Ash Arora
@asharoraa
Investing @LocalGlobeVC. @Forbes 30u30. Vibing @Techstars @AWSCloud @lbs @cambridge_uni comments are my own
This was THE best @Apple WWDC in almost a decade. Summarising top takeaways:
Always proud of my alma mater and even prouder of trailblazing alumni like Gita who continue to redefine excellence. Inspiring!
After nearly 7 amazing years at the IMF, I have decided to return to my academic roots. On September 1, 2025, I will rejoin @HarvardEcon as the inaugural Gregory and Ania Coffey Professor of Economics. I am truly grateful for my time at @IMFnews, first as Chief Economist and then…
Stop wasting your life worrying about the opinions of people who won't remember your name in 5 minutes. The fear of judgment has killed more dreams than failure ever will. Nobody is thinking about you. They're too busy thinking about themselves. Nobody cares. So go do the thing.
I’m Shawn, founder of Memories.ai, former researcher at Meta and CS PhD at University of Cambridge. Today we’re launching : we built the world’s first Large Visual Memory Model - to give AI human-like visual memories. Why visual memory? AI to…
"Being a solo founder must be extremely tough, especially given your age.” I hear that at least three times a day from other founders and sometimes from investors. It’s a completely valid concern. Being solo is obviously tough and sometimes overwhelming. But thinking on the…
A friend paid $14K just to buy a 212 number in Manhattan Tech bro buys domains, finance bro buys clout
Fundraising should be hard. When fundraising is too easy, it tricks founders into thinking building a business is easy. It should be hard to convince someone to give you millions of dollars that you’ll probably lose.
Okay I have to say this. Why is matcha everywhere?! It tastes absolutely disgusting Blueberries + green tea have almost all the same nutrients and taste 100x better Make it make sense
One of the simplest sources of alpha in VC is to consistently do the mundane: market research, screening companies, doing the diligence work, writing the memos, showing up in working sessions, sending follow ups. 99.9% of investing, even in VC, is boring; it's muck and grunt…
Only two things really matter right now: 1. ai 2. the physical world we inhabit The bigger AI gets, the more important our physical world will become. (the spaces we inhabit, our cities, a need for community, etc). Build in one of these.
Brutal truth: Your inability to focus on one thing for an extended amount of time will hurt you far greater than your lack of intellect.
If you want to be great, be ready to be misunderstood.
Naval Ravikant on the most valuable advice he’s received When asked about the best advice he’s ever received, Naval says he first ignored it. “It's the same one that everyone who's been in the business for a long time and has a lot of gray hairs tells you… whether it's Warren…
Larry Page and Sergey Brin tried to sell Google for under $1m so they could return to their PhDs. Paul Allen had to convince Bill Gates to drop out of Harvard. Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard took day jobs until pushed by a professor to start HP. Steve Wozniak wanted HP to build…
The idea of convincing people to become entrepreneurs is ridiculous. If you need to be convinced, you shouldn’t do it. Starting a company is totally irrational—you need to be obsessed and committed to a painful, decade-long grind. Most people are better off as employees.
The Windsurf acquisition has created a new form of M&A model in tech: 1) Big tech acqui-hires founders + senior team for billions 2) Competitor startup buys the remaining business + team for pennies on the dollar This definitely doesn’t break any anti-competitive laws. What a…
Underrated life skill: Choosing calm when others expect a reaction.
Linda did a fantastic job managing a messy and difficult situation and turning the business around! Congrats on an incredible run Though I miss the Twitter where intellectual discourse and new innovations would go viral, as opposed to all this hate and extremism @jack’s and…
After two incredible years, I’ve decided to step down as CEO of 𝕏. When @elonmusk and I first spoke of his vision for X, I knew it would be the opportunity of a lifetime to carry out the extraordinary mission of this company. I’m immensely grateful to him for entrusting me…
We were in Colorado last week and I was struck by what is now an enormous disparity in wealth between the US and the UK. Spent a couple of nights in a cabin in an RV park - it had pools, slides, mini golf etc, fun for the kids. But the place was packed with RVs worth hundreds…
The alternative to free speech is mob rule: whichever mob screams the loudest wins. I want a truth-seeking culture of free speech. We all get to speak our minds—and when we disagree, we speak with words not with threats.