Navneet Chahal

Listened to a very interesting talk by Vikram Chatterji, CEO of Citi Ventures portfolio company Galileo at the 2025 IIT leadership conference. A few insights stood out: 𝗠𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗔𝗜 𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗱𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗿𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗮𝗯𝗹𝘆 𝘁𝗼𝗱𝗮𝘆: Around 95% of enterprise agents fail in production. The core challenge is not building agents, but making them trustworthy, safe, and production-ready. 𝗦𝗼𝗳𝘁𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝟭.𝟬 → 𝟮.𝟬 → 𝟯.𝟬: We are moving from deterministic coding (1.0), to embedding neural networks in applications (2.0), to natural language interfaces that allow developers to rapidly assemble complex AI systems (3.0). This shift makes the traditional SDLC insufficient. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗴𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗗𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗟𝗶𝗳𝗲 𝗖𝘆𝗰𝗹𝗲 (𝗔𝗗𝗟𝗖) is fundamentally different: Failures include hallucinations, prompt injection, and compliance issues. Enterprises need continuous monitoring, root-cause analysis, and guardrails at scale. Galileo is the Datadog + New Relic for AI agents 𝗠𝘂𝗹𝘁𝗶-𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗳𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴: Companies are shifting from one-off agents to fleets of 10, 50, or 100+ specialized agents communicating through emerging protocols. This resembles the microservices revolution, but for intelligent agents. Reliability, authentication, and governance will be critical. 𝗔𝗴𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗰 𝗘𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘄𝘀 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁 𝗱𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗱: Galileo’s recent launch of free Agentic Evaluations drew strong adoption, confirming that developers quickly hit a wall in scaling agents without systematic testing and monitoring. Large enterprises like Verizon, and Comcast are already embedding Galileo’s stack. The next frontier in enterprise AI is clear: moving beyond building agents to ensuring they are reliable, observable, and safe at scale. Galileo is one of the players defining this new infrastructure layer Dharmesh Thakker, Andy Vitus, Amarjit Gill, Lip-Bu Tan, Yash Sheth, Atindriyo Sanyal, Arvind Purushotham, Çağla Kaymaz, Victor Chang, Kevin Weber

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Most poeple don’t get Boba Bhai right. But, as an investor via Titan Capital Winners Fund, I’ve had the fortune to see this story play out very closely. It is not just winning the bubble tea market in India - It is creating it. - Before their explosive entry, the category was a fragmented, niche curiosity-a handful of scattered outlets with no cohesive market identity - And Boba Bhai’s strategic execution is a live case study in transforming a fringe trend into a dominant, mainstream consumer category Their first move was to define the product for the Indian masses. By fusing Korean formats with Indian flavours, they created an accessible, craveable version of bubble tea and street food that could achieve broad appeal, moving it out of the niche corners of K-culture enthusiasts. Next, they built the physical infrastructure for the category at an unprecedented speed. Scaling to over 70 outlets, they are single-handedly putting bubble tea on the map in cities across the country, building the distribution network that is making the drink a household name. But their most visionary move in category creation is happening right now, in the digital aisle. The launch of Ready-to-Drink (RTD) canned bubble tea on quick commerce platforms like Blinkit and Zepto is another big bet. Effectively, they are not just entering a new channel - they are creating an entirely new FMCG category from scratch - packaged bubble tea. This allows them to own the "at-home" occasion, building brand salience far beyond their physical footprint. And this is very inspiring, because this is how categories are built. A single brand becomes so dominant in the consumer's mind that it becomes synonymous with the product itself. Think Xerox for photocopying or Maggi for instant noodles. With a stated goal to make K-Pop culture mainstream in India across food, drink and more, Boba Bhai, and its amazing founder, my friend Dhruv (in pic), are not shy about their ambitions. - And having read this whole thing, I am sure you would now get that they are not aiming to be a player in the bubble tea space - They are building the entire stadium and positioning themselves as the home team And that’s why I always say with pride and confidence, that Boba Bhai isn't just another QSR. What do you think? ---- I've begun to share my learnings from the world of startups more frequently to gain wider perspective. Thus, if you hold any additions or differences to the thoughts I shared above, do share in the comments. That will help widen my thinking horizons. Thanks! Best, Shiv

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𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗔𝗱𝘃𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗱 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝘂𝗳𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘀 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗮’𝘀 𝗡𝗲𝘅𝘁 $𝟭 𝗧𝗿𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗢𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆 India’s manufacturing output hit $471B in FY24, and if current momentum continues, it’s projected to nearly triple to $1.3T by FY30. But this isn’t just about topline growth, it’s about a shift in the quality of what we’re building. We’re moving from assembly to IP-led manufacturing, from manual production to automation and digitization, and from commoditized inputs to strategic sectors like electronics, aerospace, and medical devices. This is what we call advanced manufacturing—companies that build or apply deep R&D, proprietary equipment, or process innovation to drive step changes in performance, efficiency, or cost. It’s not a buzzword. It’s where the world is headed. And it’s where India has a real shot at global leadership. 𝗔𝘁 𝗔𝗰𝗰𝗲𝗹, 𝘄𝗲’𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗲𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻𝘀. Smartphone exports crossed $24.1B in FY25, making them our largest export category. Over 200 mobile factories are now operational, up from just 2 in 2014. And PLI incentives have catalyzed over ₹14 lakh crore in production. This isn’t a government-led push alone. It’s a rare convergence of policy, global supply chain shifts, and startup energy. If we lean in now—with capital, skilling, and long-term conviction—India won’t just participate in the global manufacturing wave. We’ll shape it.

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I had an exciting conversation with Sandeep Bardia who is currently the CFO of Cloud Nine Hospital with over 25 years of experience in corporate finance. We discussed - Role of CFO in Hyper Growth Vs. matured companies - Practical nuances of Short range plan & Annual operating plan (do you know what is Topline protection plan?) - Business partnering - what really it is in practice? - Managing Tensions, towards healthy & profitable growth - Governance and Steps taken towards preparing for IPO - CFO role & perspective Thanks Sandeep Bardia I really enjoyed it. I really believe this is useful for aspiring CFO's across all finance team members be it FC (finance controller), planning / business finance and treasury. I also think this is useful for CFO's as well. For full video: https://lnkd.in/gbbc2wpV #SBN #CFOlife #FClife #financereporting #resultlane Swaminathan Subbarathnam Deepak S Prasad Harish S K Sandeep Bardia Gagan Shetty Sriram Chidambaram Chitra Parameswaran Soundar R Dhawal Parvatikar

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Natasha Malpani Launches ₹200 Crore Fund to Power India’s AI Startups Former Kae Capital partner Natasha Malpani has launched Boundless Ventures, an early-stage venture fund with a corpus of ₹200 crore, dedicated to supporting homegrown AI-native startups across India. The fund will focus on pre-seed and seed-stage investments in companies innovating across consumer AI, infrastructure, agent tooling, healthcare, logistics, deep tech, and make-in-India hardware. Boundless has already written its first cheques to startups including Superhealth, Armatrix, PierSight, Knot, and two stealth ventures in AI infrastructure and consumer AI. Beyond capital, the fund promises to bring narrative and network support to founders. As Malpani puts it, India today has a once-in-a-generation advantage talent density, digital rails, and ambition to build global AI leaders from day one. At Startup Veda, we’re thrilled to see local capital fueling the AI frontier. This fund signals rising maturity in India’s venture ecosystem—placing conviction behind AI-first founders well before the rest of the world catches on. Join the conversation: Which early-stage AI ventures excite you the most? How powerful is the mix of capital + storytelling for building AI startups? #Startup #AI #VentureCapital #DeepTech #StartupIndia #FounderStories

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