Vishal Kothari

Impact Investing @PathwayFundUK | Mentor @bg_ventures | ex-@Accenture Development Partnerships | @LSEManagement MSc | @warwickecon BSc | Personal views

[Vishal Kothari @vishalk2911]

@tweetoferic Thanks for this, would be great to hear your thoughts on how you'd allocate across firms that you think will continue to perform well given capital is concentrating in the largest ones

[Siddhant Sanjay Shah @siddymercury]

Robert Frost said “In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.” Three profound and sobering words, time pauses for no one.

[Liverpool FC @LFC]

With that assist for Hugo… 🅰️

Mo now has the most goal involvements for a single club in Premier League history 👏

[Dilip Kumar @kmr_dilip]

I’m not an expert in politics or a policymaker just an average Indian trying to make sense of this national crisis. And honestly, I’m confused about what to watch, who to trust, and what to believe. It no longer feels like the media is here to inform us but feels like they’re performing for us.

I think the biggest casualty for someone like me is our ability to think clearly and trust anyone. Most people genuinely care about what’s real. But what we’re being fed in news seems to be designed to go viral and what's going viral is fear and rage.

I start the day searching for clarity and end it confused and scared by someone else’s narrative. I'm really hoping in this situation of national crisis, news doesn't become a theatre because people are loosing their grip on truth.

[Advait Ruia @Advait_Ruia]

When we started SuperTokens, we had a public roadmap where users could vote on features they wanted. But we added a small twist - to vote, you had to provide your email.

This seemingly simple requirement ended up being incredibly valuable:

1. The emails we collected were highly qualified - these weren't random signups, but developers who specifically wanted a particular feature enough to vote for it
2. When we released a feature, we had an instant audience of 300+ people who had explicitly asked for it
3. The engagement was great since we were reaching out to exactly the right users at exactly the right time

For the first couple of years, this public roadmap was quite influential. While not our only input source, it often reflected our actual development priorities pretty closely.

We've evolved since then, but it's interesting to look back at these early product decisions that helped us better understand and connect with our users.

[Siddhant Sanjay Shah @siddymercury]

Decision making under uncertainty. Learning to operate without complete information is what ends up separating the best from the rest.

1) Promise late, deliver early.
2) Learn fast, trust slow.
3) Bet big, test small.
4) Give first, ask last.
5) Ignore opinions, treasure facts.
6) Always promote, never slander.
7) Disregard doubters, believe in you.
8) Persist ALWAYS & stop NEVER.

@AlexHormozi 🤌🏻✨

[Saikat Chakrabarti @saikatc]

If I apply for a job at DOGE and had tweeted in the last month that DEI is great, would you show me “grace” and give me a job?

[Balaji @balajis]

Here’s the thing: Indians are rising.

And that is actually why anti-Indian sentiment is rising. Not because Indians are so weak, but because Indians are once again becoming strong.

CEOs of companies.
Leaders of countries.
Founders and investors.
Doctors, writers, professors.
Not just slumdogs.
Millionaires.

Now, I know what people will say.
Not all Indians are doing well.
More than a billion are still poor!
And of course that’s true, and will be for a while.

But Indians abroad have risen as individuals:

And India is now rising as a country:

Indeed, India is the fastest growing large economy in the world over the last decade:

And I think Indians have a lot of headroom left. Where does it end up? We don’t know, but if even 5% of 1.4B Indian nationals are at the same level as the ~5M strong Indian American diaspora that currently produces ~6% of US tax revenue, that’s ~70M people capable of producing ~72% of current US tax revenue.

So I think it’s at least possible that India returns to its historical level of relative prosperity:

As a plausibility argument, recall that before America was even a twinkle in anyone’s eye, Marco Polo sought out China and Columbus risked his life to trade with India. So those civilizations were giant economic centers for thousands of years.

And are becoming so again.

This perspective demands a different approach. Not the victim mindset where Indians mimic Western wokes in whining piteously upon every slight. But a mature, tit-for-tat morality befitting a rising people where you cooperate with those that cooperate, ignore what is best ignored, and (proportionately) punish only when necessary.

Because even from a purely realpolitik standpoint, constant cancellation doesn’t work. Recall that wokes tried that for the last decade, and all it got them was epic political defeat. They overused the penicillin called anti-racism, and now we have antibiotic-resistant actual racism.

Indians will need different tactics. And that starts with moving from victim mentality to Vedic mentality, if you'll permit the poetic license. Because India isn't just a rising civilization, it's a returning civilization. And wokes are proven losers, but Indians can be winners.

[Advait Ruia @Advait_Ruia]

We scaled past 6-figures in revenue building open-source user authentication. Here’s what I think made our dev experience great:

1. Customization - Seriously, developers don’t want user flows decided for them. They need customization for their unique business logic

2. Robust framework / language support - We try to support as many as possible

3. Control - All frontend components are native to our customers domain - without any redirects. Developers control the entire user experience

4. Support - Discord is our best friend. We run a tight support feedback loop with users

5. Over-indexing on free features - If you build a great product, and make sure there are enterprise options, you will be fine. Don’t worry about “giving too much” to hobbyists and side project developers

Obviously this isn’t everything, but I really think this gave us an edge early on.

[Vishal Kothari @vishalk2911]

Our endowment focuses on 3 priorities: deploying patient capital for systemic change, transforming capital allocation beyond diversity programs and blending traditional and innovative investment models to better serve communities.

https://t.co/Uu4ycTxZuT

[Vishal Kothari @vishalk2911]

Pleased to share this briefing note we authored at Pathway Fund on using social investment to drive inclusivity and accessibility in housing access https://t.co/JEJwdvY27N

[Advait Ruia @Advait_Ruia]

@supertokensio is open-source, and I think that’s a huge reason we’re growing so fast.

If you’re a founder/CEO looking to collaborate with the incredible open-source community, here are my best tips:

(🧵)

[jss @jsensarma]

Why is there so much despondency in India when there's 8% growth?

Why are VCs on Christmas break in Blr so excited - but lifetime denizens making a beeline for immigrant visas?

Why does the very mention of taxes give rashes?

A quick 3-tier model of India explaining this:

[Vishal Kothari @vishalk2911]

I just published my reflections on a recent event on Community-Led Housing for All https://t.co/EmKchcWElA

[Vishal Kothari @vishalk2911]

I just published Unveiling the Future of Impact Investing: Our Fund Manager Incubator Showcase 2024 🚀 https://t.co/6WRtOP5X9A

[Stand Up To Racism @AntiRacismDay]

Walthamstow tonight ✊🏾✊🏾✊🏾

This is what a mass movement against the far right looks like @wfsutr

#StandUpToRacism

[Vishal Kothari @vishalk2911]

Events of this past week in the UK have shown the need to listen to all communities that have been left behind and forge a new path forward where we can rise as one

[Nigel D'Souza @Nigel__DSouza]

A Historic Moment for India 🇮🇳

In a landmark event, Martina Navratilova inducted Leander Paes into the 2024 Hall of Fame. Paes delivered a heartfelt speech at the ceremony, reflecting on his illustrious career.

Navratilova & Paes, teamed up to win the mixed doubles titles at Wimbledon & Australian Open in 2003.

@Leander

[Vishal Kothari @vishalk2911]

Excited to be a part of this! Watch this space

[Rajdeep Sardesai @sardesairajdeep]

What a remarkable general election have we just seen. State by state competition and a verdict where the winner seems underwhelmed and the opposition is celebrating (or as a friend puts it: where victory feels like defeat and defeat feels like a victory)! A Modi-led BJP will almost certainly complete a historic hat trick in power but the bigger message is this : India prefers a strong opposition to a single party, single leader dominance. And yes, leaders/pollsters and even the media should never take the humble anonymous voter for granted . Humility over arrogance at all times, empathy over divisiveness be it in tv studios, in parliament or in Galli/nukkads of this great diverse country. 👍🙏🇮🇳