The Investor · Debug Season · Pulse Beat
Karthik Bhat had been on the edge of Vikram's life for eight months. He ran a small fund in Bengaluru and had written a charming, noncommittal email in the spring: Love what you're doing. Let's talk…
Karthik Bhat had been on the edge of Vikram's life for eight months.
He ran a small fund in Bengaluru and had written a charming, noncommittal email in the spring: Love what you're doing. Let's talk when you have traction. When the news of the bug spread, Karthik called, the first time in all those months.
"I read your email. That was either very brave or very stupid."
"I hadn't decided which."
Karthik laughed. "I want to put in fifty lakhs." He said it quickly, like a man taking off a plaster. "But I'd want a say on the product. Growth targets. I think you've been too precious about the privacy thing; the market for a notebook that can't ever look at your data is small. If we gave you analytics..."
"Analytics on what?"
"What people write. Anonymised. Just to learn what features..."
"No," said Vikram.
There was a pause on the line. "You haven't heard the number."
"I heard it. It's a lot." He looked at the sticky note on the monitor. "But no."