Led me to think about choosing the right sources of funds and maybe a playbook for brands thinking about raising from VCs.

D2C playbook is well established

Someone was telling me that every VC has a B2C thesis because it is the easiest to understand. Therefore, D2C as a subject is well-studied and well-documented.

Even before I start spouting my view on what success means, here are a few great playbooks:

• Fireside (& Redseer) on choosing a tech-stack, how to build a brand (1, 2, 3), how to go offline, and Bharat consumption

• A weird1 report by TMRW & Bain on fashion customers

• Snapchat & BCG on Gen-Z personas

• A great self-assessment tool on operational efficiency for sellers & Ops Heads by Shiprocket

• A D2C marketing playbook by SuperCluster Pi - a house of brands

Constraint: A pretty rigid P&L

Brands have existed for ages. Around the globe, such businesses have pretty well-defined expense heads. The modern cascade looks something like this:

The hefty channel margins were the genesis of the online brand. Today that has been replaced almost like to like by e-commerce players.

If you own the “customer purchase” stack, you can unlock 10-15% additional bottom line. Some of the channel margin is lost in substituting the capability provided by the channel.

E-commerce essentially flipped the marketing playbook from branding to performance for new brands.

Debt vs Equity

The first choice a startup faces is debt or equity.

There are a few obvious choices: pre-revenue startups (generally) have no choice but equity.

Debt underwrites cash-flows2, whereas equity underwrites business potential.

A D2C brand generates cash-flow from day 1 (unlike tech startups). Thus, a brand That means it can raise debt to fund working capital. When that happens, ROCE becomes the north-star metric, and growth tends to be linear.

The investment alpha kicks in only once the brand flywheel starts turning. That’s where equity (especially VC money) can accelerate the timeline to establish a “brand”.

Mini Case Study: Debt-first D2C

A personal care D2C brand in Mumbai used invoice financing and inventory-backed debt to scale from ₹5 Cr to ₹18 Cr in revenue without diluting equity. Only after proving repeat purchase rates >30% did they raise a small Series A to enter offline retail.

Investor lens - VCs bet on promising “brands”

I have done multiple exercises to count the number of brands in India. This is a particularly tough job. A good lens to view this problem is on scale vs geographic spread of its customers.

In the offline world, National & Regional brands dominate. Online, however, the land is up for grabs.

There are two ways to start a D2C brand on Day 0:

1. Seller-first. Start from procurement and sell online (drop shipper / an offline distributor). As long as you optimize inventory (maintain NooS3), and manage the online channel, you can scale up to ₹30-50 Cr. It is to scale an e-seller business beyond this as the lack of performance marketing capability caps the brand multiplier effect. This business is Free Cash Flow positive from Day 1 and focuses on ROIC.

2. Brand-first. Start from fulfilling a niche TG need and expand on use cases. This is a more difficult model as it requires significant up front investment to create the brand. But the ability to leverage the brand creates a much higher revenue ceiling. However, Brand-first models need to develop seller chops quickly.

Mini Case Study: Seller to brand transition

A home decor D2C brand (anonymous, real metrics) started as a seller-first operation (procurement + Amazon/Flipkart). Hit ₹40 Cr with positive FCF. But growth stalled. They hired a performance marketing lead, rebranded, and launched D2C site. Within 18 months, revenue hit ₹90 Cr, and brand searches tripled. Their lesson: seller-first funds survival, brand-first funds scale.

Differentiation via functional excellence

The modern D2C stack is highly outsourceable. Today’s D2C startups can practically outsource the entire stack and act as working capital managers.

Mathematically, there are 63 ways to choose a business model.

However, the real world constrains execution. Successful D2C brands end up owning at least 2 core functions (e.g., marketing + design) and insource more as they scale. Inventory often ends up being outsourced.

A few unique D2C business models

Mini Case Study: Speed-to-market as the difference

How Urbanic runs a negative working capital cycle (a good thing)

Urbanic in-sources only inventory ops & marketing.

They use a “pre-order + just-in-time manufacturing” model. Customers pay upfront, production happens after, and supplier payments are net-60 days. This creates a cash-negative working capital cycle. Urbanic reportedly holds customer cash for 30–45 days before paying suppliers - a massive win for a “small” brand.

Mini Case Study: Customer insight as the difference

How brands identified pockets as a differentiator

Travelwear brand Nobero in-sources design & marketing.

They took a travel-first approach with unique pocket designs (magnetic closures, earphone ports) as a signal of “designed for how you travel.” By redesigning pockets for phone security and ease of access, they reduced returns signficantly and built a strong NPS. Now they have diversified into other travel needs such as airport travel. Small functional wins lead to large brand loyalty.

No single funding path fits every D2C brand. But the ones that win in India tend to follow a pattern: debt for working capital, equity for brand acceleration, and obsessive focus on one or two non-outsourceable functions. The playbook exists. It all boils down to execution.

I am currently going through Blind Spots by Dr Marty Makary. Shocking stuff!

I always wondered why only Americans seem to have peanut allergy. The book answered that in chilling detail. An amazing concoction of politics and agenda pushing created this artificial epidemic.

Chapter after chapter goes into the various circumstances on how modern medicine gets it wrong quite frequently.

Clearly doctors are shooting in the dark. And not just on frontier stuff, but also in established areas. Don’t forget to question advice on first principles, not just random “statistical evidence”, and especially not AI.

Like any self-respecting product manager, I decided my home server stack was insufficient and had to be redone.

Like any self-respecting nerd, I prioritized it to “right now”.

After 2 sleepless nights, I am now the proud owner of a “datacenter” with two nodes. Now I am invested enough to add a third node and keep things quorate (new relevant word).

This is what my stack looks like now

On the roadmap:

1. Cyrpto mining - to payback for its cost (high-level, I estimate ~₹5K per month via ETH mining)

2. 3-2-1 Backup - everything fails eventually

I put on my developer hat (also 16 years old), and decided to repurpose them as home servers. Most of my weekly reading was dedicated towards this.

Fortunately Gemini compensated for my rustiness with Linux. Most of the software is free and open-source. So it cost very little outside of time.

I drew inspiration for my setup from Adamya Gupta’s HomeServer Guide on Github.

Also went through an amazing (and exhaustive, I think) list of FOSS for home servers by Awesome-Selfhosted.

Here’s what my current setup looks like:

On the roadmap is: crypto mining and home automation.

2 blogs I liked while I was structuring my previous post.

Mostly Borrowed Ideas: This guy churns out an extraordinary amount of content at a fantastic level of depth. Not sure how he keeps up the pace.

Generative Value by Eric Flaningam: Also a very prolific writer in areas I am interested in. Came across his well-researched piece on AI Data Centers.

Powder Mage by Brian McClellan. Finished a second read through. Great flawed characters, no OPed magic and gods, decent battles.

I am also plodding through The Worlds I See by Fei Fei Lee. Primarily because it is on the reading list of so many good people, that I just had to read it. I hope it gets better because Andrej Karpathy really blew my mind in his lecture.

My motivation to write this article comes broadly from a wish to understand sectors where I want to invest in so I can understand the potential for innovation or disruption. I understand better when I write my thoughts.

The intent of this post is to provide a starting point for readers to dive deeper into investment opportunities they find most interesting.

Defence Tech is relevant because the 2026-27 Union Budget had a lot of changes in the Defence chapter.

Executive Summary

For definition’s sake: the government (Ministry of Defence or the Armed Forces) is the customer for startups playing in Defence Tech (B2G or B2B2G).

India stands at an inflection point in defence manufacturing. For decades, the consensus among Indian VCs was that defence startups were “uninvestible” because:

1. Unpredictable sales (long cycles, prone to bribes, lumpy revenue, cash retrieval)

2. No Cost, No Commitment trial trap

3. Procurement bias toward DPSUs

Why Now?

2026 marks the end of that era. 3 converging forces will unlock significant value over the next decade:

The Union Budget 2026-27 has earmarked 75% of the ₹2.16 Lakh Crore ($24 Bn) capital budget for domestic procurement. In October, the Defence Procurement Manual (DPM) 2025 dismantled the structural advantage of DPSUs.

1. Policy Tailwinds: The Union Budget 2026-27 earmarked 75% of the ₹2.16 Lakh Crore ($24 Bn) capital budget for domestic procurement. The Defence Procurement Manual 2025 (released October 2025) has structurally reduced DPSU domination and mandates MSME and startup participation. iDEX grants now reach ₹10 Crore per project. Positive Indigenisation Lists (PILs) have banned 500+ imported defence items.

2. Geopolitical Urgency: Border tensions on all fronts, lessons on drone warfare from Ukraine conflict, and the US-China tech decoupling have accelerated the “Atmanirbhar Bharat” priority. As things stand, sovereign defence supply chain is an existential crisis.

3. Startup Validation: $184 Million in VC funding (between 2015 and 2025) has backed 200+ defence-tech startups. Companies like ideaForge (₹47 Cr Navy contracts), Tonbo Imaging (thermal drones), and NewSpace Research (satellite comms) have broken new ground.

Investment Thesis

Seed to Series A/B will see significant activity. Value creation will be driven by new age warfare, import substitution, and exports. Startups will survive on non-military commercialization.

5 Big Trends to Watch Out For

1. Supply Chain Risk Mitigation

2. Drone Verticalization (Beyond UAVs)

3. AI & IP as a moat

4. Traditional Defence Industries (Shells, Ammo, Munitions)

5. Make in India for the World (Exports)

Let’s dive into the dirty details.

Chapter 1 - The Catalyst

The last two decades saw India’s defence doctrine pivot from Cold War legacy (Russian imports, legacy platforms) to strategic autonomy in a multipolar world. The change has been driven by three major events:

1. A tense neighborhood

The last decade has been characterized by intense geopolitical tension.

1. With China, Galwan and Doklam standoffs upended the belief in the LAC that had been accepted for decades. The String of Pearls strategy has challenged India’s dominance in its own backyard.

2. With Pakistan, terrorist attacks in Uri & Pulwama led to surgical strikes by India as retaliation. The revocation of Article 370 led to the freezing of diplomatic relations, exacerbated by India’s suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty.

3. With Bangladesh, the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government led to a massive anti-India sentiment, aside from lingering issues such as illegal migration and Teesta River dispute.

4. With Nepal, a new political map including Indian districts created a furore, straining a long-standing friendly relationship.

5. With Maldives, another long-time friend, President Mohamed Muizzu (2023) saw an active “India Out” campaign, with the new government demanding the removal of Indian military personnel, marking a shift toward China.

Lessons from Ukraine-Russia conflict

The last 4 years of conflict have completely rewritten the conventional warfare playbook.

1. Unmanned systems (drones, loitering munitions) will be the primary weapons of modern warfare.

2. Low cost (and potentially disposable platforms) will determine theatre control, not $1 Bn stealth jets.

3. Traditional Western (munition) supply chains are fragile. Alternatives, preferably sovereign are required for hedging.

US isolationism

President Trump has adopted a more transactional, America First strategy.

1. First DOGE cut commitments to key multilateral organizations such as UNO.

2. The Pentagon signalled limited support for European allies, limiting the long-standing NATO. Allies are being “encouraged” to increase their own defense spending to prevent the US from bearing the financial burden of global security.

3. The US imposed punitive tariffs on India. Despite recent improvement in trade relations, India remains scarred from a year of unexpected hostility.

In response, India has enacted a number of pro-startup, pro-indigenization policies.

Chapter 2 - The Rate Determining Step

Once inducted, contracts exhibit near-100% retention with MRO upside. While selling to the government is a large and sticky opportunity, it is fraught with risk.

1. Long, Unpredictable Sales Cycles. The Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP 2020) outlines the procurement process. The entire process has traditionally taken anything between 3-6 years. A Series A startup funded in 2024 may very well not see revenue until 2027-2028.

   

2. Lumpy, Q4-Heavy Revenue. India’s fiscal year ends March 31st. Government budgets are exhausted in the last quarter (Jan-Mar), with minimal procurement in Apr-Sep. Consequently, revenue is highly lumpy.

   • A startup might see ₹10 Cr induction order in Mar (Q4), then zero revenue for 9 months (Apr-Dec), then another ₹5 Cr maintenance order in Mar.

   • For VCs, this complicates fundraising narratives (no smooth ARR growth) and burn modeling.

3. Bureaucracy & Political Risk. The procurement ecosystem involves:

   • Multiple approvals (Ministry of Defence, Services HQ, DRDO, CCS).

   • Change of government (every 5 years) = budget reallocation risk.

   • “NCNC Culture” (No Cost, No Commitment trials), i.e., suppliers shoulder testing costs with no guarantee of purchase.

   • A startup might spend ₹2 Cr on trials and the government ends up delaying procurement for 2-3 years due to fiscal constraints or political shifts.

Chapter 3 - The Vectors

1. Supply Chain Risk Mitigation

• The Problem: Global defence supply chains are fragile. Ukraine war exposed munition shortages; COVID disrupted semiconductor flows. Rare earths (lithium, cobalt, gallium arsenide) are weaponized by China as export controls.

• The Opportunity: Startups developing

  • Alternative materials (e.g., rare-earth-free magnets for drone motors).

  • Localized component sourcing (capacitors, PCBs, connectors).

  • Supply chain visibility platforms (blockchain tracking of parts).

• VC Playbook

  • Look for teams with DRDO/DPSU operational experience.

  • Defensibility: Patents on materials or process (e.g., 3D-printed titanium alloys).

  • De-risk via iDEX grants + DPSU R&D partnerships.

2. Drone Verticalization (Beyond UAVs)

• The Problem: The drone market is crowded. 100+ startups globally are building quadcopters. Margins are compressing. Commodity drones = 5-10% gross margins.

• The Opportunity: India’s Armed Forces don’t need another quadcopter. They need:

  • Loitering Munitions (kamikaze drones; today US/EU/Russia dominate).

  • Swarm Autonomy (coordinated multi-drone tactics).

  • Underwater Drones (USVs for naval intelligence; US penetration 25% vs India 3%).

  • High-Altitude Long-Endurance (HALE) Platforms (24+ hour surveillance)

• VC Playbook

  • Target ex-aerospace founders or DRDO alumni.

  • Require software + hardware (IP sits in algorithms, not the airframe).

  • Fund in tranches: Prototype (₹1.5 Cr) → Trials (₹3 Cr) → Production (₹5 Cr).

3. Traditional Defence Industries (Shells, Ammo, Munitions)

• The Problem: Ukraine war has exploded demand for basic munitions. The US is producing 40,000 artillery shells/month (vs 10,000 pre-2022). But Western capacity is maxed. European countries are looking for alternative suppliers.

• The Opportunity: Low-cost, skilled manufacturing.

• VC Playbook

  • Capital-intensive, low-margin (5-8% gross), heavy regulation.

  • Focus on tech-enabled production (3D-printed fuses, precision-machined components) rather than commodity ammo.

  • Maybe PE territory.

4. Make in India for the World (Exports)

• The Problem: Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, South Africa, Brazil have shown interest in Indian defence products but only a few commercial contracts have materialized.

• The Opportunity: India has a unique position: cost-competitive manufacturing + growing soft power. India defence exports for FY25 $2.6 Bn (vs target $5 Bn by 2027).

• VC Playbook

  • Identify startups with export-ready products (e.g., tactical drones, comms systems)

  • Target export certifications (Wassenaar Arrangement compliance)

  • Risk of unexpected regulation due to shift in geopolitics

5. AI & IP as a moat

• The Problem: modern, swarm warfare requires faster & highly coordinated decision-making. Traditional OEMs struggle with AI-embedded systems.

• The Opportunity: AI can unlock sticky contracts via battle management and cohesive Multi-Domain Operations (MDO).

• VC Playbook

  • Back AI-first startups with ToT-embedded IP (e.g., hypersonics/ML platforms); fund iDEX trials for AoN acceleration.

  • Utilize veterans to accelerate GTM; dual-use pivots bridge 18-24 month gestation.

Chapter 4 - The Promised Land

Domestic Production Budget

The defence budget has seen continuous increments, with this year ~$20B being allocated towards capital acquisition and modernisation. Of this, ~$400M is readily accessible by startups. Further, all Central Government Ministries, Departments, and Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs)—including Defence PSUs—are mandated to procure at least 25% of their annual procurement from MSEs.

Import Substitution

India is the top importer of global arms (except Ukraine – an outlier) with a share of 8.8% of global imports. In contrast, China, for decades among the top arms recipients, saw arms imports fall by two thirds between 2015–19 and 2020–24 as it expanded its domestic arms production capabilities.

Exact import numbers are not available in public domain. I estimate that the import substitution opportunity is close to $2B every year.

Export Opportunity

Defence exports have increased from ₹686 crore in 2014 to ₹23,622 crore (~USD 2.6 Bn) in 2025 - a 34X jump across 11 years. A recent report by India Exim Bank deep dives into the defence import-export scenario.

Venture Activity

Total VC investment in Indian defence tech totals ~$700 Mn cumulatively over 10 years. US defence tech startups raised ~$49 Bn in 2025 alone!

Today, funding activity is skewed towards seed and early-stage companies. Startups are still experimenting with PMF and taking a horizontal approach to find successful ideas.

On the other hand, VCs still have low trust in the revenue unpredictability that comes with a B2G GTM. Thus, startups with a dual-use GTM find a more successful narrative. Non-combat systems (logistics, ISR, cybersecurity) startups - with applications across industries - have cornered ~80% of the total funds raised. The sub-sector funding distribution is symptomatic of a system where capital follows procurement gravity than engineering differentiation.

As the ecosystem matures, capital is likely to flow into existing whitespaces and eventually into vertical theatres.

Chapter 5 - The VC

Risk Assessment

Risk Mitigation

1. Dual-Use GTM: Every portfolio company should have a non-defence revenue stream (agriculture, logistics, commercial) capturing 30-40% of revenue by Year 3. This de-risks government procurement delays.

2. Deep Links With MoD: Insist on at least one founder with 5+ years in DRDO, HAL, or military procurement. This dramatically shortens sales cycles.

3. Sell to Command HO instead of MoD. Command HO procurement cycles (typically <₹50 Cr) are tactical and faster. These are reasonably sized contracts for fast-moving startups.

4. Portfolio Approach: Deploy across 10-15 startups. Expect 3-4 to reach ₹50+ Cr revenue (exits), 5-6 to plateau at ₹10-20 Cr (lifestyle), 2-3 to fail.

Portfolio Approach

• UAVs + Swarms (40%)

• AI/Autonomy + Software (30%)

• Supply Chain + Materials (15%)

• Exports + Traditional (15%)

Investment Thesis

Indian defence-tech startups are at an inflection point. Converging tailwinds are creating a 10 year window to deploy venture capital at venture-class returns (3-5x MOIC, 25-35% IRR).

Appendix - Additional Reading

• “India Defence Tech Report”, Tracxn (January 2026)

• “Warfare In The Age Of AI: India’s Defence Tech Startup Landscape Report”, Inc42 (2025)

• “India’s Defence Equipment Inudstry: Exploring New Frontiers”, India Exim Bank (2025)

• “How VC and PE Are Powering India’s Defence-Tech Revolution”, LoEstro Advisors (July 2025)

• “Trends in Global Arms Trade and India”, Vivekananda International Foundation (2024)

Disclaimer: The information contained in this article is not investment advice and should not be used as such. Investors should do their own due diligence before investing in any assets / themes discussed in this article. While I strive for accuracy, I can’t guarantee the accuracy or reliability of this information. This article is based on my opinions (built through sector expert conversations and secondary research).

You can deal with it in two ways:

1. The constructive way is to get better at your strengths

2. The destructive way is to obsess about your weaknesses

Which led me thinking about what my strengths are anyway?

While 80,000 hours has a great framework to think this question through, this is my attempt to simplify things a bit.

The Process

1. Catalog Skills and Define Proficiency

2. Map to Goals

3. Update Regularly

Catalog Skills and Define Proficiency

1. Review your work history

   1. Go through your LinkedIn, CV, organizational awards

   2. Ask for feedback from ex managers, colleagues, clients, friends

2. Reflect on questions designed to help pinpoint your key strengths

   1. What energized you? What drained you (and thus want to avoid next time)?

   2. Where did you make significant progress? Where did you stall?

3. Use research-backed lists of strengths to generate ideas (here’s a map I created for myself)

4. Define proficiency on a 1-5 scale (e.g., Basic to Expert)

Map to Goals

Connect your skills to your career path or business objectives.

I consider this an optional step. Primarily because thinking about purpose, ikigai, north star - is super difficult. Here are a few resources that I liked on the subject: by a Wait But Why (one of my favorite blogs) and Joshua Stehr, a German designer.

But totally worth it. I took about 6 months to zero in on my next step.

Update Regularly

Re-visit the list every year to keep pace with your own evolution.

AI and tech is changing every job description. Traditional career progression seems to be substituted by “evolve or die”. Worth doing an AI threat assessment on each skill.

Zero to Hero by Andrej Karpathy

Andrej is one of the foremost thinkers of the AI world. He creates deep content on everything AI. As a non-engineer, the general audience track gets deep enough without getting overwhelming.

Generative AI for Everyone by Andrew NG

A course created and delivered by the co-founder of Coursera. What else can you ask for?

Open AI Cookbook, Hugging Face Learn

If you use ChatGPT, you must peruse this at least once. Lots of prompting and guardrails related stuff. Some of the stuff is super technical, but accessible material abounds aplenty.

Over the next few weeks, I will be posting some of my learnings.

Memos by Sriram K

This is a collection of memos from the early days of companies like Microsoft, Facebook, and Apple. Read for a view on how the titans of tech communicated with their right hand men.

Useful Fictions by Cate Hall

I discovered Cate Hall through her excellent Ted Talk. Her life’s pivots deserves and a separate post. The blog is about agency (which is a personal theme for 2026) and frameworks to think through life.

Quarter Mile by Carter Mark & Jordan Gonen

A collection of essays about startups, life, and career. The topics I intend to cover here anyway.

To be honest, more experiments failed than they succeeded. At the very least I got myself a super nice productivity stack going.

I have always thought that I have taken life passively. I want to have more agency. Consequently, I was able to articulate lots of things that I want. I still lack the courage to walk the path though.

For 2026, I wish:

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

The courage to change the things I can,

And the wisdom to know the difference.

As a partner at a fast-growing consulting firm, I was constantly juggling client delivery, proposals, thought leadership, and operational work. The early setup was simple: WhatsApp for quick coordination, a calendar for meetings, and Excel for project tracking. But as complexity increased and the level of personal agency required for my tasks grew, I realized I needed a system to guard my time.

Here are the key principles that worked for me:

1. Manage energy, not time: commit only to the 3 most important things in a day, and align them with your peak energy windows (mornings for me).

2. Calendarize everything: if it’s not on the calendar, it is not getting done. Others need your time, so block deep work, admin work, and even recovery.

3. Tame the inbox: never let the inbox overflow. Do, Delete, Delegate, or Delay.

The New System

While the system above kept my work ticking, it was purely work-focused. I wanted to expand this to cover life goals, fitness, and personal projects.

Over the last year, I experimented with 50+ tools to find what worked for me. The constraints: open source, privacy-first, free/freemium. I am willing to bend the rules for the perfect tool, but I am a price-conscious Indian earning in INR. (A request to EU/US developers: please adopt regional pricing!)

Here is the stack that survived the cut:

Note-taking and Journalling

• Organized, high-privacy notes (primary):

  • Using: Notesnook (paid)

  • Also tried / occasional: Logseq, Notion

  • Want to try: Obsidian

• On-the-fly capture:

  • Using: Samsung Notes

  • Also used: WhatsApp, Google Keep

Planning, Email, and Calendar

• Email & calendar:

  • Using: Samsung Calendar

  • Also tried: DigiCal+, Outlook, Thunderbird, Zoho Mail

  • On the radar: Bluemail

• Weekly planning, tasks, and priorities:

  • Using: Weektodo for a week-at-a-glance and prioritization

  • Also tried: Todoist, Microsoft To Do, basic Kanban boards

  • Want to try: Akiflow, Routine, Ellie​

Projects and Personal CRM

• Projects and simple personal CRM:

  • Using: Excel (still hard to beat for flexibility)

  • Also tried: Task3, OpenGantt

  • Want to try: Taskosaur, Monicahq

Health and Fitness

• Nutrition tracking:

  • Using: Journable (paid)

  • Also tried: Healthify

• Workout tracking:

  • Using: Hevy

  • Also tried: Boostcamp

• Sleep tracking:

  • Using: Sleep as Android

  • Also tried: Sleep Cycle

• Smart device integration (Samsung–Android reality):

  • Using: Samsung Health plus Google Fit for syncing wearables and app data.

Additional Reading

I strongly recommend David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD) framework. It breaks personal projects into 5 horizons, ensuring you aren’t just busy, but moving in the right direction:

• Horizon 5: Life

• Horizon 4: Long-term visions

• Horizon 3: 1–2 year goals

• Horizon 2: Areas of focus

• Horizon 1: Current projects

Further Reading If you want to geek out on frameworks, check these out:

• Todoist: Personal Productivity Methods

• Any.do: Productivity Methods List

• Prototypr: Framework for 10x Productivity

The metrics speak for themselves: Whiteout Survival has grossed >$2 billion since its launch in 2023. Almost 3 years after its launch, it has ~2 million DAUs logging in 6-8 sessions per day.

It also has an active community with a subreddit of nearly 60k users.

It’s a lesson in superb design - one that shows how analytics, community, UX, and monetization can turn a game into a full-blown digital ecosystem.

Amazing Product Design

• Progressive Gameplay: The learning curve is smooth, guiding new players through tutorials while maintaining a persistent challenge. You are encouraged to login regularly as a new player to build the habit.

• Engagement via Community: Being part of an alliance and participating in high-stakes, time-limited events force continuous engagement, making the game feel like a vital part of your life.

• Smart monetization: As this Medium analysis outlines, its fragmented microtransactions encourage frequent small purchases that are easy to overlook but hard to escape.

Before I knew it, I was structuring my evenings (or late nights) around events. However, the genius design is inseparable from its predatory nature.

The Dark-side of Great Design

The game “baits and switches” from the advertised resource management simulator to a high-pressure war game. Some patterns echoed gambling addiction mechanics:

• Pay-to-win tiers that prey on competitiveness and FOMO

• Time-limited events that disrupt real-world schedules

• Social pressure from clans and alliances that can blur boundaries between game and RL

I saw players spending thousands of dollars on digital boosts. A few “whales” seemed almost unbelievable in their spending. Who drops more than ₹15k weekly on a mobile game? Are these real users, or part of a marketing illusion?

Beyond the system itself, certain states host highly toxic environments, including widespread misogyny. The subreddit community is full of complaints of the game taking over their real lives, suffering from depression and anxiety as toxic “whales” flung abuse at smaller “minnows”.

Finally, there’s the data privacy angle. Whiteout Survival is developed by a Chinese studio, which naturally raises questions about how personal and behavioral data are used.

Looking Back

Ultimately, Whiteout Survival is a perfectly engineered machine: it’s designed to extract both time and money, making it a powerful lesson for developers and a serious warning for gamers.

They used to harp about personal brand back in my consulting days. I knew they were right. Only now do I feel like actioning it.

Motivation

Feeling ambitious. I was coasting on my creds as an IIT-IIM grad. I made some decent choices but always felt that I took the passive route. Never really articulated any goals. Never really worked hard to achieve them. Now I want to be recognized as the best in my niche. What my niche is, is a question for another day.

The world needs me. I have a unique life journey (just like everyone). But I do think I have something(s) worth saying. I am willing to be brave, to open up to the risk of being shot down. I trust that at some point, something meaningful will come out of it.

Topics

I have always suffered from having too many interests. This has led me to be a generalist in too many things.

Entrepreneurship. I keep coming back to this theme. In equal parts: being my own boss, and the only path to generational wealth.

Consulting. I spent almost a decade in consulting. Learnt lots about the basics of being a great Associate and Engagement Manager, not enough about being a great Partner. Some of the skillsets required lay in my natural weaknesses. Quit because I was hitting a dead end in consulting at Redseer.

Life & Hobbies. A catch-all term for all other interests. I spent 18 months contemplating life away from an active job. Consequently, I spent time on (non-exhaustive) productivity, physical fitness, gaming, setting up my home server, aqua scaping, following Manchester United.