Dilip Kumar’s Post

There is one health advice you will never hear from anyone. You can go to gym and build muscles, you can train to run and become a marathoner , you can get your 4ltr of water everyday, you can get your 7hrs of sleep , you can get all the superfoods and supplements. But if you don’t learn to deal the chaos in your head and bullshit people around you, you’re still going to be unhealthy. You can’t change the people around you. But you can change the people around you. Ignoring some people for your mental health is not a weakness. It is your superpower. Make your mental health your first priority.

Just a reminder. 950 new startups were launched last year. But 35,000 startups were shut down. If you want to build a company, you’ve just one very important decision to make. No matter what else you do, you should figure out this first. You don't have to go to an accelerator, incubator or a VC for this. The decision whether to grow slowly, organically and profitably or to have a big bang with fast growth, lots of capital and burn. I ignored making that decision when i was building. Irony is, I'm now reminding others when they come for funding :) Valuation and funding are just the shiny toys. If you really want to play, focus on your customers and making a profit. Toys break, but a good business lasts and you will be in the game for long.

AI & ChatGPT will not solve for this. You have to. Becoming unfit is not an event. It is a process. -Prioritise physical activity. Nothing is more important. -Eat healthy. Don’t be the profit machine to processed & packaged industry. Your only goal should be to be in your kids & partners life as long as you can. Like loosing money, loosing your health is rarely caused by one thing going wrong. Usually, it is a series of ignorance and wrong doings. Take control now. If you wait until you're motivated, you’ve already lost.

The largest healthcare company in India is Apollo Hospitals that has a market cap of $10billion. The largest healthcare company in US is United Health group that has a market cap of $486billion. There is an opportunity for 10-15 billion dollar healthcare companies to build in India and grow in next decade. Maybe not in US. The opportunity in India could be to think beyond primary and secondary care. And use technology to integrate different components and stakeholders of healthcare ecosystem.

Two rules every startup employee should follow. Rule #1: Never stop questioning your founder. Rule #2 : Never forget rule #1. Transperancy in work culture should be the perk you should boast. If you don’t have it, the founder doesn’t deserve you. Growth is hindered when you don’t understand the reasons behind what is expected of you and why. There are more than 2million startup employees in India. Not being afraid to challenge one another’s assumption will get the best for you , your company and your colleagues. https://x.com/kmr_dilip

Bring a bunch of founders under one roof, let them talk to each other, give no gyaan. And magic will happen. Last Friday was this. Did an impromptu Health Founders meet-up in Delhi last Friday. 180+ people signed up. Could only admit 40 due to space limitations. All of them showed up and few brought their co-founders along. I thought events and meet-ups were in abundance. Maybe 5-10 people will turn up. But 50 founders were hanging out for 4 hrs on a Friday evening. And all passionate about health and building products to make Indians healthy. There was no speech, no panel, no agenda. But entrepreneurs have an innate ability to communicate. So they all started talking to each other. Figured that networking is overrated. But a space to have unfiltered conversations and be your authentic is underrated. Some got new customers. Some met their customers who were using their products. Some got offer to share the office space. Some validated their new product ideas. Some established new partnerships. Lot of questions on why, what and how. And a few made their funding pitch. Founder preamble you know :) There was learning and a some unlearning. Apologies for people we couldn’t admit. There was a genuine space limitation. It was an experiment and i dint expect this much response. At Rainmatter our credo is to add meaningful support to the ecosystem. Either through capital allocation or cheering for entrepreneurs. Should we do this more often? In other cities?

Joshna Chinappa had a wish play for India as a 7 year old girl. She has been doing it for 20 years now. She is one of the India’s finest squash players of all time. Has been honoured with Arjuna award and a Padma Shri. A winner of 18 national titles. Two times Asian individual champion and five times Asian games medal winner. She got India’s first squash gold medal in the Commonwealth games. This conversation is a trail of grit, perseverance , commitment and struggles of women in sports in India. There are few things we could do to get more young girls to play sports. There is a lot we could do to support athletes in India. This is podcast is about that. Watch the podcast on YouTube https://lnkd.in/gXaE928V On Spotify https://lnkd.in/gfGWfHg5

If you are a founder building products to help people stay healthy, I would like to meet you. Rainmatter Health is a venture fund supporting companies making India healthy. This is the first time we’re doing a meet-up. If you are based in Delhi, come over. Date: 21st June 5:30-7:30pm Location: Third Wave Cofee in South Delhi. A casual gathering to meet founders, builders and creators building solutions in healthcare. Anything that helps Indians to stay healthy mentally and physically. We could use the time to address any problem statement you've in your startup/product building journey. Exchange ideas on what can be done to make a better health ecosystem. I'll share our thoughts and observations at Rainmatter. Exact venue will be sent post signup. Register here for more details https://lu.ma/28pp3wkd See you!

I’m often asked if valuations and funding in startups have any impact to the business of the company. Some unpopular thoughts. Startup funding didn't create massive losses; it simply highlighted who the real loss-makers are. High valuations didn't make founders overpromise; they just revealed who the true overpromisers are. Startup valuations didn't inflate founders' egos; They just showed us who already had overinflated egos. Massive funding rounds didn't cause founders to burn cash; they just showed us who the real cash-burners are. Sky-high valuations didn't make startups unsustainable; they just pointed out which ones were unsustainable from the start. Venture funding didn't lead to unrealistic projections; it just exposed who was already dreaming too big. Reality will always find its way of exposing the truth behind the myths.