Video calls seemed an elegant solution to remote work, but they wear on the psyche in complicated ways.
Jodi Eichler-Levine finished teaching a class over Zoom on April 15, and she immediately fell asleep in the guest bedroom doubling as her office. The religion studies professor at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania says that while teaching is always exhausting, she has never “conked out” like that before.

While a few spaces in SaaS are witnessing rapid traction and growth — there are many more companies where things have already slowed down, or will slow down in the coming quarters as customers — prosumer and enterprise alike, get hit by the economic downturn that’s coming.
Sharing a few thoughts and ideas, on what one can do in these times, to build for tomorrow. Constructed this entirely with Shikhar Bhuddi.
PS, what I’m also seeing across SaaS companies I’ve spoken to, even those with strong pipelines, is a major reluctance from buyers to sign and close. That challenge, along with the objective of reducing current churn — both are addressable to a degree by innovations around payment solutions, which I also touch upon.

In 2015, I asked Bill Gates a simple question: What are you most afraid of?

He replied by telling me about the death chart of the 20th century. There’s the spike for World War I. The spike for World War II. But between them sat a spike as big as World War II. That, he said, was the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, which killed an estimated 65 million people. Gates’s greatest fear was a flu like that, ripping through our hyperglobalized world.

Gates had funded modeling that imagined precisely that scenario. Within days, it would be in all urban centers around the world. Within months, tens of millions could die.

Swiggy is an online food ordering and delivery platform. By virtue of steamrolling the food delivery logistics in India, it has managed to capture the eye of users, founders, and VCs alike. It was quick to achieve the unicorn status and is currently valued at $3.6 billion. It has managed to create a buzz around itself but the question is — how much is hype and how much is real?
There’s a wave of Indian users transacting online for the first time, using ride-sharing, food & grocery delivery, e-commerce, travel & hospitality, fintech, to access wider selection, get better prices (via sales/discounts), and experience convenience.