Shantanu Srivastava

Two million startups tracked. Three Indian companies on the F6S generative AI list this August. CraftifAI is one of them. I keep looking at the shape of that list, and we are the only one on it building for the "Physical World". Almost the entire generative AI story in India so far has been written in the cloud. The other half of the story is the firmware inside a medical device, the perception system on a warehouse robot, the logic sitting inside a chip in a vehicle. That half is slower, far less visible, and much harder to demo. Seeing it land on the same list is an early sign that the market is starting to look here too. What it means for me is simpler than the ranking. I joined early enough to be in the room while these calls get made. I sit with customers, argue about scope with our engineers, and watch something move from a line in a document to code running on a device in the field. On PipeGen I get to see that loop close every month. Not many people get a seat like this at this stage of a category, and I do not take it lightly. We are early. That is the entire point. #PhysicalAI #GenerativeAI #CraftifAI #PipeGen

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𝗜𝗳 𝗜𝘁 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗮, 𝗜𝘁 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀 𝗔𝗻𝘆𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲—𝗢𝗿 𝗗𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝗜𝘁? A founder pitched his SaaS Product. “India first, then global.” Investor: “Why India first?” “Indian customers are toughest. Enterprise quality at startup pricing. If we survive here, we win anywhere.” Investor nodded. Then: “Have you tried the US market?” Pause. “Not yet. We’re not ready.” — 𝗧𝘄𝗼 𝗩𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗼𝗳 “𝗜𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗮-𝗙𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁” One is strategic. One is avoidance disguised as strategy. ↳ Strategic: Building for extreme constraints creates innovation that scales ↳ Avoidance: Labeling difficult markets as “training” while dodging markets requiring different capabilities — 𝗧𝗿𝘂𝘁𝗵 #𝟭: Constraint-driven innovation works. Low bandwidth, price-sensitive customers, fragmented infrastructure—these force elegant solutions. WhatsApp succeeded globally solving for Indian internet. Zoom’s architecture came from emerging market connectivity. You can’t hide bloated features or mask poor UX. Legitimate strategy. 𝗧𝗿𝘂𝘁𝗵 #𝟮: Some founders confuse “hard to sell” with “makes us stronger.” What they’re avoiding: ↳ Enterprise credibility they haven’t built ↳ Regulatory expertise they don’t have ↳ Brand positioning beyond “cheaper alternative” ↳ Different buying experiences Western customers expect — 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗧𝗲𝘀𝘁 Your India strategy works if you’re: ↳ Building for constraints that create portable innovation ↳ Mastering unit economics that scale ($3 to $50 ARPU) ↳ Testing global markets early to learn what transfers It fails if you’re: ↳ Perfecting product before facing “sophisticated” buyers ↳ Avoiding markets requiring different sales approaches ↳ Assuming local credibility transfers globally — 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝗤𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 Am I solving for constraints that create innovation, or avoiding markets that expose gaps? If I launched in the US tomorrow, what breaks—and am I building those capabilities now? That reveals whether “India-first” is strategy or stalling. — 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘁-𝗱𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗻 𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀. 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘁-𝗱𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗻 𝗮𝘃𝗼𝗶𝗱𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘀. #Leadership #Startups #ProductStrategy #GlobalExpansion #SaaS

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An 8-year-old just keynoted at the India AI Impact Summit. Not as a mascot. Not as a photo-op. As a speaker. Let that sink in! Ranvir Sachdeva spoke about linking ancient Indian philosophy to modern AI. He compared how nations are building AI. He talked about Indian models, literacy, and contribution to GDP. At eight. This isn’t just about a prodigy. AI literacy is no longer limited to boardrooms and research labs. It’s reaching classrooms. Living rooms. Young minds who see it as something to build with, not fear. It’s about what happens when a country makes technology part of everyday conversation early enough. The interesting part wasn’t that he was young. It was that he was coherent. He wasn’t repeating buzzwords. He was contextualising AI within Indian thought systems and global strategy. That tells you something about where the next generation is heading. India has always had talent. What we are now building is early fluency. And that may be the most powerful infrastructure of all. What are we doing to nurture curiosity this early? What will it take to make basic AI literacy as common as Maths in school? Thoughts? LinkedIn News India #AIIndiaImpactSummit2026

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DPIIT has partnered with Blue Machines AI to launch Startup Saathi, marking a major leap in AI-led governance in India. Through a 24/7 Voice AI helpline, founders can now access faster, simpler guidance across recognition, funding, compliance, tax benefits, and more. Excited to contribute to a system designed to make startup support more accessible for everyone.

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We just announced the highest-ever fee reduction for sellers in Amazon India's history — and I couldn't be more proud. 🙌 Starting March 16, 2026, here's what changes for millions of Indian entrepreneurs: ✅ Zero referral fees on 12.5 Cr+ products under ₹1,000 — a 10x expansion from last year ✅ 20%+ reduction in Easy Ship fees for products under ₹300 ✅ 90%+ savings on fees for the second unit shipped together ✅ Up to 70% total fee savings across 1,800+ categories From fashion jewellery and sneakers to earphones, sarees, and kitchen essentials — this covers it all. Every rupee saved is a rupee reinvested into someone's dream. At Amazon, we don't just build a marketplace. We build futures — especially for small sellers in Tier 2 and Tier 3 India. 🇮🇳 #TarakkiKaUtsav #SellOnAmazon #AmazonIndia #SmallBusiness #SellerEmpowerment Neelotpal Shukla Amit Nanda Rohit Bafna Vikram Deshpande Samir Kumar Amit Agarwal

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"The PM's new job is the oldest one." Anuj Rathi said this at Target's product meet last week and I genuinely couldn't stop thinking about it on the drive home. Here's the thing — the PM role quietly drifted over the last decade. What started as "be the CEO of your product" somehow turned into roadmap stewardship, OKR check-ins, and stakeholder translations. Not bad work. Just... not the original job. AI is pulling us back. With agentic tools absorbing the coordination and synthesis overhead, the work that's left is actually the work that matters — finding the right customer problems (not the loudest ones), making judgment calls on which bets to place, and influencing people across business, ops, marketing, not just engineering. His framing that hit hardest: "We influence users with empathy for their psychology. We influence engineers with empathy for their craft. We now influence agents with empathy for their thinking." The oldest PM job. Just louder now. Three things I'm carrying back: Most PMs build for today or for a year out. Rarely both. The "here and now" needs craft and empathy. The "year out" needs conviction and the courage to own a bet that won't pay off immediately. Holding both simultaneously — that's the actual skill. Not all bets compound the same way. Incremental improvements approach a ceiling. Strategic bets don't. The discipline isn't running more experiments — it's knowing which ones are worth running at all. (Brian Chesky's rule of thumb from Airbnb: if a bet can't touch ⅛ of next year's revenue, it's a feature, not a strategy.) And the Swiggy-Instamart story — a PM noticing that for Indian consumers, Swiggy wasn't a food app, it was "the guy on a bike." That one observation unlocked an entire category. Today quick commerce in India is bigger than food delivery. There was also a sharp insight from the networking session about how Lowe's is handling forecast trust — feels directly relevant to anyone building AI products where users keep overriding the system. Full notes here: https://lnkd.in/gmyRpaVs What's the "oldest" PM skill that AI has made feel urgent again for you? #ProductManagement #AI #ProductStrategy #ProductThinking #Retailtech

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