Manav Arya

Product builder who loves talking about cars, motorcycles, coffee and policy

[Manav Arya @Mr__Quickdraw]

@TrafficGGM wrong side driving. Golf course road sector 54 in front of emaar Palm Springs

[Manav Arya @Mr__Quickdraw]

Perils of a 0 Trust Society

[Karan Aggarwal @karanaggarwal86]

One of the most horrific experience of buying an Iphone at Unicorn which is an authorised Premium Retailer of @Apple

I walked into the Hazratganj,Lucknow store of Unicorn knowing exactly what to buy. Asked the sales guy to get the same billed. In the next 2 mins the phone was at the billing counter with a phone cover & screen guard accessory.

I simply asked him to remove the same, but he did not budge insisting its under some offer & cannot be billed without the same. After arguing for 5 mins he gave up & asked the billing person to bill the same. Dont know how the system could now bill just the phone. I just got it billed & paid.

After the billing , the sales guy asked me to open the box which was absolutely okay. Following which he insisted that the phone needs to be switched on & activated in the store itself. I didnt want to activate or switch it on there at the store, since it was meant to be gifted.

He had the audacity to say ‘You cannot take the phone out of the showroom without activating’. The phone has been paid for & now belongs to me, how can a sales person just do this?

I put my foot down, that i will not activate or switch on the phone. Either you cancel the transaction or let me take the same.

After 20 mins of policy lecturing by the apple team & the store manager, I was finally able to take the phone without activating.

I just want to ask @AppleSupport that is this a Global or National level policy by you? If not why such policies are being enforced to the customer at a local level which is spoiling the while experience of buying an Apple Product

[Manav Arya @Mr__Quickdraw]

@Praval @WisprFlow @tankots @SahajGarg6 They have been facing issues lately. But it’s working fine for me today.

[Manav Arya @Mr__Quickdraw]

@anant_garg @DeepXP Wait what? Will this work with Mac?

[Manav Arya @Mr__Quickdraw]

@vikas_revivo Will try it out

[Manav Arya @Mr__Quickdraw]

Is it Wheelie Wednesday yet?

[RT_India @RT_India_news]

😲 STUNNING: Extremely Rare Red Sprites Spotted Flashing Over Tibet

They are caused by high levels of electrical activity and form in the upper atmosphere during powerful thunderstorms.

[Manav Arya @Mr__Quickdraw]

Probably the best hydration I’ve had off late. The other ones that I love are sunshine nutrition tablets. All the fast and up etc brands are terrible and taste bad.

[Manav Arya @Mr__Quickdraw]

Terrible move by taxing > 350cc as sin. Just like the sub 4m tax rule for cars this created a Frankenstein sku just for India and end users get lesser choice and lower quality.

[Siddharth's Echelon @SiddharthKG7]

How Government vs Market equation works and how we are still a weird country.

In Sept 2025, GST rates on motorcycles changed. It created 2 categories. Above and below 350 cc.

Older rate of GST was 28% on all bikes. Now, above 350 cc bikes had rate 40% and below ones had 18%.

So, that meant most models of Royal Enfield got cheaper and all bikes of Triumph got expensive as they started from 400 cc engines.

Triumph & Bajaj are in business partnership in India. Some bikes of Bajaj like Pulsar 400 & Dominar also got expensive.

But, Bajaj & Triumph decided to absorb the tax hike & did not transfer the load on customers as they are still finding a footing in India.

On the other hand, RE made bumper sales & launched new colours, models, & variants.
Triumph had to do something. They cannot always absorb losses.

So, they decided to cut some power in their 400 cc engine and relaunched all the models in 350 cc engines from April 2026.

Entire lineup of Triumph is now 350cc and they did not change the name of bikes. Imagine what all they had to do due to a little tax policy change by Government.

Is that healthy for businesses that they are vulnerable to such policy changes? I don’t know. Who decided that limit of 350 cc and not 400 cc? Or let’s say 200 cc? Was it some scientific or logical decision?

These things certainly discourage great international brands from coming to India.

[Manav Arya @Mr__Quickdraw]

Da Susy is the closest I’ve had to the pizza I had in Italy 🇮🇹. Never change ❤️

[Pizzeria da Susy @SusannaDiCosimo]

𝗛𝘆𝗽𝗲.What is it, and how is it created? At Pizzeria da Susy, it's never been about marketing tricks or chasing trends. It's about the regular guests who have been visiting us since day one. Those who love us...create the hype. And those who don't? They create 𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘩𝘺𝘱𝘦

[Aditya 🦀 @ItsAditya_xyz]

https://t.co/IDmVOmVVfG

[PenPencilDraw @penpencildraw]

Withheld: a horror story.

[Manav Arya @Mr__Quickdraw]

@toeknee_kim I'd love to try this out. Let me know how.

[Manav Arya @Mr__Quickdraw]

@SpinnyCare It’s not about the price. I purchased a car from you and after driving it for few years you refused to buy it back saying it’s done over 80,000km now and company policy is you don’t buy cars with that much mileage.

[Manav Arya @Mr__Quickdraw]

As someone that knows this story from the inside I think it’s probably the first time PJ has posted about it so candidly. As a failed founder his journey continues to inspire and can’t even imagine the sheer will power one has to have to continue pushing 🫡

[pj @BeingPractical]

31 May 2020:
I was on the road, staring at failure at the start of my 40s.

1 June 2020:
6 years back, on this day I started my journey of building Raise (@RaiseTheBarHQ) from zero.

The day before, I held a fancy title of Founder, Managing Director and CEO of a financial services company, was an industry pioneer and a leader, built and scaled a product that redefined how India invested online, that made mutual funds popular, and introduced direct mutual funds to the masses. Built a venture that managed few billions dollars and was possibly valued as much as.

Next day, I had nothing. No titles, No power. No team. No salary, No stocks. Practically made no money from the venture I gave everything to for 3 years to make it a grand success. Founders like me are emotional fools & immature beings who trust easily and take a word as a word, only to realise one day - the world doesn't work the way one thinks it works.

Tried to raise money from venture capital, which I thought would be a easy thing to do but it was not. Almost every VC out there rejected me. Few influential people made raising capital a bit difficult. Many VC & partners who promised term-sheets, stopped responding to emails / chats or just backed out.

All of this happened during peak COVID times. I was staring at failure at the start of my 40s. I had no idea what the future would hold for me. Job was never an option, I am too practical and also much of a straight-talker to survive in a corporate life. I had started up 3 times earlier, and was more or less a failure. Somehow gathered courage to start-up again just because giving up again was never an option.

Times have changed since then!

Today we are a team of ~650+ builders and believers at Raise.

Only thing we care about is building the best consumer experiences across all the products we are building - @DhanHQ @ask_fuzz @Upsurge_club @Stratzy_HQ @FilterCoffeeHQ and few more ventures in insurance, wealth and investing that we are building.

5 years back value of everything was Zero. Today for whatever it means, Raise is a unicorn valued at USD 1.2 Bn. At some point, I was offered good money as some sort of settlement which of course I never took. This is why I say that as founders, some of us are emotional fools who keep taking chances even after losing it all!

Looking back, even after this crazy journey and tons of luck by my side, I am still more of an emotional & introvert founder fool. We are still in our early days of building and are far from where we want to be.

Once again, there's no inspiration or gyan here for anyone. Tu tera dekh le bhai, yahaan mein khud bhagwan ke bharose pe hoon..

I post this just as a reminder to myself - never forget where & how we started from.

More importantly to express my gratitude to all those who stood by me and supported us in my tough times - as co-founders, team members, colleagues, believers, supporters, cheerleaders, well wishers, investors, friends and most importantly as our customers.

Thank you, I wouldn't have made it till here without you 🙏

[Manav Arya @Mr__Quickdraw]

@ku1deep In the same boat. But it’s tough to have an all in one. There is always a compromise.

[Kae Capital @KaeCapital]

The average Indian founder who builds something that lasts is 34 at founding. Not 22. Not fresh out of IIT.

34, with a decade of domain experience, a real professional network, and enough savings to not need a salary for 18 months.

The myth of the young founder is a Valley import that has never fit India as well as the ecosystem pretends.

[Manav Arya @Mr__Quickdraw]

@viditb +1

[Manav Arya @Mr__Quickdraw]

Mad Max/ Bladerunner Vibes

[Weatherman Rajasthan @Rajsthanweather]

Seen yellow Duststorm many times but seeing the Red for the first time.

📍 Lunkarnsar , Bikaner
📍Bhanipura , Churu