Rushil Walia

"This space moves so fast that every quarter, everything you do can be obliterated," said Glean founder Arvind Jain. "We had to shift to a mindset of constantly rebuilding. Your moat is not your tech but the value you provide to your customer, those deep relationships you build, and the team that’s with you to build and execute in that kind of environment." An intimate, thoughtful gathering at last night’s AI Pioneers Summit by Decibel Partners and Latent Space Podcast with speakers that included (photo, left to right) Eric Simons (bolt.new), Behnam Neyshabur(Anthropic), swyx ​(inc a celebration of 10M downloads), Arvind Jain (Glean), and Laura Burkhauser (Descript). Simons: “We’re seeing more developer-adjacent product people building direct experiences.. that will lead to developers doing deeper thinking & reviewing PM work, as PMs also go deeper to shape the front-end.” Burkhauser spoke to the complexity of AI video editing, where context goes far beyond the script to understand how humans see, feel and sense, and uncover the reasoning behind what a viewer expects. Neyshabur's pursuit of creating an AI scientist is rooted in his curiosity about how a model learns from human interaction and the nature of learning itself. Our breakout session was insightful, inclusive, and energetic. Good to spend time with founders like Bella Liu (Orby AI - A Uniphore Company) and catch up with Ajay Singh. A great mix of technical depth and openness for conversations that stay with you.

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I had a fantastic time talking with Kishore Kothandaraman on CMO Diaries about what it takes to scale content and build trust in the age of AI. Here are three takeaways from our conversation: 1️⃣ Content is still the engine that powers great marketing. But what’s changing is how it’s being built and shipped. The real value of AI isn’t just faster writing. It’s revamping the entire content supply chain — from brief to personalized, localized asset — in order to uplevel the quality of your marketing at large. 2️⃣ Relationship capital is the new ROI. When AI takes care of the repetitive work, marketers get time back to focus on what actually builds trust and connection. Customer advisory boards, in-person events, and shared experiences all matter more now. 3️⃣ Throw out your existing playbooks. That winning strategy you’ve used and reused at your last several companies? There’s a good chance it’s irrelevant now. The teams pulling ahead are rethinking entire strategies and systems with an AI-first lens. In Jasper’s State of AI in Marketing report, 78% of marketers said AI has already improved their job satisfaction. That’s a hopeful signal, but only if we’re intentional about how we use it to scale the right things. Is there a way AI has improved your job satisfaction? ▶️ Watch the full conversation:

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88% of consumer app spending today is only on Google & Meta. But when performance marketers smartly diversify their budgets beyond these walled gardens, their return on ad spend increases by up to 214% 💡💰 📈 Spoke about the limitations of over-indexing on Google & Meta in this story by Campaign India. Read the 'Performance through Independence' report by Moloco, Sensor Tower, & Singular for more. Tom Shadbolt Paul D'Arcy Diana Adair Shweta Sachdeva Burcu S. Kezia Vere Nicoll https://lnkd.in/gsSkkgXd

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Been a packed past few months, juggling multiple functions at Poshmark India and building marketplaces across time zones, teams, and metrics. Learning some fun lessons along the way: - Speed loves structure. The fastest way to move is to be boring about rituals—clear goals, weekly ops cadence. - AI ≠ magic wand. In support, the win isn’t a shiny AI tool; it’s lower TTFR, higher CSAT, and most importantly agents who feel super-powered, not replaced or sidelined. - Community is a product input. Your best roadmap is hidden in conversations with buyers and sellers. Ship small, listen hard, iterate. (I’ve been a big champion of this lesson since my Vodafone Idea Limited days, encountering it again has been an absolute delight). - The growth stack is cross-functional. Product, marketing, ops, support—when they plan together, compounding starts. And the benefits are far reaching. - Clarity scales culture. Strategy is choices + tradeoffs. Writing them down helps. Repeat them until you’re tired of hearing yourself. Seek healthy counter arguments, embrace unknowns and dont be afraid to go back to the drawing board. That’s when clarity emerges and it all comes together.            What are some of your operating rituals, metrics, lessons you'd never give up (no matter how fast you're growing) ? I'd love to hear! #ProductManagement #Marketplace #Growth #CustomerSupport #Leadership #Operations #AI #Community #GCC #marketing

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Kriti Sharma opened #EntirelySummit2025 with a powerful reminder: AI learns from us — our values, our biases, our intent. From a teenage robot that fetched Snickers bars to building AI that helps people and industries thrive, her journey shows what ethical AI really means. Before we build, ask: Who is building it? Why are we building it? What problem does it solve? #EthicalAI #AIForGood #KritiSharma #EntirelyAI

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🚀 Exciting milestone for all of us at CityMall—we’ve raised $47M in Series D, led by Accel with participation from WaterBridge Ventures, Citius, Elevation Capital, Norwest, General Catalyst & Jungle Ventures CityMall is building a differentiated model for Bharat—designed ground-up for the needs of mass-market consumers. For millions of families outside metros, groceries still come with affordability gaps, broken distribution, and limited access. Here’s what we’ve built so far: ✅ Lowest-cost distribution network for groceries in the country ✅ Sustained 2X YoY growth and scaled to over 60 markets across NCR, UP, Uttarakhand, Haryana and Bihar ✅ A differentiated product offering consisting of private labels and mass brands both regional and national This round is not just capital—it’s validation of our thesis that India’s mass market deserves a platform built with them at the center. Onwards to making everyday essentials affordable, accessible, and reliable for Bharat. https://lnkd.in/gm_d78JG #CityMall #Fundraise #EcommerceForBharat

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Decoding B2B Marketing featured on CNBC Storyboard18! The article explores why this AI‑enabled playbook was created - to simplify B2B marketing and make it more actionable in a digital‑first world. With 12 visual frameworks, QR‑linked interviews, and insights from industry leaders, the book is designed to help marketers, founders, and students navigate the evolving landscape. One key point covered: “67% of the buyer’s journey is now done digitally. This puts marketing in the driver’s seat.” 📖 Read the full Storyboard18 feature here: https://lnkd.in/g3pUDWxD Onward upwards with the mission to help the next generation of marketers harness creativity, analytics, and AI to build global brands from Asia. Looking forward to the conversations this coverage sparks around the future of B2B marketing. CNBC-TV18 ZebraLearn Lavanya Vandana Simarpreet Roudra Teby

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Big shout out to Arindam Paul and Shashank Mehta on sharing their thoughts about digital-first businesses on the podcast. One of the things that stuck with me is "aapko brand kyu chahiye". If I am giving good products, value pricing, generating good WoM through product reviews and other unconventional means (read Barbershop with Shantanu Deshpande ), accessibility in 10 mins to next day, with on-point content and performance marketing game, brand probably just adds an emotional angle that improves all touchpoints. If the established brands do 10X, you should be able to do 5X over a period of time - easy maths requiring a lot of execution muscle (till, of course, you build a strong brand recall reducing friction across the purchase journey). We have believed in the philosophy and more than doubled our online business this year with best ever margins. Tim Ferriss has a great meta question to reframe the challenges and question the assumptions - What would this look like if it were easy. As we enter the new year with an even bigger ambition, I hope we keep asking ourselves this question more often.

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Lt Gen Satish Dua lesson no 2 in the series: Redefining Success & Failure "In my field, there are no runners-up. Those who don't win often end up dead." This powerful perspective from Lt Gen Satish Dua reframes how we think about competition and excellence. In the corporate world, we often accept mediocrity or 'good enough.' But what if we adopted the military mindset where winning isn't just preferred - it's survival? Excellence isn't optional when lives depend on your performance. #Excellence #Mindset #Performance #Military #Success

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