Mindset

How I Approach And Solve Problems

First-principles thinking means stripping a problem down to its fundamental truths, discarding assumptions, and rebuilding from scratch. In business, it’s not about iterating on what exists; it’s about questioning the core, seeing what others miss, and creating something entirely new.

It drives success by:

  • Uncovering hidden opportunities where conventional wisdom fails.

  • Creating disruptive innovations by challenging industry defaults.

  • Building sustainable competitive advantage through differentiated thinking.

  • Optimizing resource allocation by focusing only on what truly matters.

The best companies aren’t just improving; they’re redefining the game.

How I Apply This Thinking

  • Sales & GTM Strategy

    Applying behavioral science to design sales motions that drive action, not just attention.

  • Startup Investing & Scaling

    Identifying market inefficiencies that create opportunity, beyond just product.

  • Teaching & Mentorship

    Encouraging founders to challenge assumptions, simplify their thinking, and execute fearlessly.

Growth Loops for SaaS GTM & Enterprise Sales

"Sales isn’t about pushing products. It’s about understanding behavior, removing friction, and creating undeniable value."

Over the years, I’ve studied and developed a set of growth loops to navigate SaaS GTM, enterprise sales, and revenue scaling. These are frameworks I use to evaluate markets, design sales motions, and drive predictable success.

1. The Trust Velocity Loop

At its core, B2B software growth isn't just about features or functions; it's about trust acceleration. When a product delivers consistent, meaningful outcomes, magic happens. Users become vocal advocates. I've observed that the most powerful sales engine isn't a large sales team, but rather the compound effect of customer success stories spreading through professional networks. This creates a self-reinforcing cycle where each successful deployment builds credibility that makes the next sale easier. The key is being intentional about capturing and amplifying these success narratives, turning customer wins into compelling social proof that resonates within specific industry verticals.

“In Enterprise Software, your customers' success stories tell a more compelling narrative than your sales deck ever could”

2. The Bowtie Revenue Engine

The traditional sales funnel is a relic of simpler times. Modern SaaS growth resembles a bowtie – narrow in the middle where initial conversion happens, but expanding dramatically on both sides. I've seen too many startups celebrate customer acquisition while neglecting the more lucrative expansion opportunity. The key is viewing that first deal not as a victory, but as planting a seed. Through intentional nurturing via active usage monitoring, strategic upsell timing, and relentless focus on customer outcomes, that seed can grow into a mighty revenue tree. The most sophisticated teams I've worked with often generate 70%+ of their revenue from expanding existing accounts, not new logos.

"In SaaS, the real battle isn’t winning customers; it’s making sure they never leave."

3. The 3W Compass

Enterprise deals are like solving a Rubik's cube blindfolded. Also, its not one framework fits all. You have to custom build a framework to guide you, sometime per prospect. After shepherding hundreds of complex sales cycles, I've found three critical questions that cut through the noise

Who exactly loses sleep over this problem?

Why must it be solved now versus next quarter?

What painful status quo are we helping them escape?

The answers reveal whether you have a real deal or just an interesting conversation. I've seen seemingly perfect opportunities evaporate because we couldn't connect to genuine urgency or quantify the cost of inaction.

"Enterprise deals don’t die because of price, they die because of missing urgency."

4. The Habit Formation Engine

Consider how Datadog has mastered the enterprise habit loop. They don't just offer monitoring tools; they've engineered a nervous system for DevOps teams. By gamifying system observability and creating team accountability through shared dashboards, they transform occasional metric-checking into deeply ingrained team rituals. The platform's real-time alerts, collaborative troubleshooting features, and trend visualizations make performance monitoring a continuous, shared experience rather than a reactive task. Engineers start their day with Datadog dashboards, teams gather around them during incidents, and executives reference them in strategic discussions. The brilliance lies in how each interaction – from setting up a new monitor to resolving an alert – reinforces team-wide engagement patterns. I have attempted and been successful at creating such habit formation gamifications.

“The stickiest enterprise products don't sell software features, they engineer team behaviors that feel impossible to unlearn.”

Mental Models for Startup Investing

"Investing isn’t about capital. It’s about clarity, patience, and understanding what truly drives value."

Via investing in numerous start up investments and partnering with founders, I’ve learned & developed a set of mental models to navigate startup investing. These frameworks enable me to evaluate founders, assess market opportunities, and identify ventures with the potential for exponential growth.

1. The Delta 4 Experience Framework

In venture investing, the most common pitfall is funding products that are merely better, not transformative. Through years of portfolio analysis, I've observed that truly successful startups don't just improve existing solutions but they fundamentally reshape user behavior. Especially while evaluating early-stage start-ups, I look for evidence that users would feel significantly disadvantaged returning to previous solutions. Uber, Netflix, Spotify are exceptional examples of changing consumer behaviour.

AWS is an exceptional example of transforming on-premise data centers to on cloud pay-as-you-use inftrastructure. Slack and Figma are other unparallelled delta 4 Experience benchmarks.

"In venture capital, the greatest returns come from solutions that make alternatives feel like relics of the past."

2. The Market Gravity Framework

Markets, like planets, exert gravititation pull. The strongest opportunities exist in markets with natural forces pulling users toward a solution.

I evaluate market gravity through 3lenses

Pain intensity = how badly does the problem hurt?

Frequency intensity = how often is it felt?

Value capture potential = can the solution provider extract substantial proof of value?

Strong market gravity makes customer acquisition easier and creates natural barriers to competition. Figma is a strong case of market gravity because it eliminated version control issues, made design truly collaborative in real time, and became indispensable for teams, ensuring high adoption and retention. Similarly, Canva has strong market gravity because it democratized design by making professional quality visuals accessible to non-designers, solving the pain of complexity, frequent content creation needs, and enabling high value subscription adoption.

"Great markets have an inexorable force pulling solutions into existence."

3. The Innovative Stack Thesis

The most defensible startups build interconnected systems of innovation that become nearly impossible to replicate. Like Square's combination of hardware, software, financial services, and regulatory compliance. These innovation stacks create compound barriers to entry. When evaluating startups, I look for potential to build these reinforcing layers of innovation.

"Enduring startup value is built on interlocking systems that competitors can't unravel."

4. The Distribution DNA Quotient

Through numerous investments, I've learned that product brilliance without distribution DNA often leads to failure. I look for founding teams who have an unparalleled distribution mindset, where they are obsessed with usage velocity of their product. In their heads that would lead to sales, marketing, and viral growth as a core competency, not an afterthought. The best teams have distribution thinking built into their product design from day one. Reference customers, channel partnerships, and go-to-market strategies should be as well thought out as the product roadmap.

"World-changing products without world-class distribution are just expensive science projects."

5. The Timing Arbitrage Model

Market timing might be the most underappreciated factor in venture success. I've seen brilliant teams fail because they were too early, and mediocre products succeed because their timing was perfect. The key is recognizing when multiple enabling factors like technology, customer readiness, and regulatory shifts align to create a rare window of opportunity; Uber thrived only after smartphones adoption went through the roof, and Zoom soared when remote work became essential.

"In startup investing, you not only have to be right about the future isn't enough, but also have to be right about when that future arrives."

6. The Irreplaceability Trap

I look for software that becomes sticky not because it is the best experience but because its installed base makes switching nearly impossible. Over time, even mediocre software can entrench itself through deep integrations, habit formation, and ecosystem lock-in. Enterprise tools like SAP or Jira may frustrate users; however, they persist because replacing them disrupts workflows, retraining is costly, and data migration is painful.

Conversely, AI models like ChatGPT or Anthropic’s Claude, despite being groundbreaking, face a fundamental risk since frictionless replacement is always possible. A new and better model is just a click away, requiring no migration or retraining. Unlike entrenched enterprise software, AI models must continuously justify their superiority because switching costs are nearly zero.

"The strongest businesses not only deliver value, but also embed themselves so deeply that leaving becomes unthinkable."

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