is going after complex, high-value enterprise software transformations that traditionally generate the highest margins and the most prestigious client relationships for Indian IT.

b. AI-native enterprise modernization programs are the new flagship projects that will anchor relationships and produce upsell. If Hang Ten (and other Silicon Valley startups) win these projects, Indian IT’s most valuable client relationships weaken first.

c. This is the classic Silicon Valley disruption pattern: attack the premium end first, commoditize it, then go downstream. Indian IT’s $100 million+ AI transformation engagements are likely to be their first target.

d. Commercial Off-the-Shelf Software (COTS) lies at the core of Indian IT. IT firms earn tens of billions of dollars annually helping clients configure, customize, integrate, and test SAP, Oracle, and Salesforce implementations.

Hang Ten wants to skip the COTS layer entirely where possible or to AI-automate the integration where it cannot be skipped, and build enterprise-native capability faster and cheaper than any IT service provider could.

How Hang Ten Will Do It

a. Expert FDE Bench: Hang Ten announced it will use “FDE Bench” (Forward Deployed Engineers), which is the reverse of Indian IT. Infosys/TCS operate on a Bench model: a pool of engineers waiting for a client project. The Bench is a cost.

FDEs are the opposite: elite AI-native engineers deployed directly into client environments to identify and solve hard problems (rather than being told what to do.) Palantir pioneered this model for the Pentagon. Sikka is scaling it for global enterprise AI services.

b. Reusable Skills Library (Knowledge-Compounding Flywheel): Every enterprise AI transformation Hang Ten completes will generate reusable AI skills, agents, workflows. These can be deployed faster & cheaper on the next engagement.

As knowledge compounds, what takes 200 Infosys engineers six months today will eventually take Hang Ten 20 engineers and three weeks. (Sikka calls it “Creative Destruction at AI Speed.”)

c. Agent Orchestrators: Hang Ten will use engineers who master agent orchestration (i.e., acquire the ability to coordinate swarms of agents toward complex outcomes.) The outcome rises with each advance in model & orchestration infra.

d. Continuous Transformation: Unlike IT’s fixed-scope engagements, Hang Ten proposes a continuous AI-native development & operations loop. The enterprise software keeps continuously improving, adapting, and responding to business change. This is an AI partnership moat.

Water is in the Living Room

a. The top five Indian IT firms employ 1.5 million engineers. Indian IT contributes 8% of GDP, and brings in $264 billion export revenue. If even 5% revenue displacement happens, it is $13 billion evaporated in one year. Stakes are too high.

b. Last week, Vishal Sikka told CNBC India: “The wave is here.” Nobody understood what exactly he meant. (“Hang Ten” is a classic surfing maneuver to ride the wave.)

c. Floods do not occur overnight. Water levels rise slowly until the moment all exit routes are blocked and people are trapped. Indian IT has had its warnings. “Now the water has reached the living room,” said Dr. Sikka.

Whether the Indian IT industry rides the wave or gets buried in the water grave of its own making will start becoming clear in the next few quarters.

@arabicatrader

[Reads with Ravi @readswithravi]

This paragraph written by Carl Jung, written in 1944, still hits hard:

“People will do anything, no matter how absurd, to avoid facing their own souls. They will practice Indian yoga and all its exercises, observe a strict regimen or diet, learn theosophy by heart, or mechanically repeat mystic texts from the literature of the whole world—all because they cannot get on with themselves and have not the slightest faith that anything useful could ever come out of their own souls.”

[Abid Zaidi @AbidZaidi1]

"Some people smile while breaking inside, act strong while quietly falling apart & keep showing up even when life feels unbearably heavy. Behind every attitude, mistake or distance is a story we may never fully understand. Sometimes the people who seem 'okay' are the ones hurting the most."

[Abid Zaidi @AbidZaidi1]

"You become the average of what you are willing to be near. Not just people. Conversations. Environments. Content. Everything you allow consistent proximity to, is quietly calibrating what feels normal to you. Keep a close watch on what surrounds & consumes you."

[Mayank Krishna @mayankkrishna]

In your toughest time, you will find yourself alone. But the grit you show during this time will decide how the future unfolds.

[Reads with Ravi @readswithravi]

There’s an old Chinese saying that I love:

“The temptation to quit will be greatest just before you are about to succeed.”

[Karun Pal @karunpal]

The older I get, the more I believe happiness lives in the ordinary. Pets. Plants. A quiet morning coffee. Blue sky. Cotton clouds. Birds singing. The gentle breeze through the trees. A clean, cosy house. Good food. Good hearted simple poeple. So much of life’s beauty is quiet, gentle, and already here. And somehow, one of the sweetest feelings is knowing I get to wake up and meet it all again tomorrow.

[Reads with Ravi @readswithravi]

A reminder from Carl Jung:

[Abid Zaidi @AbidZaidi1]

कैसे कह दूँ कि मुलाक़ात नहीं होती है,
रोज़ मिलते हैं, मगर बात नहीं होती है ।
~ शकील बदायुनी
#Mulaqaat #Shair

[Mayank Krishna @mayankkrishna]

Always be extra open to listen to criticism. If you resist, people will stop giving you critical feedback that you need to hear to grow.

[Mayank Krishna @mayankkrishna]

उन्हें तेज भागने की ज़िद है
मुझे धीमा चलने का शौक है

[Hitesh Oberoi @hitobs]

My current mental model basis what I am seeing around me and at InfoEdge in all our verticals - Naukri, 99acres, Jeevansathi and Shiksha.

1) AI is fundamentally deflationary for businesses.

2) When the cost of intelligence drops toward zero, the cost of doing many things drops with it.

3) Everyone becomes more productive but no one stays differentiated for long.

4) The natural outcome? Price compression. Margin pressure, Commoditization.

5) We’ve seen this with the internet, cloud, SaaS. AI is doing it to cognition itself.

But this is only half the story.

6) AI is deflationary for existing markets
and expansionary for new ones

The big mistake

7) Using AI just to do the same things cheaper. That’s a race to the bottom.

8) The real question is, What becomes possible now that was previously impossible?

Three ways I see AI creating real advantage

1) Solving problems that were too expensive to solve or not solvable earlier

2) Serving customers who couldn’t be served before

3) Delivering experiences and quality that wasn’t possible to deliver before

In other words

Don’t just lower costs. Expand the market. Because when capabilities commoditise , value shifts to,

– Distribution and Customer Relationships
– Brand
– Trust
– Proprietary data
– Ecosystems

The winners in the AI era won’t be the most companies which are the most efficient.

They’ll be companies with the best imagination

[Arindam Paul @arindam___paul]

One rule that I have followed almost forever: Never ever work with people/spend any time with people who keep cribbing/whining

They suck the energy out of you and constantly find ways to spread negativity

[Mayank Krishna @mayankkrishna]

When you smile in the company of the wrong people and sulk in the company of the right people, you are slowly ruining your life.

[Abid Zaidi @AbidZaidi1]

मैं क़तरा हो के भी तूफ़ाँ से जंग लेता हूँ,
मुझे बचाना समुंदर की ज़िम्मेदारी है।
•
दुआ करो कि सलामत रहे मेरी हिम्मत,
ये इक चराग़ कई आँधियों पे भारी है।

~ वसीम बरेलवी

[Mayank Krishna @mayankkrishna]

Never let an opportunity for fun pass by �

[Celestara @celestaracosmos]

Calmness is a superpower. The ability to not overreact or take things personally keeps your mind clear and your heart at peace.