by The Ken
First Principles is a weekly interview podcast comprising authentic, candid, and insightful conversations between some of India’s most accomplished founders and business leaders, and Rohin Dharmakumar, The Ken’s CEO & co-founder. From personal philosophies, mental models and decision making frameworks, to reading habits, parenting styles or personal interests, each episode will delve into what makes each of these leaders unique.
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Publishing Since
8/10/2022
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July 27, 2026
<p><strong>1 · Summary<br></strong><br></p><p>Part 2 of 2. Part 1 laid out the bet: a fund built only for Indian consumer brands, back when the idea sounded absurd, and the anti-power-law machine Kanwal Singh built to make it work. This half is the person. The near-decade at Hindustan Lever that gave him his love of consumer, the Intel years, and the Paper Boat conviction that taught him to back the founder over the idea. Then the man himself: parents who came to India as refugees from Pakistan, a father who kept collecting degrees while feeding the family, the coach he started seeing in his sixties and what separates coaching from therapy, and how he reads a founder by meeting their family. He turned down twice the money he could have raised. He rates his life a 10.</p><p><strong>2 · Chapters<br></strong><br></p>0:00 Part 2 intro 1:22 The Hindustan Lever decade that started it all 2:25 Intel Inside, and bringing the inside out 4:22 The Paper Boat conviction: backing the founder 6:38 What he adds as Fireside's "CEO," and value of good 17:53 Capping the fund: turning down 2x the money 20:24 Hiring: read the person, meet the family 27:01 Refugees, and a father who never stopped studying 30:39 Three words, and a 100%-locked calendar 33:30 Motivating through the down days 34:51 The coach, and coaching vs therapy 43:40 How he learns, and consumer vs tech founders 51:27 Rating his life a 10, and success redefined 52:47 Cotswolds, golf, and the empty nest refilled<p><strong>3 · Pull-quotes<br></strong><br></p><ul><li>[17:56] "I could have raised 2x of this. Genuinely, we could have raised 2x of this."<p></p></li><li>[23:55] "You cannot build to sell. You build for sustenance, you build for good."<p></p></li><li>[27:04] "Both my parents were refugees from Pakistan."<p></p></li><li>[51:34] "A 10." (asked how happy he is with his life)<p></p></li></ul><p><strong>4 · Frameworks & mental models<br></strong><br></p><ul><li><strong>Founder assessment through the family:</strong> read a founder by their story and support system, often over a meal with their spouse, on the belief that no one survives a decade-long build without one.<p></p></li><li><strong>Build for sustenance, not to sell:</strong> the best businesses are bought, not sold; you build for the long run and treat a sale as a business decision along the way.<p></p></li><li><strong>Value of good ("do good to do well"):</strong> founder first, planet first, one Fireside, with goodness as the foundation of doing well.<p></p></li><li><strong>Coaching vs therapy:</strong> therapy addresses a medical issue; coaching is vulnerability and honesty in a business context, and only works once you have the self-awareness to accept there's a problem.<p></p></li></ul><p>This episode was produced by Rohin Dharmakumar and mixed and mastered by Rajiv CN.<br>Write to us at <a href="mailto:fp@the-ken.com">fp@the-ken.com</a> with your feedback, suggestions, and guests you would want to see on First Principles.<br>If you enjoyed this episode, please help us spread the word by sharing and gifting it to your friends and family.</p>
July 20, 2026
<p><strong>1 · Summary<br></strong><br></p><p>Part 1 of 2. Kanwal Singh is the first venture capitalist to appear on First Principles, and the reason is the bet he made with the fund itself. In 2017, at the peak of the tech boom, he walked away from tech investing to raise a fund only for Indian consumer brands, when almost nobody believed India had a consumer story worth venture capital. His first backers weren't institutions, they were the consumer families who had built India's brands. This half covers the whole bet: what investors actually said when he pitched a consumer-only fund, why he raised in India rather than abroad, the ownership and follow-on design he corrected fund after fund, his claim that most of his companies succeed rather than one outlier, and his working map of India 1, 2 and 3. Part 2 turns to the person behind it.</p><p><strong>2 · Chapters<br></strong><br></p>0:00 Cold open and Part 1 intro 3:27 What Fireside is, and why it exists 10:04 How the fund makes money 11:23 The stats: 9 years, 4 funds, 68 investments 12:50 Raising fund one: consumer families, not global institutions 17:14 Two years as a solo angel 25:51 Ownership by design, and the follow-on model 34:05 What "success" means, and the anti-power-law 36:56 The centre of excellence 45:40 The three breaks from the VC default, and India 1/2/3 53:47 Quick commerce is brand-first 57:54 Brand vs performance: Underneat, Truvi<p><strong>3 · Pull-quotes<br></strong><br></p><ul><li>[0:20] "For a 5x, nobody will call you legendary."<p></p></li><li>[34:24] "We can build successful funds, fund after fund... not necessarily depending on those one or two outliers. Good news is we also have the outliers."<p></p></li><li>[40:26] "The answer lies in the question. It is hard."<p></p></li><li>[54:12] "The power of the brand is truly manifest in quick commerce."<p></p></li></ul><p><strong>4 · Frameworks & mental models<br></strong><br></p><ul><li><strong>Anti-power-law investing:</strong> a portfolio where most companies clear "capital plus," not one built to live or die on a single outlier.<p></p></li><li><strong>The three breaks from the VC default:</strong> consumer over tech, Indian consumer-family LPs over global institutions, one shared-credit team over lone-hero dealmakers.<p></p></li><li><strong>India 1, 2, 3:</strong> his working map of where consumption grows, with India 2 needing products designed for it and India 3 reached through doorstep models.<p></p></li><li><strong>Quick commerce is brand-first:</strong> scarce shelf space and a buy-not-browse shopper mean only brands with genuine pull survive.<p></p></li></ul><p>This episode was produced by Rohin Dharmakumar and mixed and mastered by Rajiv CN.<br>Write to us at <a href="mailto:fp@the-ken.com">fp@the-ken.com</a> with your feedback, suggestions, and guests you would want to see on First Principles.<br>If you enjoyed this episode, please help us spread the word by sharing and gifting it to your friends and family.</p>
July 13, 2026
<p>Part 2 of 2. In Part 1 we walked the road from 2011 — three companies, an investor ultimatum, and the capital it took to build. Part 2 is the mind. Saahil Goel starts with what, given hindsight, he'd do differently, then the first principles he runs Shiprocket on (distribution beats product), the two or three metrics he genuinely obsesses over, his bet on applied AI, why he believes you can't actually manage people, who does and doesn't survive at the company, the guitar he still plays, his dog, and the question Rohin closes every episode with, which Saahil answers with a single number.</p><p><strong><br>Chapters<br></strong><br></p><p><strong>1:02 </strong>With hindsight, what he'd do differently</p><p><strong>2:10 </strong>“A paisa of every transaction in India”</p><p><strong>5:23 </strong>First principles: distribution beats product</p><p><strong>11:32 </strong>The metrics he obsesses over</p><p><strong>17:22 </strong>Betting on applied AI</p><p><strong>29:33 </strong>“You can't manage people”</p><p><strong>31:45 </strong>Who doesn't survive at Shiprocket</p><p><strong>42:05 </strong>The guitar, Pink Floyd, and Bruno the CHO</p><p><strong>58:28 </strong>The book he forgets — and how he reflects</p><p><strong>1:00:50 </strong>Rating his life an 8</p><p>This episode was produced by Rohin Dharmakumar and mixed and mastered by Rajiv CN.</p><p>Write to us at fp@the-ken.com with your feedback, suggestions, and guests you would want to see on First Principles.</p><p>If you enjoyed this episode, please help us spread the word by sharing and gifting it to your friends and family.</p>
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Manish Sabharwal
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First Principles is a weekly interview podcast comprising authentic, candid, and insightful conversations between some of India’s most accomplished founders and business leaders, and Rohin Dharmakumar, The Ken’s CEO & co-founder.
From personal philosophies, mental models and decision making frameworks, to reading habits, parenting styles or personal interests, each episode will delve into what makes each of these leaders unique.
This podcast updates weekly.
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