Why Indian Startups Collapse

I would say most startups explode or fail because five of the co-founders will all want to go slightly different directions after some time. One team

full of superstars and there's another team which is highly coordinated. The

highly coordinated team will rip apart the team of superstars if they're fighting. Let me tell you all the human

fighting. Let me tell you all the human related blockages. 10 years ago, 5 years

related blockages. 10 years ago, 5 years ago, I've been responsible. I have been the blockage. Sometimes people leave us

the blockage. Sometimes people leave us and say I'm going to start my own company. But then you find it hard to

company. But then you find it hard to convince five of your friends to actually even do it with you. If you

finish a year and you hit these milestones, allow to do 4 days a week.

If you finish this, I allow you to do 3 days a week. If money was the only thing that mattered, why would people quit Nvidia? Why would people quit Google? I

Nvidia? Why would people quit Google? I

have seen people go from low skill to high skill very quickly in a good environment with high talent density.

This is an amalgamation of a lot of different things I've read, things that have worked for me, things that I thought would work but didn't work. All

of that included. And I hope you guys learned something from this session.

Awesome. So the chronic worry in my head is at 500 employees, I don't know what our 500th employee is really doing,

right? In fact, I would argue that even

right? In fact, I would argue that even some of our managers in our teams probably don't know what their two-level skipown employee is doing. And that's

actually a very scary thing, right?

Because companies, your your service or your product needs to be standardized for your end customers. Some part of our company

customers. Some part of our company services, some parts are products. But

the services side of the company is like how can you give the same how can your 500th or at the rate we're growing like thousandth employee give the same quality as you know the first few people that really care about the company that

were there in the apartment when we started right how do you do that and it's a very very challenging problem and you know in fact I would say that's the crux of the problem especially on the

services side of the business because if you think about it most people who run a services company and I've seen this with a lot of Younger people, right, will

aggressively try to scale projects.

Have you noticed this? They'll pick up one project and then they'll pick up the next one. They'll pick up the next one

next one. They'll pick up the next one and then by the time they get the third one, the first one will drop. I was

guilty of this when I was 24, 25, right?

Because I really wanted to scale the company very fast. But I think we have been successful or it has scaled very fast because we have done exactly the opposite which is that we have cared

very deeply about our clients like especially some of our marquee clients we've really deeply cared about them. So

that's the I would say the the fundamental crux of the problem which is how can everybody in your team even when you are not physically present as a leader or a manager care about your

customer as much as you and to be very honest why should they? If you look at the prevailing narrative on social media, it's like, why care about your job? Why care about your customers? Who

job? Why care about your customers? Who

cares? But weirdly, because nobody cares. If you actually spend the time

cares. If you actually spend the time and energy caring about your customers, your end customers, and making sure your team cares about your end customers, you end up doing better than everybody else.

I mean, that just is the basic secret, right? How do you care? Now to do that

right? How do you care? Now to do that you can't make your 500 employ you can't sit with every single one of your employees and make them care at the scale that we're at. So what we have

done or the proxy I have found is to make really good leaders at the company.

Right? If you have people your core team who you know embibes a little bit of that DNA the best you can hope for is they absorb that DNA and then pass it along to the next layer and then they

are able to do same kind of communication so that that next layer passes on to the next layer which is a very challenging problem okay and I've been thinking very deeply and I've been

spending a lot of time reading books talking to the best CEOs I feel like the best advantage I have right now because of everything we've managed to figure out in the last couple of years is I can text the best CEOs I know in India and

just be like hey how do you solve this problem hey what's a what's what's a reading resource that could help me with this specific problem right and it could be everything from P&L to managing teams and I thought after spending so much

time talking to these people uh learning as much as I can from them both in India and internationally I was like maybe I should write it down and maybe I should tell my teams this so that they can communicate it to the next layer of

teams and so on and so on and so forth and then I said Wait, I remember I have a YouTube channel which you know with short form content because it's now an AI avatar sometimes I forget the

password of both my channels both the Instagram and the YouTube. So I said maybe it also makes sense now that we've crossed a million people and I don't care as much about getting like I don't care now about going from a million to

1.2 million, right? So I'm like now I'll go back to doing the kind of content I always loved doing. I don't care what the views are on long form because the short form carries anyway. So we will now do more of this where we not just

help our teams and try to scale it, we also help the teams online. So that's

why we started this series called the 16 cutters uh which is you know these these practices or forms where I can try and teach you one concept every time I do a

session. Okay. So today's session is

session. Okay. So today's session is actually that session of how do you incentivize, how do you think about your teams, how do you make communication travel across larger organizations and I think you can take away lessons even if

you don't run a team here. Even if you run no teams is your own personal life management, I still think there's lessons to be learned. Ready? Shall we

start? Awesome. I call this the lightning wave. The AOS logo is a

lightning wave. The AOS logo is a lightning. Uh this is an amalgamation of

lightning. Uh this is an amalgamation of a lot of different things I've read, things that have worked for me, things that I thought would work but didn't work. All of that included and I hope

work. All of that included and I hope you guys learned something from this session. Next slide. Today we will learn

session. Next slide. Today we will learn how I manage people lead, delegate and think about teams. I just want to be very clear there are many different management styles. There are many

management styles. There are many different ways of delegating. There are

many different ways of leading teams. If you met me when I was 25, I'm 32 now, but if you met me when I was 25, I would manage teams totally differently. Today

I manage teams totally differently. It's

almost like it's two different people. I

wouldn't say that was right or wrong.

I'm just saying these are different styles. I feel like this has at the end

styles. I feel like this has at the end of the day style is all dependent on what the outcome is. So I think outcomes are much greater here. So I think there is something that everyone can take away. Next slide.

away. Next slide.

This is the AOS logo and as you can see there's a lightning. What does the lightning signify? So it's fast. We

lightning signify? So it's fast. We

symbolize speed. Everything that we do we have a very very quick way of doing it. Right? I'm not just talking about

it. Right? I'm not just talking about scaling the company that actually we do the slowest. But if there's an idea, we

the slowest. But if there's an idea, we execute it quickly, right? And the

latency between thought and idea here.

Now, a thought and execution here is very very fast, which I like. Uh, next

is very visually flashy. We do content.

Content is a very core part of the business. So, everything we do

business. So, everything we do eventually makes it into the public.

Here you are judged by millions of people positively, negatively. Every day

it's like having people judge you on the internet, which is not like everything you do an edit, there'll be someone commenting on the edit. You know, we did a video and you know, now that our team has become the Veruna team has become

very good with short form content, we did a little bit of brain rot editing for a tutorial video and then the comments are like, "Bro, can you please stop doing this?" So everything that we do, whether you're an editor, whether you're a software engineer here, whether

you're a team manager, whether you're channel manager, you will get feedback from the world, which is awesome because when you get live feedback, you move faster. Um, it branches out quickly. So,

faster. Um, it branches out quickly. So,

you know, if there's one person in the team who really cares about something, they are able to share it with next people quickly. Um, and yeah, you'll see

people quickly. Um, and yeah, you'll see it before you hear it. Like, I saw a video about AOS recently, right? Some

guy had made a video and I was just like everything's cool, but everything in the video is like what we did like 6 8 months ago, right? You're behind the times in some ways. So, I think AOS is

even though we create content, a lot of the business has been hidden from the world for good reasons, I would say. And

I think people will hear about it one year, two years, three years later. The

reason I know this is when we go on hiring calls when we're hiring and we are hiring like 5000 people a month at this point. Uh there was there used to

this point. Uh there was there used to be this complaint 3 month 3 4 months ago. Nobody really knows what AOS does.

ago. Nobody really knows what AOS does.

Why should they join us? They know AV, they know Von Maya, but they don't really know what AOS does. Why should

like and they're making a career decision, making a life decision. Why

should they move? But in the last couple of months, more people have gotten to know and hiring is easier for us, right?

So even now we can talk about a lot more about the business we don't and it's actually an impediment to us hiring but it's okay it selects for the right kind of people. Next slide.

of people. Next slide.

So yeah for about couple of years I've been obsessed with what drives people in an organization and not just what people say on the internet but like actually lived experience of talking to people.

What people say and what people do are two different things. A lot of people will say in an organization what I really care about is how much money I make. And I found that to be false. Like

make. And I found that to be false. Like

especially with my leadership who are now making quite a bit of money. I've

actually found that to be false, right?

It matters. It's but it's not the only thing that matters. It's this huge symptom complex of things that people care about. And I'm obsessed with which

care about. And I'm obsessed with which of those things matter the most, which matters less, which are sufficient, but after that they care about something else. Right? Because otherwise if money

else. Right? Because otherwise if money was the only thing that mattered, why would people quit Nvidia? Why would

people quit Google? Right? Nvidia the

minute four year investing gets over they leave they made their money but if you said that money is the only thing that drives people people would want oh I want to make twice of this or thrice of this right why do they quit next slide

um throwing money at people didn't work venture funded startups in India proof like I know people who work in VC funded companies they worked in unprofitable companies for 10 years of their life they're making a lot of money reasonably

good decision makers they're playing a slightly different game but still they leave these organizations right some people You know I was meeting the loom founder the other day after he sold the company uh he just left so much

of his unvested stock and he's like I don't care about this anymore. So money

is important to a certain point and the thing about India is and especially you'll see this in a lot of comments right if someone has not made their first few you know is not even able to afford three meals or if somebody's not

even able to afford a decent job then yeah money is important but after that especially at the scale that some of the leaders here are playing at it's about more than that as well right so next

slide and I and a good example of this is is Dota right I keep giving the example of Dota because I think I've learned a lot of lessons from Dota Right? Dota is a game where you think

Right? Dota is a game where you think it's five versus 5, but actually it's 9 versus 1. And I'm not the only one that

versus 1. And I'm not the only one that thinks that. All 10 people in the game

thinks that. All 10 people in the game think that, right? That's the Dota dynamic. So in Dota, you learn that you

dynamic. So in Dota, you learn that you can be the best player and there are teams that some of you might have worked with in the past where you might be the absolute best player, but your team is

like dragging you down and then maybe 6 months later you realize you were the worst. You were dragging the team down.

worst. You were dragging the team down.

Nobody knows. But that's the Dota dynamic, right? You need all five people

dynamic, right? You need all five people to coordinate. Even if you have people

to coordinate. Even if you have people at 30% skill of some other team, but all five are coordinated, you will beat the team where there's one guy with 150% skill and everyone else trying to pull him down. Right? This is the world

him down. Right? This is the world situation. It's also Dota situation. And

situation. It's also Dota situation. And

the reason for this is very hard to get four or five people to coordinate. That

is the fundamental crux of this problem.

And the main reason why sometimes people leave us and say I'm going to start my own company. Have you guys seen this?

own company. Have you guys seen this?

You've seen some of the some of your leaders have seen this. I'm going to start my own company. I'm going to do what these guys do. But then you find it hard to convince five of your friends to actually even do it with you and take a one-year risk with you. Everyone wants

to do it in their slightly different direction. And in fact, I would say most

direction. And in fact, I would say most startups explode or fail because five three or four or five of the co-founders will all want to go slightly different directions after some time, right?

Because everyone has those status needs.

Everyone has that it needs to be my journey. Uh and everyone's doing it from

journey. Uh and everyone's doing it from their POV, right? Next slide. And I

think the way to fight this coordination problem is to have leaders, right? I

think the more leaders you have at scale and I'll define exactly what a leader does the I'll define the exact problem for you. Okay? And every one of you if

for you. Okay? And every one of you if you've been in this company for more than a year, you've seen these problems. Okay, next slide. Awesome. So here we get to the crux of the problem. Teams

have coordination costs. Okay, let's say there are four people in a team. There's

person A, person B, person C, and person D. Okay, in order for the team to

D. Okay, in order for the team to produce an output, a high quality output, there is a threshold of effective coordination.

Okay, everyone needs to be below this.

Okay, but the cost of coordination of each person is different. Let's say

person A is extraordinarily arrogant, does not want to work with anybody else, non- collaborative help. Person B maybe is very

help. Person B maybe is very collaborative but can't speak English.

So even though the person might be great at what they do, their cost of coordination is still high. And maybe

there might be another person who's very good in all ways but doesn't have the skill. Maybe you need a video editor but

skill. Maybe you need a video editor but the video editor just doesn't have the skill to to edit those videos. Whatever

it is, there are different issues that happen in coordination but therefore everybody has a cost of coordination.

And the goal is to get it below the threshold of effective coordination. If

you can get everybody below this line, you produce good output. It's a very good simplistic model to think about teams. And you might think and some I

see this, you know, this a very simplistic, you know, worldview that a lot of people have on the internet, which is that, oh, why can't these five people just put money at this? Like, why

can't these guys raise like $50 million and do this? But actually, when you go into the nitty-g gritties, there'll be most of these issues. It's not the money that's an issue because when you can get the cost of coordination down, you can have output. When you have output, you

have output. When you have output, you can raise venture capital. Right? So

everything flows from this in my opinion. Next slide.

opinion. Next slide.

A leader's job.

Okay? And here we're coming to the solution to the problem is to drop the cost of coordination. What does that mean? It means

mean? It means either you let go of let's say there's somebody in the team who's great at what they do but they can't speak in a language that the other two people can understand. Let's say the team entirely

understand. Let's say the team entirely speaks in Hindi but there's one person who can only speak in English. then

sorry but the person speaking English is the problem right so either you let the person go or say hey I need to upskill you in learning Hindi or find a better way for you to communicate with

everybody else whatever it is a leader's job is to do hook or crook and bring the cost of coordination down there's a very famous story about Elon Musk okay you should watch it it's by Andre Karpathi

where he says that people misunderstand what Elon does in a company Elon is a guy with a big hammer Elon's job is to go to each table and be like what stopping you from doing your work. And

you might say, well, that guy is stopping me. He's not giving me files.

stopping me. He's not giving me files.

Then Elon goes to the guy be like, hey, give him files. Or it could be bigger problems, which is the person might say, well, actually, I need to do this large scale project. I need 100 GPUs from

scale project. I need 100 GPUs from Nvidia. Elon be like, wait. He calls

Nvidia. Elon be like, wait. He calls

Nvidia and he's like, Jensen, I need 100 chips. And he, you know, he turns off

chips. And he, you know, he turns off the phone. This is a very simplistic

the phone. This is a very simplistic thing that I'm doing right now, but this is roughly what Andre says Elon does.

Elon's the massive unblocker.

He unblocks his teams, right, to make sure those pathways, the lightning channels continue to to go. Because it

turns out in companies because of entropy, people become blockers in different different areas, right? And a

leader's job is to remove those and decrease the cost of coordination such that the thresh it becomes this low. And

some teams, right? Like for example, if you look at our gamedev team over time, like in the beginning, the cost coordination is very high. over time

it's constantly kept going down and down and down till now we can produce things much faster right and I have many other I have I have something to say about why it's important to do work live as well right we'll come to that in a bit but

next slide okay so a leader is actually a generator of current that drops the cost in your team remember the lightning wave so if you're a leader your job is

to generate enough current to make four 5 10 20 100 people who don't care about this specific task care about the specific task. Okay,

that's the crux of a leader. Next slide.

And you can generate this current and I'll tell you the the the the ways you can generate this current. And you can drop coordination costs through four or five different ways. One of the ways is

excitement. Hey guys, today we're going

excitement. Hey guys, today we're going to do this. And you'll see this a lot in Zumba classes. There's a leader. There's

Zumba classes. There's a leader. There's

a leader. the guy and there'll be five people who just like they've come they've woken up 7:00 in the morning like I I don't want to do exercise.

Okay. And the leader is like let's go let's go let's go let's go you can do it you can do it and there'll be an old auntie who's like struggling but she's like he's telling me so I'll I'll run the excitement. Next there's incentives

the excitement. Next there's incentives you incentivize people well. If you do five five sales I'll give you something right? And you see this a lot in like

right? And you see this a lot in like organizations like especially salesdriven organizations have very strong incentives. Then there's

strong incentives. Then there's inspiration which is guys we are going to go do this and you know make India better or

whatever like some inspiring goal right then there is fear which is right or in some like you know in school they used to can us right that's a type

of feardriven you know way to get me to attend class and pay attention right like the teacher will throw duster at me if I don't pay attention And there are many other ways but these

are roughly you know the the the ways that most people use. Next slide.

I wake up every day to generate this current through my leadership team.

Right. I work at 16 people at the core AOS team and they all have their own teams like for example we have 16 people at the core AOS and then Yas will have another 15 20 people who work under

Rohit Lavina Ronit and so on and so forth right like but I don't I don't think about that layer. I think mostly about the main 16 people. I wake up every day to generate this current through my leadership team and I think

you should wake up to do the same.

Okay, next slide.

And I think the best leaders I've seen, they are infectious.

Okay, they can generate a neverending supply of current without burning out themselves. It is very hard to be a

themselves. It is very hard to be a Zumba leader and do the same thing over and over again. Come on, let's do it.

It's so hard. It's exhausting, right?

Right? And some days like I'll wake up and I'll be like there'll be days where I don't want to do it at all. I don't

want to shoot at all or I don't want to do something at all but I'm like my team's counting on me. I have to be there. Right? So it becomes kind of my

there. Right? So it becomes kind of my job to generate that current even when I'm not feeling like it. Next slide.

Okay. The units of current generation I use are stories and incentives. Okay. A

lot of how a lot of what becomes valuable in AOS are because of the stories. You know we made those shoes,

stories. You know we made those shoes, right?

Some people didn't get the shoes, okay? And you know they felt bad a

okay? And you know they felt bad a little bit and some of them wanted to reach that goal. You remember we have a lounge here. A lot of people are not

lounge here. A lot of people are not given access to the lounge unless they finish 3 years of the company, right? So

I have found ways to take things that are fundamentally useless. Like a shoe is useless. Everyone can buy a shoe.

is useless. Everyone can buy a shoe.

Everyone has a shoe. But you can add and assign meaning to it via stories. Okay.

And the second way is through incentives which is hey if you reach this milestone you get this right and then making good on your incentives right a lot of people set incentives but they forget to follow through and one thing we have done very

well in the last 3 years is follow through or incentives we will if a sales rep closes something and has an incentive we'll make sure that's delivered right I just gave my team a bunch of ethos scooters right because I'm just like this is a good incentive

for people to for the next not just for these people for the people watching to want to reach that that level right because these people have been around for a while but the next group would have been around 6 months a year and you need them to get to that level. Anyway,

the best leaders have the ability to tell a forward-looking story and matching it with performance. Remember,

we're talking about storytelling here for a second, right? The first unit that I use, I feel like if you say I'm going to do this, okay, and then actually do it over

2 three years, I feel now your stories have meaning, okay? And that's why whenever I do a

okay? And that's why whenever I do a project, I'm always very this the second thing that started happening to me because I I'm an experimentter. I don't

mind doing 100 things and failing at like 90, right? I know that's that's how the world works. But today, I'm a little more afraid of doing that because I'm like when I do a project, I need to over

time get it to where I said it will get to, right? It's not going to start there

to, right? It's not going to start there because you're starting off from scratch. You don't have all the

scratch. You don't have all the resources, but over time it needs to get there. And if I do that consistently

there. And if I do that consistently enough then you know there is meaning in what I'm doing right. Uh a streak of success makes you prophetic to your

teams. Okay. A streak of failures makes

teams. Okay. A streak of failures makes your storytelling unreliable. So today

because of you know in the last let's say 3 years AOS has done very well and almost all all the units of AOS have done very well right except the game dev unit which we'll find out in 2 three years. Um I think because of that more

years. Um I think because of that more people are like looking at something and say okay you know if vun said it it'll work which I didn't have by the way when I was 25 and let's say vos goes through

three bad years then my storytell weak again right so this is it I think you need to if you're saying I can do something you need to prove it right in a there are people for example who've

run channels end to end who've done it for many years and when they say something the next the next set of people believe them right so this is very very important and as a business the struggle is you still need to take

some hard shots. You cannot because see what happens with this is then people only do the reliable. People only do things that they can 100% back up on right which to be honest you reduce your risk takingaking cap capacity to almost

zero right but we still need to take some shots that we have a percentage chance of failing otherwise you'll never push the boundary so my job is to try and balance both and I think the right failure rate for somebody like me is a

50%. which I think we are our failure

50%. which I think we are our failure rates were always zero for the last three three years right like on the projects that we have really cared about but I feel I need to expand that now and take more like difficult bets harder

bets right anyway next slide so tweet by Sam Alman okay and we're going to come to the second part of what I use the first one is storytelling the second one is incentives setting incentives is a superpower

five words that change how I think about almost everything runs on superpowered incentives I'm telling you in our leadership team we had zero churn. Nobody's left on

those 16 people. You could say fine it's because they're making a lot of money but actually they're making a lot of money off incentive not of base salary.

Right? So I think everyone can learn how to design incentives in the company. And

if you're a leader without incentives it's almost like you're fighting without one tool and it could be small. It's

anything for a person to look forward to. Next slide.

to. Next slide.

Learn how to set incentives. It even

works on yourself. Like I had this goal and Aina can attest to it, right?

Every time I close a specific deal of a specific number, I'd buy myself a shoe.

I'll be like, fine. Every time I close this, I'll buy a shoe. I'm sick and tired. You know, sometimes when I'll do

tired. You know, sometimes when I'll do like a Zoom session, I'll move my camera like this because the right side of my entire study room is filled with shoes because we don't have space in the shoe locker. So now that incentive doesn't

locker. So now that incentive doesn't work on me anymore. But I think everyone should learn to set incentives because we are all monkeys, right? And in my head, I'm just like I'm the biggest

monkey, right? like I'm just like target

monkey, right? like I'm just like target okay I need to go hit the target even if you're not a target driven company you still it's nice to still set targets for yourself you shouldn't take it so badly

when you miss a target but it is important to keep these because only by setting harder and harder and harder harder harder targets for yourself can you reach there another example is the game dev team right like we like instead of doing all this we'll just make a full

13-minute gameplay trailer while everybody else in the market is sitting out and putting cinematics we'll set this as a threshold and we'll try to match it next we'll set an even harder threshold try match it and if we reach there then you know we'll figure out how

we celebrate that. So learn how to set incentives it even works on yourself.

Next slide.

More importantly incentives and stories need to align with what your team members want individually.

Okay I'll give you a very good example of this.

There are some people who really really really care about the incentive of 4 day work weeks and I think you can totally use it to your advantage. You can be like listen

your advantage. You can be like listen by default we work 5 days a week or 6 days a week whatever your company does but if you finish a year and you hit these milestones I'll allow you to take 5 days a week. If you finish 2 years and

finish these milestones allow you to take do 4 days a week. If you finish this I allow you to do 3 days a week which is crazy to think about it. You've

taken work from home, which is something that everybody wants, and set it as an incentive. It's possible to do this if

incentive. It's possible to do this if they care about it. There are a lot of people, by the way, especially here, who are allergic to the idea of work from home. People on the internet don't

home. People on the internet don't understand this, right? Like, why why would people be allergic to work from home? Because we create content. It's a

home? Because we create content. It's a

lot of fun. Uh, and it's very hard to do from home. You miss out on a lot of the

from home. You miss out on a lot of the fun and banter and chatter and whatnot.

But it's important to know what your team members want individually. Like

sometimes I just feel like, and when I was younger, I used to feel this, right?

there there would be a communication breakdown between me and let's say let's say somebody came from a village and started working with us at 25 I would have a communication breakdown with the person because I would say well you can

reach this incentive but they care about something else totally right they care about something totally different maybe they want to go do an exam and get into some specific type of college whatever it'll be like totally different things that they want and here

I am trying to impose my worldview and my incentives what would be exciting for me on them so it needs to align with them and you know Abhinav Chakara once told me a very good story which is that

some girl passed out from his school who was doing design and she's like for her the big thing was that in her village a lot of people celebrated that she's the first person that made more than a lakh

a month she came from a very small town and he's like the money didn't matter the reputation in that village really mattered and that girl didn't care about what people in Bangalore thought about

her so the so but Abina would say oh well you care about what all these new people think about you she didn't care it's like I care what my old people thought about me. So it needs to align with their stories and otherwise it'll never work. There are people we

never work. There are people we negotiate with sometimes like we'll be offering more much more money than the competitor but they want something else.

Okay. And this is called the internal and external story fit. What are the aspirations of your team? And a very good exercise I do with my teams my leaders is to ask them what are the

aspirations of your teams? Tell me. Cuz

I know roughly the aspirations of my entire leadership team. I know what they want. I know what they're looking for. I

want. I know what they're looking for. I

know how much of it is social. While

everybody in our leadership, a lot of people bought like are buying houses, right? So when people look at each

right? So when people look at each other, they're like, "Oh, now I want that." Even though it might not have

that." Even though it might not have been part of their plan 2 years ago, right? Like we couldn't afford houses

right? Like we couldn't afford houses like many of them couldn't afford houses 2 years ago. So it was never part of their plan. But after a couple of years,

their plan. But after a couple of years, when you see other people doing it, like I want that. So at every level, I think it's important to figure out what are the aspirations of your teams. How much of that is social? How much of that is a

real definite need? Okay, this person absolutely needs this much of money to like survive. Like you need to figure

like survive. Like you need to figure this out and I feel like I don't know if you talk to your teams enough to figure this out, right? Next slide.

And what I found paradoxically and something that VCs, venture capitalists in India found after a very very long time and startup founders eventually find out after raising hundreds of millions of dollars otherwise Baiji would be the biggest company in India if

cash was all that mattered. Cash is the least powerful incentive. It is

important to a point where they feel like they're making enough among their peer group. Maybe that could be a lakh a

peer group. Maybe that could be a lakh a month. It could be two lakhs a month. It

month. It could be two lakhs a month. It

could be three lakhs. Whatever that

number is to feel good in their their peer group and feel like, okay, now I'm making enough money where money is not a bother. But right after they get there,

bother. But right after they get there, it becomes about respect. Am I respected in my community? Am I really well known for doing this special type of motion

graphics? Whatever it is, status,

graphics? Whatever it is, status, which is slightly different from respect. Respect is just general

respect. Respect is just general consensus this person is cool. Status is

in my room which rank number am I number number in designer if I'm a designer in the world of designers am I number one am I number two am I number three status then it becomes purpose is there any

meaning to doing what I'm doing on a daily basis right which is why by the way a lot of people in finance after some time leave finance because it's just like there's no purpose in this

right and finally there's mastery right and the best example of something that has kept me on the hook for more than a decade is Dota's mastery system. It's an

MMR system where I don't it doesn't pay me any money.

Okay? But yet I go there and struggle every day trying to increase my score cuz I'm trying to become a master. And

it's the same reason why every single video editor that I have met in my life without exception wants to become a motion graphics designer over time. Even

though there is no correlation between motion graphics designer and making more money, 99% of people who will pay you to be a video editor is to editformational content because those are the companies making the most kind of money and they

only need a little bit of motion graphics. They don't need you need you

graphics. They don't need you need you to become an absolute expert. In fact,

sometimes it can take away from the message, right, when you do that much editing. But I've never managed to

editing. But I've never managed to convince an editor otherwise mainly because it is their mastery path. Cuz as

a video editor, you're like, "How do I get better than this?" Well, I see this really cool animation that somebody's done. I want to be able to do it. You

done. I want to be able to do it. You

see this with artists as well, right?

Like there's a game called uh Intergalactic where they do this one scene where the girl is putting on a jacket which to be honest the ordinary gamers don't care about it. But everyone

who's a game developer is like that's very hard to do to put on that jacket.

It's very hard to do. You're showing

off, right? But it's a showing that look we have mastery. So mastery in my opinion is the best incentive. Like

everyone at the end of the day after all those 16 people in my core team want to become masters of their whatever they're specifically doing. It's hard to be a

specifically doing. It's hard to be a master of course and it's a long journey but mastery is the best path. Okay. And

I think your incentives need to align with the story in your team member's head. You need to find out what that

head. You need to find out what that story is and it'll be one or multiple of these levers. And I think in a company

these levers. And I think in a company you can give this to all your employees, all your teammates. Everyone in the company can have a perfect set of these with some goal to go to. When they reach the goal, they can figure you can

mutually figure out what that next goal is. Because to be very honest, all goals

is. Because to be very honest, all goals in life are made up. Everything is made up. Like when a software engineer goes

up. Like when a software engineer goes and says I'm L1, I'm going to go to L2.

And sometimes in art companies, I hear video editor going from here going to next level. I'm like this is all fake.

next level. I'm like this is all fake.

But we have to do it to give everybody a sense of you know career progression.

And ideally this is made together, right? where we set these milestones

right? where we set these milestones together with your teams and where do I go from here to here to here. Okay,

awesome. Next slide. There's a very good book around this. If people think that cash is the ultimate thing that gives you know people happiness, it's called punished by rewards. It's actually all

the negatives of incentives and I really recommend every leader in the company read this book but I'll spoil it for you a little bit which is in external rewards overshadow intrinsic motivation.

Let's say if you're a very good coder and I say bro every time you make this work I'll give you a little bit of extra money over time you start doing it for the money and you stop enjoying writing

code for the sake of writing code right it's actually the biggest symptom of like degrees and the entire college and placement program are this sort of extrinsic reward where you don't want to get better for the sake of it you want to get better for the job so the

external reward destroys your internal motivation in some ways okay and you get short-term compliance but long-term harm Okay, some rewards damage trust among

teammates. Hey, this is a job that this

teammates. Hey, this is a job that this person needs to be doing anyway. Why are

you sitting and micro dripping him cash for this? So, you can get like I've

for this? So, you can get like I've tried to do incentives on the other way as well. Go over extreme and then I had

as well. Go over extreme and then I had to read the book and be like I'm making a mistake, right? Nothing beats the quest to mastery and the feeling of being challenged and winning. Everybody

here and I I hope everybody watching the best feeling in life when you're almost there and you know you need to get this much better to get there. That's like

the zone. How many of you have been here? You're almost there. Wherever it

here? You're almost there. Wherever it

is that you need to go, you're almost there. And you know exactly what you

there. And you know exactly what you need to do from today to get there. From

today till there to get there. My

leaders have this feeling cuz they have a P&L. They have a profit and loss sheet

a P&L. They have a profit and loss sheet and they're like this is the gap between where I want to be and where I am right now. Right? So I feel mastery is good

now. Right? So I feel mastery is good and I feel like this state of being challenged we call it the lightning state where you know what you need to do you know where you need to get you know how much better you need to get also go

do it whereas I feel like if you don't give people a clear path towards this target and this is why targets are important right if you don't give people a clear path to this people are in confusion where do I go next what do I

do next I'm just aimlessly wandering around yeah I think I would like to think all of our top performers are in the quest of this lightning state the state of

perfectly challenged know roughly where to go not perfect map but like roughly where to go and are on the stepping stone there to get there next slide

yeah and I think the summary of this is autonomy which is the ability to do my thing by myself you know my boss is not micromanaging me all the time purpose which is I'm doing

something meaningful and mastery without worry of survival which means the last part without worry of survival you don't underpay people so much that they can't like survive right then then you then it's a waste of they think of that

rather than work next slide now let's come to your job as a leader now we've spoken about what people want how you can you know work with them with stories and incentives now let's come to

your job as a leader a good leader drops coordination costs what are the tools you have stories incentives road map to mastery right if you don't give your

team road mapaps to mastery they're wandering and they have no next goal no next purpose Then there's pressure. How many of you use pressure?

Sunday.

Pressure we use a lot. Okay. Next slide.

The next thing instead of pressure I would like to call it a quest for speed. Okay. Because

humans are instinctively distracted. The

reason you need some leader putting pressure or you know speed on your team because I'll be doing something and then I'll sit and scroll reels. It's my human brain. But if someone's telling me no,

brain. But if someone's telling me no, you need to do this now. We have this deadline now. And I think the best

deadline now. And I think the best pressure for me has been a public pressure, right? If I commit to a

pressure, right? If I commit to a certain date in public, I try to make that make that thing in that date because I have public pressure. Others

people be like, "Yeah, you didn't do it." So I think for me that pressure has

it." So I think for me that pressure has been public. But for you guys and for

been public. But for you guys and for your teams, the pressure might be you, which is you coming in and saying, "Hey, this needs to be done by Saturday." Some

of these dates are arbitrary. Some of

these dates are given by clients.

Whatever it is, but a little bit would be pressure and your quest for speed.

And then the next thing is seeking and removing blockages to let the current flow. With a coordinated team, current

flow. With a coordinated team, current flows by itself. You don't need to do It happens by itself. Okay? But

sometimes there are blockages.

Have you noticed this? Sometimes

there'll be either a person that's not able to do something well. It'll be

it'll be a talent blockage. It'll be

some tools. We've not paid subscription for something, you know. know

subscription fa whatever it is there are hundreds of things that can be blockages so your job is actively to remove the blockages so nobody's going to come save you with a blockage if you're a leader your job to unblock it and that's why

incentives work even for at the leadership level right because you know if you unblock it the current flows you make your incentive if you don't have these then you're in trouble right because you don't have the

incentive as a leader to remove the blockage next slide let me tell you all the human related blockages that I've seen over time and that you know 10 years ago 5 years ago I've been responsible I have been the

blockage right everyone all of you have been responsible for some of these but it's all learnable all fixable it takes time and it takes a mirror right it takes somebody else telling you I think this is a blockage which has happened to

me in my life as well which is very useful one is high ego I'm not going to work with anybody else I know everything I don't need team me then there is low skill or mastery and

I'll tell you one thing of all the blockages this is easiest fixed easiest fixed sag is a very good example right who works on team VM when he joined he was doing scripting and then he was not

very good at scripting then he tried editing like we found a role for him over time we found the right role for him over time and he gained mastery in that role over time and he was not very good when he started even shans I don't

think was like fantastic when he started but he got good over time so I have seen people go from low skill to high skill very quickly in a good environment with high talent density okay it's very

fixible next is poor attitude Right? And

this is like very hard to fix cuz a poor attitude comes from your parents. Sorry

to say this, but a poor attitude comes from the environment that you are brought up in. And there are some people that are just like like constantly thinking, you know, work is bad. I just

want to go home like I don't want to do this. It's a waste of time, right?

this. It's a waste of time, right?

Whatever. Whatever. There just some people with poor attitude. It's very

very hard to fix it. Um and usually I would say they're not very good fits in in companies. And as much as people, you

in companies. And as much as people, you know, I it's very in reality only less than 1% of people are like this. But you

know it, you can see it from far when you when you know it, right? Like when

you when you're able to work, nobody works with them. They don't have teams. They've not worked with teams, they don't have companies, they not worked at companies. It's very hard to fix. Then

companies. It's very hard to fix. Then

there's poor communication skills which especially in you know synthesis business where you're doing multiple things and putting it together sometimes poor communication skills can hurt you

right as a team.

attention to the wrong details. Okay,

this is a very classic one.

Okay, and it's like, bro, the video sucks. Why are you concerned about this

sucks. Why are you concerned about this tiny small thing here, right? And I like I feel like it's a quest for attention or something like that where you're focusing on all the wrong details,

right? which is I'm not saying that

right? which is I'm not saying that don't focus on the detail but fix the big issue first then come to the small issue so I think order of issues some people get it wrong they start with the small issues then go to the big issues

in any project and I just feel that this is also very easily fixable sometimes it's just telling the person bro this is the bigger issue if you don't do this video only is not going to go out or if you don't do this client only is going

to leave small issue you can f worry about later okay then there is low trust which is just some person who just doesn't work with their team you'll try to sabotage my

I don't want to work here. Company

scamming me exploit exploitation just walks in with low trust. Right? This is

very hard to fix as well. A low

accountability which is something breaks and like mania woke this is his fault.

No, it's somebody else. Like they

they're very good at playing the blame game, right? And I think by the way the

game, right? And I think by the way the best leaders I mean a lot of people I think everybody in the workforce starts with low accountability. when you're in your 20s, I don't expect anyone to have high accountability. But over time, I've

high accountability. But over time, I've seen some really good leaders who be like, "This screwed up. My fault." But I think you can only do that when you have the conference, you're not going to get fired, right? Sometimes it's also that.

fired, right? Sometimes it's also that.

So, so that's why we always like be high accountability. And if you are high

accountability. And if you are high accountability, it's very like in AOS especially, we've designed it such that you're less likely to get fired if you come up and say there's an issue and this is what we need to solve, right?

And maybe I made the mistake, which is completely fine. it's acceptable as long

completely fine. it's acceptable as long as you understood, you know, and and solved it. Then there's passive

solved it. Then there's passive aggression. Then there's also too

aggression. Then there's also too transactional, which is I only care about this money or this specific incentive. I don't care about anything else. I only care about money. It's very hard to work with these

money. It's very hard to work with these people because over time when a client calls you on Sunday, you'll be like, I'm not paid for this. But sometimes it happens like what can we do? We're all

in a ecosystem.

Finally, there's victimhood which we have described before, which is the world is against me.

The world is against me. world is

problem but I am fine and I think that's also you know another type of problem next slide but I think coming to you as a leader I think you can burn out if you don't find purpose or meaning as well right if

you're doing something and you're just like this is a meaningless quest for money you'll burn out if you find some sort of purpose on why I'm doing what

I'm doing it could be anything and it's all fictional and made up by the way then you'll have a much easier time generating current and passing on to the next Okay. I think you can't be a leader

Okay. I think you can't be a leader without the intrinsic motivation to lead, right? Which means unless it comes

lead, right? Which means unless it comes from inside, key, I care about this thing that I'm doing. It doesn't matter. It could be a

doing. It doesn't matter. It could be a company, it could be a family, it could be anything, whatever you're leading, if it doesn't come from inside that I need to do this, you're never going to be a leader. Trust me on this. And by the

leader. Trust me on this. And by the way, everyone in this company can be a leader. Everyone in this room can be a

leader. Everyone in this room can be a leader. It's not something you're born

leader. It's not something you're born with. Okay? And I think you can also ab

with. Okay? And I think you can also ab absorb charge from other people.

There'll be some days where I'm feeling low and I'll go to my leadership team and my leadership team will you know pick me up. Sometimes I'll go and I'll be like I don't want to shoot today today and Saga will be like dude we need to shoot this. Saga is reverse putting

pressure on me. I'm like this is amazing. I'm like you're right let's do

amazing. I'm like you're right let's do it right. So I think you can absorb

it right. So I think you can absorb charge from other people. You can allow for a few moments for other people also your peers also to lead you and gain that energy back. But I think the world

that we live in is a question is this thing of the world is always trying to drag you back into pessimism and this is not going to work and nothing's going to work and there's no point of doing anything and capitalism is bad and money

is evil and then all humans will try to scam you whatever. World's always trying to pull you in that and it takes energy to be like actually I'm around really cool people. We start

from an apartment we got here. We should

keep this running. We should keep this alive. And well, as long as incentives

alive. And well, as long as incentives flow, as long as you know everyone's intention, the right heart, I think a lot of good things are possible. Next

slide.

I think the best leaders in the world can do the secondary thing of also teaching the art of generating current to their teammates.

Like I've seen this in like Vishal is a very good example of this, right? where

2 years ago I would we struggle to get him to do any work. But today like Vishal will come and like he'll be there at like 12:00 in the night you know doing something in the studio and he'll

be like dude like we need to do this we need to do this we need to do this and I told this guy to do this and I put pressure on him and I got him to do this. I'm like, how did you change so

this. I'm like, how did you change so much? And it's just this can be learned,

much? And it's just this can be learned, right? So, you can be the kind of person

right? So, you can be the kind of person that teaches your team to generate current in each other because that's all it is. If a team coordinates, they win.

it is. If a team coordinates, they win.

That's the simple story. And you know, the the story I would like you to go back to sleep with is there are two teams. One team full of superstars and there's another team which is highly coordinated. The highly coordinated team

coordinated. The highly coordinated team in Dota or any other game will rip apart the team of superstars if they're fighting. And 99% of organizations right

fighting. And 99% of organizations right now, startups right now, if you read media articles about them, I don't know how true they are. Half of them are false, but whatever. You read articles about companies or founders or teams or

VCs, they're all fighting.

They're all arguing and bickering about stupid Who gets more status? Who

gets more money? Who gets more this? Who

gets more that? And here you are a coordinated team. Imagine if you're a

coordinated team. Imagine if you're a customer of a company like this. If you

wanted to get content done, let's say, or something in AI done, and you're sitting outside and you're choosing between two teams, highly coordinated, willing to work with you, you know, willing to push the boundaries and a team where everyone's fighting all the

time. Who would do you work with? Who do

time. Who would do you work with? Who do

you think has a higher shot of winning?

It's that obvious, but you'll see in most companies, people are fighting with each other all the time. Right? Next

slide.

I'll tell you one secret. Okay? Remember

this. I told you this is the threshold of effective coordination. As a leader, your job is to push the quad of cost of coordination down, right? But you can cheat and you can move this line from here to here.

You can you can make the coordination cost of coordination such that it's so low. And by the way, this is just

low. And by the way, this is just graphics I came up. They don't they don't need to make sense, right? They're

just fictional graphics to give you an idea of what's happening. Uh you can actually change the entire threshold itself.

You can make everyone coordinate, even non-coordinators coordinate. And this is

non-coordinators coordinate. And this is how to be very honest uh a lot of projects in AOS now have started where even non-coordinators we've made them coordinate till they able to generate current projects with very low belief

where we didn't believe it would work out sometimes it's through this technique and the technique is clear writing clear writing as a leader this is if you have five people in your team person A

this is exactly what I need you to do these are your incentives this is where you go this is your plan person B this is your exact clear incentives plan etc etc you do that for five Here's the grand plan on how you all coordinate and

it works out.

I think how many of you write I'll tell you a secret among the best leaders that I met in in my life right whether it be a deepind go's house a few months ago right and he was and he's

written a book on culture he's a book on company culture right if you look at tan tanme will be writing like hundreds of pages of a month right I write so much I like this deck is just one of the many

things I would have written in that single day right so I think the best leaders are writing all the time clear precise communication because I've seen teams but nobody knows what to do next.

There'll be five people in the team and they'll be like, should I do this?

Should I do that? I don't know.

Instructions not clear. And you'll

realize the minute you give clear instructions, everyone's able to do a good job. Next slide.

good job. Next slide.

Okay. And a good example is this. If

you're writing poorly, you're off target. And then you need to go there

target. And then you need to go there and come back to goal, which is 99% of companies by the way. Okay. And I

empathize with these companies. It's

hard to write where you're going because you're also in the process of finding product market fit which requires a little bit of zigzagging, right? And

that's where I that's where risk is in the world, right? That's why successful people have taken risk because they're willing to zigzag for enough time going to three four different fields and then find out what works eventually. Whereas

most people are scared of that. But once

you figured that out, okay, then quality writing shortest path to the goal.

Okay. And I just feel like most of you don't write enough.

And I can tell already the the best people in all our teams already write the most already. Like Rishi is a programmer. He doesn't need to write but

programmer. He doesn't need to write but he's his the entire combat system that he's built he's sat and written it down documented it for who I don't know because it's a very small programming team there right but still he's written

it down. It it's inherent among good

it down. It it's inherent among good people that they write because they're trying to organize their thoughts right and in that other people get clarity.

I think direction really matters and remember that your team probably sees 5% of the picture you do. So writing allows them to see 100% of the picture. The

problem in the world is not that people don't have vision. That's also a problem in the world. But the problem is that translating vision to execution requires you to first clearly describe a complicated problem which most people

cannot do. It's very hard.

cannot do. It's very hard.

So I think even if if you're watching this and you're not like running a company just write where you want to be in a year. You'll see so much changes.

So much changes. You'll know exactly what you want to build in here. Just

work towards that. Skip all the side quests. Next slide. I'll tell you how I

quests. Next slide. I'll tell you how I write. Okay. I was talking to Hush.

write. Okay. I was talking to Hush.

Okay. So, I sent him an entire document.

Sorry, Hush for leaking your WhatsApp chats. But I sent him an entire

chats. But I sent him an entire document. Okay. And then I'm just like,

document. Okay. And then I'm just like, here are the exact pointers. Okay.

Here's the voiceover set one, voiceover set two. Also, make sure it's clean

set two. Also, make sure it's clean audio. Whatever. Like clear bullet

audio. Whatever. Like clear bullet points, clear uh, you know, documentation. There's a full Google doc

documentation. There's a full Google doc there. This is like very clearly this is

there. This is like very clearly this is what I need you to do. Therefore, me and Hush do not need to have a meeting. We

don't need to have a meeting. I already

know he's competent in what he does.

Skill is already there. That cost of coordination is not going to be part of the equation. Just clear writing of this

the equation. Just clear writing of this is what I want. We have communicated as synchronously and it's happened. Next

slide. Okay. Also, writing reduces coordination costs. Okay. Like we've

coordination costs. Okay. Like we've

mentioned, provides direction. It provides speed.

provides direction. It provides speed.

People don't need to check if they're doing the right thing. Actually, it's

two things. They don't need to check if they're doing the right task or the task, right? Because in your writing,

task, right? Because in your writing, you would have said, "What does a good outcome look like or sound like?" Okay,

less blockers over time because when you're writing, you'll only know what the blockers are. Okay, motion capture system might be a blocker. Fine, we

should do this. Okay, you know, office space might be a blocker. We should do this. We should get office space 3

this. We should get office space 3 months in advance. Okay,

easier to plan incentives and roles because you're writing at what everyone's doing. You're writing their

everyone's doing. You're writing their essentially you're writing their JDs.

Okay, it's easier to hire because you're writing their JDs. It's

easy less meetings, so less work hours.

It's easier to share plans. Okay, it's

easier to set rules what you can and cannot do. Okay, you need one10enth the

cannot do. Okay, you need one10enth the meetings you currently do if you write well. Scaling from zero to 500 people,

well. Scaling from zero to 500 people, 50,000 square foot of office space uh you know with the kind of margins that we've had is very hard unless we wrote

down everything at every single corner, right? U yeah next slide. Okay. If you

right? U yeah next slide. Okay. If you

don't enforce rules as a leader, sometimes we've talked all the good parts, right? Let's talk about the bad

parts, right? Let's talk about the bad parts. If you don't enforce rules, you

parts. If you don't enforce rules, you lose storytelling power. If you say, "Guys, we all need to do this and this is the plan, this is the goal, and one person doesn't do it." If you don't take action and let the person go or

reprimand them, you lose storytelling power because everyone sees it's okay to do this in I met a guy from an investment team, right? We're not

raising money, but I just met him in general or whatever. And I was like, why don't you invest in this company? And he

was like he's like the problem is I like the company. I really believe in it. But

the company. I really believe in it. But

in he's a venture analyst, okay, with who's now gotten the ability to write a check, okay? He can now write a check.

check, okay? He can now write a check.

He's just got a promotion. So he's like, "The only worry is if I write the wrong check, I lose my job." I'm like, "But you could also still be wrong. Like

writing checks in companies is risky as hell, right? You could your first bet

hell, right? You could your first bet might not work out." He's like, "It doesn't matter. Even though the outcome

doesn't matter. Even though the outcome is a little bit driven by things outside my control, I'm still responsible for it. I will lose my job if this doesn't

it. I will lose my job if this doesn't go well.

Right? So there must always be the thresh threat of if you don't hit where you need to hit, you do lose the opportunity to somebody more deserving.

That's the way I think about it. Right?

I don't think about people in sense of I'm firing them. Just like I think there are many people in the world who would love to have your opportunity who you might be good. Okay, you might be but because you've not hit the outcome

multiple times in a row, you're letting down the rest of the team. Let's give

someone else that opportunity. And you

can always try and apply back to us a few years later when you're better, right? If you think that you you want to

right? If you think that you you want to take that shot again. So here's the triad of a closed system and I think all companies are delusion bubbles.

Okay, you you have to be delusional to to be part of any company, right?

Otherwise every day everyone will wake up be like this sucks. So in any closed system delusion bubble and suspended reality all three are kind of the same

thing. You need four horsemen. You need

thing. You need four horsemen. You need

direction aspirations goals shared stories, external validation. Okay,

we've spoken about stories before, writing before, direction before, it's all writing. It boils down to writing.

all writing. It boils down to writing.

You need celebration, right? When we hit a milestone, we

right? When we hit a milestone, we celebrate like we went for Diwali party.

All those we celebrate when when we hit big milestones, right? You need rules and enforcement, which is letting people go or reprimanding people for not, you know, meeting their end of the bargain.

They set the rules, but then if you don't, they set their goals. If they

don't hit those goals, then, you know, sorry, we've got to part ways. And then

finally, you need other people you look up to who take it seriously, right? Like because in a closed system

right? Like because in a closed system like this, it's very easy to look at an early stage startup and say this is going to fail. It's actually the most obvious thing. Like 99% of startups, 90

obvious thing. Like 99% of startups, 90 something% of startups fail, right? It's

very easy to look at it and be like this fails. In fact, in the valley, you can

fails. In fact, in the valley, you can see this, right? Every new startup that starts, everyone on Twitter is like this is going to fail. This is going to suck.

This is going to die. So it takes some other people from outside especially if you're working in a team you want to see some people from outside taking it seriously. Oh this this matters. Okay.

seriously. Oh this this matters. Okay.

So it can't just be only the system looking at it. And for us that's our clients. We have clients that actively

clients. We have clients that actively spend on us. So it's it's pretty much you know we don't need any better validation than that. But you still need people outside who look up to it and

take it seriously. Next slide.

This is how all communities work. And

remember I ran a community software platform many years ago where I did this deep study on how communities work, right? We ran one of the largest discord

right? We ran one of the largest discord communities in India back then and I would argue I'm still running a very large community except this time it's not on discord it's in real life and we make money together right that's how I like to think about in my head but even

religion sort of works the same way right next slide in religion you have still have this four the four horsemen all those things the direction writing shared stories

goals it's all in the holy book every religion has one it's a holy book with all direction of exactly what to do. So

everyone's aligned. When two Christians meet each other at a at let's say a hospital, they know that they share certain values once they tell each other I'm a Christian or it could be two Hindus meeting in a hospital and saying

oh well I know the values we share, right? Because both of us have read the

right? Because both of us have read the same source material.

The celebrations every religion has festivals, rituals, correct that they all celebrate together that means something to them. Whereas

somebody from some other religion could look at another religion and be like that festival makes no sense to me. But

the people inside the religion don't care because they're like hey we are celebrating this festival together. It

means something to us.

Rules and enforcement. Jerino Bruno was burnt at the stake for saying things that the church didn't agree with back then. Right? So what the church said I

then. Right? So what the church said I mean whatever church believed in that time was false. But still they enforced the rules like it doesn't matter if you're outside our perview. we have to sacrifice you even if you could be

right. So that's the problem. That's the

right. So that's the problem. That's the

price by the way. That's the negative part of a delusion bubble, which is that sometimes even if you're right and everything sucks and the world is horrible and there's no point of having companies or whatever, it's still not useful for the company to have you

there, right? For everybody else's, you

there, right? For everybody else's, you know, mental health. Finally, other

people who look up to you who take it seriously, right? Uh how much would you

seriously, right? Uh how much would you believe in religions if your parents didn't believe in it? If your relatives didn't believe in it, if media didn't take it seriously? If priests didn't take it seriously? like you need

the ecosystem in the community outside to also lend it credibility and credits and this is how you build a closed system and this is how in essence AOS was also built right we have purposely

built all of these and I would say we have compared to every other company in India we have been most intentional about this because I've run now companies for 13 this is my 13th year running companies 19 yeah 13 years

running companies right so I've learned enough to know that these all need to be pre and not post.

Next slide. Why does any of this matter?

What's the point? Next slide. It's

simple. There's a very selfish end goal for all of you here. If you follow these rules, which is a coordinated system focused purely on growth crushes an uncoordinate system with infighting. I

can guarantee you 90% of companies outside are fighting among themselves.

And all the companies that are not deeply fighting among themselves have very strong leaders who are crushing the fighting. That's why India by the way

fighting. That's why India by the way which has so many divided you know cultures has a populist leader. You need

strong leaders to crush some of this infighting and there's no good or bad right? Fighting is human nature. We will

right? Fighting is human nature. We will

eventually fight okay but you need strong leaders to bring it back. But I

feel like there's a second way which is just create awareness of what happens and just say bro if we all coordinate we'll win. And there's enough as long as

we'll win. And there's enough as long as you're in a big industry and last month you know some YouTube came out of stats 19,000 crores they've contributed to

India's GDP as of 2024 and 935,000 jobs big enough industry so if we don't fight we can go focus there right and luckily there's been no fighting at

because we have actively worked on this we resolve our defenses quickly if we need to fight we'll fight we'll throw chuples at each other at the leadership but we'll resolve it we'll be like it's fine we'll reset quickly after this.

Okay, most systems are uncoordinated or just barely coordinated. You'll see some of the best companies out there barely going and might not even be because of fighting, might be because of co-founders have lost interest, you

know, some someone has is doing something else. Could be anything but

something else. Could be anything but they are uncoordinated. Okay. And I

think the bigger the system is the worse it gets. And my biggest fear, my biggest

it gets. And my biggest fear, my biggest fear is we become thousand people, 2,000 people, 5,000 people and then uncoordinated, right? Right? And then it

uncoordinated, right? Right? And then it all I'm telling you the world is such is like this in today's world you can go to 500 you can go to thousand you can go fall back down to zero there's so many companies right we've seen billion dollar multi-billion dollar companies in

India go back down to zero anything is possible so it takes active management to make sure we don't get there and I think you can actually make several years of

progress in one year if everyone sets their differences aside and coordinates like most people wouldn't have expected the progress we made between the first trailer and the second trailer on the game simply because they underestimated how much we're coordinating and how much

this mattered to us, right? And I feel this is possible across everything that we do. In fact, I would argue that you

we do. In fact, I would argue that you can make several years of progress in several months in anything that you do today because of the world we live in, right? We live in an AI first world

right? We live in an AI first world where if you say I have a lack of execution skill, AI can help you with those things, but then the rest is where human effort is needed. the sales, the conversion, the client management,

whatever it is that you guys are doing in different different segments of AOS.

But I think it's important that people set their differences aside and coordinate. Next slide. Yeah. You know,

coordinate. Next slide. Yeah. You know,

in co there was this thing called flatten the curve.

Do you remember everyone said if everyone sits at home, we flatten the curve. And there's some very wishful

curve. And there's some very wishful people on on Twitter and Instagram and YouTube and you know these places were just like why can't everybody just sit at home?

You know what in India we can just plan that everybody sits at home and then CO will go away in like 14 days but you know yesterday I watched a movie

where people are walking out during CO right so it's not possible to get 100% of people to coordinate ever this is AOS is never going to be a

system where not just AOS but like any company right where 100% of people are in alignment it might be 97% it might be 90% it might be 80% I don't know the right threshold is I don't even know how

to measure this. You can just feel it though when a company's coordinator or not coordinated and I think that it is okay as long as we are smart enough to remove the non-coordinators.

We have a name for it at YAS, right?

It's called red aura, right? If you have red aura, we try to disconnect you from the company quickly, right? So, I just believe that we should be as coordinated

as possible, but not have the goals of 100%. It's just not possible. But know

100%. It's just not possible. But know

that and try to weed it out while still allowing debate. Like remember, you

allowing debate. Like remember, you still have to take some risks. You still

need new ideas. So as leaders you still need to be open to listening what to what your team is saying even though you might not believe in it 100%. And the

best way to find the middle ground is to run an experiment. If some employee really believes in something really has that conviction and you have not tried that before and we've not tried it multiple times and lost money on it try

it. What's the harm? Right? We are in a

it. What's the harm? Right? We are in a cool world where we can do experiments really quickly especially in content. In

video and video games you can run experiments very quickly. So yeah why not? Okay that's about it. I hope you

not? Okay that's about it. I hope you enjoyed that session. Uh, I hope you learned something. I'm going to take

learned something. I'm going to take some Q&A which is going to be off camera but to the camera. Bye. Make sure you subscribe.