Sachin and Adam
00:24:02 · Adam, Sachin
[00:24:02] S0: I wanna do... It's always started out organic and a lack of intention, genuine curiosity, organic stuff. And then when we flick on the switch, we become really, really structured and intentional. Yeah. It's like with the fundraising stuff, it, like, just happened suddenly. We got a bit of, like, a a goal and a vision together, but then we became really structured about, okay, who are we reaching out to? How much are we raising? How much do we need from each person? Who could be a really good value add? Yeah. All that sort of stuff. [00:24:27] S1: Yeah. And if you think, like, to your deepest core, like, why do you think you wanted to start this company? Like, you've said, hey, there was this, like, moment in stop. Like, what is, like, the the the the second derivative of that?
00:24:40 · Adam
[00:24:40] S0: It's a good question. I don't know why we haven't answered that now. I think I've told you this before. There's like a number of things in life that make you feel. It's like there's love. It's like being on a great surf. It's like connecting with a good friend. And then, like, I think something that makes me feel like more than anything is when you have, like, the most brilliant and, like, deep conversation with someone who's incredible. And we've had a number of interviews like that in the past in the past year. One that comes to mind is Nick Crocker, where you're just... It's the most deep and, like, soulful chat, but you're learning so much. And you get these moments when you feel so present and zoned in. And it's like when you're in those moments, you're like, this is the core of life. Like, it's a deep connection with someone. You're learning so much. You've got goosebumps, and you can share these learnings to the world. And I'm like, if you can construct a life that has anything to do with that, it's a dream life for me. It's absolutely a dream life. And I think that growing up, I really loved people that made documentaries and talk shows, Louis Theroux and Charlie Rose. And I'm just like, man, the childlike curiosity and the way that they just try and provide learning and education for the world, it's a dream life. And I think that we could work a hundred hours a week and create absolutely crazy stuff because of how aligned we are to it.
00:26:04 · Sachin
[00:26:04] S1: Yeah. I've never thought about it that way, but, like, for me, one of my first ever motivations was Humans of New York and, like, at least spiritual connection to that kind of content. But I think what... Maybe what got me across the line is like, I've always known that that stuff like fills my soul and it's like the funnest thing to do and like getting paid to that... To do that actually feels like a joke. Like it doesn't feel like that should be real, but I think the secondary thing is like me and you are like quite ambitious and probably quite analytical to most people and have like a lot of rigor in the way we operate our lives. And I think we're both very conscious about the finite nature of of our lives and what we do with it and, like, the impact we can put on. Right? And I thought that media aspect was always like, hey. That's media. That's not business. But now thinking about this, that media as a channel for the... For this greater business we wanna build, and it's a way where we can do what we love by having those conversations, by interviewing people, by producing things, by being creative, but also the rigor of building a fucking big company, which is what we want to do. Like, we don't want to sit around and not do something they can't get above a $100,000,000, and I think that's what's exciting. Like, we do have these creative conversations, but, like, you know, in the first week of this company, like, we have more structured processes than most startups that have been around for, like, six months. And that's just because this is how we wanna build this company.
00:27:26 · Adam, Sachin
[00:27:26] S0: I think there was always an inevitability inevitability in our lives. So we needed to, at a point in time, be putting all of our effort and soul into something that could be really fucking big. And I think we've always had that desire, and maybe it's waned over time because of some insecurity or seeing how hard it is, but we always like... We needed a moment to do this, to give it a shot. And I think when you can have that moment to build something really big but it's really soulful at the same time, like you're really truly aligned with what you're doing, like you love it, then that's like pretty special. [00:27:58] S1: Yeah. And look, we're not... We don't think it's all gonna be rosy. Right? Like, you know, we've drastically cut how much we're getting paid. We've just moved back home with our parents, which is [00:28:09] S0: I'm a 25 year old living with his mom who eats my Muscle Chef meals to save time. Last week, I didn't... I don't think I went out at all. Yeah. Like, I don't... I've cut out alcohol almost completely from my diet. A big change. Tad's got any dates. Yeah. There's not really much happening in my life except for running and working.
00:28:09 · Adam, Sachin
[00:28:09] S0: I'm a 25 year old living with his mom who eats my Muscle Chef meals to save time. Last week, I didn't... I don't think I went out at all. Yeah. Like, I don't... I've cut out alcohol almost completely from my diet. A big change. Tad's got any dates. Yeah. There's not really much happening in my life except for running and working. [00:28:30] S1: Yeah. And somehow even with that sacrifice, it still feels right. But we're also Completely. We're aware that we've taken on money, which also comes with its own responsibilities and, you know, it's it's this balance between this rigor and having this big vision of what we want to do, and also loving doing it. And I think that's a balance that will constantly come out out of whack and something that we'll we'll keep reflecting on. I think let's, let's finish off this first one by giving a quick rundown of like what we're actually doing. Yeah. Do you wanna go? Yeah. So I think I think there's two parts, and we'll keep it super high level for now. But the first part is building APAC's tech media company. And what we mean by that is that we've got the Sachin and Adam show right now, but that's just one brand under the Kindling umbrella. And so Kindling is focused on APAC and India more broadly for now, And and a lot of this stuff is is evolving as we go. But we wanna partner with and create the best tech media in the world. And so that includes podcasts, includes newsletters, it includes TikToks, it includes any way in which someone can consume content. We wanna be there producing tech media content.
00:29:42 · Adam
[00:29:42] S0: Yeah. And I think that we're in a moment in time where media media is having an increasing moment. It is easier than ever to reach so many people on so many different platforms using AI and editing tools to create more content than ever. And there's still a lot of niches to be discovered. I think in The US, like, is heavily penetrated in so many different sectors, but there's still so many stories in Asia Pacific, particularly, to talk about tech, the entrepreneurs of that world, and to share stories that inspire people, but also educate people. And that's the sort of first thing. But then the second thing is that what we've realized from media, you're not just getting eyeballs, but you're getting information. You're getting data and insights. And with all of that, you can create some really, really brilliant things. And we won't go into too much depth with this stuff because a lot of these are sort of ideas in our mind that are gonna change over time. But we've been really, really passionate about the ed tech space. We've been really, really passionate about sort of customer intelligence platforms and how you can organize the world of data in startups. And media can be the best way to start in any of those things because you get distribution, but you're sort of... Over time, you can create the information and data that you need to build education, to build data products.