“You're waiting for a train, a train that will take you far away. You know where you hope this train will take you, but you don't know for sure.” - Cobb (Inception)

After a long day of travel, I was half asleep in the backseat of an Audi SUV on the ice and snow laden roads of Davos, Switzerland. I had just completed Day 1 of a week long trip where I’d attend as many side events as possible, take meetings, share the Woodstock Thesis, and meet portfolio companies and investors during the annual World Economic Forum. My focus would be on Web3 and I would end up hearing keynotes by the likes of Anthony Scaramucci, Yat Siu, Brad Garlinghouse, and even Academy Award winning film director Oliver Stone. (He was seated ‘back and to the left’)

Adam’s Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

I was jet-lagged and all I wanted to do was get back to our Airbnb. It was late. Wait, what? It’s an hour away.!? Oh no, I hadn’t really bothered to check with my friends who had booked it. I was assuming it would be like 3 years ago when I stayed within 15 minutes of the promenade. But you know what they say about assuming things, you make an ass out of you and MING.

An hour away. Not too bad. I would just get to know the folks in the car a bit more, check my phone and we’ll be…wait, “We’re putting the car on a train and taking a train through the mountain!”? Is that a real thing? Do I get out of the car? What type of a train is it? I mean come on, I just want to be home and use a small European shower with no pressure like a normal tourist.

Ok, so the train. Think of it like this…a bunch of flatbed railway cars connected together and covered by a Mad Max-esque dome of metal. Like a longer version of what you’re picturing for transporting cattle or horses. There was in fact a lot of horsepower on that train. (you know how I write, you knew that was coming) Night 1, I was so over it. I was not feeling the adventure of taking a car onto a train through a mountain.

Day 2. Woke up after some great rest, had a coffee, about 80 pieces of bread (Europe and their tasty bread I tell ya) and a couple of scoops of Nutella for the road. I was ready. And, most importantly, I was ready to see what this train scenario looked like on the way back into Davos. I was ready to explore and the fellowship was all aboard.

So why am I focusing on this train ride when the title of the article clearly states ‘Incredible India’? Absolutely nothing! I just really loved that train by the end of the week and I didn’t want to write a whole separate ‘I love trains’ article.

When I left IBM to join Woodstock Fund as the US Partner in February of 2022 I was ready to explore the Indian start up scene, specifically Web3. I traveled to India for the first time in 2009, (3 months at Gandhi Ashram in Ahmadabad) but I hadn’t been back since. And, during my MBA in 2011, when I studied emerging markets finance, I’d always had the dream, and the vision, to return and work in India one day.

I’ve often described India as ‘peacefully chaotic’ or some version of this. If you’re Indian or have traveled to India you’ll get this instantly. Prime example. I was attending my first cricket match in Delhi in 2009. There was a sign on the road that had a few rules and regulations for the road to be observed with associated fines for each rule.

1. Drive on the left side of the road.

2. Go with, not against the flow of traffic.

3. No more than two people on a motorbike.

4. Wear your helmet at all times on motorbikes.

5. No livestock on the road.

Pretty reasonable I thought. I took a beat to look out the window and observe that every single one of these rules were being broken. Hilarious. And, if you asked me, just incredible. Incredible India. This is where we begin our journey.

Incredible India:

There’s A LOT to cover when talking about India. From demographic advantages, to technical talent, regulation, Web3 and beyond.

And it’s in these moments that we lean on experts to help us unpack markets. In this case I’m going to refer to my partner at Woodstock Prashanth Swaminathan’s terrific article “India, Web3 and the 5TN$ Economy”. Definitely give this article a read!

He brings up a flurry of statistics that are relevant for India as a whole:

India recently overtook UK to become the World’s 5th largest economy in GDP terms.

Agriculture / Industry / Services contributed 20% / 26% / 54% to India’s GDP.

India has a very ambitious target of reaching $5Tn GDP by 2024-25.

India’s demographics are their strongest tailwinds, especially the age distribution. As per Government estimates, in 2021, 35% of the population was under 30 years of age, and around 90% under 60.

Startups contributed just 2.5-3% to our GDP and this is anticipated to rise up to only 4-5% in the next 5 years. However the global startup economy is nearly $3 Trillion, or larger than the entire Indian economy.

Web 3 market cap (not the most accurate comparison to economy size) is around $1 Tn as of 13 Jan 2023, and the contribution of India based companies to this is under $50Bn (~ 5%) and the large ones have already moved to Dubai and other foreign regions.

…and…back to me…

India now has the third largest startup ecosystem in the world, after the US and China. India currently has 102 unicorns, or privately held tech companies worth at least $1 billion, a record number.

The digital economy is growing in India. There are more than 700 million internet users in India, and about 500 million Indians have yet to come online, according to CNN. The fast adoption of online services in the wake of COVID-19 has been a boon to India’s startups, according to Nikkei.

India has a ton of work to do, but eyeing the position of the 3rd largest economy in the world in the coming decades is well within reach.

The India House at Davos

Have you ever been to a street fair? How about a wedding with a private chef? New York Mets game and you’re in the club section?

Essentially, in all of these examples, with a plethora of food options, one usually stands out above the rest and acts as a sort of hub for you and your friends throughout the week. This was the India House at Davos. During a week of no official meals, because there’s average food everywhere….you’re just grinding your way from event to event grabbing finger foods like your mother on road trips when leaving the hotel. My mother would grab like 30 bananas/apples and muffins in a backpack. We’re literally driving 3 hours Mom!

With set times for chai and meals, catered by a private and quite famous chef from Jaipur, the India House stood head and shoulders above the rest for its simple approach of compassion, openness and community. They had incredible speakers from the Indian government and business to global money managers, hedge funds, venture funds and creators. I’ve been to a lot of areas at Davos in the past few years and the energy at the India House was nothing like I’d seen before.

The India Reception

If you thought the India House was good, wait until I tell you about the India Reception on the final night of Davos! More food, more drinks a lot more people.

We’re in a new location in a ballroom at the basement level of a hotel on the promenade. Seemingly, every Indian in Davos was in attendance and the place was packed. I would hazard a guess to say all 28 states were represented across a broad swath of industries. Web3, energy, real estate, media & entertainment, finance, you name it, you could find it there.

I kind of felt like Charlie in the Indian version of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and I had the golden ticket. There were amazing conversations happening all around me and I could really feel the excitement of the room bubbling up.

I’d like to share one moment that I feel sums up India’s ascent and culture perfectly and why I continue to be bullish moving forward. Of course, we can get into the weeds on the statistics, and we should, but come with me now, if you like, into a world of pure imagination. (see what I did there)

The BUZZ

Smiti Irani is an Indian politician and former actress, fashion model and producer. She is a Minister in Union Cabinet of India since May 2019. During the reception she was on stage with 8 or so of her fellow cabinet members taking a moment to address the rather large audience. Also in attendance, and on stage, Klaus Schwab, founder and chairman of the World Economic Forum. (politics aside, India is big time if he’s showing up)

As you can imagine trying to corral a large room of people that are enjoying delicious award winning Indian food and drinks is a herculean task. You know what happens next right? The ‘shhhhh’s’ began from all areas of the room to attempt to quiet the evident buzz around the room. Each ‘shh’ would work for a few seconds, followed by a new buzz area cropping up in a different area of the room. I mean I was good at playing ‘whack a mole’ but this is ridiculous! I wanted to hear what the ministers were saying, couldn’t we all just be quiet for a few minutes!?

Enter Smiti Irani. The request had been made right before she spoke to ‘keep the buzz’ in the room down so we could hear the speakers. Makes sense right. I was being quiet, couldn’t you! I had my hands behind my back respectfully, I was doing it right:)

Smiti Irani takes the stage. The buzz continues. What does she do? She leans into the buzz. She says:

“Thank you fellow minister. I would request one thing, however. (here we go, she’s going to ‘shhh’ the audience, go Smiti!) That like the streets of India, we keep the buzz in the room going.”

Dead silence.

The buzz stopped. It’s as if by acknowledging the buzz, not making it wrong and drawing a direct heart connection from the buzz in the room to the buzz and excitement on the streets of India she brought the room together to listen to her message. Incredible!!! Incredible India indeed. Sure, she’s an actress with above average stage presence.

I can not stress the importance of the stage presence that I learned from my decade as an actor in my professional life today. If you have the chance to take an acting course, take it!

That was it. The night ended shortly after that, but I was left with a renewed sense of excitement about India and a vivid sense of that buzz. That incredible buzz.

India is leaning into the buzz and will do things their own way that is right for their people, cultures and customs. There’s so much more to write on this on why certain models of success from one region don’t work in other regions, but I’ll leave that to you dear reader to explore.

And remember, the same goes for you. When you see someone succeed, know that you’ll need to figure out your own model that works for you. You can feel their buzz, be around it, let it inspire you, however, you get the opportunity to create your own buzz that works for you.

Adam’s Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

“You're waiting for a train, a train that will take you far away. You know where you hope this train will take you, but you don't know for sure.” - Cobb (Inception)

After a long day of travel, I was half asleep in the backseat of an Audi SUV on the ice and snow laden roads of Davos, Switzerland. I had just completed Day 1 of a week long trip where I’d attend as many side events as possible, take meetings, share the Woodstock Thesis, and meet portfolio companies and investors during the annual World Economic Forum. My focus would be on Web3 and I would end up hearing keynotes by the likes of Anthony Scaramucci, Yat Siu, Brad Garlinghouse, and even Academy Award winning film director Oliver Stone. (He was seated ‘back and to the left’)

Adam’s Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

I was jet-lagged and all I wanted to do was get back to our Airbnb. It was late. Wait, what? It’s an hour away.!? Oh no, I hadn’t really bothered to check with my friends who had booked it. I was assuming it would be like 3 years ago when I stayed within 15 minutes of the promenade. But you know what they say about assuming things, you make an ass out of you and MING.

An hour away. Not too bad. I would just get to know the folks in the car a bit more, check my phone and we’ll be…wait, “We’re putting the car on a train and taking a train through the mountain!”? Is that a real thing? Do I get out of the car? What type of a train is it? I mean come on, I just want to be home and use a small European shower with no pressure like a normal tourist.

Ok, so the train. Think of it like this…a bunch of flatbed railway cars connected together and covered by a Mad Max-esque dome of metal. Like a longer version of what you’re picturing for transporting cattle or horses. There was in fact a lot of horsepower on that train. (you know how I write, you knew that was coming) Night 1, I was so over it. I was not feeling the adventure of taking a car onto a train through a mountain.

Day 2. Woke up after some great rest, had a coffee, about 80 pieces of bread (Europe and their tasty bread I tell ya) and a couple of scoops of Nutella for the road. I was ready. And, most importantly, I was ready to see what this train scenario looked like on the way back into Davos. I was ready to explore and the fellowship was all aboard.

So why am I focusing on this train ride when the title of the article clearly states ‘Incredible India’? Absolutely nothing! I just really loved that train by the end of the week and I didn’t want to write a whole separate ‘I love trains’ article.

When I left IBM to join Woodstock Fund as the US Partner in February of 2022 I was ready to explore the Indian start up scene, specifically Web3. I traveled to India for the first time in 2009, (3 months at Gandhi Ashram in Ahmadabad) but I hadn’t been back since. And, during my MBA in 2011, when I studied emerging markets finance, I’d always had the dream, and the vision, to return and work in India one day.

I’ve often described India as ‘peacefully chaotic’ or some version of this. If you’re Indian or have traveled to India you’ll get this instantly. Prime example. I was attending my first cricket match in Delhi in 2009. There was a sign on the road that had a few rules and regulations for the road to be observed with associated fines for each rule.

1. Drive on the left side of the road.

2. Go with, not against the flow of traffic.

3. No more than two people on a motorbike.

4. Wear your helmet at all times on motorbikes.

5. No livestock on the road.

Pretty reasonable I thought. I took a beat to look out the window and observe that every single one of these rules were being broken. Hilarious. And, if you asked me, just incredible. Incredible India. This is where we begin our journey.

Incredible India:

There’s A LOT to cover when talking about India. From demographic advantages, to technical talent, regulation, Web3 and beyond.

And it’s in these moments that we lean on experts to help us unpack markets. In this case I’m going to refer to my partner at Woodstock Prashanth Swaminathan’s terrific article “India, Web3 and the 5TN$ Economy”. Definitely give this article a read!

He brings up a flurry of statistics that are relevant for India as a whole:

India recently overtook UK to become the World’s 5th largest economy in GDP terms.

Agriculture / Industry / Services contributed 20% / 26% / 54% to India’s GDP.

India has a very ambitious target of reaching $5Tn GDP by 2024-25.

India’s demographics are their strongest tailwinds, especially the age distribution. As per Government estimates, in 2021, 35% of the population was under 30 years of age, and around 90% under 60.

Startups contributed just 2.5-3% to our GDP and this is anticipated to rise up to only 4-5% in the next 5 years. However the global startup economy is nearly $3 Trillion, or larger than the entire Indian economy.

Web 3 market cap (not the most accurate comparison to economy size) is around $1 Tn as of 13 Jan 2023, and the contribution of India based companies to this is under $50Bn (~ 5%) and the large ones have already moved to Dubai and other foreign regions.

…and…back to me…

India now has the third largest startup ecosystem in the world, after the US and China. India currently has 102 unicorns, or privately held tech companies worth at least $1 billion, a record number.

The digital economy is growing in India. There are more than 700 million internet users in India, and about 500 million Indians have yet to come online, according to CNN. The fast adoption of online services in the wake of COVID-19 has been a boon to India’s startups, according to Nikkei.

India has a ton of work to do, but eyeing the position of the 3rd largest economy in the world in the coming decades is well within reach.

The India House at Davos

Have you ever been to a street fair? How about a wedding with a private chef? New York Mets game and you’re in the club section?

Essentially, in all of these examples, with a plethora of food options, one usually stands out above the rest and acts as a sort of hub for you and your friends throughout the week. This was the India House at Davos. During a week of no official meals, because there’s average food everywhere….you’re just grinding your way from event to event grabbing finger foods like your mother on road trips when leaving the hotel. My mother would grab like 30 bananas/apples and muffins in a backpack. We’re literally driving 3 hours Mom!

With set times for chai and meals, catered by a private and quite famous chef from Jaipur, the India House stood head and shoulders above the rest for its simple approach of compassion, openness and community. They had incredible speakers from the Indian government and business to global money managers, hedge funds, venture funds and creators. I’ve been to a lot of areas at Davos in the past few years and the energy at the India House was nothing like I’d seen before.

The India Reception

If you thought the India House was good, wait until I tell you about the India Reception on the final night of Davos! More food, more drinks a lot more people.

We’re in a new location in a ballroom at the basement level of a hotel on the promenade. Seemingly, every Indian in Davos was in attendance and the place was packed. I would hazard a guess to say all 28 states were represented across a broad swath of industries. Web3, energy, real estate, media & entertainment, finance, you name it, you could find it there.

I kind of felt like Charlie in the Indian version of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and I had the golden ticket. There were amazing conversations happening all around me and I could really feel the excitement of the room bubbling up.

I’d like to share one moment that I feel sums up India’s ascent and culture perfectly and why I continue to be bullish moving forward. Of course, we can get into the weeds on the statistics, and we should, but come with me now, if you like, into a world of pure imagination. (see what I did there)

The BUZZ

Smiti Irani is an Indian politician and former actress, fashion model and producer. She is a Minister in Union Cabinet of India since May 2019. During the reception she was on stage with 8 or so of her fellow cabinet members taking a moment to address the rather large audience. Also in attendance, and on stage, Klaus Schwab, founder and chairman of the World Economic Forum. (politics aside, India is big time if he’s showing up)

As you can imagine trying to corral a large room of people that are enjoying delicious award winning Indian food and drinks is a herculean task. You know what happens next right? The ‘shhhhh’s’ began from all areas of the room to attempt to quiet the evident buzz around the room. Each ‘shh’ would work for a few seconds, followed by a new buzz area cropping up in a different area of the room. I mean I was good at playing ‘whack a mole’ but this is ridiculous! I wanted to hear what the ministers were saying, couldn’t we all just be quiet for a few minutes!?

Enter Smiti Irani. The request had been made right before she spoke to ‘keep the buzz’ in the room down so we could hear the speakers. Makes sense right. I was being quiet, couldn’t you! I had my hands behind my back respectfully, I was doing it right:)

Smiti Irani takes the stage. The buzz continues. What does she do? She leans into the buzz. She says:

“Thank you fellow minister. I would request one thing, however. (here we go, she’s going to ‘shhh’ the audience, go Smiti!) That like the streets of India, we keep the buzz in the room going.”

Dead silence.

The buzz stopped. It’s as if by acknowledging the buzz, not making it wrong and drawing a direct heart connection from the buzz in the room to the buzz and excitement on the streets of India she brought the room together to listen to her message. Incredible!!! Incredible India indeed. Sure, she’s an actress with above average stage presence.

I can not stress the importance of the stage presence that I learned from my decade as an actor in my professional life today. If you have the chance to take an acting course, take it!

That was it. The night ended shortly after that, but I was left with a renewed sense of excitement about India and a vivid sense of that buzz. That incredible buzz.

India is leaning into the buzz and will do things their own way that is right for their people, cultures and customs. There’s so much more to write on this on why certain models of success from one region don’t work in other regions, but I’ll leave that to you dear reader to explore.

And remember, the same goes for you. When you see someone succeed, know that you’ll need to figure out your own model that works for you. You can feel their buzz, be around it, let it inspire you, however, you get the opportunity to create your own buzz that works for you.

Adam’s Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.