It is quite something to witness the birth, growth and roller-coaster journey of several unicorns and generation-defining/enduring companies.
Over 7 incredible years, Sequoia Capital India & SEA afforded me that rare privilege of having a front-row seat and the adrenaline-rush of watching and cheering as rocket-ships took off.
Looking back, it feels inevitable that the spark would find me too, and lead me to take a leap and back myself. To take a bet on building Infinyte Club with my formidable co-founder, Ankita Tandon.
Itâs been a little over a year since I stepped away from what I thought was the wildest ride I could have imagined.
That very rare opportunity to build, play and work alongside the best in the world - colleagues, founders and builders at startups. My time at Sequoia Capital India & SEA was transformational and life-changing - thank you for your alchemising belief, Shailendra J Singh, Roy and Rajan Anandan.
Ankita and I have been chipping away at the audacious mission to create a million millionaires at Infinyte Club, backed by some of the best investors, founders and builders in the world. We canât wait to share more and have you join us!
In just 30 days from now, we will open early access to the infinyte.club app for members of our waitlist, which will mark a big leap forward for us in our journey to create a new world order.
âThe future is already here, just not evenly distributedâ
Ankita and I have had front-row seats to and in the world of startups. We started our own careers in this space 15+ years ago and have spent a considerable chunk of our lives working in the startup ecosystem, working with visionary founders and leaders.
Widely-owned equity is the mechanism by which entrepreneurship spreads from just the founders to the entire team of employees. It's what drives so many of us to devote our best years towards building something audacious. Ownership through equity represents the possibility of participating in the material upside, the swag, the brag that comes with changing the world, whilst challenging the status quo.
One thing consistently stood out to us, as we pondered our stints at different different companies in the startup universe - builders work side by side with founders in the trenches, and take on similar risk. Yet the reward for building these rocketships - the potential to create life-changing wealth - is never quite on the horizon. Founders and investors often have a clear line of sight into what payoff looks like and when it could potentially arrive. Builders at these startups on the other hand often end up with substantial risk and what looks like a lottery ticket (aka ESOPs).
Historically, very few startup builders have managed to liquidate their equity. Some of us remain committed and overly concentrated in just one startup, held by golden handcuffs, no less. Many of us simply forfeit our equity before we ever get a chance to realize our gains - compelled either by short ESOP exercise windows, lack of exercise funding, or just the demands of life. In short, startup stock options are a pipe dream.
As Builders, as Operators, as Craftspersons of this Internet Era - a new way to be, own and invest in our stories, and visions for the future has been a long time coming. Amassing ESOPs is one thing, but translating them into real wealth by channelling liquidity to bring alive our own ambitions is an entirely different ballgame.
A new era beckons: How can we benefit from the success of what we have built and created, while also participating in the new opportunities that lie ahead?
Itâs time for a new world order. Itâs about damn time!
The era of owners, not merely creators
At Surge, I saw the possibilities of what an ownership mindset on steroids can do. Founding teams opted for large ESOP components at these companies, whilst taking on the raw, gripping, and gnarly dichotomy between âgo bigâ and âgo home.â
Owners execute with vision, velocity and precision; they don't merely follow orders. They operate from a place of secure confidence: making bold bets and achieving incredible feats. These are the people who think different, feel different, behave different. These are the trailblazers, driven by a purpose.
They challenge the status quo, strive for excellence and reject conventional norms. Their intention is to be authentic to their calling. They have a unique perspective. And with that, comes both opportunities and challenges to grapple with, that every rebel on a mission must face.
Rebellion is what births ideas, revolutions and movements - startups - that challenge the status quo. Powered by ownership, it unleashes creativity and unlocks new frontiers, mindset shifts and wealth. This ownership, through ESOPs and equity, is the only way to truly play this Infinyte game. As with success, ownership and the wealth it unlocks begets more of it.
Exponential outcomes need outsized betsâŚ
...and during my tenure at Sequoia Capital India, I grasped how the two in lockstep can have compounding effects. I experienced firsthand the addictive and exhilarating sport of company building, with hundreds of founders and founding teams, competing against time and the inevitable miasma of status quo to make something meaningful and enduring.
I watched as my friends joined companies like Gojek, Stripe, Twitter, Pinterest, Airbnb, Tesla, Etsy, Docusign and so many others - long before they achieved the stature they now possess. Their wealthâand along with it, their ambitions, belief, and confidenceâexpanded as these companies scaled; their audacious bets had worked out!
One thing became undeniably clear to me: each of these players bet on themselves, every step of the way. Linear thinking only begets linear journeys and outcomes. Exponential outcomes donât emerge from the steady, addictive drip of a salary.
The New Renaissance
We are in the middle of a new renaissance, ushered in by a new crop of artist-builders who reimagine the world in code and pixels, fuelled by capital that supercharges fever dreams into reality.
Scenius, (a term coined by Brian Eno) refers to the remarkable creativity that emerges out of groups, locations, or 'scenes.' Scenius is like genius, only embedded in a scene rather than in genes.
Throughout the annals of art and science, we find a plethora of instances showcasing the power of scenes, and the scenius they fostered. Whether it be the Garden of San Marco, owned by the powerful Medici family of 14th century Florence, which bloomed into a hub of Rennaisance-era intellectual achievements - or the Moulin de la Galette of Paris, where the Impressionists produced their most extraordinary works during garden soirees. Bohr, Einstein, and Heisenberg's intellectual debates gave birth to quantum theory at the Solvay conferences. Rock nâ roll music had the Woodstock Festival, modern literature had the Algonquin Round Table, and the Inklings in Oxford, UK. Art has had the lofts of Soho in New York City, and Burning Man at Black Rock Playa every year.
Bangalore's emergence as the centre of the 'scenius' this side of the world is no accident.
In 2023 alone, the startup ecosystem in India attracted over $5 billion in investments. The country has seen more than 55 new unicorns since 2021 and we see the inception of over a 1000+ startups every year, fuelled by this hunger to build, create, launch, and become enduring businesses.
Even while being in the midst of all this action, we cannot be left out of this India story - of hustle, entrepreneurship and growth. Thereâs only one way then to do this right - build AND bet on our collective future. By matching belief with capital and meaningful ownership in high-stakes opportunities.
Builders of today, the wealthy of tomorrow
The ecosystem has tasted blood: weâve seen over $1.5 billion of liquidity flowing in to ESOPs over the last 3 years. This cannot be a one-time event in the history of tech in India, it is actually an inflection point. Builders, so many of us on this journey like Ankita and myself, now know that itâs possible to cash in on our ESOPs and power our dreams.
By democratizing the returns of company building, ESOPs drew highly capable and smart people to the tech ecosystem, where innovation and early belief are duly rewarded. Itâs not an exaggeration to say that in 2023, the most important factor determining a personâs wealth is which company they choose to work for, which company they choose to take a bet on.
While institutional investors have benefited from private market performance, builders of these very startups have been largely left behind. As builders ourselves, we deserve better than to be alienated from the returns we create. We deserve to participate both in the disproportionate value creation that happens on the journey from startup to IPO and also, take a bet on others who are on a similar journey.
Our mission at Infinyte.club is to change that. Itâs time to open access to high-growth opportunities and unlock performance in next-gen wealth creation instruments, so far only available to a select few.
Weâre focused on creating access to opportunities in private markets for individuals who are the makers, creators, operators of the companies that are still private. Weâre committed to delivering sophisticated investment options to builders that currently only the disproportionately wealthy possess - through hedge funds, private equity, venture capital, family office, and so much else
Thatâs what weâre here for. To unlock Infinyte possibilities and play the Infinyte game. Come along, wonât you?
In just 30 days from now, we will open early access to the infinyte.club app for members of our waitlist, which will mark a big leap forward for us in our journey to create a new world order.
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