Hello 👋,
Thank you for being a percolator reader! As I am writing this, we are a community of ~7000 now. Over the past two month you have really stuck around and have given me some very helpful feedback. I am trying to incorporate them and give percolator a structure which should be useful for everyone.
I have set up a discounted paid subscription option for those associated with academia. You can avail a 50% discount when you subscribe with your academy/institute email address. That makes it less than ₹190/£1.75/$2.5 a month.
In the header, I have also added links to two forms - one for you to connect with me and share feedback & suggestions. The another one for a set of specific startups which I would like to connect so that I can bring out their stories to percolator readers.
There was also a suggestion to start with discussion threads. Please let me know in comments or the form, what kind of topics would you like to have for discussion. Also, please make suggestions for the topics on which you would like me to write posts.
I was additionally asked for sharing job opportunities that I have in my network. I am working on figuring out how to do that efficiently.
You must have heard that twitter has started rolling out a community feature. So, for the subscribers of percolator to interact with each other, I have a set up a community which you can join following this link.
The month that it was
This month I published 7 posts which were delivered to 3000-6000 subscribers each and all of them were read by about 20% of the receivers. I am really thankful for the level of engagements and hope for your support to continue.
The topic for this month were:
Knowing 101: The Subtle Art of Acquiring Knowledge (for free subscribers)
Living in the Era of Information Deluge (for free subscribers)
A Beginner's Guide to Avoiding Narrative Trap (for free subscribers)
Perception: The Beginning of Knowing (for paid subscribers)
Intuition: About the Feeling of Knowing (for paid subscribers)
Reasoning: About going from knowing to having knowledge (for paid subscribers)
Metacognition: About knowing that you know or not (for paid subscribers)
Why is there a paid subscription?
I have talked about it in detail on the introduction page of percolator. In summary, it works as a validation for me, makes me feel that it is my responsibility to post on schedule and also gives the reader a sense of customership, empowering them to demand better from me.
What to expect in April?
In April, I am planning to post 9 newsletters including the digests. Based on the suggestion I am trying to divide my posts in two groups: one focusing on the fundamentals & frameworks, and the second on actionable tools & practices. I will also try include some tools or templates which can be downloaded. Expect 5-6 posts for paid subscribers and 3-4 for free subscribers.
Office Hours: Updates on work front
There are couple of major updates from March 2022.
Indicultr
This month I made my first foray in D2C brand with Indicultr as we launched the first range of products in personal care category on 13th March on Amazon - India.
Indicultr is a lifestyle and aesthetics brand embodying continued cultural heritage of India. It draws upon the civilizational knowledge, traditional practices and folk wisdom, to bring the natural respite of Indian aesthetics to the modern lifestyle; and supports the millennia old treasure of sustainable practices carried out by our farmers & artisans. The mantra at IndiCultr is ‘Simplifying life, the India way’
We are currently shipping in India only. Please do checkout our products on Amazon India and if you chose to buy, user PERCOLATOR20 for a 20% discount.
Also, if you are in the relevant sector and would like to connect over it, I would love to talk to you.
pod
Pod is our attempt at democratizing startup funding in India. We are making it safer and simpler for the small ticket investors to be part of the startup growth story of India. The platform allows investment as low as ₹20,000 in early to seed stage startups.
Since launching at the beginning this year, we have closed two deals on Pod, hosted 15 ‘Pitch on Pod’ events and now have built a great pipeline of the startups raising with us. This month Pod launched its own convertible round and got double subscribed within weeks.
We are super excited to enter the new phase of build and growth at pod. If you are a start up looking to raise, or investor exploring deals, please head over to pod or connect with me.
While I was Out of the Office
March in when my birthday happens, so I was away from 16th to 22nd, traveling in North Wales and Liverpool. We stayed a few days in the beautiful heritage town of Conwy and visited Conwy Castle, Aber Falls and Beaumaris Castle from there. For last couple of days I was in Liverpool. While North Wales is full of natural beauty and heritage; Liverpool boasts to be the home of The Beatles. If you are looking for a week long getaway in UK, you can probably do this trip.
I post pictures of my travel on Instagram with the handle @travelwithneel - you can head over there to see a set from this trip. I also have a free travel newsletter where I post two images along with stories about them, every week.
Have a look and subscribe if travel is your thing.
5 from the Month
These are my 5 recommendation from the things I watched, read or came across, the last month. Hope you find them interesting.
One Show
This month the most interesting show I watched was Inventing Anna on Netflix. By no means endorsing what Anna Sorokin did, but one cannot deny the wit it requires to pull something like that off. I thought the show actually put the story of Anna Sorokin really well. If you haven’t watched yet, do binge on it. And, if you have, I have a question for you. Knowing what we know, will you hire Anna Sorokin on your team?
One Film
The Kashmir Files is one of the most compelling film I have watched in a long time. All the politics around the film aside, it is a story that needed to be told and should have been told long ago. Also, the way this small budget film has performed on the box office is a case study in itself in community marketing. Do watch, if you haven’t yet.
One Tech
Check out Nimo Planet. They are practically changing the way we understand computers and devices. Back in 2015-16 a friend & flatmate in Bangalore was trying to build something very similar, so I have first hand understanding of how difficult it is that the team at Nimo has pulled off. And, theirs is one of the coolest demo videos I have watched.
One Article
Do you know where do the Eels comes from? Did you know that Sigmund Freud spend a considerable part of his life, figuring that out?
This is the most mind boggling article that I read this month. It is a 2 years old article but I read just last week, and was blown. Do give it a read.
One Thought
Yesterday in a discussion a friend mentioned something akin to avoiding putting things in such ways, which might feel less compassionate towards a set of people, event if that is true. That made me think of the idea of ‘Idiot Compassion’ coined by Tibetan Buddhist teacher Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche.
It basically calls out the kind of compassion which serves the purpose of only avoiding conflict or appearing nice, and end up creating a situation where to those whom we displayed this compassion, walk all over us. The opposite of it, he suggests is wise compassion.
My inference is that, a natural outcome of ‘Idiot Compassion’ is ‘Negative Peace’. What do you think about it?
…and a Bonus
This week Blume Ventures released their first Indus Valley Annual Report. It is an incredibly well put report on the state of technology and startup growth in India. The massive deck encapsulate every aspect of the ecosystem very well.
If you are active in Indian market or interested in it, you must have a look at it. You can download the report from here.
Once again, thank you for continuing to be a part of The Percolator. Please let me know what do you think about this format of the digest, and what else would you like me to include.
Also, do join our community on Twitter.
Best,
Neel