V Shukla

Managing Director, Monta Vista Capital; Council of Trustees of TiE Silicon Valley; Founding President, Foundation for Excellence

[Ihtesham Ali @ihtesham2005]

A Stanford student got reported for academic misconduct last semester.

His research paper was so good his professor assumed he bought it.

The academic integrity hearing lasted 3 hours.

Here's what happened in that room.

The panel asked him to explain his methodology from scratch. He opened his laptop, pulled up https://t.co/7NsPvmOCXF, and started rebuilding the entire paper live in front of them.

First he fed it his raw notes and asked: "You are a research methodology expert. Here are my raw notes. Identify the 3 strongest arguments buried in this data, rank them by originality, and show me exactly where each one challenges or extends existing literature."

The professors went quiet.

Then he ran: "Now simulate a hostile peer reviewer with a PhD in this field. Generate every serious objection they would raise against my thesis. Then tell me which objections actually have merit and which ones I can dismantle."

One professor leaned forward and asked him to stop so she could write down the prompt.

He kept going. "Take my weakest argument and steelman it harder than I did. Show me what it would look like if it were airtight. Then tell me what I'd need to prove to get it there."

Then the one that ended the hearing. "You are my thesis advisor. I have 24 hours before submission. Read this draft and tell me the single change that would move this from a B+ to an A. Be brutal."

He walked them through how he'd used that last output to rewrite his conclusion three times until it held up under every objection in the room.

What took most PhD candidates 6 months of back-and-forth with advisors, he was doing in real-time inside a single workflow.

The panel didn't just clear him.

They gave him the highest grade in the department's history and asked him to present the workflow to faculty.

The irony is beautiful. The paper looked too good to be human because he'd found a way to think harder than most humans bother to.

That's not cheating. That's the new ceiling.

[Todd Saunders @toddsaunders]

I know Silicon Valley startups don't want to hear this.....

But the combination of someone in the trades with deep domain expertise and Claude Code will run circles around your generic software.

I talked to Cory LaChance this morning, a mechanical engineer in industrial piping construction in Houston. He normally works with chemical plants and refineries, but now he also works with the terminal

He reached out in a DM a few days ago and I was so fired up by his story, I asked him if we could record the conversation and share it.

He built a full application that industrial contractors are using every day. It reads piping isometric drawings and automatically extracts every weld count, every material spec, every commodity code.

Work that took 10 minutes per drawing now takes 60 seconds. It can do 100 drawings in five minutes, saving days of time.

His co-workers are all mind blown, and when he talks to them, it's like they are speaking different languages.

His fabrication shop uses it daily, and he built the entire thing in 8 weeks. During those 8 weeks he also had to learn everything about Claude Code, the terminal, VS Code, everything.

My favorite quote from him was when he said, "I literally did this with zero outside help other than the AI. My favorite tools are screenshots, step by step instructions and asking Claude to explain things like I'm five."

Every trades worker with deep expertise and a willingness to sit down with Claude Code for a few weekends is now a potential software founder.

I can't wait to meet more people like Cory.

[Sadanand Dhume @dhume]

The success of India’s 1991 reforms was to make such stories possible. The deadweight of bureaucracy and overly complex regulations still make first generation entrepreneurial success too rare for a country of India’s size, but at least it’s possible and that’s no small thing.

[Sridhar Vembu @svembu]

The stock market is becoming very negative about the prospects of SaaS companies in the AI-assisted Code era. Well before the AI revolution, I have said SaaS industry is ripe for consolidation. An industry that spends vastly more on sales and marketing than on engineering and product development was always vulnerable. The venture capital bubble and then the stock market bubble funded a fundamentally flawed, unsustainable model for too long. AI is the pin that is popping this inflated balloon.

Can Zoho survive the AI wave? It depends on our ability to adapt. I always ask our employees to calmly contemplate our death. When we accept that possibility, we become more fearless and that is when we can calmly chart our course.

[Anand Ranganathan @ARanganathan72]

For six decades, commies destroyed livelihood of millions, keeping them poor and jobless. Now they are after @deepigoyal who is providing livelihood to millions who'd otherwise be poor and jobless.

There is no cure for Communism. It can only be defeated through herd immunity.

[V Shukla @vshukl]

Pontificators should not get in the way of those doing real work

[Rohit @Iam_Rohit_G]

Number of Jobs created by Blinkit : 1,85,000+
Number of Jobs created by Zepto : 1,20,000+
Number of Jobs created by Big Basket :80000+
Number of Jobs created by Zomato : 5,50,000+
Number of Jobs created by Swiggy : 6,90,000
Number of Jobs created by Urban Company : 40000+
Number of Jobs created by OLA : 1 million+
Number of Jobs created by Uber : 1.4 Million+
Number of Jobs created by Rapido : 8,00,000+

No of jobs created by Kunal Kamra : 0
No of Jobs created by Raghav Chadda : 0
No of Jobs created by Ravish Kumar : 0

People who have created 0 jobs are questioning people who have created million of Jobs in India!!

[V Shukla @vshukl]

What an insight!

[Deepinder Goyal @deepigoyal]

Last one on this topic, and I have been holding this in myself for a while.

For centuries, class divides kept the labor of the poor invisible to the rich. Factory workers toiled behind walls, farmers in distant fields, domestic help in backrooms. The wealthy consumed the fruits of that labor without ever seeing the faces or the fatigue behind it. No direct encounter, no personal guilt.

The gig economy shattered that invisibility, at unprecedented scale.

Suddenly, the poor aren't hidden away. They're at your doorstep: the delivery partner handing over your ₹1000+ biryani, late-night groceries, or quick-commerce essentials. You see them in the rain, heat, traffic, often on borrowed bikes, working 8–10 hours for earnings that give them sustenance. You see their exhaustion, their polite smile masking frustration with life in general.

This is the first time in history at this scale that the working class and consuming class interact face-to-face, transaction after transaction. And that discomfort with our own selves is why we are uncomfortable about the gig economy. We want these people to look our part, so that the guilt we feel while taking orders from them feels less.

We aren't just debating economics. We are confronting guilt. That ₹800 order might equal their entire day's earnings after fuel, bike rent, and app cuts. We tip awkwardly, or avoid eye contact, because the inequality is no longer abstract. It's personal.

Pre-gig era, the rich could enjoy luxury without moral discomfort. Labor was out of sight. Now, every doorbell ring is a reminder of systemic inequality. That's why debates explode. It's not just policy. It's emotional reckoning. Some defend the system (“they choose it”), others demand change (“this isn't progress, its exploitation”).

And here’s the uncomfortable twist: the unsaid ask of clumsy ‘solutions’ isn’t dignity. It is about returning to invisibility.

Ban gig work and you don’t solve inequality. You remove livelihoods. These jobs don’t magically reappear as formal, protected employment the next day. They disappear, or they get pushed back into the informal economy where there are even fewer protections and even less accountability. Over-regulate it until the model breaks, and you achieve the same outcome through paperwork instead of slogans: the work evaporates, prices rise, demand collapses, and the people we claim to protect are the first to lose income.

And then what happens?

The rich get their old comfort back. Convenience returns without faces. Guilt dissolves. We go back to clean abstractions and moral posturing from a distance. The poor don’t become safer, they become invisible again: back in cash economies, back in backrooms, back in shadows where regulation rarely reaches and dignity isn’t even debated.

The gig economy just exposed the reality of inequality to the people who previously had the luxury of not seeing it. The doorbell is not the problem. The question is what we do after opening the door.

Visibility is the price of progress. We can either use this discomfort to build something better (which we keep doing continuously as delivery partners are our backbone), or we can ban and over-regulate our way back into ignorance. One of those choices improves lives. The other simply helps the consuming class feel virtuous in the dark.

[Founders Village @foundersvillge]

Coming up at Tech Weekend December 2025

VC Office Hours with, Venktesh Shukla @vshukl, General Partner at @MontaVC Vista Capital, investing in Enterprise tech — cloud, cybersecurity, data, and digital transformation of traditional industries

📅 Friday, December 5th | ⏰ 3 PM – 5 PM
Location: Edge & Node San Francisco, 94129.

Venktesh Shukla is the Founder and Managing Director of Monta Vista Capital, a seed-stage venture fund investing in IP-driven B2B startups. With a background in scaling tech companies and leadership roles at TiE Silicon Valley and Foundation for Excellence, he brings deep operating and investing experience to support visionary founders.

Monta Vista Capital prides itself on being entrepreneur-friendly and offering help beyond funding. Portfolio companies include Aviatrix, Tekion Corp, Cequence Security, Captiv8, Tatari, DuploCloud, SafeAI (now part of Pronto), and many more.

What Are VC Office Hours?

✔️ One-on-one meetings with VCs during Tech Weekend
✔️ Book your meeting slots in advance
✔️ Each meeting lasts 15 minutes
✔️ Pitch, get tailored advice, and refine your strategy

🔗 Link to Sign up for Tech Weekend: https://t.co/15UQ1uefkR

If you’re building in Enterprise tech — cloud, cybersecurity, data, and digital transformation of traditional industries—this is your chance to connect with an investor who’s helped launch and scale products on a global stage.

[V Shukla @vshukl]

@IndiGo6E Hello, it was not the gate that was different. You sent me to the wrong terminal that was 8 km away from the correct terminal! Do not blame others for your incompetence, please.

[V Shukla @vshukl]

@IndiGo6E changed our departure terminal for flight 6364 from 2 to 1 in Delhi this morning and forgot to inform us. We barely made it Going to Terminal 2 and then paying extortionate money to a taxi to rush to Terminal 1. Barely made it

[IndiGo @IndiGo6E]

@vshukl Hi, we regret the inconvenience caused. However, we would like to inform you that the boarding gate allocation comes under the purview of the airport authority and is subject to change at any given time. We look forward to your kind understanding. ~Malishka

[Founders Village @foundersvillge]

Tech Weekend September 2025 — Recap

Over 274 technical founders joined us from across the U.S. & 15+ countries—building in AI, climate, deep tech, space, fintech, quantum, health tech, solar, & other frontier sectors

Over 3 days, 46 investors joined us, representing $10B+ AUM. Founders connected with them through 1:1 VC Office Hours, the VC Mixer, candid panels, fireside chats, and the Pitch Competition

Dozens of founders secured follow-up meetings with VCs, and many investors discovered startups they’re excited to back

Huge thanks to the VCs who participated at Tech Weekend

Henry Pham Managing Partner @octantventures
Jim Disanto Managing Partner @MotusVentures
Amir Kabir Managing Partner Overlook Ventures
Shabd Vaid Managing Partner Crucial VC
@j2ulie Julie Lein Managing Partner Urban Innovation Fund
Murilo Menezes Managing Partner Positive Ventures
Zack Onisko Managing Director Enduring Ventures
Sally Zhang Managing Partner Centenarian Fund
Abi Adisa @frontierhedgie President @OridunCapital Management
Philip King President @bayangelsSF
Dhruv Jain VP @ElevCap
@SheelaUrsal GP @Fintechnext1
@chenxiwang, General Partner @Raincapital01
Carlos Baradello General Partner @AlayaCapital Partners
@eddua General Partner IA SeedVentures
@vshukl General Partner @MontaVC
Nikita Gaurav, Partner Necessary Ventures
Warren Shaeffer Partner @pearvc
Luka Tomljenovic Partner Radius Capital
Alexander Schubert Partner at SciFounders
Maria Pienaar Operating Partner @UnicornGrowth_C
Mark Mendel Venture Partner @SozoVentures
Alessandro Levi Investment Partner @Longview Innovation
Andrew Boston Partner Founders Circle
Jeremy Scheibböck Partner Potrero Capital
Nurdaulet Bazylbekov, Partner @eurasianhubvc
@ArifDamji Partner @ConductiveVC
Kohzoh Fukaya Investment Dir. Kirin Holdings Co., Ltd.
Pramod Gosavi Sr. Principal @BlumbergCapital
Naoko Onishi Principal E12Ventures
Ryan McCrackan, Principal Yamaha Motor Ventures
Benny Liao, Principal @acornpacific Ventures
Sanjay Velappan Sr. Associate, Berkeley @SkyDeck_Cal Fund
Risa Foard Foard, Associate @SalesforceVC Venture Capital
@WainesRich5523 Associate @DCVCBio
Anna Jacoby Associate @SapphireVC
Nao Shibata Associate Benhamou Global Ventures
Suraj Pakala Investor @FalconXVentures
Caroline C. Investor Activate Capital
Chris Messina Investor Ride Home AI Fund
Joshua Schoen Investor Grieve Family Office
Patrick Klas Investor MGV
Heather Rebuelta @Conscendo Ventures
Jason Chern Wipro Ventures
Gladys Wan Prog Lead @UofBeta
Anita Everest AI Ventures

🏆 Congrats to the Pitch Competition Winners!

TurboInnovate — AI agent for commercializing deep-tech ideas. Seed+ $1.3M raised. Founder: Rupak Doshi

@navisavitravel — AI-powered travel video ecosystem, Seed; $980K raised. Founder: @BunnellSally

Thanks to our venues: @_Actioners Residency & @SFOxZo .

🎟️ Tech Weekend returns mid-November 2025 — this time with an upgrade (& a few bug fixes). Stay tuned for announcements next week

[Subhash Kak ☀️𑀲𑀼𑀪𑀸𑀱 𑀓𑀸𑀓 . सुभाष काक @subhash_kak]

"The East India Company's masterstroke was presenting Indian famines as demographic inevitabilities rather than policy outcomes. When millions died—10 million in Bengal in 1770, another million in 1866, up to 10 million in 1876-78—colonial administrators blamed overpopulation. They argued these were "natural checks" that would have occurred anyway, perhaps even more severely, without British rule. The logic was breathtaking in its cynicism: British exploitation didn't cause famines; British benevolence prevented worse ones.

This rhetoric enabled policies of calculated cruelty. During famines, relief was deliberately minimal and punitive. The destitute were required to perform hard labor—breaking rocks, digging ditches—to "earn" starvation rations. Open charity was forbidden as it might encourage dependency. The infamous "distance test" required starving people to walk miles to relief centers, ensuring only the desperate would apply. Those too weak to work or walk were classified as "undeserving poor" and left to die. All this was defended through Malthusian logic: excessive relief would only encourage breeding and create future famines.

The Company's most audacious argument was that British improvements had created India's population problem. They claimed that by establishing peace, building railways, improving hygiene, and providing "civilized government," they had removed the traditional "checks" on population—war, disease, local famines. Population growth was thus presented as an unintended consequence of British benevolence. The famines that followed weren't failures of colonial rule but proof of its success—so many Indians were alive only because of British governance."

The Big Lie About Too Many People, by @Unbekoming https://t.co/byP7OqQ75U

[Founders Village @foundersvillge]

Coming Up at Tech Weekend – September 2025

The 2025 VC Outlook: Markets, Metrics & Momentum

Join us for a candid discussion with two seasoned investors as they share how they’re thinking about markets, what metrics matter most right now, and where they see opportunities for founders heading into 2026.

📅 Friday, September 5 | 2:30 PM – 3:30 PM
📍 The Zo house @SFOxZo 300 4th St. San Francisco 94107

Panelists
🔹 @vshukl Venktesh Shukla, General Partner at @MontaVC
Investment Focus: Enterprise tech - cloud, cyber security, data or digital transformation of traditional industries
Founder of Monta Vista Capital and seed-stage investor with over a decade of experience backing enterprise tech startups across cloud, cybersecurity, data, and digital transformation. Venk has worked with 50+ startups as an executive, investor, and board member, and previously served as President of TiE Silicon Valley. He continues to shape the startup ecosystem in both the U.S. and India as an investor, advisor, and policy influencer.

🔹 Jennifer Vancini, General Partner at @MightyCapital
Investment Focus: SaaS, AI, HealthTech, Fintech, Climate
Founding General Partner at Mighty Capital, Jennifer brings a decade of investing experience and a track record that includes building Pointgrey Partners, where she achieved a 15x return. With deep expertise across SaaS, AI, healthtech, fintech, and climate, she also brings extensive executive experience in security and mobile, having held leadership roles at Telefonica, Symbian/Nokia, and Certicom (which she helped take public).

If you’re building in SaaS, AI, fintech, or enterprise tech—this is the panel you don’t want to miss.

🔗 Sign up: https://t.co/zjfAHKqL6Z

[Sanjeev Sanyal @sanjeevsanyal]

The number of live births in India peaked 25 years ago, and fertility rates are now well below replacement rates. My article in @business_today (with Sayandeb) where we argue that the time has come to end all population control programmes across India, including those in UP and Bihar

https://t.co/0ufSLeqGnp

[V Shukla @vshukl]

@WSJ how do I suspend delivery of my print subscription to the journal? Your web site is no help

[V Shukla @vshukl]

Looking forward to engaging with promising entrepreneurs. Every such engagement is a learning experience for me.

[Founders Village @foundersvillge]

Coming up at Tech Weekend June 2025

Venktesh Shukla,(@vshukl) General Partner at @MontaVC, investing in Enterprise tech — cloud, cybersecurity, data, and digital transformation of traditional industries

📅 Friday, June 27th | ⏰ 11 AM – 1 PM
📍 The Zo House, @SFOxZo San Francisco, CA 94107

Venktesh Shukla is the Founder and Managing Director of Monta Vista Capital, a seed-stage venture fund investing in IP-driven B2B startups. With a background in scaling tech companies and leadership roles at TiE Silicon Valley and Foundation for Excellence, he brings deep operating and investing experience to support visionary founders.

Monta Vista Capital prides itself on being entrepreneur-friendly and offering help beyond funding. Portfolio companies include Aviatrix, Tekion Corp, Cequence Security, Captiv8, Tatari, DuploCloud, SafeAI, Inc., and many more.

What Are VC Office Hours?
✔️ One-on-one meetings with VCs during Tech Weekend
✔️ Book your meeting slots in advance
✔️ Each meeting lasts 15 minutes
✔️ Pitch, get tailored advice, and refine your strategy

🔗 Link to Sign up: https://t.co/MBI0rUf3jD

[Founders Village @foundersvillge]

Coming up at Tech Weekend June 2025

Venktesh Shukla,(@vshukl) General Partner at @MontaVC, investing in Enterprise tech — cloud, cybersecurity, data, and digital transformation of traditional industries

📅 Friday, June 27th | ⏰ 11 AM – 1 PM
📍 The Zo House, @SFOxZo San Francisco, CA 94107

Venktesh Shukla is the Founder and Managing Director of Monta Vista Capital, a seed-stage venture fund investing in IP-driven B2B startups. With a background in scaling tech companies and leadership roles at TiE Silicon Valley and Foundation for Excellence, he brings deep operating and investing experience to support visionary founders.

Monta Vista Capital prides itself on being entrepreneur-friendly and offering help beyond funding. Portfolio companies include Aviatrix, Tekion Corp, Cequence Security, Captiv8, Tatari, DuploCloud, SafeAI, Inc., and many more.

What Are VC Office Hours?
✔️ One-on-one meetings with VCs during Tech Weekend
✔️ Book your meeting slots in advance
✔️ Each meeting lasts 15 minutes
✔️ Pitch, get tailored advice, and refine your strategy

🔗 Link to Sign up: https://t.co/MBI0rUf3jD

[V Shukla @vshukl]

@elonmusk British Empire as a force for good! Really? India was one of the richest countries in the world and they sucked it dry making it one of the poorest countries in the world. And killed millions of people in a man made famine. Force for good!

[Sanjeev Bikhchandani @sbikh]

At Info Edge we were delighted to host Six Trainee IAS Officers who are doing their stint at DPIIT (Startup India). Young extremely bright people motivated to serve the public. We discussed the importance of startups in the India growth story, ease of doing business and what they could do to encourage industrial growth when they go for their district postings. I was very impressed with their clarity of thinking. Four out of the six were women. And two out of the four women are rank 1 and 2. @DPIITGoI @InfoEdgeVC @Naukri