Brain Box Gurukul
We've built 7 startups, 40+ personal & 100+ corporate brands, a pan-India Top-10 Podcast in '22, a Global Top 10 Agency in '24 & 'publicly' built social media channels with a 250,000+ strong community. And we're sharing it all. No fluff.
Publicly Building my 4th Startup: Month 6
Hi Reader, Six months ago, when I announced that I would publicly build Brain Box Gurukul (BBG), I knew it wouldn’t be a straight-line journey. This is my fourth venture, and while prior experience gives you pattern recognition, the terrain is always different. More importantly, what worked even in 2022, may not necessarily work today. And that’s precisely why I chose to build BBG in public. When we built Arpita's YouTube channel from 1-10,000 subscribers in 95 days, we knew that it's not...
AI Webinar Recording
AI WEBINAR ON JULY 31, 2025 We are only human after all... Hello Reader, Even though we may be doing AI webinars, we remain human. And that's why we've goofed up. Looks like there was a glitch and that's why 18 of you didn't receive the recording to the Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen AI) webinar. The mail did reach the remaining 57, though, on August 2nd, but hope you'll let this go :) So without further ado, here's the recording without the Q&A, which was exclusively for those...
ChatGPT just got kicked out!
Hi Reader, One of the world’s leading AI companies, Anthropic, just banned ChatGPT’s creator from using their platform! Why? Because OpenAI was allegedly using Claude, a competitor’s product, to help develop their own competing AI systems. It’s like McDonald’s secretly using Burger King’s kitchen to perfect their new burger recipe. This wasn’t just about protecting intellectual property. It was about drawing a clear ethical line in the sand. Anthropic essentially said, “We won’t enable...
Is SEO DEAD?
Hi Reader, I have regularly "Googled" over my entire 2 decade-long professional life, but I haven’t in the past 3 years. This is when Perplexity was launched (Disclaimer: I'm a "Perplexity Fellow", but have been their fan much before being chosen for the program). Like most PR agencies, we used to offer SEO services, but we have intentionally stopped onboarding new clients for it from 2025. In fact, just last week a client chose to partner elsewhere, because I essentially said: In 2025, SEO -...
"Behind-The-Scenes" chat on Content Creation
The Strategy Behind Content Creation Hello Reader, I had promised to share behind-the-scenes discussions in my last newsletter to stick to the promise of building "Brain Box Gurukul" in public. If you've been following me on LinkedIn, you know that I have been shouting from the rooftops for about a year now on a "Video-first strategy". Close to 90% of our Personal Branding clients have taken the leap with us. So just last week, a potential client (let's call him Mike) who had seen one of my...
The 10x Employee in the AI Era
Hi Reader, Definition of a 10xer: Someone who brings 10 times the value to their company as compared to their peers. Essentially, these are the people every company wants, but rarely finds. Back in my corporate days, with years of crypto trading under my belt (since 2012), I’d like to think I was one of them - consistently hitting targets, building scale, and delivering outcomes others said were “unrealistic.” But fast forward to 2025… and here’s the crazy part: Everyone on my team is now a...
The Dawn of the "Humanoid" Era
Hi Reader, It was 1991 and I remember an uncle of mine buying one of the first few Sony Bravia 32" in the country! As we kids gathered around happily, the first move we watched was "Terminator 2" and we were blown away. For decades, humanoids have captivated our imaginations on the silver screen and in the pages of novels. Today, they are stepping out of the fictional world and onto factory floors, into warehouses, and soon, potentially into our homes and businesses. While this revolution is...
What's Your ONE Thing?
Hi Reader, In a world where everyone’s building something, talking about everything, and trying to be everywhere — the ones who stand out are remembered for just one thing. Not five, not three. One. So I’ll ask you what I’ve asked myself multiple times over the years: What’s your One Thing? The Mental Bias We All Have: Cognitive Hooking Humans are wired to slot people into “buckets.” It’s how we reduce complexity. When someone sees your profile or listens to your podcast, they’re not thinking...
"The Rule of 7"
Hi Reader, In the crowded, fast-paced world of modern marketing, one principle has stood the test of time: "The Rule of 7". This concept suggests that a potential client needs at least seven meaningful interactions or “touch points” with a brand before they are ready to make a purchase or take a significant action. The number seven is not arbitrary. George Miller’s 1956 paper “The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two,” argued that the average human working memory can hold 7 ± 2 items at a...
Leadership Lessons from Dulles Krishnan
Hi Reader, After 2 decades of corporates, startups & founding businesses, the most common misconception about leadership is that it’s the title (or designation) that grants you command. But if you’ve ever worked with real leaders, you know that true authority is rarely assigned. It is inferred. It is felt. And it is almost always earned through conduct. This was the singular insight that resonated deeply with me when I interviewed Dulles Krishnan on Brain Box - The Leadership Podcast, voted...
We've built 7 startups, 40+ personal & 100+ corporate brands, a pan-India Top-10 Podcast in '22, a Global Top 10 Agency in '24 & 'publicly' built social media channels with a 250,000+ strong community. And we're sharing it all. No fluff.