Vikram Mekala

I’m convinced that this friction is what creates the texture that shallow experiences lack. You can’t Instagram your way into belonging; it requires choosing deliberate entanglement over endless optionality, again and again

What my own experiment has taught me so far is that the rewards we seek – genuine connection, meaningful impact, that elusive sense of belonging – only come from sustained engagement with a place’s full spectrum of experiences.

Good work should do at least one of these things: fund the life you actually want to live, align with values you can defend at dinner parties, surround you with people who challenge you to grow, or teach you skills that compound like interest over decades.

AI will flood the zone with intelligence. But as intelligence gets cheaper, presence gets more expensive. Real, earned, interpersonal trust will become the rarest currency. And relational labor is how that currency gets minted. Working with the right person is exponential. We’ll be reminded of that again soon. The human teammate will be one of the ... See more

My calendar was like a family-size bag of skittles. It was packed, color coded, and optimized for efficiency. I used the apps, checked off the boxes, read the books, and tried every technique I came across. From a productivity standpoint, I was gold.

I was busy and productive, which made me feel important and accomplished. Yet my heart told me a di... See more

I thought I was using AI in an incredibly positive and healthy way, as a bicycle for my mind and a way to vastly increase my thinking capacity. But LLMs are insidious–using them to explore ideas feels like work, but it’s not real work. Developing a prompt is like scrolling Netflix, and reading the output is like watching a TV show. Intellectual rig... See more

The FMCG consultant mentioned earlier notes that once these newer brands identify what works among customers—ingredients, packaging, etc.—they try to double down on that strength. “These brands have a clear value that's getting delivered with very clear articulation of the benefits. Therefore, to that extent, the brand can be extended into many dif... See more

Contrast this with HUL, which says it reaches 75% of its customers through the old-fashioned general trade or kirana store route. HUL’s efforts are focused on its B2B app Shikhar in rural markets. Retailers can place orders 24x7 on the Shikhar app without waiting for a HUL salesperson to visit, ensuring faster replenishment and better inventory man... See more

This explains the rural market push of most FMCG players. Dabur claims to have reached 107,000 villages directly (in January 2025) up from 100,000 villages in March 2023. Marico has implemented Project SETU to increase its rural presence. “Under SETU, we will focus on rural outlet expansion at a pan-India level, while deploying strong control frame... See more