At the end of last month, I took advantage of the two long weekends, and visited Rajasthan.
In hindsight, I probably should not have travelled, with the onset of the pandemic’s second wave in our country. But I can’t say I did not enjoy it.
Somewhere in my mind, I thought of the trip as a good way to celebrate a year of writing.
Because that’s how long it has been since this project began. One year.
Wow.
I started writing because of two things that happened, events a few months apart. First, an essay of mine took off and became widely influential in the Indian startup scene. Second, the pandemic struck, giving me a bit more time than usual.
I used it to write.
The first edition was published on March 27th last year. A little more than a year later, you are reading the 58th. To say it has been rewarding would a superlative understatement.
After one year, more than a 1000 readers read this newsletter every week. Producing it has helped me rewire, rearrange, and revise ideas, concepts, and tactics that I would not have otherwise. I have made friends, and some of you have cheered me on relentlessly. I’m incredibly thankful.
Things have changed. When I started, I was the head of marketing of Interview Mocha, a skills assessment startup based in Pune, and which I helped rebrand to imocha. And then Accel came calling. I couldn’t say no to working with one of the biggest and most respected VC firms in the world. I will be moving to Bangalore at the end of this month (hopefully, what with lockdowns and all).
Things have also stayed the same. The pandemic rages again, I’m still a marketer, and we are all still swamped with the everyday work of marketing and growth.
And I’ll continue to help you make sense of it all in my own small way.
I have been doing a bunch of writing and editing at Accel as well. Last week, I’d put together a thread of the stories I had worked on.
The first story, on Teabox, is very special to me, but as marketers, you should not miss the interview with Shruti Ghatge, CEO of Zomentum, and also Shekhar Kirani’s story on how Chargebee made its first million.
But if you generally enjoy business stories, I recommend you read all of them. There’s much to learn here.
There’s a bunch of stories I’ve planned for this month, and it felt incomplete to end this edition without a sneak peek into what’s coming. There will be a follow up to last month’s hit essay on the grunt work of marketing, and another I’m excited about, on the one cardinal sin of modern advertising. There is also a (very unformed) idea I have about a special month-long dive into one particular topic, but that’s for later.
For now, thank you. For reading, for your support, for everything.