The discourse around AI in the workplace typically revolves around two narratives. The first narrative is AI replacing human jobs. The second is humans managing AI systems. However, a more compelling possibility is emerging—AI systems functioning as true colleagues that amplify human capabilities. This shift mirrors a clear evolution in how we interact with technology [ ]
AI SDR / BDR We re at a very unique time where we re seeing a particular brand of company just doing exceptionally well. They re all going from 0 - 1mm ARR really quickly, and then making the leap to adding 1mm arr monthly, to I m sure a wholly different level. Today, it s working. People are spending [ ]
I ve been tinkering with Claude 3.5 Sonnet, and it s not just the best model I ve used, but the best UX for building together with a digital copilot. It makes me wonder: what does this mean for software applications in the future as the barriers to software development go down. I think truly personal apps could [ ]
Through Aug-Sep 2021, I've been enjoying working from CMDX.
Some time stamped thoughts on my experience with COVID-19
What if under 30 people start self-quratining at home prior to even getting tested?
Yes, $5k checks existed even on Uber's cap table.
Some thoughts on Christmas from a coffee shop. A lot of these are problems I’ve been thinking about or directly encountered. International Visa Management If you’re North American/European, this might not be as big a problem for you but if you’re not the process of getting visas is terrible. If anyone is building a plaid [ ]
Books read by Varadh in 2019
Over the last couple of months I ve moved away from leading a cross-functional team to doing IC work remotely (will be a separate post later). As I m a little more distant from the business (geography nature of what I ve been spending time on for the last month or so) I was trying to articulate [ ]
My experience at Vallea Lumina in Whistler, BC
Some of you might be familiar with a monthly hiking group that I organized for most of 2018. As a part of organizing anything you tend to get a good amount of requests, comments, and questions. For the hiking group, one of the common comments / requests has always been: this hike looks so hard, [ ]
For some time there have been Indian companies building SaaS products and selling it across the world (Zoho/Freshworks/etc.) but we re now starting to see global companies thinking about how to sell and price their products in India. While India s nowhere near the next top destination for selling SaaS in terms of short-term revenue opportunities, rough [ ]
The best advice is the simplest. The simplest advice is the hardest to follow. This has roughly been my take away from the last week where I ve been in and out of the hospital 🏥 on what I need to do to deal with my situation but also most health related ones: Sleep enough Eat [ ]
When somebody mentions audiobook there s a high probability you d probably think of the Amazon-owned entity, Audible . I, too, did for the longest time. I didn t even think anyone else offered audiobooks. Plus, I ve been on an Audible annual subscription for about two years now. Tweeting on something related to this, Jackson tweeted back basically saying: [ ]
In H2 of 2017, at Opendoor we encountered a problem with came with a small threat: it could force us to shut down a market we operated in (low probability) but not nailing it might potentially disrupt or pause operations in all other states we were live in should it not be solved. It had [ ]
Two years ago, I had a deadline hanging over my head to find a new job and renew my visa. Two years ago, I walked into Opendoor SF for the first time with a new job and mostly afraid of how I’d fit into a 200-person company having just wrapped up an adventure at a [ ]
It’s been almost 2 years since I joined Opendoor and what an incredible ride it’s been. Looking at my notes from Nov-Dec’16, here’s the story. Starting things is my default, whether it was thinking about how to capitalize on the fish wire craze in middle school or starting companies with friends after college. So when [ ]
When on vacation a few weeks ago I was reflecting on what are some things I love about Opendoor and Transparency as a value rose to the top. Transparency has always seemed like one of those things that’s a no-brainer to follow and I m grateful to see the steps we’ve taken at Opendoor to put [ ]
At Opendoor, there’s a healthy default towards transparency. While we are a Slack-heavy company, we still use email a good amount especially for communicating with external parties. However, email and transparency aren’t something that goes hand-in-hand, unless you’re Stripe I II. Luckily, BCC can be used to build openness and keeping relevant internal parties in the [ ]
The first companies that come to mind as one thinks about users as the gateway into an organization are Dropbox and Slack. While their individual mechanics are different, they’re very good at getting users to join orgs that then pay. In addition to building a 10x better product, they have the strong brand community [ ]
iMessage is a default messaging service on top of SMS on the iPhone where your messages to a sender appear in blue bubbles as long as the other person has an iPhone (yes, even if you don’t sign into your iCloud). If you message a sender who doesn’t have one, DISASTER occurs your messages are now [ ]
One of the hardest things for me to do is playing catch up. This doesn’t refer to something new that I am curious about or want to become good at it’s about catching up on things that I used to be good at or something I have lost momentum on. I have always felt a [ ]
A few weeks ago, I saw an interesting billboard by Wells Fargo near one of the first few exit ramps of the freeway after crossing into San Francisco via the Bay Bridge. The billboard illustrated Wells Fargo s latest consumer experience/offering Card Free ATM Access. I was excited because this was one of those product ideas [ ]
I could barely sleep last night so I decided to head to my desk and do a fun project: How much money would you have today if you had purchased the $AAPL stock instead of buying the Apple Product? I do recognize the bias of picking the company that has generated the more shareholder value [ ]