Amit Singh

A VC-backed scale-up came to Acumont with a challenge. They needed to build a remote executive team in India, and speed was critical. Instead of months of back-and-forth, we leaned on contingency search: fast, market-driven, and outcome-focused. The result: roles closed on time, leaders aligned with their vision, and retention improved by 30 percent compared to their previous hiring cycle. That’s what contingency search looks like when it’s done right NOT resume pushing, but real problem-solving. In your experience, does contingency search get the credit it deserves? #ExecutiveSearch #HiringStrategies #GlobalHiring

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Recko | A Stripe company's $150M acquisition proved that India Talent can build world class software. Here are the top learnings from my podcast with Saurya, Co-founder, Recko: 1. Recko was founded in 2017 by Saurya and Prashant to fix the complex and broken process of financial reconciliation in fast-growing B2C companies like Flipkart and Blinkit. 2. Getting the product off the ground was really tough. Early customers openly said they didn’t need it, and investors thought the idea was pointless. Recko was trying to build in a new category where there were no benchmarks or clear paths to follow. 3. Their first big break came from Myntra, who reached out just when Recko was down to their last $500. Over the next 3 to 4 months, they worked closely with Myntra’s finance team to solve huge reconciliation problems involving millions of data rows. That work earned them the credibility to build the product. 4. Indian VCs passed on Recko for several reasons: Lack of investor-focus on B2B during 2017-18 , the perception that back-office products were unsexy and the pressure for fast hockey stick growth. In some cases, even customers denied they had the problem Recko was solving, which confused potential investors further. 5. Saurya shares that India’s B2B ecosystem has “over-indexed” on cost advantages and marketing-heavy models. But to truly compete globally and reach higher valuations, companies should start with a solid product that offers real value through Tech and product superiority, not just by being cheaper. 6. For early-stage B2B startups, the most important metrics is not ARR, but product shape & product usage- how often the product is used and how critical it is to the workflow of the business. If your product becomes part of a company’s core workflow, it’s much harder for them to stop using it- even if it’s tough to sell at first. 7. Stripe's acquisition of Recko was primarily a product acceleration and product suite completion strategy. With financial operations closely tied to payments, Recko brought deep expertise in that space- something Stripe's customers were already asking for. 8. Recko was acquired at a 75X revenue multiple of $2 million ARR - A result of the product's unique strength, very specific domain knowledge, and "thickness" in its product layer. This contrasts with companies offering easily replicable solutions or operating in crowded, benchmarked categories, which give them lesser leverage in acquisitions. 9. The acquisition process took about six months, with four of those months spent on intense due diligence. Founders must manage conflicting expectations from investors and employees while maintaining highly confidential communication throughout. 10. Saurya advises founders to prioritize long-term relationships over attempting to "squeeze the last drop" of money during an acquisition, as future collaborations are likely. 

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The Great GCC Paradox: We’re Hiring, but Losing India’s GCCs are expected to cross $100B by 2030. But here’s what no one’s openly talking about: We’re leaking talent at the top, and hiring at the bottom. 1. A new study by Mercer shows mid-career attrition in tech has doubled since 2022. 2. CXO-level hiring cycles in GCCs have stretched beyond 6 months (Zinnov, 2024). 3. Returnee talent with global exposure is still asked: Q) “Why do you want to come back?” Q) “Are you too senior for this role?” We’ve mastered delivery. But we’re stuck in a talent loop: - Entry-level upskilling is celebrated - Strategic leadership hiring is feared - Internal mobility is sluggish - Culture fit outweighs culture transformation The result? India’s most capable talent is being interviewed by Singapore, Berlin, and Dubai, while local GCCs are still refining JD drafts. What if the real growth limiter isn’t infrastructure or policy… …but our inability to bet on catalytic leadership? You can’t build a $100B ecosystem with a $1M mindset. Let’s talk: What one mindset shift would unlock India’s next-gen GCC play? #GCC #LeadershipHiring #IndiaTalentCrisis #DigitalTransformation #ReturneeTalent #LeadershipGap #CXOHiring #Mercer #Zinnov #StrategicIndia #FutureOfWork #TalentFlight #HyderabadTech #GCCReset Zinnov Achyut Menon "AK" LinkedIn News India Reshab Shaw Vishwanadh Raju Viswanathan K S GCC Pulse™ Korn Ferry KPMG India

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The "build" mentality is too deeply rooted in India for Indian companies to "buy" anything. Over the past 30 months, we have been closely involved in multiple M&A processes -- all the ones that were successful were with US acquirers, all the ones where it was about selling to Indian acquirers failed barring a small one which could be considered a fail too. This is a lose-lose situation. Great teams with grit and talent produce something of real value but everything goes to zero because acquirers believe they can build it all themselves - never true. There is another deeper issue - a lot of Indian buyers engage just to educate themselves about the nitty gritty of the business and execution over multiple months and meetings so get whatever they need to get out of it to make their "build" process faster. A real shame. Of course, one could argue "this is business". To each their own. A lot is getting wasted - innovation, talent, commitment, insights and more. US thrives on "buying" and there is a lot to learn from it irrespective of the many times acquisitions don't work out. It is about culture and mindset. We can save a lot of innovation if we fix our mindset on building versus buying.

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After hiring for 50+ roles internally and 1000s of roles externally in the last 5 years, the most underutilized hiring practice that I've noticed among Indian companies is PAID WORK TRIALS. Reference checks don't even come close! Here's how we've 10Xd retention and performance by building our entire hiring playbook around this... Our work trial framework: 1/ Sales roles: 1-month paid trial 2/ Technical roles: 1-week paid trial 3/ Other roles: 2-days paid trial We get to work with someone before committing to hiring them full-time. Typically, out of every 2 folks we trial, one usually gets hired. What we're really looking for during these 2 days/7 days/30 days is whether they actually care enough. We want people who treat their work like art - something they genuinely care about creating, not just as a time-filler. Why this works way better than traditional hiring: - You see actual work quality, not interview performance - You understand their work ethic & attention to detail - You test cultural fit in real work scenarios - You reduce bad hiring mistakes significantly It's incredibly hard for even seasoned recruiters to figure out if someone truly cares about their work in a 1-hour interview. You can easily fake enthusiasm in those 45-60 minutes, but you can't fake quality work or integrity over time. Most companies still rely heavily on interviews and references, but nothing beats seeing someone actually do the job for a while. Yes, it requires more time, resources, and some extra money upfront. But the cost of a bad hire is always higher in the long run. We've used this approach to build our entire team, and it's precisely why we have such high retention and performance standards. Many companies here can hugely benefit by adopting this into their hiring flow.

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I had the chance to speak with Entrepreneur India on how the next wave of Global Capability Centers in India is being led by small and mid-sized companies. We’re seeing this shift firsthand at InCommon. PE/VC-backed companies are increasingly looking for a faster, lighter way to build in India - one that mirrors enterprise-grade playbooks but fits their scale. And that’s exactly what we’re enabling through our GCC 2.0 model. The article does a great job highlighting and analyzing this shift and what’s driving the next phase of India’s GCC growth. Thanks for driving this conversation, Ayushman Baruah. Link to the article in the comments.

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Agilitas x Virat Kohli partnership is one of the masterstroke deals I have seen in recent times. Virat invests 40 CR in Agilitas for a 1.94% stake, putting Agilitas’s valuation around 2000 CR. 📈 In turn, Agilitas acquires one8world, making Virat a co-founder and shareholder. They now get two very important growth levers: ⬇️ 1. A powerful manufacturing (via Mochiko Shoes - a 600 CR+ footwear brand that Agilitas acquired in 2008 ), 2. India’s biggest athlete — exclusively aligned. Easily becomes a 4000 CR revenue brand in the next 5 years. Footwear + retail scale requires capital — but this partnership compresses customer acquisition, product cycles, and brand-building like few others. Even Virat said in his podcast with Abhishek Ganguly, the co-founder of Agilitas that, “I didn’t want a brand deal… I wanted to build something that outlives me.” And Abhishek said something even beautiful - “An ambition to build from India but be globally relevant.” This isn’t marketing. This is legacy building with shared skin in the game. And that is how startups work - shared ambition with one goal (to make the company big) and food (read stake) in the table for everyone! A company that can be built in the long term with culture, capital, and conviction aligned. This might be the first time in India, where an athlete joins hands with a sport company to re-imagine and build the sport ecosystem of India - truly revolutionalising the game with a clear vision. 🙌

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After this Soham Parekh saga, any other YC founders going through a mental list of under performers and guessing if any were moonlighting at other startups? Soham apparently: - Used a US address to receive multiple startup laptops 💻 - Probably used forged I-9 docs 🤯 - Interviewed in person for some roles (!!) - Showed up the first day for one job and then... never came back - Meanwhile, scored off-the-charts on technical tests and projects (some founders said "best they’ve ever seen") - He must have received over 100+ startup offers, even after being called out for his behavior Couple thoughts: - In person interviews for white collar workers are definitely coming back. Between Cluely screen cheating, AI coding agents, and remote work, its going to be very hard to make sure your codebase is safe and you aren't paying benefits and salary to an LLM. - Should payroll and HRIS providers flag potential conflicts to employers. There’s room for an "inter-company background" signal (not sure if that would be legal or not) At Classet, we have not put a ton of work into interview persona validation and anti-cheating measures because 95% of the roles are in person and its harder to fake skills in those types of roles, but interesting to think about how interview cheating will develop in the blue collar world too.

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When we started in 2022, we didn’t have giant warehouses, celebrity endorsements, or billion-dollar funding. Sumit Jasoria, started with just ₹50 lakh pooled together — savings, small loans, and belief. The pain point was clear: 👉 Women in India, especially Gen Z and millennials, wanted trendy, affordable, fast fashion. 👉 But the choices were either overpriced international brands or outdated local offerings. The struggle was real. We were rejected by early investors who said, “Fashion is too competitive.” Suppliers didn’t trust us with bulk orders. Customers doubted if a new brand could deliver both quality and trend. Our first collection barely sold. We thought of shutting shop. But we decided to listen — really listen — to what young Indian women wanted. Bold fits, vibrant colors, and global styles at Indian prices. That pivot changed everything. Within 6 months, we were shipping thousands of orders daily. By the end of year one, we had crossed ₹100 crore in revenue. In just 2 years, NEWME became a ₹250 crore brand. Not because we had deep pockets, but because we built a brand that spoke the language of Bharat’s new-age women. #startup Today, NewMe has millions of loyal customers, a strong presence across e-commerce, and is backed by investors who once said “no.” We’ve built not just a fashion label, but a movement of self-expression for Indian women. 📌 What Indian Founders Can Learn from NewMe’s Journey. Listen to your customers, not just investors. Pivot when needed. Feedback is free market research. Solve for Bharat, not just metros. The biggest opportunities lie in Tier II & III cities Culture sells. Build a brand that connects emotionally with young India, not just logically.

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In venture capital, ultimately “only a handful of companies per year actually matter”. Just 7 firms led the Series A of ~60% of startups in India that are worth $1B+ today. The list of firms leading investments in these cos is fairly predictable - PANZEL + Tiger Global. Full post on India's unicorn hunters in the comments

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