The why behind these emails

Dear Founder,

Lately I’ve been reflecting on my career. I’ve built numerous startups, some succeeded, many more failed. Each venture has been packed with lessons, mostly learned from my own mistakes and these experiences have fundamentally shaped who I am today.

This newsletter, Notes of a Founder, is made up of my real notes. The ones I’ve written in my own notebook. I want to share those notes, my hard-won learnings, with you.

I’ve never been one for writing (or reading) long books or blog posts. So I'm sharing these as your 2-minute dose of reality: the notes and insights I’d tell you if we were building side by side right now. I’ll aim to write every week, but with the realities of building, I can’t always guarantee it.

Expect unfiltered lessons, learned the hard way, delivered concisely to your inbox. No hype, just actionable insights from the trenches. From dealing with crippling self-doubt and managing investor relations to hiring mistakes and dilution nightmares – I’ll share the kind of truths few people talk about openly.

These emails will always be free. My focus is on building my own startups; this newsletter is purely about sharing what I've learned.

But I do have one ask: If you find these lessons helpful, please share them with another founder. That way, we can support others in similar situations, build better companies together, and perhaps make our corner of the world a little better too.

Keep building.

Ishan