Nilam Ganenthiran @nilamg Twitter profile

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Nilam Ganenthiran

@nilamg

4 months

At @Instacart , I had the privilege of being part of $2.4 billion in equity capital financings over eight years. We raised money in various market environments – sometimes with great metrics and many times with terrible performance but a great story. We worked with firms across

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Nilam Ganenthiran

@nilamg

3 months

Getting a Deal vs. Losing the Perfect Deal At @Instacart , we excelled at signing enterprise customers by being clear on our 1-2 non-negotiables across all deals and flexible on the 100’s of other deal points that could come up in any individual negotiation. We treated every

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Nilam Ganenthiran

@nilamg

5 months

**Announcement: I’m starting a blog, Captain, Crew, & Capital, to share what I have learned from being a technology entrepreneur, builder, and investor for the last decade.** “We will be cash flow profitable this year for the first time since the company started in 2005. I guess

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Nilam Ganenthiran

@nilamg

6 months

A bad day for 🇨🇦's innovation sector. Representative texts from investors/friends: - "I am worried Canada is going to be a bad regime for your new company" - "Crazy stuff coming out of Ottawa! Will this hurt hiring?" -"This tax thing seems bad"

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Nilam Ganenthiran

@nilamg

5 months

One of the things that has been scariest for me in building a new company is the weight of expectations. Because @Instacart was a success, I felt the bar for success to be naturally higher. As a result of this insecurity and my observations about how the companies I most admire

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Nilam Ganenthiran

@nilamg

5 months

10 principles for building a founding team: 1. Know thyself. I used to think it was trite when people talked about “doing the work” to understand yourself. But I’ve realized how crucial it is, especially in team building. You need to be crystal clear on your working style,

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Nilam Ganenthiran

@nilamg

6 months

🙏🏽🙏🏽 Very kind @thematt_ross ! You and @BrandonMChu were A+ interviewers. I really enjoyed it

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Nilam Ganenthiran

@nilamg

4 months

Part 1:

Picking the Right Capital Partners (pt. 1) - Captain, Crew, & Capital

Many think raising capital is like filling up a car with gas. I’ve often heard, “all money is green” or “it doesn’t matter where you get your gas; it’s all the same.” That couldn’t be further from...

nilam.ca

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Nilam Ganenthiran

@nilamg

6 months

@fahdananta 🙏🏽 thanks for having me @fahdananta @BrandonMChu and @thematt_ross ! I really enjoyed getting to chat with the next generation of Canadian builders Excited for 535 and the implications for 🇨🇦 tech

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Nilam Ganenthiran

@nilamg

5 months

Leaving the week optimistic about 🇨🇦 tech - met with over a dozen amazing candidates Founders have an embarrassment of riches with access to Canada's real natural resource - smart/hungry/ humble people who want to build

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Nilam Ganenthiran

@nilamg

4 months

Part 2:

Picking the Right Capital Partners (pt. 2) - Captain, Crew, & Capital

At Instacart, I had the privilege of being part of $2.4 billion in equity capital financings over eight years. We raised money in various market environments – sometimes with great metrics and many...

nilam.ca

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Nilam Ganenthiran

@nilamg

3 months

@gokulr Thanks for sharing @gokulr Hopefully we start seeing a lot more of this Good way for founders, investors, and employees to manage the tug-of-war tensions around liquidity vs building for the long-term

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Nilam Ganenthiran

@nilamg

4 months

Building a new company, I find myself faced with opportunities to revisit and modify Beacon Software’s strategy much more than I would have expected. Some of this is due to the nature of Beacon’s business, but I think it is natural in the early stages of company building.

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Nilam Ganenthiran

@nilamg

5 months

The importance of speed in building: We recognize that sprinters are the fastest when they get out of the blocks, and the winners in a sprint slow down the least. (An excerpt from my recent blog post: Getting Out of the Blocks Fast.)

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Nilam Ganenthiran

@nilamg

6 months

I've found this with the best sales leaders as well They deeply understand their clients and are expert at monitoring real-time reactions from 'customers' (who invariably become friends) while in conversation They throw out what doesn't land and are always honing their message

Harry Stebbings

@HarryStebbings

6 months

The single best fundraisers are like comedians. They test a message. Measure the response from the audience and iterate. See what works, keep that. See what does not, discard that. Constantly measure, iterate and improve. It is a game of A/B testing.

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Nilam Ganenthiran

@nilamg

6 months

🇨🇦's recent productivity pains parallel those of poorly run companies: - COVID work norms > ppl stopped grinding - Inflation + stimulus > topline growth - Topline growth > masked ppl bloat - Ppl bloat > crowded out productive investments (R&D and capex)

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Nilam Ganenthiran

@nilamg

6 months

Reminded of this Munger quote today for no particular reason… “if the elite campuses were as successful as McDonald’s in teaching sensibly, we would have a better world”

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Nilam Ganenthiran

@nilamg

6 months

There are 2 types of cultures and 2 types of people. Build & hire wisely. Principal cultures/ppl: - Forever horizon - Relationships = B/S asset - Everyone's an owner Agent cultures/ppl: - Short-termism - 0 sum txn's - Everyone's trying to get their 💰

Rafael Quinn

@rafaquinn

6 months

Principal Agent Theory If I own a business and I do everything myself, I should expect to act in my own best interest. As soon as I start delegating, I introduce agents. People are doing work on my behalf. They do not always have or act in my best interests. The difference

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Nilam Ganenthiran

@nilamg

7 months

"Business is actually about finding problems, embracing and even enjoying them — because each problem is an opportunity to remove an obstacle and get closer to success.” Building a new company which gives me the gift of meeting dozens of real world entrepreneurs every week, I am

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Nilam Ganenthiran

@nilamg

6 months

Learned a forever lesson from @ROWGHANI during @Instacart ’s PAINFUL series D: - List everyone you work with who you provide value to - Find a win/win way to get them to fund you Build a company that is “too important to fail” to your partners and you’ll always have capital

Harry Stebbings

@HarryStebbings

6 months

When fundraising you will get many No’s and many poor excuses. You cannot let it affect you. You cannot take it personally. Get up and get out there. This is a numbers game, do not stop. 🔥

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Nilam Ganenthiran

@nilamg

6 months

A subtle change which has transformed my daily mood is being deliberate about skewing to optimistic conversations/information first thing in the morning The media you consume and people you interact with in the first 60-min of the day sets the lens with which you view your day

Rafael Quinn

@rafaquinn

6 months

The only thing a life coach can teach you is how to be a life coach. The only thing an influencer can teach you is how to be an influencer. Be as careful of the information you ingest as the food you eat. You wouldn't eat random food from someone, stop ingesting their ideas.

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Nilam Ganenthiran

@nilamg

5 months

“The only thing that can stop Instacart is when this group of people (pointing to the group assembled in the living room of 41 South Park) stops liking each other.” – Sir Michael Moritz Last summer, after wrapping up my time at D1, I knew I was ready to build again. But before

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Nilam Ganenthiran

@nilamg

3 months

The Snowball: Getting Your First Enterprise Customers - Captain, Crew, & Capital

Young entrepreneurs often ask me how to land their first enterprise customers. They have usually gained traction with SMBs and want to build on that by moving up market to enterprise accounts which...

nilam.ca

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Nilam Ganenthiran

@nilamg

5 months

I often wonder what the importance of "speed in building" actually means in practice. Here’s my attempt to answer that question: 1. Finding what to compromise on. Moving quickly at the start of a company, when you don’t yet understand the market and have only the shell of a

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Nilam Ganenthiran

@nilamg

6 months

Good companies think about headcount efficiency Great companies think about the LTV of their people The best companies do both

Jay Vas

@jayvas

6 months

"No one is hiring right now" Every employer has an infinite budget to hire folks that they perceive will add significant value to their organization. Either bring in a ton of revenue or save them a lot in costs. This is especially true of small to medium size employers.

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Nilam Ganenthiran

@nilamg

5 months

An unexpected byproduct of integrating more AI tools in my daily workflows …. I am working MORE Knowledge workers use AI to improve the ratio of impactful-to-monotonous minutes in a day AI feeds a curiosity to keep turning over more/new rocks = longer but better workdays

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Nilam Ganenthiran

@nilamg

6 months

@BrandonWaselnuk @thematt_ross @535Toronto @BrandonMChu @gregisenberg @fahdananta @aiouy @jogriffiths @harleyf @vlaurenlee @OVO40 @aprildunford @lennysan @robrosebc @mattroberts @dkavelman - the OG of Canadian tech who is continuing to build the next generation of great tech companies at @inovia

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Nilam Ganenthiran

@nilamg

7 months

@ReamBraden More than anything else - we need to normalize and reward ambition. Canadian humility often gets confused with a lack of global aspirations. Canada has been responsible for an incredible amount of innovation per capita - from insulin to Shopify! When I meet Canadian

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Nilam Ganenthiran

@nilamg

3 months

@lennysan @jasonlk @fnthawar +1 @fnthawar is incredible - I have learned so much from him over the years

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Nilam Ganenthiran

@nilamg

5 months

Timing the Big Swing - Captain, Crew, & Capital

Recently, after a board meeting and a series of investor discussions, I found myself pushed to be more ambitious. This feedback prompted me to reflect on my journey at Instacart and to think about...

nilam.ca

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Nilam Ganenthiran

@nilamg

6 months

“Companies - just like gangs, armies, and nations - are large organizations that rise or fall because of the daily micro behaviors of the human beings that compose them“ - @bhorowitz The best (and hardest) thing about building a newco is starting from scratch on culture.

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Nilam Ganenthiran

@nilamg

4 months

@patrick_oshag Incredible content density for investors, board members and founders My favorite takeaways: - Investors: Deals are not zero sum - Board Members: Avoid "I'm the board member from" syndrome - Founders: People want a piece of you, remember the 'theory of the note'

Patrick OShaughnessy

@patrick_oshag

5 months

My conversation with Frank Blake on leadership I’ve asked around a lot looking for leaders who did their thing quietly and generated great respect. Frank’s name came up A LOT This is worth a listen if you are in charge of anything involving other people So many great lessons

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Nilam Ganenthiran

@nilamg

6 months

@harleyf @skanwar 💯 - leaving is giving up As 🇨🇦’s our relationship with our country shouldn’t be about “what have you done for me lately?” Transactional relationships and short-termism don’t build great companies or great country’s I’m excited about a community of builders figuring this out

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Nilam Ganenthiran

@nilamg

6 months

🇨🇦 This is the metric and trend line that matters when measuring long-term health of a nation Just as companies care about market share, countries should care about GDP share This is the best graph I could find for 🇨🇦… has anyone seen any better data?

Sheel Mohnot

@pitdesi

6 months

This year, the U.S. will account for 26.3% of global GDP, the most since 2006.

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Nilam Ganenthiran

@nilamg

6 months

Congrats to the GOAT board member @jeff_jordan on his retirement from the @Instacart board! Thank you for everything - I learned so much from you over the years and am eternally grateful 🙏🏽

Instacart Names Former Revlon CFO to Board of Directors

Victoria Dolan brings years of financial experience to latest role

progressivegrocer.com

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Nilam Ganenthiran

@nilamg

4 months

@pitdesi @anuhariharan Congrats @anuhariharan and @AaditPalicha ! @ZeptoNow is reinventing grocery retail in India one delivery at a time!

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Nilam Ganenthiran

@nilamg

6 months

@pmmckinlay @oliviachow IMHO it is less about the breadth of our public transit network or the # of subway lines we have Sadly people are choosing to drive into the downtown core (despite that becoming increasingly expensive) due to personal safety concerns while using the subway/street cars

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Nilam Ganenthiran

@nilamg

7 months

1/5 Watching this clip made me sad. Sad because as a Canadian it rang true. Sad because we have gone from being the envy of the world to the well deserved butt-of-it’s jokes.

New Rule: Whoa, Canada | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO)

If we want to save our country, we should learn from other progressive nations and pump the brakes on extreme wokeness.

www.youtube.com

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Nilam Ganenthiran

@nilamg

6 months

@harleyf 💯 @harleyf ! I woke up this morning dejected - but as the day has progressed I have become optimistic that this is just another problem to solve I don't know the answer... but I do know 🇨🇦 entrepreneurs like you know how to innovate to solve problems like no one else ... LFG

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Nilam Ganenthiran

@nilamg

6 months

@RampCapitalLLC Just don’t call it “babysitting” - have learned that the hard way over the years 🤣

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Nilam Ganenthiran

@nilamg

7 months

+1 to this great advice from @fidjissimo - you are the rare leader who was able to do both! Doing an enormous volume of work and creating immense value from your high quality ideas. One of the things I love most about company building is you are forced to do both simultaneously

Fidji Simo

@fidjissimo

7 months

People gain so much seniority once they move from a mindset of creating value primarily through the volume of their work to creating value primarily through the quality of their ideas. It doesn’t mean working less; it means directing one’s efforts towards quality over quantity.

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Nilam Ganenthiran

@nilamg

6 months

@BrandonMChu Thank you for sharing this - Excited to see what you build next as I think it will be a product of your (even more) authentic self

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Nilam Ganenthiran

@nilamg

6 months

@jjrichardtang @thematt_ross @535Toronto 🙏🏽🙏🏽 thank you @jjrichardtang - so happy to see you crushing it @rootlyhq

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Nilam Ganenthiran

@nilamg

6 months

@GuptaRK22 @sequoia @eglyman @karimatiyeh Congrats to @GuptaRK22 and Will Petrie! The last time this dynamic duo was together @Instacart created a ton of economic and more importantly work-fun value 😀 Super bullish for @tryramp !

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Nilam Ganenthiran

@nilamg

6 months

Things I have noticed with great candidates recently: 1) Asked L3 & L4 questions and were not satisfied with surface responses 2) Went down research rabbit holes, consumed bespoke media and used novel data sources 3) Able to argue both sides of an issue equally well

Alexander

@datepsych

6 months

What are some signs a person is high IQ - what are some “hard to fake” signs where you can look at someone and say “probably a member of a group that is higher IQ than average?”

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Nilam Ganenthiran

@nilamg

5 months

@fnthawar @costcocanada Should’ve used @instacart ! 😂

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Nilam Ganenthiran

@nilamg

5 months

Recently, after a board meeting and a series of investor discussions, I found myself pushed to be more ambitious. This feedback prompted me to reflect on my journey at Instacart and to think about what I have seen in terms of timing a big swing. “Leaders are paid to make a few

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Nilam Ganenthiran

@nilamg

4 months

@BrandonMChu Love Fredrick’s! Such good memories eating here growing up. We recently took the kids here - they were confused what the big deal was 😊

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Nilam Ganenthiran

@nilamg

4 months

@GoodnessNwanebu @Instacart I appreciate you reading and glad it was helpful

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Nilam Ganenthiran

@nilamg

5 months

Captain, Crew, & Capital

Perspectives on company building from a tech executive turned investor turned founder

nilam.ca

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Nilam Ganenthiran

@nilamg

4 months

Chasing Squirrels: Avoiding Strategy Drift - Captain, Crew, & Capital

“Can we go for a walk? I think we have a huge opportunity to offer SaaS tools to participants of our marketplace instead of monetizing customers.” – Representative quote from a founder I work with...

nilam.ca

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Nilam Ganenthiran

@nilamg

5 months

I shared these principles in a recent blog post:

Building Your Founding Team - Captain, Crew, & Capital

“The only thing that can stop Instacart is when this group of people (pointing to the group assembled in the living room of 41 South Park) stops liking each other.” – Sir Michael Moritz Last summer,...

nilam.ca

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Nilam Ganenthiran

@nilamg

4 months

@IbrahimAjami Thank you @IbrahimAjami ! Agree completely

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Nilam Ganenthiran

@nilamg

6 months

@ataussig 🇨🇦🙏 - you are too kind my friend The best and highest use for builders is to build enduring companies in Canada Excited to be building Beacon as a Canadian company!

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Nilam Ganenthiran

@nilamg

5 months

@jjrichardtang 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽

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Nilam Ganenthiran

@nilamg

5 months

@gokulr Great find @gokulr - a good reminder to keep focus intensely on the ‘next play’

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Nilam Ganenthiran

@nilamg

6 months

@kydoh After sitting in both finance classrooms and boardrooms with you @kydoh - you should teach this class!

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Nilam Ganenthiran

@nilamg

4 years

@schreier Congrats Bryan! Best of luck with the next chapter!

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Nilam Ganenthiran

@nilamg

5 months

Here's the link to the full blog:

Getting Out of the Blocks Fast - Captain, Crew, & Capital

“Anything you have to do, get it done. Why wait?… When you do these things, do them as quickly as you can and with your full attention so you do them well. Then be patient with the results because...

nilam.ca

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Nilam Ganenthiran

@nilamg

6 months

Dynamic at (small) software co's who benefitted from the pandemic: - COVID tailwinds scrambled normal growth motions - Good co's kept effort/intensity high - Bad co's mistook good outcomes (growth) for good process (strong prod./GTM) Showing up in 2024 win and retention rates

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Nilam Ganenthiran

@nilamg

5 months

Great point @allenlau . The capital gains changes are a symptom of a more corrosive root cause - institutions which are unfriendly to ambition, growth and productivity Celebrating entrepreneurship, rewarding innovation, and welcoming competition is how we can turn this around

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Nilam Ganenthiran

@nilamg

7 months

@billsmitha So cool to hear this origin story @billsmitha . This helps explain why you were such a formidable competitor at Shipt! Congrats on @HelloLanding . Love to see builders following their intuition and bringing new things to life

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Nilam Ganenthiran

@nilamg

7 months

@GuptaRK22 I miss my daily dose of Ravi-ism's.. it sounded like something you would say 😉

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Nilam Ganenthiran

@nilamg

6 months

@HEB is an absolute juggernaut. Not only one of the best grocers in the world, one of the best company’s in the world. All while staying private with a Texas style humility combined with Texas sized ambition. I am blessed to have learned from them as a partner.

MastersInvest.com

@mastersinvest

6 months

Postcard - Texas stopover… ‘H-E-B is the first grocery retailer to be recognized three times as number one in the RPI ranking after a nationwide study that examined the circa $1 trillion U.S. grocery market.’

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Nilam Ganenthiran

@nilamg

7 months

@ataussig @vinted @twentyminutevc @HarryStebbings @lightspeedvp @ataussig is one of the best marketplace investors around - highly recommend this episode of @twentyminutevc for anyone building a marketplace business I have learned so much over the years trading ideas with Alex and partnering with him on #frubana and @faire_wholesale

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