I keep updating this page to reflect who I am as on the day of the edit and thus I like keeping the old text here for posterity.
On Oct 30, 2014
I’m a tech entrepreneur with two acquisitions under the belt. Currently managing payment products at Ezetap after they acquired my startup Clink. Clink was a big attempt at using consumer transaction data to run better targeted ads. Our product was targeted at banks with large credit/debit card portfolios. We fought the good battle and pitched to clients in India, UAE, Australia, etc but struggled to grow beyond our first client. Learnt not to go after large enterprise accounts without prior experience, connections and tons of money. Clink was funded by the good people at Sequoia, Kae capital and my favorite, Blume Ventures. I ran Gharpay(acq: Delhivery) for two years before Clink, which was my first job/startup after graduating from BITS.
I am passionate about application of technology to solve problems and intend to be a tech entrepreneur for as long as I live.
In the last four years I’ve traveled extensively for work. At last count I must have made about 400+ flight and bus journeys. I’ve lived and worked in Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad and finally Bangalore. Got an opportunity to visit Australia, UAE and Thailand in addition to the 7 European countries I toured in 2009-2010.
Recently moved to Bangalore and I’ve happily adopted some of the city’s culture. Listed below for your pleasure:
- I cycle to work(Its convenient because I dislike driving in traffic and would rather poke my eyes out with a toothpick than deal with unscrupulous auto drivers every day)
- I turn my nose up at branded beers and prefer craft beers(Fresh beer, yum)
- I talk way too much about the weather(Easy to get used to the weather but definitely a reason for much joy)
- Dinners are at Empire and a good dosa is guaranteed to make me happy(Hyderabad did not have such good dosas!)
- My knowledge of Indian indie bands on a scale of 10 has gone from 2 to 7 and climbing
- I try to catch one or two plays every month at Rangashankara and once in a while check out an art gallery(Easily one of my favorite ways to spend a weekend)
- Board games! Arguably I picked this love for a well designed board game up when I lived in Mumbai but Bangalore is where my collection of games has grown. The weekly board game meetups are a wonderful opportunity to meet new people and exercise my competitive spirit. Puerto Rico, Agricola, Dixit, Carcassonne, Settlers of Catan, etc are ones I love playing over and over again.
Bangalore behavior I refuse to adopt:
- Avoiding Bollywood movies and music(How can you not dance to Bollywood music?! I’m yet to find a place here which plays good desi music)
- Drinking all the bloody time(I’ve never seen a city that drinks as much as Bangalore does, I refuse to spend my weekends just drinking and complaining about traffic)
- Driving a car everywhere(For a city with terrific public transport, its a shame to drive everywhere. And if you drive a car, you are traffic)
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On Nov 3rd, 2010
If you had to describe me one word, choose ‘entrepreneur’. I’ve been part of numerous startup projects a few which never saw the light of the day, few which lost steam because I found something else to work on and one moderately successful one(at least it is still running and employing people). Right now I’m super busy working on a startup and will be so for the next few years.
I’ve previously worked in the microfinance, web, climate change activism and renewable energy research. I even interned in a cancer hospital and spent a semester on bacterial genetics research. Working implies six months full-time or over 12 months part-time. I love solving problems, working on projects and learning. Thus I’ve ended up exploring and drifting about quite a bit, which is no crime when you are 22 and never want to have a normal career. Drifting about I’ve traveled extensively in 22 Indian states and 7 countries. If you think I’m a bit strange, thank you.
This blog is a personal one where I write infrequently my observations on our amazingly entertaining Indian society, random musings on my life, and occasionally on entrepreneurship stuff. I used to do a bit of freelance journalism about climate change and web technology. Here are two sites I had fun writing for: UNDispatch and ThinkAboutIt.
Please google me up to find all my articles across all sites.
About BITS-Pilani, my university:
I’ve been lucky to have studied in Pilani and lived with some of the smartest and the most interesting people of my generation. Pilani played about 54.5% role in making me who I am today and I’m thankful.
Few news articles that mention me:
Disruptive Technologies Across Continents: Appeared in the Fortune magazine
A View Into India’s Gen Y: Online Fortune blog by Nadira Hira
Fresh help for startups : NEN Online
My favorite quotes:
“Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
– Mark Twain
“Smile, tomorrow’s going to be worse.”
“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”
– Robert A. Heinlein
Abhishaken 