Founder @tdv_partners | Pre-seed & seed investor in India's consumer revolution | 2X founder (built & shut down) | IIM-A | Views personal
Bengaluru
Joined March 2013
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🌟 Thrilled to announce the launch of a new TDV Partners fund 🌟
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#VentureCapital #TDVPartners #FundLaunch #Startups #Entrepreneurship #Innovation #Investing
entrepreneur.com/en-in/news-…
A store on a 100 ft road can beat your Instagram budget.
Or it can be a very expensive billboard.
The difference is what you measure.
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The test is simple:
Store lowers blended CAC and lifts repeat enough to raise LTV? Capex justified.
Otherwise, it’s just an expensive billboard.
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Founders with stores, what’s the one metric that told you it was working, or that it wasn’t?
I shared more on this with @Inc42:
inc42.com/features/store-mem…
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This time I can say India was almost half a decade after of US! 😁
Today we’re announcing @DoorDash’s intent to acquire @Instacart.
Both DoorDash and Instacart share a mission to help local businesses succeed. Together, we could give grocers and retailers of every size the best of both in one service: DoorDash's delivery network and Instacart’s grocery and fulfillment technology, along with the advertising and AI tools each company has built.
Until closing, DoorDash and Instacart will keep operating as separate, independent companies.
Find out on how we’re helping Main Street compete and keeping more dollars local: shoplocaltogether.com
For important additional information, read more here: ir.doordash.com/news/news-de…
Ujwal Sutaria retweeted
Hate this Rs million nonsense. We are in India. We go by lakhs, crores dude – at Mumbai, India
Ujwal Sutaria retweeted
#PalkiSharmaShow: This Indian museum beat the Louvre & Met to rank among the world's top 10. @palkisu tells you more.
Our first Founder Hours in Delhi NCR filled up within hours.
We expected a good response. We didn't expect such great response that slots filled up within minutes with high quality founders shortlisted!
So we're adding another session.
Register - forms.gle/JSMGTSjaN76TM1vWA
Ujwal Sutaria retweeted
The MOST obvious (but REALLY good) STARTUP ideas right now:
1. Zestimate for company data (what your data is worth to an AI lab)
2. Google Analytics for agents (see which agents visit your site and what they want)
3. Y Combinator for 1 person companies (back solo founders running a team of agents)
4. Okta for agents (who each agent is and what it's allowed to touch)
5. Marie Kondo for your company's data (clean it up so agents can use it)
6. FICO for agents (a trust score before an agent can spend money)
7. Geico for agents (insurance for when an agent makes an expensive mistake)
8. Datadog for agents (see every step your agents took)
9. Twilio for agents (phone numbers and texting for agents)
10. Upwork for agents (hire an agent for a job instead of a freelancer)
11. ESPN for AI (every model launch covered like a big game).
12. Shutterstock for robot training videos (get paid to film yourself doing chores)
13. Credit Karma for what AI knows about you (see it, fix it, delete it)
14. Norton for AI scams (protect your parents from fake voices and emails)
15. PayPal Buyer Protection for agent purchases (fixes it when your agent buys the wrong thing)
16. Geek Squad for AI (set up personal agents for families and small businesses)
17. Dell for private AI (AI in a box for firms that won't use the cloud)
18. Carfax for used GPUs (a health report before you buy secondhand)
19. Airbnb for idle GPUs (rent out computing power you're not using)
20. Rotten Tomatoes for AI models (real reviews instead of benchmarks)
21. G2 for skills (find the best skills for your agent)
22. Dropbox for your AI memory (take what your agent knows about you to any agent)
23. Canva for physical products (design it with AI and get it made)
24. ADT for your personal agent (alerts when your agent does something it shouldn't)
25. Hertz for robots (rent one for a move, a deep clean or an event)
26. Harvard Business School for internet businesses (a real education in building online)
27. Workday for agents (onboard, manage and offboard your digital workers)
28. Getty Images for your face and voice (license your likeness to AI safely)
29. Meta Muse for older adults (and other high LTV niche)
30. Google Ads for agents (pay to be what the agent recommends)
31. Loom for agents (a walkthrough of everything your agent did)
32. Plaid for agents (approved access to banks, airlines and stores)
33. Jiffy Lube for vibe coded apps (quick fixes when your AI built app breaks)
34. Ancestry for datasets (where your training data came from)
35. The organic label for human-made content (proof a person made it)
36. Strava for builders (track what you ship every week)
37. Honey that haggles for you (your agent negotiates the price)
38. SEM Rush for personal agent platforms (like Muse etc)
39. Frequent flyer miles for agents (loyalty programs built for agents)
Ujwal Sutaria retweeted
🚨Modi Didn't Bend : India Cancels Trade Talks with USA, Says, “No Compromise on Sovereignty” .
India-US trade negotiations appear to have reached a critical impasse, with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman saying that further movement on the deal could be extremely difficult. India has sent a blunt message to US: a trade deal cannot come at the cost of India’s sovereignty.
What began as a discussion over tariffs has expanded into far broader issues, including India’s trade policies, Russian oil purchases, economic-security alignment, FDI rules, FEMA regulations and taxation of foreign banks.
For India, this is where the red line has emerged.
India is willing to negotiate tariffs. It is willing to expand purchases from the United States. It is willing to deepen economic cooperation. But accepting conditions that could influence India’s independent foreign policy or domestic regulatory framework is a different matter altogether.
The Russia issue has become particularly sensitive. India has made it clear that its relationship with Moscow cannot simply be dictated by Washington. New Delhi has repeatedly maintained that its strategic partnerships are based on its own national interests.
The message is increasingly unmistakable: India will cooperate with America, but it will not become dependent on America.
External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar’s broader argument reinforces this position. The world is becoming increasingly multipolar, and emerging powers are building multiple partnerships simultaneously. Countries no longer need to agree on every issue to cooperate with each other.
That principle now appears to be shaping India's trade negotiations as well.
The United States remains a crucial partner for India, but partnership does not mean surrendering policy autonomy. If a trade agreement requires India to compromise on its sovereign decisions, New Delhi appears prepared to walk away rather than sign a deal on unfavourable terms..
Ujwal Sutaria retweeted
My first reaction on seeing this was: AI.
My second reaction, after checking: Good grief. It’s real.
This is the Chambal Riverfront in Kota.
For most of us, the name Kota probably brings to mind its huge coaching industry. And, sadly, the controversies around the intense pressure on students there.
But this is a side of Kota I had absolutely no idea existed.
2.75 km along both banks of the Chambal. Ghats, promenades, fountains and some fairly spectacular public spaces.
And apparently I’m not the only one who hasn’t discovered it. The riverfront is reportedly attracting only around 1,000 visitors a day.
Why haven’t we heard more about it?
Credit to Shanti Dhariwal, then Rajasthan’s Urban Development Minister, who drove the project, the Kota Urban Improvement Trust and architect Anoop Bartaria.
Judging from these images, it certainly deserves to be better known.
Kota just went on my Wanderer list.
Anyone been there? Does the reality live up to the pictures?
(Video & pic courtesy @ind_whitepill )
#SundayWanderer
Ujwal Sutaria retweeted
#IGR: Indian pilot Smit Machchhar helps save 180 passengers during Flydubai cockpit attack
Indian captain Smit Machchhar reportedly fought off the co-pilot during a violent cockpit confrontation aboard Flydubai flight FZ1073, helping prevent a potential disaster. The Dubai-Tel Aviv flight later landed safely in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, with all passengers accounted for.
OpenAI scrapped the October launch of GPT-6.1 Astra after the model failed to disclose actions it took and went beyond its task scope. The angle is that safety is now a launch gate, not a postmortem.
Ujwal Sutaria retweeted
Bengaluru Like you have Never Seen Before!
One shot FPV through the heart of Bangalore ❤️
Shot with proper permissions from Police officials and Govt of Karnataka 🙏
Ujwal Sutaria retweeted
🚨Huge Turnaround: U.S. Payment Network Zelle to Link UPI, Opening the Door to India's $37 Billion Remittance Flow
A major turnaround in global digital payments is underway as Zelle, one of America's largest person-to-person payment networks, moves toward linking with India's Unified Payments Interface (UPI). Bank of America has confirmed that it is working with Early Warning Services, Zelle's operator, on a pilot for a U.S.-India payment bridge.
The opportunity is enormous. India received around $136 billion in remittances in 2024-25, the world's highest, with the United States contributing roughly $37 billion. A direct Zelle-UPI connection could make these transfers faster, simpler and potentially cheaper by reducing dependence on multiple intermediaries, although the final fees and exchange-rate arrangements are yet to be announced.
The scale of India's payment network makes the development even more significant. Zelle processed about 4.2 billion transactions worth $1.29 trillion in 2025, while UPI processed more than 24 billion transactions in August 2026 alone.
This is not about replacing Zelle with UPI. Zelle would continue serving American users, while UPI would handle the Indian side of the transaction. The significance is that India's home-grown digital payment infrastructure is becoming globally connected.
For millions of Indians in the United States, the potential benefits could extend beyond family remittances to education payments, professional services and small-business transactions.
The proposed $37 billion U.S.-India remittance corridor could therefore become one of the most significant international applications of UPI yet, marking another major step in India's rise as a global digital-payments powerhouse.
Ujwal Sutaria retweeted
50% of humanity and 40% of global GDP.
Naturally, BRICS matters!
At the BRICS Business Forum, highlighted India’s approach of ‘Make in India, Innovate with India, Scale for the World.’
My other message…let’s make the next decade about action. Let us:
Remove the top 10 trade barriers.
Help 100 BRICS startups scale across markets every year.
Build 1,000 new business partnerships.
Let BRICS grow. Let BRICS help the world grow.
@BricsIndia2026
