Volunteer. Marketer. Entrepreneur (at heart). On a mission to raise human consciousness. Starting with me. RTs not endorsements.
Hyderabad, India
Joined February 2009
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Sashank SV retweeted
No stadiums. No spotlights. Just a ball, a village court, and 63,000+ players giving it their all.
First look at our film on Isha Gramotsavam, Bharat’s biggest rural sports festival, envisioned by @SadhguruJV.
Presented by @shekharkapur . #ABallCanChangeTheWorld
Sashank SV retweeted
Companies should be afraid of not paying their suppliers. Examples need to be made.
Sashank SV retweeted
₹76,000-crore India Semiconductor Mission has lit the spark, and the decade ahead is promising for Indian silicon
The edge was always talent with 20% of the world’s chip designers are in India. Now that talent has (still limited) capital, demand and policy support behind it. In 2021, India’s chip startups raised just $25.1M.
In 2025, semiconductor startups raised $474M, nearly 19x more. About 620 startups have been founded in five years, raising over $1B together. Late-stage funding more than tripled, and first-time investors grew from 12 to 80.
Global giants are buying in. Infineon is acquiring Bengaluru’s C2i for AI data-centre power chips, and Renesas bought Steradian for its radar tech. There have been 27 deals in five years, at a median price of $125M.
While it is a strong validation, but it’s also a double-edged sword. Indian startups are finally moving from designing for others to building and owning their own IP, and every foreign buyout risks that IP leaving just as the industry finds its feet.
The real test now is whether Indian founders can scale into national champions instead of selling out early. via @bsindia
Sashank SV retweeted
The number of active companies in India has risen by a third in three years: 1.6mn to 2.2mn.
Whether due to formalization of existing businesses or creation of new firms, this can only be due to i) easier regulations; ii) falling cost of capital.
Much distance to travel on both fronts, but side-effects are already showing on the second one. As the gradient of cost of capital reverses (global cost of capital is up, India's is down), capital flows are scarcer.
The lazy recommendation is to raise rates, or to raise fiscal spending. A more prudent approach would be to i) further ease capital inflows (e.g. the recent relaxation for bond investors); ii) raise demand for local capital (i.e., create more opportunities locally) - e.g., Rs6 trillion of fund-raises likely this year.
My column today in the Economic Times:
tessellatum.in/?p=632
Sashank SV retweeted
Bringing down rhino poaching to ZERO and eliminating poachers is way more easier than bringing down the inherent racist mentality of the relics of the Colonial empire.
But in Assam, we never say never...
It is extraordinary that India, still a relatively poor country, can achieve something as selfless as protecting other creatures. We explain how it became remarkably good at animal conservation economist.com/asia/2026/10/0…
Satyameva Jayate.
The allegations against Sadhguru and Isha travel faster than the facts. On Gandhi Jayanti, the facts are on one page.
Truth alone should triumph.
sadhguruallegations.com
Sashank SV retweeted
When frontier labs talk of “aligning” models, ask: to what? If they say values, ask: whose? If it’s theirs rather than the user’s: why?
Sashank SV retweeted
When someone dear to us passes, it is an opportunity for us to realize the mortal nature of our existence.
#SadhguruWisdom
Sashank SV retweeted
I’m convinced adaptability is the highest form of intelligence. Knowledge matters, but the ability to unlearn and change course is rare. The most impressive people I know change their minds often in response to new information. The goal isn't to be right. It's to find the truth.
Sashank SV retweeted
The Indian media will have to rework the manner in which it analyses our trade relationship with China. The $110 billion deficit is not a number to be afraid of.
politypolicy.substack.com/p/…
Sashank SV retweeted
Anthropic and OpenAI delaying their IPO, because their S-1 will reveal that they are bleeding money, and have no path to profitability.
Solution? "AI slowdown", so they cut costs for training new models.
It has everything to do with IPO, and nothing to do with safety.
Sashank SV retweeted
Why can’t I just minimize an active navigation on Google Maps, search/explore something else on the map, and then jump back to navigation?
Feels like such an obvious use case.
@googlemaps
Sashank SV retweeted
In mid-2024, Pocket FM was at $200M ARR, growing 50% YoY, and we decided to kill its business model.
Revenue flatlined for six months, we turned cash flow negative, and investors were writing us off.
But then, Pocket's ecosystem exploded.
Our reasoning and why this happened:
What constrains Netflix's growth is content. They spend $17B+ on content production yearly, but many shows don't make it to the final stage. Of those that do, only a few become blockbusters. And those few are the reason subscribers stay on Netflix.
So we started thinking. Pocket was growing nicely. However, what limited us was how many new users we could add and retain at scale. The only solution we came up with was increasing the number of blockbusters. Blockbusters drive user growth and retention at the same time.
To get more blockbusters, Pocket FM needed more production.
That's why we pivoted to only AI Content production.
This did a number of things:
1. More content gets produced because we removed a lot of friction from doing so. It's easier for writers to maintain daily production. And for writers who still haven't found their hit show, testing and pivoting becomes less time-consuming. From taking several months to test even one show, you can now test 3-4 shows in one month.
2. Content quality increases. The more content gets produced and consumed on Pocket, the better the engine gets. We continuously monitor retention and other engagement metrics. When we detect something is working, our writing copilot learns it.
3. Unlocked hundreds of thousands of writers; Pocket's writing copilot is built to help writers without storytelling training.
This is in contrast to Netflix's model. While their budget gets allocated among a limited number of studios, Pocket's supply side is getting flooded with writers. Over 500k writers are producing on our platform.
4. Made it easier to cross-create ads to attract users. Better shows are easier to sell to people who aren't yet using Pocket. And the same data that feeds our copilot goes on to feed the engine we use to create ad videos, which is also self-reinforcing.
_____________________________
After making the change, ARR flatlined for six months and we started losing money. It was extremely painful, but then growth and the whole ecosystem exploded.
- Hours of content produced per year went from 35k to ~2.5M.
- New titles added yearly more than tripled from 120k to 400k+
- Millions of new users joined Pocket.
The obvious risk was opening the gates to AI slop. That's why we have an extremely rigorous feedback and moderation process
Ultimately, the only thing that matters is whether users are enjoying the content that's being uploaded. Metrics don't lie:
- 12-month revenue retention went from 44% to 76%.
- Avg daily streaming time went from ~25mins to 150+ mins.
- DAUs/WAUs from 30% to 51%.
I think we're extremely early, and I'm excited to see how Pocket's flywheels continue to accelerate from here.
Often missed, a leader who can explain a while industry supply chain with this alacrity, is what it takes to build an ecosystem of this magnitude. This is very impressive @AshwiniVaishnaw ji
Sashank SV retweeted
On my flight from Delhi to Kathmandu was a group from the Isha Foundation (@ishafoundation), on their way to the Kailash Mansarovar pilgrimage. They were brimming with excitement, looking forward to the journey to Lord Shiva’s abode.
Many from that same group were on my flight back from Kathmandu. The excitement of the onward journey had given way to a deep sense of grief and anxiety. They were sombre and shaken by the tragedy that had engulfed fellow pilgrims from Isha.
Yet, amid the anguish, there was something remarkable about their resolve. Many spoke of returning — of undertaking the pilgrimage again, undeterred by the tragedy that had just unfolded.
My thoughts and prayers are with Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev (@SadhguruJV), the entire Isha Foundation family and all those still waiting anxiously for news of their loved ones as they grapple with this terrible tragedy.
May Lord Shiva give them strength. 🙏
