The One Percent Project- Entrepreneurship, Leadership & Resilience

Employee #1—> Co-founder/CEO: Avnish's first job after his Indian Ivey League MBA was selling washing machines in a region with almost no water. He joined CaratLane as employee number one almost by accident. Avnish never had the credentials for the job. He wasn't a marketer, product manager, or founder. Avnish later became CaratLane’s co-founder & CEO. In 2023, Titan paid about ₹4,600 crore for CaratLane. That valued the whole company at roughly ₹17,000 crore (about $2 billion), making it a “billion-dollar brand,”.

His story matters because he learned to turn those missing credentials into a method. He trusted common sense over best practice and borrowed ideas from sports, statistics, and other industries. Where most managers settle for paying people on results, he paid them to do the right things, and when he needed to, he changed the rules of his industry instead of only working within them. Under it all is one way of thinking: identify which variables you can actually control, measure them, and design for repeatability rather than luck. He is also frank about how much luck shaped his path, and how often CaratLane's good decisions only made sense afterward.

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Key Lessons: https://www.onepercent.live/episodes/episode-94-avnishanand

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00:00 Intro

03:05 Introvert to Ambivert

04:42 Math Discovered or Invented

09:13 Soldiers and Scientists

15:56 CaratLane Category Creation

18:10 Solitaire Bet and Pivot

21:48 Times Group Detour

24:07 Culture and Hiring Calls

30:45 Becoming a Generalist

34:27 Lessons From Mithun

37:59 Stepping Into CEO

48:57 Gopal’s Mentorship

50:13 Ikigai And Career Filters

52:33 Backing Winning Founders

56:39 Are MVPs Dead

58:37 AI And Personalization Future

Saurav Chawla walked away from a Vice President's seat at Barclays in New York — the kind of job people spend a decade climbing toward, closing multi-billion-dollar M&A deals — and came home to India to open a bakery. Not as a fallback. As a deliberate pause. And it was inside that bakery, trying to staff his own kitchen through a busy evening, that he stumbled onto the problem that became OkayGo — India's largest task-fulfillment platform. It returned 10x to its investors, was acquired by BetterPlace, and then did the harder thing: it scaled 20x. Today, Saurav is a co-founder of BetterPlace, Asia's largest frontline workforce ecosystem, where he's betting on the gig economy and AI.

Saurav is refreshingly honest — he'll tell you he probably sold OkayGo too early, that failure still feels personal, and that the best salespeople don't actually sell. We get into gut versus data, why he sees AI as a tailwind for frontline workers rather than a threat, and the small, almost secret habit he's picked up to stay calm and curious — humming a song to himself.

-----------------------------------------Key Lessons: https://www.onepercent.live/episodes/episode93-sauravchawla

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00:00 Intro

02:12 Ambivert Mindset

02:58 Delhi Roots and Drive

04:26 Specs and Sprint Wins

05:42 Returning Home Plan

07:46 Milestones and Safety Net

09:20 OkGo Idea Sparks

10:50 COVID Pivot to Ecom

12:10 Owning Tasks and Quality

14:50 Gut Versus Data

16:09 Banking Skills Applied

17:41 Why Few Players Scale

19:01 Betterplace Acquisition Logic

20:14 Post Merger Growth

21:53 Bridging Culture Gaps

23:45 Sold Too Early

25:16 Founder Gratitude

25:36 Advisory Selling Mindset

27:12 Fail Forward in Sales

29:17 Taking Failure Personally

30:25 AI Impact Outlook

31:46 Scaling Without Losing Speed

33:37 Smart Innovation Risk

35:45 B2B vs B2C Founders

37:20 Building a Business Moat

38:20 Travel Lessons for Entrepreneurs

40:23 Time Buckets That Work

41:39 Curiosity and New Skills

43:34 Learning Without Fear

46:06 Three Inspirations

47:16 Three Must Read Books

48:51 Defining Success and Validation

50:38 Closing and Wrap Up

In a world where most people optimise for stability, Vasuta Gupta has built her career by doing the opposite. From starting her journey in chip design to advising CEOs at McKinsey, helping scale InMobi through multiple phases of growth, and now leading revenue at an AI-first company, she has consistently made decisions before the future became obvious.In this conversation, Vasuta shares the frameworks behind her biggest career moves, why she believes the best time to leave a role is when you become too comfortable, what she learned from spending 13 years inside one of India's most successful technology companies, and how AI is reshaping careers, leadership, and the future of work.

00:00 Intro

02:45 Introvert Energy Explained

05:41 Theater Lessons for Life

07:41 GPUs and AI Chips Future

10:01 Choosing Careers in AI Era

11:54 Builders vs Big Tech

13:43 Enterprise AI Adoption Curve

15:08 Voice AI Product Vision

16:47 Agentic AI and AGI

18:35 Workforce Shifts and Upskilling

20:19 Keep Learning First Principle

21:47 McKinsey to InMobi Leap

23:47 Knowing When to Move On

25:22 Zero to One to Scale

27:58 Introvert to Revenue Leader

30:09 Influence Built on Trust

31:38 Boardroom Mindset Switch

33:05 Handling Strong Opinions

35:34 Nerves Preparation and Poise

36:50 Processing Failure Over Time

38:04 Mentorship Through Phyllis

40:25 Anchors People and Books

42:37 Defining Success Today

44:12 Closing Thanks and Wrap

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About Vasuta: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vasutaagarwal/

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Check out TOP & Pritish Sanyal:The One Percent Project: https://www.onepercent.live/subscribeAbout Pritish: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pritishsanyal/

Shruthi is an author and the Director of Analytics, Innovation, and AI at Adobe. At 14, Shruthi made a decision that went against the conventional path many ambitious students follow. That choice reflected a mindset that would later take her from an early-stage startup to Adobe. 

In this conversation, we discuss curiosity, startup failures, sports, meditation, and how to balance ambition with contentment in a world obsessed with achievement. She also shares about her book “The Store of Life- How to fill your life with Contentment, Not with Accomplishments”.

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00:00 Intro01:58 Ideavert Energy03:08 Curious Upbringing04:59 Skipping IIT Prep07:44 Sports Leadership Lessons09:12 Team vs Solo Sports10:46 Idols and Languages13:18 Startup Wins and Failure15:03 Simplifying with Data17:37 Gut Feel vs Data19:04 Vipassana Mind Training22:42 Store of Life Book25:06 Reclaim Your Time Basket26:30 Influences and Book Picks27:58 Defining Success29:01 Closing Thoughts

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Check out Shruthi Harikrishna

Shruthi's Book: https://www.amazon.in/Store-Life-Fill-Basket-Contentment/dp/9363957713

About Shruthi: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shruthiharikrishna/

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The One Percent Project: https://www.onepercent.live/subscribe

About Pritish: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pritishsanyal/

Yosha is a serial entrepreneur on her 2nd startup, MeMeraki, India's largest culture-tech platform. Growing up in Aligarh, a small town in India, she was influenced by her mother’s amateur artistry and her father’s entrepreneurial grit, and she witnessed him persevere through setbacks to launch a new business at age 60. This foundational resilience carried over into her early career, where she spent over 15 years working on financial inclusion and innovation for global institutions such as the World Bank Group and the Gates Foundation. Before venturing into the cultural sector, Yosha founded LafaLafa, a cashback and coupon app that attracted over 1 million users and received backing from prestigious accelerators such as Silicon Valley's 500 Startups and Facebook's FBStart. Despite LafaLafa's rapid growth, the venture was ultimately disrupted by demonetization in India, a "stress test" that eventually led her back to her lifelong passion for the heritage arts. In 2019, she launched MeMeraki as a passion project to ensure India’s 3,000+ heritage crafts remained relevant and discoverable in the digital age. The brand's "inception" moment came from a hand-painted Gucci bag that drew more attention in Hong Kong for its traditional folk art than for its luxury label, revealing global demand for authentic cultural storytelling.

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00:00 Small Town Trust

01:10 Meet Yoshka Gupta

02:31 Ambivert Leadership

04:10 Father And Risk

06:30 Aligarh Lessons

08:23 Mother And Creativity

10:22 LSR Finding Voice

12:02 GE To Startups

15:12 Startup Vs Corporate

17:49 Fulfillment Over Happiness

18:55 LafaLafa Rise And Fall

23:34 First Art Obsession

25:15 Gucci Bag Origin

27:36 Pandemic Workshops Scale

33:05 Managing 1000 Artists

37:28 Meet Them Where They Are

38:04 Co-Design Cross Pollination

39:19 Data Insights Without Copying

42:26 Hidden Art Forms Discovered

45:21 Spotlighting Women Artists

47:04 White Glove Digital Service

48:45 Custom Orders At Scale

52:05 Art In Airports And Public

54:17 Why Shark Tank Mattered

56:57 Sharks And Their Superpowers

59:54 Builder Mindset Not Investor

01:00:48 Hard Things About People

01:02:53 Family As Emotional Runway

01:04:29 Inspiration From Artists Family

01:06:35 Books That Shaped Thinking

01:09:54 Defining Success Long Term

01:11:02 Closing

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Check out Yosha Gupta

MeMeraki: https://www.memeraki.com/

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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pritishsanyal/

Shane is the founder of Farnam Street (FS) and host of The Knowledge Project (TKP) podcast, dedicated to helping people master mental models, decision-making, and lifelong learning. A former Canadian intelligence official, he transformed a side project into a top business resource and authored the bestseller Clear Thinking and The Great Metal Models series.

I have been following the Farnam Street and The Knowledge Project Podcast for over a decade.I have witnessed his evolution while he built the Farnam Street community to 1M+ strong and brought some of the top thinkers, builders, and operators to TKP. He is the reason I kicked off The One Percent Project.

00:00 Introduction

02:35 Misfit to University04:27 Hacking and Purpose06:53 9/11 and Early Lessons07:36 Decisions Under Uncertainty13:25 Trust and Standards17:00 Questioning Beliefs21:15 Building Farnam Street25:10 Audience and Responsibility29:05 Munger and Berkshire35:08 Thinking Well Daily37:31 Write It Down38:32 AI as Thinking Partner42:01 Incentives and Fluency43:40 Spotting Real Expertise45:47 Timely vs Timeless Advice47:55 Cutting Out Non-Rooters49:22 Ordinary Moments Compound51:42 Outcome Over Ego54:02 Regrets Without Anchors56:34 Host vs Guest Driven59:44 Finding Signal in Noise01:03:04 Personal Board of Advisors01:06:17 Decisions Luck and Patterns01:09:10 Community Q&A Reframes01:15:26 Learning Without Homework01:18:15 Active vs Passive Investing01:22:59 Books People and Success01:27:55 Closing Thanks and Wrap

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Check out Farnam Street & Shane Parrish:

Farnam Street: https://fs.blog/newsletter/

Shane Parrish: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shane-parrish-050a2183/

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Check out TOP & Pritish Sanyal:

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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pritishsanyal/

Monsoon Pabrai is the founder of Drew Investment, a value fund she launched at age 25. Representing a new generation of investors, she adapts classic value principles to the modern landscape, shifting focus from tangible balance sheets to intangible assets like network effects and goodwill.

Although raised at the dinner table of a legendary value investor—meeting Warren Buffett at 12—Pabrai emphasises that her foundation was built on traditional operational discipline and EQ. This conversation explores the independence and discipline required to build a career in investing, not just abstract formulas.

In this conversation, we talk about:

00:00 Introduction

02:54 Introvert Or Extrovert

04:30 Childhood Business Lessons

06:14 Meeting Buffett Young

07:24 Quitting To Start Fund

11:17 Tiger Mom Discipline

14:52 Raising First Capital

18:54 College Major Pivot

22:31 Owning Nepo Baby Label

24:09 Freedom Through Investing

25:09 Handling Smart Rooms

27:07 Value Investing Evolves

28:51 Learning From Legends

32:39 AI And The Future

35:37 Berkshire Performance Lens

36:36 Why Amex Wins

38:43 China Risk And BYD

39:57 India Investing Nuggets

43:53 Hardest Skill Doing Nothing

44:17 Books And Success

46:46 Closing Takeaways

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Check out:

Monsoon Pabrai:https://www.monsoonpabrai.com/

Li Lu Value Investing Session: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajMy9LkQQlw

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Insta: https://www.instagram.com/sanyalpritish/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pritishsanyal/

How Estée Lauder transformed the cosmetic industry and built an empire:

Estée Lauder built a cosmetics empire not by inventing perfume, but by reimagining how it was sold—transforming fragrance from a luxury gift women waited to receive into an everyday self-care product they bought for themselves.

Follow & Subscribe:

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Pritish Sanyal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pritishsanyal/

About Utsav Somani:

⁠Utsav is the founder of Offline — India’s most exclusive community of scaled-up tech founders. Early members include co-founders of Zomato, Country Delight, Ultrahuman, Noise, CoinDCX, and many more.

He is responsible for bringing AngelList to India. AngelList India became the most active seed investor in the country with 500 investments since it’s launch in 2018. He runs 2 separate funds called iSeed and Galaxy that have around $100M in AUM. Utsav has personally invested in companies like BharatPe, CoinDCX, Pristyn Care, Jupiter, Park+ along with top-tier VC firms.

In this conversation, we talk about:

• 00:00 Intro

• 02:13 Navigating Introversion

• 05:40 The Art of Cold Outreach

• 07:23 Reflecting on a Decade of Investing

• 10:51 Challenges and Learnings in Angel Investing

• 12:38 Building the Community

• 15:21 The Vision for Offline

• 18:05 Executive Coaching and Community Building

• 21:14 Building a Strong Cap Table

• 21:46 The Importance of Monopoly and Control

• 24:13 Private Paid Communities

• 30:32 Decision-Making Framework

• 34:07 Balancing Work and Personal Life

• 35:57 Defining Success

• 36:33 Key Takeaways from the Conversation

Why Starbucks Must Choose: Connection or Convenience?

The future of brand trust lies in one powerful decision. In an ever-evolving world dominated by technological advancements, companies face a pivotal challenge. It isn't just about adopting the latest technology; it's about striking a balance with the irreplaceable human touch. Today, we delve into the journey of Starbucks and explore how a brand known for creating a communal coffeehouse vibe navigates redefining its identity amid technological progress.

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WhatsApp: ⁠⁠https://bit.ly/TOP_WA2 ⁠⁠

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Pritish Sanyal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pritishsanyal/