2024 Reflections and Looking Ahead

2024 has been a year of significant transitions and self-discovery. One of the major changes was my decision to move on from Questbook and Reclaim protocol to take time for reflection. After my longest professional stint (~4 years) as the first employee, saying goodbye wasn’t easy. I had poured everything into my role at Questbook, and remain hopeful about our funding round. I’ve now started a new chapter at Uber, and I’m excited about what lies ahead. Through these experiences, I’ve gathered several insights that I want to share - most of them advice to myself.

1. Working Out is Non-Negotiable - Despite your friends joking that you might end up looking like a gym trainer, maintaining a consistent workout routine can be game changing. Over the past 1.5 years, working out and playing football has become my daily routine. All worries, stress, just disappear during this time.

2. Be Intentional About Your Career Path - In my early career days, I often let serendipity guide my choices. While some decisions were driven by interesting problem statements, I didn’t think deeply about my long-term direction. After conversations with over 500 professionals in my network, I’ve realized the importance of intentional career planning. Though this might seem to contradict Steve Jobs’ advice against career planning, the reality is that certain boxes need to be checked for profile consideration. What’s important is understanding what you want in your current life phase. Your desires will evolve, so focus on your goals for the next two years - looking beyond that is futile.

3. Zoomed In vs ZoomedOut View - After eight years of professional experience, stepping away from Questbook gave me the chance to zoom out and confront questions I’d never asked myself: What do I want next? For how long? Why? How will it align with my future goals? While there are no universally right answers, there’s usually one that resonates most strongly with you. This introspection led me to withdraw from some opportunities, potentially disappointing people in my network. But it marked the first time I truly thought deeply about myself and my path. To those I might have inconvenienced in this process - I apologize.

4. Know When to Move On : When your contributions to a company’s growth decrease while you becoming a cost, it’s time to reassess. Companies pivot, and their vision may be different from yours. The key is to communicate openly and seek common ground. If alignment seems impossible, it’s time to move forward.

5. Choose your Peers Leaders Wisely: As the first employee at a Series A (soon to be Series B) company, I gained a ton insights into the dynamics between founders, customers, investors, employees, and other stakeholders. This experience taught me crucial lessons about storytelling, detecting bullshit, fundraising, team building, and stress management. I highly recommend going after such opportunities early in your career, but choose carefully - your selection can be life-changing. Feel free to reach out if you need guidance.

6. A simple note : Being contrarian and right just once can transform your life trajectory forever.

7. On Choosing Non Linear Career Path : My career has been anything but conventional. From consulting for a Special Chief Secretary of the Government to working in venture capital at Kalaari Capital, product management at Grofers (now Blinkit), being a first employee in web3 and B2B SaaS, and now PM at Uber - each role has been unique. The diversity of challenges and my colleagues has shaped who I am in ways that are hard to articulate. Looking back, the dots do connect favourably. The benefits are clear: cross-industry knowledge transfer, multiple opportunities to learn from zero, and increased credibility across various domains.

8. Preparing for the AI Future - AI will likely transform most jobs as we know them. Hence, it’s important to build as much financial runway as possible before this accelerates. Nonody knows what the future might look like. But we must continue doing our jobs while being aware of this reality - it feels like we’re all protagonists in a thriller movie.

9. Worrying is a waste of mental energy and doesn’t improve any situation. More often than not, it’s inaction that leads to worry and stress. The antidote is taking action, however small.

10. I believe crypto will go mainstream through consumer social applications. This is definitely a space I’ll be watching closely.

11. Writing is perhaps one of the most undervalued exercises. It’s a powerful tool for mental clarity. I regret not writing more consistently after July, 2024, but expect more consistent blogposts from me in 2025