Lefties: “Elon Musk should be in prison!” Normies: “For what?” Lefties: “We’re not sure but we’ll find something! Vote for us and we’ll show you.” Normies: “You are insane.” Lefties: “Elon is a fascist. We’re anti-fascist. You must also be a fascist.”

It's not just that Indian VCs tend to have far less risk-appetite than US VCs, which is frustrating but one can be charitable (straitjacketed by LPs, European and other geo VCs are similar). It's the delta of quality between US vs Indian VCs that makes founders lose respect. (n = 80, 65% US) 1. I can't think of any US VC interaction that went past 4 weeks and didn't lead to a check, most tend to say no quick. I can think of multiple (5+) Indian VCs that dragged things on with multiple calls and field visits, asking the same questions, then passed for inane reasons. The worst just ghosted us (happened at least 3 times) 2. Related - For our preseed/seed, US VCs often passed for not having conviction in idea/team. Indian VCs often passed for "lack of commercial traction". This is pissing off for anyone building in deeptech/bio and short-circuits how ambitious founders can be 3. While many great US VCs were never founders themselves, as others have noted, there are enough former-founder VCs + higher level of respect for what it takes to be in the trenches, that it reshapes cultural norms to be way more founder-friendly 4. Related - While there are many great Indian VCs, the proportion with partners/analysts who drip with arrogance is much higher than it should be. Every founder can tell you awful stories about the fresh-off-IIT/IIM analyst who thought they knew more about their tech/business from an hour of chatGPT. What does it tell about the funds that their hiring process leads to having such ppl gatekeeping their dealflow? 5. In general, being a founder in the US is higher status than being VC, the reverse seems true in India

A new paper found that 88% of venture-backed founders receive zero exit value VC makes sense for a narrow set of founders. But for most, it's a bad fit bc it locks up founder liquidity - all for a slim chance at a unicorn outcome MetaDAO offers a more founder-friendly path 🧵

I think what is actually needed is for Indian people to actually give a damn about their cities and fellow citizens. Anybody using the "I pay taxes, I shouldn't have to do anything" excuse should go live in another country. India isn't developed, it's developing, so it needs patriots, not parasites. If this triggers you, it means you're part of the problem. If you're not happy with the footpath (or a pothole, or anything else which is broken), fix it, or call someone to fix it, and don't give up until it's fixed. Be relentless. Be vocal. Be creative. Make it your mission to get that one thing fixed. Look at what Virendra (@Virendra0698) did by just calling the right people and being respectful (but also persistent). He and Arun Pai (@arunpaiblrwalks) along with the help of GBA and some wonderful volunteers turned an unofficial garbage dump into a pristine, beautiful footpath through sheer force of will.

so many books to read, instruments to learn, languages to speak, poems to write, countries to visit, songs to sing, movies to watch, people to meet, pictures to take, food to taste, places to see, sunsets to watch, stories to hear, stories to tell, things to create, hobbies to discover, dreams to chase, love to give, memories to make, lessons to learn, and a whole life to live.

@ludo_txtx here you go - it uses spl token wrap program to escrow USDC/USDT/CASH 1:1 for their confidential token counterparts (and vice-versa), allows you to send the converted tokens to others, and for the receiver to accept the inbound transfer.