The Concept of “PMF” in the Startup World is Familiar! However, PMF in the Social World is Funny but Paramount! Do you know what PMF is? Read this story!

Dear Friends,

Recently, I was asked to talk about PMF—Product-Market Fit—in a startup context. It is a popular concept nowadays in the startup journey.

Product-Market Fit (PMF) is like finding the perfect match between the product and the people who need it. It happens when your product solves a problem so well that customers are happy, excited, and willing to pay for it.

If you go deep into the journey, there are 32 steps in 5 phases of funding as per Majd Alaily. Product-Market Fit (PMF) comes in Phase 2 after the product launch:

• Phase 1 (Pre-Seed): [Idea, Founder Team, Product Build, Initial Validation, Proof of Concept, Initial Traction, Initial Business Model, Pre-Seed Funding]

• Phase 2 (Seed): [Product Launch, Initial PMF (Product-Market Fit), Key Hires, Scalability, User Base]

• Phase 3 (Series A): [Scaling Product, Revenue Growth, Market Penetration, User Growth, Operational Efficiency, Team Growth, Brand Building, Strong Retention]

• Phase 4 (Series B): [Market Leader, Solid Financials, Product Expansion, Scalable Operations]

• Phase 5 (Series C): [New Markets, Potential Mergers and Acquisitions, Exit Strategies, Strategic Partners, Profit Driven, Operational Excellence, Path to IPO]

Surprisingly, there are 32 steps in today’s arranged marriage journey in the Indian context:

• Phase 1 (Exploration): [Expression of Intent, Consultation with Elders, Criteria Setting, Profile Preparation, Horoscope Matching, Background Research, Networking for Matches]

• Phase 2 (Proposal & Compatibility Assessment): [Profile Exchange, Initial Discussions, First Family Meeting, Bride & Groom Meeting, Compatibility Check, Initial Profile Marital Fit (PMF) Check, Mutual Approval]

• Phase 3 (Courtship & Relationship Building): [Extended Family Introductions, Building Rapport, Lifestyle Discussions, Future Planning, Cultural Immersion, Profile Marital Fit Validation, Mutual Understanding Development]

• Phase 4 (Pre-Wedding Commitments & Planning): [Engagement Ceremony (Nischayathartham), Fixing the Wedding Date, Pre-Wedding Rituals Planning, Venue & Vendor Selection, Shopping & Preparations, Invitation Distribution]

• Phase 5 (Wedding & Post-Wedding Integration): [Pre-Wedding Rituals, Main Wedding Ceremony, Community Participation, Grahapravesham, Post-Wedding Planning, New House Setup]

I don’t know if it’s sheer coincidence or a real mapping, but Product-Market Fit (PMF) in the startup world and Profile-Marital Fit (PMF) in the marriage world encounter in Phase 2 of the journey, both with 32 steps!

If there is any slip/deviation in any of the 32 steps, the product fails—and so does the marriage! However, there are always exceptions! A chance encounter happens with the will of God!

God’s intervention in the form of Karma is the 0th and 33rd step, if you believe in God. If not, we can call it Nature’s intervention!

Do you agree?

Ravi Saripalle

My New Year Message to Young Minds (Especially Millennials (23–38) and Generation Z (7–28))

As members of Generation X (39–54), we are neither as old as the Boomers (55–73) nor as outdated as the Silent Generation (74–91).

Take a moment to reflect on the image below, captioned: "Don’t Burn Your Opportunities for Temporary Comfort."

It depicts a boy climbing down into a deep pit using a ladder. Experiencing heavy cold, the boy begins burning the rungs of the ladder for warmth.

Every Saturday, I share a story with my subscribers as part of the Inspire to Innovate (i2i) Storytelling Movement (https://lnkd.in/g-migWEN). This January 2025 marks 15 years of the i2i Storytelling Movement! Thank you for your continued support.

Typically, these stories are longer, but this one will be brief:

1. A high salary is a temporary comfort—Work is an opportunity.
2. Luxury vacations are temporary comforts—Work-life balance is an opportunity.
3. Beauty is a temporary comfort—Health is an opportunity.
4. Marital shopping (checklist culture) is a temporary comfort—Compatibility and love are opportunities.
5. Living in a nuclear setup is a temporary comfort—Responsibility is an opportunity.
6. Flattery is a temporary comfort—Trust is an opportunity.

And finally, a message for myself:

Preaching is a temporary comfort—Practice is an opportunity.

Thank you for reading!

Warm regards,

Ravi Saripalle

Adhavi, World’s First Carbon-Neutral Child, from Tamil Nadu! If it Becomes Policy??

Dear Friends,

A 2-year-old child from Tamil Nadu, India, named Adhavi, has set a remarkable example in environmental conservation. Her parents, Dinesh SP and Janga Nandhini, have planted 6,000 fruit-bearing trees to completely offset her lifetime carbon emissions. This incredible initiative has earned Adhavi the title of the “World’s First Carbon-Neutral Child,” recognized by the Asia Book of Records.

On average, an Indian generates around 2 tons of carbon emissions annually (on the other hand, a typical US citizen generates 15 Tons per year and world average is around 4.7 tons per year). Adhavi’s parents began their journey before her birth to combat this. They collaborated with farmers in Tamil Nadu to plant these trees, which will grow alongside Adhavi, absorbing her carbon footprint over time.

What if this becomes a policy?

What if such efforts are rewarded with special reservations in premium institutions?

What if it provides priority in railway tickets or discounts on purchases?

The day is not far! Many companies need to buy carbon credits to offset their energy demands. Perhaps, one day, Adhavi could transfer some of her credits to help these companies meet their sustainability goals.

If so, how many credits should Jadav "Molai" Payeng gain? Known as the "Forest Man of India," Jadav Payeng single-handedly transformed a barren sandbar in the Brahmaputra River into a lush forest spanning 1,360 acres over four decades.

Let’s also remember other pioneers of environmental conservation:

• Felix Finkbeiner: Founded the "Plant-for-the-Planet" initiative at age 9, aiming to plant 1 trillion trees globally. By 2021, over 15 billion trees had been planted through this initiative.

• Sundarlal Bahuguna: A pioneer of the Chipko Movement, he championed tree conservation and sustainable living in the Himalayan region.

• Mathur Gopalakrishnan: Planted over 30,000 saplings across Kerala to create mini forests on barren lands.

• Shubhendu Sharma: Founder of Afforestt, which helps individuals and organizations plant dense, native forests even on small plots of land.

India’s carbon market is picking up again! In 2023, India launched its Voluntary Carbon Market (VCM), a significant initiative for individuals, industries, and private entities looking to participate in carbon offset programs while contributing to sustainable development goals. With blockchain integration, the VCM ensures transparency and eliminates double-counting of credits. It is also compliant with international standards like the Gold Standard for credit quality assurance.

In my view, Dinesh SP and Janga Nandhini are true visionaries. If I am not mistaken, two years ago, there was an article about them—a Tamil Nadu couple who hosted the country’s first wedding in the metaverse, blending tradition and technology to adapt to Covid-19 restrictions.

These parents are truly ahead of their time, saving not only money for their child’s future but also creating carbon credits for a sustainable tomorrow.

Best wishes to these Carbon Credit Parents!

Ravi Saripalle

Bees, Behavior, and Business: The Challenges of Managing People

Dear Friends,

There is a popular adage: A bee lives less than 40 days, visits at least 1,000 flowers, and produces less than a teaspoon of honey. Honey bees can work up to 12 hours daily, depending on their role in the hive. The busiest hours are usually between 11 AM and 2 PM. Surprisingly, their organizational structure is amazing!

• Nurse Bees (1-10 days old)
Role: Care for the larvae.
Task: Feed the colony's most vulnerable members a protein-rich secretion to promote rapid growth.

• House Bees (11-20 days old)
Role: Maintain the hive's internal environment.
Task: Keep the hive clean and organized, ensuring an efficient and hygienic living space.

• Guard Bees (18-21 days old)
Role: Defend the hive.
Task: Station themselves at the entrance to repel predators and intruding bees.

• Field Bees (21-35 days old)
Role: Scout and forage.
Task: Search for new hive locations when needed and gather resources like nectar, pollen, and water.

• Older Bees
Role: Undertake high-risk tasks.
Task: Handle the most dangerous jobs, such as defending the hive and foraging far from safety.

Dynamic Roles and Survival: Worker bees adapt their responsibilities as they age, supporting every aspect of hive life. This division of labor underscores a bee colony's collective resilience and efficiency. Each role is indispensable, highlighting the interdependence that drives their survival.

Today, progressive organizations are struggling more with people than with processes or products! HR can be considered tougher than Finance, R&D, or Operations because it deals with the most unpredictable and dynamic resource in any organization: people. Managing human behavior, motivation, and performance presents unique challenges that make HR exceptionally complex.

Human Behavior is Unpredictable. This unpredictability adds to the complexity of conflict resolution. As intellectual levels grow in an organization, the rate of complexity increases even more.

Consider this typical HR problem statement today:

A highly productive and critical resource with the best credentials, working remotely on the organization's most crucial product with all sensitive data on their laptop, does not share knowledge or cooperate with peers, desires rapid career progression, occasionally falls sick, and is hence irregular in delivery. This employee perfectly matched the job description during recruitment but began exhibiting this indifferent behavior post-joining!

This scenario is not isolated. Many organizations worldwide are suffering from this syndrome! Fancy degrees often do not address individual behavior or cultural alignment. More knowledge does not guarantee sharing. The power of position does not guarantee loyalty.

As AI and automation progress, this challenge becomes even more crippling!

Do you also experience this in your circles? Do bees teach us any valuable lessons?

Ravi Saripalle

From Scepticism to Acceptance: An Intriguing Question Raised During My Talk at the World Health Innovation Forum

Dear Friends

I got an opportunity to present “Healing with Intelligence—The AI Doctor Will See You Now: Transforming Medicine Through Technology” at the World Health Innovation Forum happening at AMTZ, Vizag, between December 12, 2024, and December 14, 2024.

My presentation revolved around AI surveillance tools such as:

• COMPOSER (Sepsis Monitoring), deployed at UC San Diego Health.

• Google AI (Verily) for diabetic retinopathy, deployed at Aravind Hospitals in Madurai (Google is not charging for this and is yet to get certification from the Indian government).

I also discussed how, in the future, Doctor = Doctor + AI, supported by analogies. For example:

• How Arvind Sanjeev tweaked an old typewriter by connecting it to ChatGPT using a Raspberry Pi (a mini-computer). Arduino (microcontroller) allowed the typewriter to simulate key presses. Hence you speak to Typewriter. It writes the answer! This is also called a “Ghost writer”.

• Similarly, part of a doctor's knowledge in the future could come from an AI-trained model, making the equation Doctor = Doctor + AI validation.

Additional topics in the presentation included:

• 2024 AI trends setting the path for medical innovations.

• AI performance benchmarks vs. human performance on multiple tasks.

• The AI healthcare market outlook.

• The role of AI in science and medicine.

• AI ethics and controversies.

• A recommended framework for adopting AI in healthcare.

At the end of my presentation, I received an interesting question from a medical practitioner. She asked:

“Why have virtual tutors failed in education settings, even though many experimented with them during COVID-19, and why are people going back to the old-school model? Similarly, why is the remote health model failing, despite the availability of teleconsultation technology?”

It was an intriguing question, but there is no definitive answer at this stage. However, I shared my thoughts:

1. 50 years ago, part of entertainment included street dramas. These dramas were highly emotional and engaging at the time. Today, however, dramas are consumed virtually. As a society, we have come to accept the virtual format for this level of emotion.

2. Education, on the other hand, operates at an Emotion+ (Enhanced Emotion) level. Education is linked to livelihood and has a greater emotional and societal importance. Acceptance of virtual solutions in this domain, therefore, takes more time, and physical intervention is still often necessary.

3. Health operates at an even higher emotional level—Emotion++ (Peak Emotion). It concerns life itself, which is beyond livelihood. Hence, acceptance of virtual or remote health solutions takes much longer.

Eventually, when the performance of virtual AI solutions is on par with or better than human performance, society will likely accept these solutions. However, it will take time—it is a directional shift rather than an immediate one.

AI + Doctor = The Future of Medicine

Ravi Saripalle

Failure Conference!! Sounds Interesting!! You Heard Right!! Read This!

Dear Friends,

Occasionally, we hear about Success Meets! Whether it’s an organization or an individual, success is generally celebrated. My son or daughter got a UPSC Civils Rank, scored 99 percentile in JEE, ranked in the top 100 in NEET, cleared CA in the first attempt, the startup received seed funding, the organization completed one year, received an award, our movie ran for 100 days, and so on!

Have you ever celebrated failure? Have you ever attended a party hosted by parents because their son/daughter tried UPSC but failed? Have you been to a party hosted by parents because their son/daughter couldn’t get a JEE rank despite training from an early age? Rare, right? I admit that even I have never celebrated or attended such a failure meet, though I have personally failed multiple times and experienced the pain.

However, one of my admirers, Harish Hande, is organizing one such mega event (6-7 Feb 2024, IIM Bangalore)! It is all about organizational failure, and the name of the conference is “Impact Failure 2025 Experiences (impactfailure.org).” They are not asking you to submit your pitch deck or success mantra. Instead, they are asking you to submit your failure story:

“Share your failure story with us and contribute to a culture that can admit and learn from what did not work, one where failing and learning are shared and celebrated.”

Harish has been doing this for the last three events! His goal is, “Let us humanize it...so many youngsters can take the right path going forward” (LinkedIn: harish-hande-67b226).

You all should know about Harish. I met him only once at IIT Madras, probably 15 years back. However, his story inspired me a lot. If you read his LinkedIn, it is an interesting read. He passed out of IIT KGP (1986–90) BTech. He writes, “This is what my certificate says,” “Grade: With great difficulty.” Then, like a typical confused person, I spent somewhere between 3 to 5 years getting a Master’s and PhD. I surely recommend it if you think you have some years to decide what not to do.”

This shows his humility. In fact, Harish did his master’s degree and later a PhD in energy engineering at the University of Massachusetts Lowell.

He was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 2011 (Asia’s Nobel Prize) for "his pragmatic efforts to put solar power technology in the hands of the poor through his social enterprise SELCO India.” Hande co-founded SELCO India in 1995, a social enterprise, to eradicate poverty by promoting sustainable technologies in rural India.

Despite his tall success, he writes of himself as:

Employee, SELCO – Not sure about what I do. Worked with creative people worldwide (mostly those who creatively created a career out of 'solving' poverty).

At the age of 25, I was a little fearful of sharing my failures, fearing it would ruin my career and life. At the age of 50, with a short stint left, there is nothing to lose. Today, I am happy to celebrate mentally and internally to start with! Thanks to Harish, we can glorify them too!

Are you ready to celebrate your failure?

Ravi Saripalle

Trash Talk: A Landfill’s Lament and Lessons for Us

Dear Friends,

Over the last few months, we have been gearing up for the International Conference on Solid Waste Management and Circular Economy. This week saw us fully immersed in the event execution, shedding light on one of the most pressing issues of our time: waste management.

Traditionally, our approach has been Extract-Produce-Consume-Dispose-Deplete. While production and consumption are vital for a growing economy, the last two steps—Dispose and Deplete—make this world increasingly unsustainable. To reverse this trend, we must embrace the Extract-Produce-Consume-(4R framework: Reduce, Reuse, Repurpose, Recycle).

The Shocking Reality of Waste:

🌍 In Vizag, 24 lakh homes generate 1,200 metric tons of solid waste daily, including 400 tons of plastic waste, 200 tons of single-use plastic.

🌍 In India, 62 million tons of waste are produced annually. Of this, only 43 million tons are collected, and a mere 12 million tons treated, leaving rest to pollute our environment.

🌍 Globally, 42% of household wastewater and 73% of industrial wastewater were untreated in 2022, harming ecosystems.

If this trajectory continues, by 2030, waste will overpower us!

A Light-Hearted Yet Serious Tale: "Trash Talk"

Let me share a light-hearted story that underscores this serious issue.

In a quiet landfill, an old soda teased a worn-out shoe, "You’ve got no soul!" The shoe replied, "At least I’m not empty inside!"

Nearby, a banana peel sighed, "Stop arguing! We’re all stuck here together!"

As the sun rose, the sound of a recycling truck sparked hope.

The soda dreamt of becoming a shiny new car.

The shoe wished to turn into a soft playground mat.

The banana peel hoped to enrich soil as compost.

But their laughter turned to sadness. Trapped in the landfill, they whispered, "Even trash dreams of a second chance—please give us one!"

The story illustrates a simple truth: even waste carries potential. By choosing to reuse, repurpose, and recycle, we can ensure a brighter, greener world.

The next time you shop or discard something, remember the 4Rs. Reflect on your choices. Let’s ensure we leave our children a legacy of sustainability, not a burden of waste.

Together, we can create a future where every piece of trash fulfils its purpose.

Warm regards,

Ravi Saripalle