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/-----------------------------------------

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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Check out TOP & Pritish Sanyal:

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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Check out TOP & Pritish Sanyal:

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

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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Newsletter: The Think newsletter delivers actionable insights on long-term thinking & insights. Learn more and sign-up at onepercent.live/subscribe

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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:

Newsletter: https://www.onepercent.live/subscribe

WhatsApp: ⁠⁠https://bit.ly/TOP_WA2 ⁠⁠

YouTube: ⁠⁠https://bit.ly/TOP_YouTubeVideos

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/

Mastering Antifragility: Insights from Amazon, Zoom, and Nokia's Journeys:

Jitha and I delved into Nassim Taleb's concept of Antifragility, a topic Jitha had explored in his newsletter No.147. We explored the concept of Antifragility, examining how leading organisations like Amazon, Zoom, and InMobi not only survived but thrived during uncertain times, and contrasted this with Nokia's transformation into a fragile organisation.

We discuss how, in uncertain times, fragile companies perish, resilient companies survive, and anti-fragile companies grow.

We also talk about why startups should focus on scoring in their markets and act like a mosquito rather than being Antifragile.

Given the current landscape of Artificial Intelligence and the uncertainty it's causing in the workforce, this discussion has never been more critical. Which organisations will be able to adopt an antifragile mindset and grow as AI becomes mainstream?

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The One Percent Project: WhatsApp: ⁠⁠https://bit.ly/TOP_WA2 ⁠⁠ YouTube: ⁠⁠https://bit.ly/TOP_YouTubeVideos

00:00 Introduction02:36 Understanding Antifragility06:21 Amazon's Antifragility During COVID17:51 Zoom's Antifragility During COVID21:12 Nokia's Journey from Antifragile to Fragile27:08 Conclusion and Key Takeaways