Vrushank Vyas

Meet Abhishek( Ex-Indian Express. Ex-McKinsey) Now, he’s our first in-house content marketer for our own brand led efforts. Here’s why we hired him (and why you should consider hiring outside the box too): — We needed research-backed content. Not just opinions or recycled fluff. — We needed an editorial mindset. Someone who thinks like a journalist, not just a marketer. — We didn’t want SaaS bias. Previous experience with famous SaaS brands can sometimes mean they stick to the same old playbook. We wanted fresh perspectives. —We needed someone who saw content as more than blogs and landing pages. Content is about uncovering and amplifying stories, not just ticking off SEO checklists. — We needed someone who could interview. Both internally and externally, to dig up insights no one else is talking about. — And most importantly, we needed a content distributor, not just a content creator. Because content that doesn’t reach the right audience is just a wasted effort. 💡Here’s the kicker: companies like McKinsey & Company or The Indian Express value content differently than tech or SaaS company. And that mindset shift has been a game-changer for us. But this isn’t the first time I’ve hired “non-obvious” talent for mid-manager or individual contributor roles. ~ I once hired a psychologist for sales. ~ A mathematician and stockbroker to run ads (no MBA, no prior experience). ~ A banker for account management. And every time, it’s worked out better than “playing it safe” with traditional candidates. Why? Because hard skills can be learned. But characteristics—like mindset, curiosity, grit, and the ability to adapt—are much harder to teach. So next time you’re hiring, ask yourself: + Does this person’s career trajectory show they can learn and adapt? + Are their traits and mindset aligned to the role? Stop overvaluing “relevant experience.” Learning hard skills isn’t rocket science. But finding people who think differently? That’s rare—and often exactly what you need. Also to job seekers reading this. You don’t know what kind of opportunities will knock you door. If it does the rule is to “Just say yes! And Figure out on the go” P.S. Abishek Balaji already crushing it. And if you’re curious, I’d be happy to share some of the content we’re creating together. If this goes well I’ll start the series of posting about how we hire monthly once with an insider example :) Cc: TripleDart

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🚀 Introducing traversaal.ai's newest jewel Mantra-14B: A bilingual Hindi-English LLM that punches well above its weight — outperforming models twice its size. Mantra-14B is designed to bridge the language gap in real-world applications across South Asia and beyond. The model comes with 3% improvement in mean benchmark scores for both English and Hindi benchmarks for models twice the size. 🔍 Why Mantra Matters: - Outperforms larger models like Aya-32B, Krutrim-12B, and Nemotron-Hindi-4B - Excels in code generation, reasoning, and Hindi comprehension - Demonstrates lower bias in multiple-choice tasks - Strong domain adaptability and localized knowledge Released under the Apache 2.0 license Mantra sets a new bar for culturally aligned, multilingual LLMs that are efficient, powerful, and truly inclusive. Whether you're building for Bharat, training custom agents, or deploying open-source AI—Mantra gives you the foundation to go further. 🧪 Model Card: https://lnkd.in/d9yZKzs9 🚀 Colab Demo: https://lnkd.in/dauvyBJF 🌐 HF Space: https://lnkd.in/dbMDhzsk 📄 Paper: https://lnkd.in/dvEUNZeX Congratulations to traversaal.ai's entire team on such an amazing lauch!

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What does a $15M ARR AI startup and a $5B IPO home services giant have in common? On the surface nothing. Emergent is barely a year old, sprinting to $23M funding and $15M ARR in just 90 days Urban Company just became India’s most oversubscribed IPO of 2025, listing 58% above issue price Different sectors. Different stages. Different decades Two very different journeys. But the same underlying lesson: you don’t scale on hype, you scale on systems When I spoke with Raghav (co-founder of Urban Company) on our podcast, he reminded me how crowded the early days were Dozens of “home services” apps mushroomed in 2014–15. Investors were skeptical. Most shut down Urban Company didn’t survive by raising the most it survived by standardizing trust: vetting, training, and professionalizing a workforce that was previously unorganized Emergent’s story rhymes with that. On the surface, it’s just another AI app-builder in a space littered with no-code and “agentic” hype Yet in 90 days, they’ve sprinted to $15M ARR. Why? Because their execution embeds the loop agents that don’t just build apps, but keep improving workflows, locking in users as the stack itself matures That’s the difference between momentum and endurance Funding is oxygen, not fuel. IPO is validation, not victory The real moat is the invisible systems you build and defend Founders often ask: how do you scale faster? The answer is: don’t just build features build flywheels. Don’t just chase growth codify trust That’s how you turn 90-day ARR into something sustainable That’s how you turn a services marketplace into a generational IPO India doesn’t just need more unicorns. It needs more companies that make the invisible, visible

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