Swaroop Kolluri

During yesterday's LibreQoS APNIC webinar, I posed the question: won't more bandwidth solve these problems? As Herbert Wolverson said, yes, more bandwidth is good, but, still these problems remain if queueing is done incorrectly. Here's my take on why bandwidth alone is not as good as bandwidth + good queueing policies: Generally it was believed that 'data is important, so don't throw it away; hang on to it and send it later'. In practice, this has proven to be suboptimal as two issues may emerge: 1) latency increases for some flows due to heavy demand from other flows using the same bottleneck link, 2) even a single flow can have excessive latency due to aspects of typical TCP behavior (referred to bufferbloat) when the buffers grew large enough that the data being buffered was retransmitted anyway. It turns out that not all data is equally important. Active Queue Management is the art of deciding priorities, both in deciding what data to throw away, but also in allowing some later arriving data to be transmitted ahead of data in another connection that arrived before it. These problems have been studied, and good solutions have been found by using certain queueing policies in routers and switches, referred to as “fq_codel’ and “cake”. These track the different flows not by classifying the data, but by watching the behavior. Flows that send relatively little data (DNS lookups), or at a measured pace (video chat) have priority over flows that send a lot of data as quickly as possible (App and System updates, Video and ISO downloads).

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I had a lot of fun recording a podcast episode with Shiva Singh Sangwan. We discussed the evolution of Humba Ventures & Susa Ventures; tips for raising and building a fund; how to improve investment sourcing & picking; the role of luck in investing, and so on. https://lnkd.in/eiqsStej

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𝗦𝘂𝗯𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁, 𝗗𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝗔𝗱𝗱, 𝗧𝗼 𝗦𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗲 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗢𝗿𝗴𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘇𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻. Charming, brilliant, and hilarious—Huggy Hayagreeva Rao had the Sand Technologies team glued to our seats during our most recent company-wide "Thursday Late Discussion" session. Huggy is the co-author of "Scaling Up Excellence" and a professor of Organizational Behaviour at Stanford University. So when he speaks, we're all ears. One of the key takeaways that really struck a chord with us was Huggy's perspective on scaling excellence. He described it as "multiplying curiosity with generosity." Huggy pointed out that as companies grow, they often fall into the trap of "addition bias" and "time poverty." We just can't help but pile on more and more, until we're so overwhelmed that our curiosity and generosity take a backseat. Next thing you know, we're just going through the motions, feeling depleted, and lacking that sense of accountability. But the truth is that scaling isn't just about addition. In fact, sometimes it's about smart subtraction. We need to identify and remove the obstacles that stifle our team's ability to be curious and generous. When people are in that mindset, magic happens, problems get solved, everyone brings their A-game, and we all go home feeling energized rather than drained. Also, subtraction is like mowing the lawn: it's not a one-and-done deal—you've got to keep at it regularly. It's not just about efficiency, but about giving our team the gift of time, which inspires them to reciprocate with their best efforts. We have been on a massive scaling journey over the last three years. Our operations have grown from one site to 30 sites and the number of engineers we are developing has grown by 5,000X (which if my math is correct is about 500,000%). We are just getting started, so we’re always curious about what we need to do as an organization to maintain our scale, and not lose quality, dynamism, agility, and our innovative spirit. The team is already lobbying for Huggy to host our TLD every week 😄—a testament to how insightful, thought-provoking, and relatable his lessons are. We have homework, though; time to put these ideas to work and start scaling up excellence.

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When you find a practical use of AI in an area that has strong tailwinds in the India growth story, you know this is a venture that has a high potential not just for value creation but for job creation in the country. Delighted to back TraqCheck founders Jaibir Nihal Singh, Armaan Mehta and @rishabh jain as they make it easier for over 200 corporations to embrace the new way of work. Traqcheck's Ai-enabled background checks of employees is way, way faster and far more reliable than traditional methods of background verification. Pankaj Bansal (पंकज बंसल)Karann Mittal Danish Dogra Aman Khan Yukta Kelkar Atreyi Dass

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🌟 India’s Incredible Contributions to AI in the U.S. 🌟 Did you know that Indian innovators are leading the charge in building some of the largest AI-focused billion-dollar companies in the U.S.? 🇮🇳✨ Here are some remarkable achievements: 🔸 HighRadius – Valued at $3.10 Billion 🔸 Uniphore – Valued at $2.5 Billion 🔸 Eightfold.ai – Valued at $2.2 Billion 🔸 Moveworks – Valued at $2 Billion 🔸 H2O.ai – Valued at $1.5 Billion 🔸 Cambridge Mobile Telematics – Valued at $1.5 Billion 🔸 SparkCognition – Valued at $1.4 Billion 🔸 SeekOut – Valued at $1.2 Billion These companies are transforming industries with cutting-edge AI technologies, thanks to Indian founders and co-founders. India’s talent continues to redefine global innovation in technology and artificial intelligence. 🚀 #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #India #Innovation #TechLeadership #Startups #Entrepreneurship #Technology #GlobalImpact #IndianTech

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DePIN & RWAs dominance isn't as far off as most people think. Across every innovative cycle, three fundamental pillars emerge: foundational technology development, proliferation of infrastructure, and a surge in application development. As we venture into the third cycle, DePIN and RWA protocols are poised to become market leaders paralleling the dominance witnessed by infrastructure projects from 2015 to 2024.

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Interesting and relatable piece by Nutgraf / The Ken Praveen Gopal Krishnan in my inbox today. Few VCs balance this line well, even fewer can project an authentic narrative of what they actually do. In my observation of actions, a VC is a financier first and last, and anything else is marketing until proven otherwise. #vc #startups #india #founder

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JEMHR.CO is a shining example of a company that embodies the principles of passion and purpose, much like the firms highlighted in "Firms of Endearment: How World-Class Companies Profit from Passion and Purpose" by Rajendra S. Sisodia, David B. Wolfe, and Jagdish N. Sheth. Here’s how JEMHR.CO aligns with these principles https://lnkd.in/dfqP5PkN

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Fascinating conversation with James Joaquin + Vinod Khosla on venture, founders and investing with intention for returns and a positive future. With a fun bit on the “shoes of AI”.

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Had a fascinating discussion with Vinod Khosla, the visionary founder of Sun Microsystems and Khosla Ventures. His insights on entrepreneurship and innovation were truly inspiring. Grateful for the opportunity to learn from a true pioneer in both tech and healthcare industries. Having closely followed Vinod's insights, I've distilled his top 10 timeless pieces of advice for entrepreneurs: 1. Embrace Failure: He advises entrepreneurs to see failure not as the end, but as a stepping stone to success. Learning from mistakes is crucial for growth. 2. Think Big: Vinod encourages entrepreneurs to think beyond the status quo and aim for ambitious goals. Bold visions drive innovation and transformation. 3. Focus on Impact: He emphasizes the importance of creating products and solutions that have a meaningful impact on people's lives and society as a whole. 4. Iterate Rapidly: Vinod advocates for a culture of rapid iteration and experimentation. Iterate quickly, learn fast, and adapt to changing market dynamics. 5. Stay Resilient: Entrepreneurship is a rollercoaster ride, and Khosla stresses the need for resilience. Persevere through challenges and setbacks to ultimately achieve success. 6. Surround Yourself with Great Talent: Building a strong team is paramount. Khosla advises entrepreneurs to surround themselves with talented individuals who complement their skills and share their passion. 7. Stay Customer-Centric: Always keep the customer at the forefront of decision-making. Understanding their needs and pain points is essential for creating valuable solutions. 8. Embrace Disruption: He encourages entrepreneurs to disrupt existing industries and challenge conventional wisdom. Disruption creates opportunities for innovation and growth. 9. Be Adaptable: In today's fast-paced world, adaptability is key. Vinod advises entrepreneurs to remain agile and flexible in response to market changes and emerging trends. 10. Never Stop Learning: Continuous learning is essential for staying ahead in the ever-evolving business landscape. Vinod encourages entrepreneurs to be curious, seek knowledge, and never stop growing. Thank you Vinod for sharing your wisdom! #VinodKhosla Vinod Khosla #TechInnovation #technology #healthcare #VC #investment #MachineLearning #deeplearning #Entrepreneurship American Association for Precision Medicine (AAPM) #aapmhealth #aapm_health #artificialintellience #ai #news

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I first met Mike Maples, Jr in 2010, when Founders Network was just an idea. Over the years, Mike and his team at Floodgate (special shoutout to Arjun Chopra) have been great mentors, sharing their insights and guiding our founders. Most recently, their advice played a pivotal role in helping us launch Founders Network Fund. Today, Mike shared the key ideas with FN'ers from his new book Pattern Breakers (https://a.co/d/buKBd5O ), which explores the insights he’s gained from backing companies like Twitter, Twitch, and Okta -- and which put him on the Forbes Midas List 8x. This is the most important book on startups in the last ten years, according to Steve Blank. My notes on the key concepts of his talk: 1) Inflections – "not a trend but a change event that represents a turning point in our ability to provide empowerment." e.g. The GPS chip in iPhone 4s 2) Insights – "a non-consensus and right insight about the future that's powerful and non obvious and leverages inflections." e.g. Lyft = GPS + strangers driving you 3) Founder future fit – "Living in the future before other people live in the future and then try to build what's missing in the future." If you're a founder, check out the book. Grateful for the impact Mike and Arjun continue to have on both me and the Founders Network community!

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Commoditization of AI models Yesterday evening I had the pleasure of watching Aravind Srinivas' (founder of Perplexity) interview with Aarthi Ramamurthy and Sriram Krishnan . It's a great interview and I would recommend AI founders to watch it if possible. https://lnkd.in/gnM2NeS8 Couple of things that stuck me from the interview: 1. Aravind believes in the commoditization of AI models in the long run. His take his firms like Perplexity which focus on user problems and solve for it using relevant models will win. Perplexity does it quite well, do check them out if you haven't already. This is something that AI entrepreneurs should think about. Creating foundational models is freaking expensive! and for conservative capital allocators like us it is too risky a bet (not betting on AI is even riskier 😅, I guess we need to learn more) I am going to tag the platform Guru and distinguished IIMB alumnus Sangeet Paul Choudary for his take on this. 2. The initial employees (5-10) have to be truth seekers rather than social affirmers(?) It was great hearing him talk about the culture at Perplexity of seeking the truth through open conversations and arguments on Slack rather than provide positive affirmation. I think it's something that every founder should strive for. Truth will prevail in the longer run. This works in technology, finance, politics, society, anywhere. (Satyamev Jayate is true in itself!) But to be able to have an open conversation, the founders need to have depth themselves. This is something that I feel the Indian ecosystem lacks, as most of the founders seem to be managerial in nature. I find them shifting to jargons rather than simplicity when questioned deeper. (By the way this is a classic test to check whether someone really knows it, people who know what they are talking about will make it simpler, those who don't take the cover of jargons to increase complexity and portray intelligence) I understand my analysis could be biased due to self-selection, and I would love to be proven wrong. It's pretty cool that Aravind chose Larry Page as his favourite entrepreneur due to their common background of coming from academic research to entrepreneurship. What I definitely don't agree with Aravind on The idea that luck doesn't play a role in outcomes. Successful people generally attribute success to their hard work/smartness / enterprise without understanding their privilege. For e.g. A smarter/more hardworking/more enterprising Dalit girl from Bihar will never have the kind of opportunities that I had as a Tam Bram born in a lower-middle class but very well educated family in Chennai. One has tried to solve for it using our Sakhi Scholars programme, which supports gifted girls from underprivileged communities to achieve their dream through financial support. On a lighter note, Aravind is a 2017 IIT-M alum and has already built a $8 billion company, what the hell am I doing with my life? 🤔

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BrainSightAI is transforming brain health with its pioneering approach to neuroinformatics. With US$5 million raised in a pre-series A funding round led by IAN Alpha Fund, the startup is poised to scale its impact across India and global markets. By integrating artificial intelligence and neuroscience, BrainSightAI’s solutions like Voxelbox and Snowdrop are enhancing precision in the diagnosis and treatment of complex neuro-oncological and neuropsychiatric disorders. The company has partnered with over 40 hospitals and is paving the way for accessible, advanced brain care. At IAN Group (formerly Indian Angel Network), we are committed to supporting innovative ventures like BrainSightAI that are bridging technology and healthcare to deliver meaningful outcomes. Read more: https://lnkd.in/gKxSivM4 #IANAlphaFund #BrainCareInnovation #DeepTech #Neuroscience #StartupGrowth #HealthcareTransformation

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It was a great day learning from some of the brightest minds in engineering at our 3rd annual Hypergrowth Engineering Summit. The evolution of LLMs has the potential to revolutionize software development education and training. A few snaps from my fireside chat with Amjad Masad, Head of Engineering & Founder Replit all about AI’s emerging impact on the SDLC below. 📸 #SapphireHypergrowthENG

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Wow, great stuff on this first episode. I got the run down from Ataes Aggarwal and Arya Satish, and I see that critically important business and life topics will be covered in this podcast series. Follow, tune in, and spread the word. PSA: Some super thoughtful and practical content to be had here with this podcast. 🙌

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The decisions and actions of our brightest minds in the coming years will play a crucial role in defining our trajectory for the century and where we land with the technology of our time. We have a special fireside chat in Bangalore this week that will explore an Investor perspective on the India opportunity in AI. We’re joined by Pratik (from Nexus VP) and Matt (from EF) who’ve been investing in AI for more than a decade. Expect us to delve into key topics like the role of capital, talent, compute, the importance of alignment and safety, and the future of AI among other things (more on this in the link). RSVP here: https://lu.ma/h589mcrs #venturecapital #technology #ai #entrepreneurship #startups #vc

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"Health is an investment, not an expense." — Anonymous Just a few days ago, our teams at DeVC and PeerCapital brought together an incredible group of entrepreneurs and enablers to explore the real investments and expenses in healthcare. On stage, we had the dynamic trio of Mayank Banerjee , Dilip Kumar and Tarun Bhambra, who combined their wit and wisdom to delve into: - The consumerization of healthcare, preventive vs. curative approaches, accessibility and affordability challenges, offline vs. online dynamics, and how founders can bridge skill gaps. - The evolving role of AI and tech in healthcare, and how founders are strategically allocating resources to build cutting-edge solutions. - Collaborating with doctors, aligning incentives across systems and how ambitious change starts with robust foundational systems (think CAC's and LTV's). The conversations were raw, experiential, and refreshingly honest. If it weren’t for the ticking clock and the rainy day, we might still be chatting! It was inspiring to engage with so many passionate builders committed to reshaping India's #healthcare future. Let’s keep the dialogue alive. We invite more of your participation and views. Together, we are investing in the future of health. #healthtech #investing #founders

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