• Two Startups: B2B Sales Strategy as Determinant of Fate

    In the summer of 2021, two B2B SaaS startups launched within weeks of each other. The world had started emerging from the global pandemic, but its effects were still reshaping how we work. Remote work had become the new default, and companies were scrambling to adapt to this fundamental shift. Sensing opportunity, countless startups began…

  • From Yellow Pages to AI: A Journey through B2B Sales Evolution

    My sales career started selling what we used to call dabbe. Originating from the Hindi word dabba which means box, it was a pejorative for cartons of a dumb product. Even in the naive cocksureness of youth, the irony of the term wasn’t lost on me. Those boxes were computing equipment – Desktop Computers (or…

  • What’s it about the NYT profile of Elizabeth Holmes?

    Over the weekend, I finally gave in. I just had to read the NYT profile of Elizabeth Holmes, the convicted founder of Theranos, to see what it was that had riled people so much. The piece has been called a waste of ink, but then isn’t that most of the internet anyway? If it is…

  • 2023 Week 4 – Struck by strike

    My kids’ school is closed tomorrow because the teachers are on strike. With the way things are across the UK, this was only a matter of time. I can’t think of any public service that hasn’t been on strike till now. I don’t think there’s anybody in this country who wouldn’t have been affected in…

  • 2023 Week 3 – No Logo, contd.

    Note – I’ve still been thinking about some of the questions which No Logo left me with. So I am going to cheat a bit and build upon last week’s post to add some more of my thoughts. Deleting/editing last week’s post did occur to me, but I felt it will be better to leave…

  • 2023 Week 2 – No Logo

    It’s been more than twenty years since No Logo was first published. I finally read my copy more than a decade after purchasing it, during which it travelled with me as I moved between four cities in three countries. Had I read the book then, it would have been a revelation. Reading it now, I…

  • 2023 Week 1 – Resolutions

    I don’t recall the last time I made resolutions in a new year. As far as I can remember, I never have.   Although TBH, my memory doesn’t stretch much beyond the past 6 years. Parenthood transforms the way our brains are wired. Definitely for the better, because it doesn’t leave much space for anything…

  • A matter of representation

      “We have a third prime minister?”   Yes, and I showed her his photograph.   “Oh, okay”.   For a soon to be six years old, it didn’t really mean anything to my daughter to see it was someone brown like us. When I told her that he was the first brown prime minister…

  • Birthday cakes and design process learnings

    Last week, I baked a birthday cake for my daughter. I enjoy cooking but I haven’t really tried my hand a lot at baking. So I picked up the easiest sounding recipe for a chocolate cake. Why chocolate? Because every five year old loves chocolate. Actually, make that between five and fifty, to take into…

  • Ramadan Mubarak 1442H

    This time last year, I had been discharged from the hospital and had spent 2 weeks in isolation waiting for my “double negative” test results. By then, all I wanted was to be home in time for Eid. Looking back, there is so much to be grateful for. The gift of life, of being with…