Aswath Krishnan

If your goal is exceptional compensation, then you need to cultivate talent that's rare, in high demand, and visible and legible to hiring managers and execs. This typically involves deeply specialized or cross-discipline training, continual practice, and public demonstration of your skills through recognizable achievements, projects, or networking within your industry. But that isn't sufficient.  You also need to strategically position yourself at a company and a role with the machinery, team, capital, and market to effectively translate your specific talent and energy into revenue, or at least to attract investment; companies that believe that quality of talent can make or lose millions of dollars, so they don’t mind paying top dollar for top talent. Imagine you are a brilliant mathematician or computer scientist -- your earning potential will be far greater at a well-functioning quant trading firm like Jane Street than, say, at a local bank, Walmart, or the US government. O...

In our recent renovation project, the contractor brought in a new tile guy they hadn’t worked with before. Unfortunately, the guy turned out to be a complete amateur and botched the job. This misstep was avoidable with some straightforward practices: Vetting thoroughly. Check their track record, skills, and references. A quick but deliberate evaluation can save a lot of headaches later. Clarifying expectations upfront. Make sure they understand the scope and standards of the work. A simple conversation about their approach can reveal a lot. Testing with small projects first. Start with low-stakes tasks to gauge their ability before handing them the keys to something bigger. Providing active oversight. Supervise early and often, especially at the beginning. Offer feedback and course corrections as they go. Here’s the key principle: When you delegate, you’re not off the hook. You’re still responsible for the outcome. If they underperform and you didn’t manage them effectively, the ri...

I started writing my first book in mid-Feb 2023. By the end of February, I had my first chapter and the book outline. In the next 2 weeks, I had 4 chapters, or 50% of the book. And a month later, in April, I completed all 8 chapters. By early May, I had it reviewed by a copywriter and by early June, I had a title and draft cover. A fantastic start and progress - I was *nearly* done with my first book in ~4 months! But the last 10% was the hardest. I ran into a few pesky formatting issues with Kindle that I couldn’t figure out.  I wasn’t happy with the book cover and had a dispute with the illustrator. I started a part-time contracting project, in addition to my startup. I was also hosting my parents for the summer. I was exhausted at the end of the day and week.  I made no progress in July, August, and September. I started convincing myself that it wasn’t a worthy or aligned project. I almost gave up and moved on.  Luckily, my friend Preet, who regularly checked in on my...

We are remodeling our bathroom and I have to ensure that the work is done right and within a reasonable time and cost. But I have zero experience in construction! So how can I do this well?! This is the predicament of product managers and leaders as well - they are responsible for product outcomes and quality, without having the functional expertise in engineering, design, or GTM. Here’s what helped me with remodeling and product management - 1. You can be the curator and editor, even if you aren't the artist. You can bring an eye and taste for great work and craft; not just the end deliverables, but also how the sausage is made. You develop this through curiosity and interest, and by working with amazing people who can show you what's possible. 2. Make the goals, vision, and milestones crystal clear for everyone involved, and be an effective communication bridge. This will help the team avoid wastage and frustration because of miscommunication and misunderstanding.  3. Help yo...

We are in the middle of a bathroom remodeling project. There are so many possibilities, it's an expensive project with long-term implications, and I had never done something like this before, so I was having a tough time figuring out the layout. Though warranted, I realized I was struggling more than necessary because of 3 reasons:  1. Not having clarity on goals and priorities. We wanted a better bathroom, but we hadn't really articulated and ranked our main priorities. When we decided that our main goals were a larger shower, access from the bedroom, and a larger vanity, it was so much easier to come up with options and rank them against the clear criteria. This simple and nifty trick has helped me with every major decision like picking jobs or buying a home.   2. Not having clarity on constraints.  When I understood that we couldn't place the vanity in a spot because of a window, or place a shower in another spot because of the low ceiling, it eliminated more opt...

Tinkering is simply working on projects we enjoy or are curious about. It could be a home improvement project, a newsletter, hosting events, a piece of art, or a software tool. You do what you want, the way you want. You may take pride in showing it, but you aren't doing it for others. And you certainly are not expecting to earn from it. It's mostly for your own pleasure; for the joy and energy of doing and creating. Entrepreneurship is aimed at creating a sustainable business. You have to deliver solutions that customers want, in the way they want. You need to do a lot of external exploration, test, and pivot often to find the right idea. Even then, you can't just create; you need to do a bunch of extraneous work like marketing, customer calls, research, hiring, pricing, budgeting, fundraising, invoicing, taxes, etc. There's also a lot of uncertainty, pressure to succeed, ups and downs. Entrepreneurship can have fun aspects, but it will also have a lot of not-so-fun ...

The CEO of Coinbase shared this advice to pre-PM fit startup founders and it really resonated:  https://twitter.com/StartupArchive_/status/1738905209093468459 Low certainty pursuits and decisions, like your life purpose or philosophy, career or startup idea to pursue, who’d be an ideal life partner, where would you like to live, etc. are often the most impactful and the most challenging aspects of our lives.  They are unique in the sense you don’t have enough information to make a rational choice. The options and their outcomes are unknowns. So we can get stuck in analysis-paralysis trying to figure them out intellectually. But that doesn’t solve the core problem - the lack of information and certainty. The way to get more information is to act - go explore, ask around, and try things out. Keep an open mind, your cycles fast and, learn from them.  The best way to see through the fog is to take a few steps forward into the unknown. 

I still remember the phone call 14 years later, so it clearly meant a lot to me. In my final year of college in Singapore, I was selected to interview with Boston Consulting Group (BCG) . BCG Singapore was known to be extremely selective - interviewing only a handful of people every year and hiring maybe 1 or 2. So the pressure was on and I spent every ounce of my energy in the next 1-2 weeks preparing for the interview. I also bought and borrowed some nice clothes and got a haircut to look presentable. The interview day arrived. I was nervous but as prepared as I could be. I did okay, but I knew I hadn't really nailed it. A couple of days later, I got a phone call. It was one of the partners who had interviewed me. He shared the bad news quickly - I didn't receive the job offer. He also explained that he was the dissenting partner, so he was calling to explain his decision. He talked through the case study (it was about a small airport trying to grow profitable), highlighted t...

It's been a few weeks since I published my first book - The 5-Step Job Search . I feel happy about the milestone and how the book has been received. But I have to admit that I also feel conflicted about writing a book on the topic of job searching. I was confident it was needed and would be helpful - that isn't the problem. I feel conflicted because it's a band-aid to succeed in an inherently broken system that I have come to despise, despite being reasonably good at it. I'd much rather prefer if we can fix the system. I'd much rather prefer if we made the system perfectly meritocratic so that everyone can just focus on being good at their jobs and be magically placed in the right job for them, rather than spending even an ounce of energy in learning to be good at this bizarre skill of job searching.

In poker, there’s a concept called selective aggression to maximize your winnings - be conservative when you have an okay hand but get aggressive whenever you have a good one.  A few years back, I got a good hand in my career. I was doing really well in the job and had also developed a good rhythm and reputation. I was also getting paid over 3X what I had ever made before, with a path to more raises and promotions.  But instead of doubling down, I decided to roll the die again and take up another opportunity that seemed interesting. Turns out I didn’t roll sixes this time.  The lesson is that life is always going to be a game of chance. When you hit a winner, double down. Explore and extract.  This is true for business as well. It’s extremely hard to find a Product-Marlet fit, but when you do, go all-in and extract as much as possible, rather than exploring another P-M fit. This is also true in investing, relationships, hobbies, or habits. 

I published my first book last week, and I’m very happy about the milestone and how it’s been received so far.  The process has made me more familiar with the Amazon Kindle bookstore. I’m suddenly aware there are tons of books published and many of them seem quite promising. But despite that most never really take off in a big way.  This has made me realize that the secret to success isn’t doing just one hard thing. Writing a book is hard! It takes a ton of motivation, resilience, domain knowledge, writing skills, and creativity. But clearly, just doing that one hard thing isn’t enough.  But if you combine that one hard thing with another hard thing, you dramatically increase your chances. If you do a tour promoting your book, run a marketing campaign, or if you have already earned a reputation in your domain, your book suddenly rises above all others.  The reason is simple - there are 7 billion people in the world and we have a pretty efficient market. For any singl...

This Zinda Banda track from the new Bollywood blockbuster, "Jawan," has taken over my playlist recently. It's not just Anirudh's peppy music or Shah Rukh Khan's swag.  What truly speaks to me is the lyrical essence of the song, which has crystallized a powerful epiphany I've had in recent months. A realization that serves as a clarion call whenever I find myself teetering on the edge of self-doubt or an important decision in my startup or life journey. *** Banda Ho To Zinda Ho! If you're alive, truly live! Banda Zinda Ho To Zinda Nazar Haana Zaroori Hai! To be alive, it’s necessary to have a lively vision.  A few months ago, I took the plunge into entrepreneurship, leaving behind the relative stability of a 9-to-5 job. It was a leap of faith into a realm filled with uncertainties and risks. Entrepreneurs, you'll get me when I say the looming specter of failure has often kept me awake at night, pondering whether it's time to pack it up and return to...

I woke up excited today because I had shared my new app on Reddit, and I was eager to check if it had taken off.  I have been waking up excited on many days over the last few months for similar reasons. I'd have taken a long shot the previous day - launched a new product, shared a blog or social media post, sent an email to an influential person, applied for an exciting job, etc. Long shots (or moon shots) have small odds of turning into something really big, exciting, and life-changing.  Extraordinary successes are almost always a result of taking long shots and asymmetric bets. Sam Altman in his blog on  How to be Successful , writes "I always choose a next project that, if successful, will make the rest of my career look like a footnote."   Most people, most of the time, are on a very linear path, with no possibility of a big win or exponential take-off. They don't buy any lottery tickets and they don't win any big prizes.  When you keep buying lottery t...

In a recent team meeting, someone announced we wouldn't be able to meet a project deadline and we'll have to move it to later. Not wanting to be pushy or unreasonable, I accepted and updated the date. But another colleague interjected and held the bar. He pointed out that we had slipped a few times already and rallied the team to figure out options to meet the date.  Oftentimes, we avoid hard things  and uncomfortable conversations, and try to be "naively nice". This leads to a slippery slope that snowballs into low accountability, performance, quality, outcomes, morale, and pent-up frustration. I say naively nice because ultimately this turns out to be not very nice to the team, stakeholders, managers, business, and customers.  The nicer way is to set clear and reasonable expectations, hold and raise the bar, provide direct and timely feedback, identify and fix the problems, and work together compassionately and collaboratively to make it happen.  Notes:  1. Am...

 The secret to innovation... ...is to tackle a very specific problem. Obsessively, deeply, and excellently.  Given the vastness of human knowledge already, there probably isn't much low-hanging fruit of discovery in most areas (the circle isn't uniform as depicted, so it may be lower in some areas than others). So innovation needs depth.  Specific innovations and deep understandings of specific problems can possibly evolve into broad truths or innovations. But you are less likely to go deep and innovate if you are starting off broad.  Notes 1. There's a valid counterargument that broad knowledge across domains can help spark innovation through a general understanding of the world and by translating ideas from one domain to another. I have a center in the middle to represent a broad understanding. It's possible that 2 or 3 areas of focus might be better than 1, but I doubt 10 areas of focus (is that even focus?) is better than 1.  2. This was inspired by listenin...

I have fancied starting a business for a very long time.   Finally after getting my green card, building a financial safety net, learning by working at other businesses, and being inspired by the recent breakthroughs in AI, I took the plunge recently!  I'm sharing some reflections from my first few months.  Fair warning: all of these may change over time as I experience more and grow wiser.  1. Businesses are incredibly hard This is repeated often, but we still often underestimate or forget it as we are constantly inundated with victorious stories of very, very few survivors.  Finding and sustaining the right partners, ideas, customers, business models, teams, and investors is a long and tough journey. By default, your business is dead. You have to will it into existence and life every day with perseverance, smarts, support, and luck. There are many ups and downs, and tricky and hard decisions along the way.  I now empathize and understand why founders...

We are in the midst of a relentless wave of layoffs.  It's really sad how normal and mechanical it is becoming to business leaders, investors, and all of us.  Sudden job loss is among the top 5 most traumatic events in one’s life and compared similarly to the death of a loved one, major illness, or divorce.  That might be hard for most folks to viscerally comprehend. But I know it and believe it as I experienced this firsthand and I have talked to 100+ people who were laid off recently. It’s heartbreaking to see the level of suffering and the emotional cocktail of shock, anxiety, shame, guilt, resentment, sadness, uncertainty, and loss of identity and community, that most people cycle through day after day, over a long time.  This may be an unfortunate reality of our corporate and market system, but we can do better. If you were laid off -  This is extremely hard, and everything you are feeling and going through is valid and rough. So please take care and give ...

This is a period of high economic turbulence. Inflation is rising, a war and energy crisis are escalating, and supply chains are still wonky. Fed is responding with interest rate hikes, governments are changing policies, and the market is responding with valuation cuts, tightening the belts, and layoffs.  Times are uncertain, and that increases uncertainty for each of us too. That means we can get laid off, not find a job, our investments may tank, and we may not be able to afford or get what we need or want. No one can give us guarantees, and we are ultimately responsible for how we and our close ones will fare.  This is how I'd advise people to prepare:  1. Personal resilience:  Just like businesses do, make sure you have a robust runway by increasing savings (in low-risk, liquid assets) and reducing spending. Try to save for a few months of expenses to prepare for the eventuality of a layoff and a tough job market. If you want to take it up a notch, you can get in...

I have come across some research that showed that people with mentors are more successful in life and career, and I totally buy that. The world is a large and complex place. None of us know all the possibilities or how to navigate them well. But we can know a lot more by tapping into the experiences and wisdom of other people.  1. Seek advice  If you are doing something new or trying to make a difficult decision, in your personal or professional life, reach out to a few wise people who have walked the path before. It's also helpful to simply chat with wiser people about their lives and your life, without any specific topic in mind.  There are many good strategies on how to develop these relationships. I'd call out these three -  Be genuine - seek advice on topics or questions that you truly care about and can't figure out elsewhere (say, by just googling online). Don't do it to just "develop your network" or get something else from the other person.  Make it ...

This is one piece of wisdom that's nearly universally relevant for everything we do - personal or professional - but is so often forgotten and worth repeating often.  Start with Why What's the goal or problem? Why does it matter? Is it actually important? This is the foundational step that determines the success of anything we do but is so often missed or glanced over. We get into execution details before understanding why; we get swayed by what others are saying or doing; we continue doing things out of habit, even though they are ineffective or irrelevant. Projects often become chaotic, fail or lose steam during execution because the why isn't clear or important It's very important to clearly understand, believe in, and align on with stakeholders. One of Amazon's core principles is to "Work Backwards"; i.e. define success and even write up the future press release, and then work backward from that. Clarity on why and where you are going gives you clarity...