Hi everyone.
Today's guest is Harsh Vardhan Maurya, a Zomato operator and NIT Raipur graduate who has spent his last several years building at scale in startups and consumer tech and who,
while not yet financially independent, has built serious wealth in a short period through career leverage, concentrated investing, and relentless execution.
So Harsh, a lot of people look at wealth as something that comes from just saving harder, but your story feels more like wealth came from
becoming highly effective first.
So what changed in you before the money changed?
Yeah, I think so maybe I'll just share a short
very short story that I personally think.
So before jumping into Zomato, I was working with Urban Company, is a big, like now a bit more unicorn startup in India.
So when I used to work for 15, 16 hours a day, every day, I used to think, like, even despite earning like working 15, 16 hours a day, I'm just making excited amount of money
and all.
And at the same time, I used to see people in my same company who were like actually making money, but at the same time, they also had a lot of Esau.
So what was happening as the company was growing their wealth was also growing at the same time and due to that even if they were working 14-16 hours it did not make a lot of sense
like it did not actually pinch them a lot but it used to pinch me a lot because I was like I'm spending x-factor amount of hours but my pay scale is going to remain the same so
that's when I realized that the only way I can actually make wealth and get out of this rut is where I create my own wealth where I ensure that
if I'm making 100 rupees that 100 rupees should make another 10 rupees and that 110 should make some exquisite money and it should keep that cycle should keep happening around.
I think that is what I realized.
think after when I turned 25, 26 that's when I realized that yeah I need to be very serious about my wealth and wealth should be I mean to be honest I changed the parameter
of my whole life thinking that I cannot be dependent on pay scale paycheck.
I need to be dependent on my own
money, making me more money so that I can think stable throughout my life.
I think that was my whole thought process of why I should start thinking, investing very seriously.
And that time I felt what is the easiest way or the most less friction way for me to earn additional money that was like stock market only.
Like I was like, okay, like
I cannot do a part-time job with my full-time job.
So I was like, what is the best other way can do it?
This is what I felt was easier for me to start and I actually started with that journey altogether.
Nice.
So let's start from the beginning, right?
What was your relationship with money while growing up?
Yeah, so I think I mean, I come from an Indian middle class family and all.
So I mean, the equation was very like not, I would not say it was very negative.
It was also not very positive.
It was very decent.
It was more of that if I wanted something I had to earn it before only to get that money.
Take care.
I always used to hear this equation from my mom or dad that, you know, if you're earning money, you need to save a lot of money.
And, know, money is the most cruel thing in this world.
Money does not grow on the tree and so on.
So all this dialogue, so I've been hearing in the cell.
think my money, equation with money was decent.
I would not say it was very negative or very positive, but I knew that this is needed in life to live a happy life.
This was still my class, maybe 10th, 11th, 12th.
This was still
college days and education days but later on when I realized that over the period of time when I realized I saw a lot of family problems a lot of problems across my family's
friends and all I realized money is one thing that solves 95-96 percent of your life problems if you have an exfiled amount of money that will solve your 96, 95-96 percent of
problems rest 4-5 percent is manageable
you can manage it as all about emotions, emotional management but if you don't have money I think it will like really kill your whole ah purpose of life or it will actually kill
you completely because you will always be under stress and all I think that is what was my relation previously and then that is what relation I changed post my corporate life and
all when I realized that it is unsustainable for someone to keep working 14-15 hours a day
and then you know live that life Monday to Friday I work Saturday to Sunday you know relax and then Monday to Friday it's happening I was like yeah this does not work and that's
where my equation with money change right now I think I'm in a very positive uh with thinking about money that yeah like you need to have money you need to respect money I
think respecting money is very important because unless you don't feel like it you will need to respect it it won't you won't unless you respect it you won't even get it back
I think that is the relation that has changed.
I've never disrespected but I just think over the period of time the respect for money has increased a lot because it has helped me come out of a lot of situations and it has also
helped me create a lot of great situations for others when they were really in bad spots of their own like.
Can you explain that a little bit like in.
uh while I was investing in all this, I like created a good amount of corpus and also one of my cousin was uh like suddenly went through a very bad financial debt and all.
So that is when I had, so that is when I went to the village.
when our grandmom passed away that point of time.
So I went to the village to support, to support, see what's happening and all.
That's when one of my cousin who was staying there and managing the household and all.
So that's where.
I told him dude like right now you really don't need a lot of you obviously need a lot of condolences at the same time you also need to be very practical and that's why that's when
I you know transferred him some good amount of money that you know you just take care of it you just you know manage all a lot of things or whatever it is right now so that time I
did not expect anything in return it was just a money that I was you know gave away without even thinking a second about it like that would be like someone's monthly salary
all to be really frank.
So I think that's the kind of freedom I could get that the kind of opportunity to help people.
At the same time, when I started my career, one of my friend left his job completely.
And that time I had, I think one and a half, two lakh saving.
This is in 2018 and all.
So I gave away my whole two lakh rupees investment, two lakh rupees cash to him so that he can start his trading investment and all.
So all these things I could
I was able to do because I really had money to actually support those people and all and then uh right now we I talk to everyone most of them I think we are in great relation they
also respect the fact that I could help them when they really really needed it obviously I could have just invested that money that would have gone to some excited amount of money
but I think that point of time when I when they really needed money and I had that money to you know help them I think that's very ah important for me to be frank
I think in that way, but like that relation when I was saying about relation that kind of helped me a lot.
Okay, like this also a lot of problem people just don't understand it.
People just think it's very evil or like this guy makes a lot of money.
But I think he makes money maybe for himself or just helping others and all like
Yeah, I think that's true, right?
Like if you have money only then you will be able to help somebody, right?
um And then like I think at least within family, friends, I think you should have that mentality that, you know, if somebody is in need and if I have the money, then you know,
why not just go ahead and help them.
Yeah, I think that's false.
mean, and most of the most of the time, think majority of the problems and problems that people usually face is always related to money only like, I don't think it was like, I
need emotional support.
I need like some couple of beers and all even to have beers you need to have money.
So yeah.
So did you always want to build wealth or did that ambition came later?
No, so I like I always wanted to like
open a business of my own or start something of my own.
But eventually I was like, okay, let me take step by step and all.
So when I turned 25, 26, when I started taking my finances very, very seriously, I was like, need to, if for example, something happens, okay, let's take a simple example,
right?
With the pace at which AI is moving, with the pace at which Claude is releasing their own tools every other day, I won't be surprised if all the jobs, all the good business jobs,
after development jobs uh would.
be cut down by 70-80 % is the coming next one and a half two years.
Now in that scenario, it is not like that, oh, something bad has happened to me or something like that.
Now in this scenario, I need, there are only two ways.
Either I get really, really, really, really just super good, super hard worker and I use AI and work my job day and night.
Or I become very smart.
Either I, the smarter way is care, okay, let me just invest in a lot of AI stocks.
Anyway, everyone's going to use AI.
So let me just invest in those stocks and eventually if anyone, everyone is going to use that stocks are only going to go up.
So I think that is where I started making relations care.
Okay, the objective was care to create wealth so that I don't have to be stressful about a lot of situations.
Like when you are in private sector and all, like when you are working as an employer and all, how much ever great or the craziest employer you are, you are just an Excel sheet.
to be, you are just an Excel ro you can be deleted any time of the day any point of the life irrespective of how much ever loyal you are to the company and that is not because
the company hates you it is like if the situation turns bad and they are like I want to cut my wage bill and you are in the highest wage bill I am so sorry I will have to let you
go so it's not like that someone wants to do it but you never know how situations turn up it's better that you plan pre-plan things of the good and worst case the
I think the challenge majority of the people is they just consider everything as a best case and they never consider what worst case might happen like if my job is going great
everyone thinks that I'll keep getting promotions I'll always be in the great skill but but there's also probability that they might think that we actually don't need you and you
are a very expensive resource right so I was
seen that happening with so many companies now, right?
Like, uh at least in the US, it's like almost like lot of companies in the last two years have laid off so many people.
It could be due to AI, could be due to a lot of hiring they did during COVID and things like that.
But I think still, like so many people lost their jobs and now so many of them are in the market.
And it's a really bad situation here at least.
I think just a stack.
just was listening to some podcasts two days back.
So the top five Indian companies, the top five IT companies have hired a net of 17 people in the last one and a half year net of 17 people, including people they fired, they hired
and everything and all this just 17.
Okay, that's
I mean, it is nothing right, like 17, you can't even get from a college.
Like they used to hire 17 people from each classroom, maybe.
Yeah, yeah, So that's I think that is where I thought care I need.
So this is what I was talking about building wealth, not to obviously like a lot of people think that building wealth is I'll go and buy a G wagon and all.
And you have a lot of wealth, can definitely buy it.
But I think the larger objective is when you have wealth, you can be very peaceful about oh turbulence times and all.
Like, for example, sometimes I really get stressed about not stress, I really think about, okay, like the pace at which AI is moving.
it would take a majority of part of my job.
My job would just to be an AI generalist, manage things and ah do and all.
But at the same time also know that if AI goes 100 % scale and uh like touchwood if I lose my job, I don't have to worry so much because I've already built wealth.
Even if I don't do anything, I can have a more than basic amount of income that is coming to me through which I can like live my life without thinking so much about it.
And I have a lot of space to explore things.
Okay, like for the next seven, eight months, I can explore uh different fields and not worry about basic needs at all.
I think that is what the definition of wealth is.
according to me and I think everyone should see it in that way that how much freedom and peace it buys for you and not the amount of material
perspective change recently or was it always like this?
I think initially when I started building my corpus, the idea was to build more and more corpus and all.
But once I reached one crore in Indian rupees and all, which is close to I think 85, 86,000 dollars and all, is when I realized that, I think when I have and this I'm just
talking about US market corpus and all.
I I was like, when I had this, was just thinking if like if something happens.
I still have this much amount of cash even if I put into like fixed deposit or I just leave it with even a CAGR of 12-13 % that I can take.
I'll still have a good amount of money coming into my bank every year without even thinking so much.
I think that perspective changed when I started seeing that amount of money flowing into it.
That when I had that like a CR corpus in my US market, that's when I realized, okay, like I think this is a good...
place and it gave me a lot of peace about even if there's some turbulence I think a lot of things I can manage with this kind of amount of money and do it apart from this I also
have Indian stocks, mutual funds and uh gold and everything else on but I think this is where I spend a lot of my savings into it so that's why I'm actually speaking more on
that.
Thanks.
Nice.
So let's get go back to your career and your engineering days.
So I know you studied engineering at NID, right?
So when you were in college, were you already thinking like an operator and a builder?
Because I know your role in Zomato has been just doing that, right?
So or were you still figuring out stuff of where I should go in college?
I was in college, I mean, I just went to college with a very open mind thing and all just because I got a rank and a free government seat.
my dad was like, go have some fun and all.
just went there.
I tried to explore things.
uh initially wanted to get into government exams and all because why not?
That's all.
That's what everyone thinks and all.
So, but over the period of time, uh I explored different things.
I started reaching out to lot of startups and all.
started speaking to them.
That's when I realized uh what startup culture is, what finances are, how people are making money and all.
So what made me change a lot of thinking during my college days is I used to meet a lot of entrepreneurs who were not from a great pedigree, but they were making a lot of money.
And then I used to compare it.
Okay, like, I studied from an IT, a lot of people studied from IT, even despite passing out of them.
college they just make maybe 12, 13, 14 lakh rupees a year.
This guy is not even from any college and all but he's making so much of money just using his smart street intelligence and all.
Right, so I think that is where I started interacting with more with them than I understood.
Okay, like this is not how real world works.
Real world works with where people are actually solving problems and all.
I think that is where my passion towards entrepreneurship and business started increasing a lot.
And
Yeah, I think that is where I think my interest also lied.
I started exploring more things in those directions and all.
So I think I was not really thinking about finances.
think uh for the initial three, four years of my career, I was very clear that I really want to build a lot of skills.
really want to build my uh core fundamentals and skill set and work ethics.
Once I build it very strong, then I'm going to go and ask, have I amount of money from people?
So I think that is what I did.
There's a quote from Dale Carnegie.
I exactly don't remember, but it says like, you know, once actually
don't remember exactly but it says that you your skills should be so great that people are ready to pay you so much of money that you don't even ask for it.
So I think that was what I believed like till 24-25 I was very skill driven I used to work 13, 14, 15 hours because I was happy to understand how businesses work, how things work,
how xyred works.
Post that then I was like okay now I have built the skill and I really did not wanted to be a guy who has good degrees, good batches but
he or she he was like, you know, blank from inside like a lot of times you have wealth but that wealth is of no use.
So for me it was similar like I had good degree I had good companies on my resume but they were not paying me enough then I was like I'll have to solve this out by myself and that's
when I took all my finances in my hand and the larger reason why I took finances in my hand is because I'd asked my company for a lot of piece of they just gave me a very small
Like they just gave me 5-6 stocks of ESOPs and then I was like okay this is not making me financial sense I'll buy things on my own I took it on my own And that's when things
started very ah different Now I'm like I really don't care if someone gives me ESOPs and all because I have Nvidia KESOPs uh
Yeah, I think that taking control of your finances is something, you know, the the earlier you start, the better it is.
Right.
Because otherwise you you won't even know where that money is going.
And then it's like at the end, maybe after five, 10 years, you'd be like, OK, I didn't know what I was doing all these years.
true, true, true.
I mean, I'll be very frank just to give some stats.
I know some of my people, people who have studied from great, like IM, ABC, colleges and all.
And if I compare our similar ages, right, they're right now sitting at minus 30, minus 40 lakh debt.
Like their overall net worth is like, I'm not trying to compare what I'm saying, but...
because they came and discussed with me, like how did you do this?
How did you go with this journey?
We also want to learn because right now our current net worth is minus 20 minus 30.
I think what you mentioned, I think the biggest change that I could write down thing is like two years back, I changed my thought process from salary to net worth that I need to
focus more on generating my own net worth and wealth versus thinking of how can I increase my salary all the time?
So I think that
thought process change itself made me started to think everything in a very direct different direction altogether like i mean i cannot just create wealth by you know working
100 hours a week obviously i can do it but i i need to be very clear with the kind of idea that i'm working the amount of uh time i'm going to spend on those things and so on and so
on like i mean that time i felt okay the ai stocks were like booming and all and the only thing i did is i used to read a lot on
those reports understanding what's happening talk to my tech friends Okay, what is the trend happening?
Is this a good trend to have and then just leap of faith and just putting money into it So I think that direction will change care.
I want to generate wealth versus I want to you know, just make more money by salary I think that thought person obviously I'm really grateful that I have a pay paycheck and all
that paycheck is helping me to generate wealth because I just I think
I invest close to 81-82 % of my salary completely like the rest 19 % is how I manage my life.
I mean, because I'm not married yet.
I'll once I get married, I think that will come down to 30-40%.
But yeah, still, I think that is also lot of percentage of investment like out of 100 rupees if someone is investing 50-60, I think that's also a great number.
think according to all the financial people on the YouTube that I've heard, they say at least invest
2030 but I think that's still double of it.
Yeah, yeah, I don't know completely.
mean, 80 % is I've it's unheard of.
Right.
I've never seen or I've, you know, I listen to so many podcasts and things like that.
But like, I've not seen anyone having 80 % savings rate.
I think that's that's really amazing.
Yeah, I think that's again, I'm saying right that it also become is because it also depends on the base amount that you get like the base amount is higher than 10 % of that
base amount is also a lot.
But I was very clear that some period of years I'm okay compromising on all the lavish expenses and all.
So I'm very clear.
Okay, like what are the expenses I want to do?
What are the expenses I don't want to do?
And I largely used to invest on those things.
I mean, like this, use, usually do this fund that if I get my money, the first thing I do is invest, invest first.
And then only whatever money is left after that is what I think.
Okay.
Like I'll spend it.
think the only lavish expense I have done till date is only two lavish expense.
is buying a watch because I thought like you should have one good watch that costed me like 65, 66,000 and all.
And then one, two, this Air Jordan.
Just give us which watch do you have.
I have a Tissot like Tissot watch, T-Race.
Nice.
So that is, I bought it because I thought I should like, you know, on some like sell some profits and buy something so that I remember that, okay, this is something I bought by
myself from this.
No, I think that that is also really important, right?
Like the things that you like, um you should spend on those is what my philosophy is.
Right.
Obviously, it's not like I can tell you there are I like 10 things to go and buy 10 things.
But one of the things that you like, you should definitely go and buy.
Otherwise, what is the point of earning so much money when you're not able to do things that you like?
I think there's one really good line.
don't know.
I Charlie Munger Warren Buffett said I exactly don't know.
So I think someone asks him ask them key, you know, when is the right time to sell any stock.
And that person says that when you really need that money.
Right.
I'm lucky.
So right now I know for a fact that there's some situation that has come to me and then I have to like pay like I have to give 15 20 lakhs.
So right now I'm in a good financial stage.
Even if I just give that 50, it's not going to impact my portfolio a lot.
So I think that's where I think wealth actually helps like again the peace and trust kind of things.
Okay, so your story from 12 lakhs to one crore in three years is really inspiring like is there out there in the public also.
So when people hear that they must be thinking, okay, there one there must be one big trick that Hershey's doing right, but what's the real story behind?
Yeah, so I think so so when I actually started doing a lot of research and also initially when I started uh I just made a good plan out of it.
I just when I was making I gave up myself uh
like five years plan that okay in five years I'll reach a CR amount like 100k dollar amount and all so that once I reach it it compounds automatically to a million like by
maths equations and all.
So I realized okay like how much amount of money I should start investing and all so I started with that time I was very naive I was like okay uh I stay in India
I don't understand Indian stocks a lot because there are too many variations like too many options and so on all.
But then I used to think, so I think someone, think Peter Lynch only said like, like, you know, just try to understand stocks around you that you use every day and just see if they
make sense to it.
So I just sat and I was just thinking, okay, if I want to invest money, ah what are the products I used?
I saw I use Nike, use Apple, Starbucks, Netflix, Amazon, Google.
And then I was like, okay, like, and then I was like, okay, like, so these are the things that I use every day.
And then I was like, shit, man, these are not Indian companies.
And then I also started questioning why am I not using Indian companies.
And then I saw a lot of Indian things.
So largely Indian things that I use were mostly the daily use things like shampoos, soaps, etc.
Things that you need every day that I'm using, but things I, things like laptop, phone, and I were all foreign companies at all.
So was like, okay, cool.
Let's just do one thing.
I know for a fact that Amazon is a great company.
I use Google and that time I thought process was very like, very like kid.
I mean, that's the best part.
of this investment story starting.
I was like, okay, dude, I know Google I'm using my friend is using my 10 friends are using everyone's going to still use Google like for three, four days down the line.
Everyone's going to use Google Maps.
Everyone's using YouTube.
I was like, okay, think a great deal.
Let's buy it.
Then I was like, here, WhatsApp, Instagram, who uses Instagram, WhatsApp and all they are all uh
like, you know, bought by Meta.
And there was one like very good series that I actually read about how the US economy and how the US entrepreneurship mindset works and all.
So I was like, yeah, Meta bought Facebook, Meta bought uh Instagram, Meta bought WhatsApp.
So they are the only one person who own the overall, they understand human psychology very well than anyone else in this world currently, any company, like every company tried to
replicate, I think Google also tried to replicate Facebook.
and no one could compete.
So I was like, okay, in that thought process, was like, they are great in terms of human psychology.
So I bought Facebook and so on and on.
NVIDIA because I had this Windows laptop where NVIDIA sticker was there.
was like, everyone uses NVIDIA, everyone uses Microsoft, just buy it.
the great and now this is where luck also plays the part.
2022 was the biggest crash.
Like that time all stocks were super duper crash.
ah
across all stocks for I remember buying Meta at $99 Nvidia at like 20 25 $30 and all like all stocks like like yeah yeah so I mean right now it is like what at $178 and also before
it went 10x rally right so before 10x rally I'm talking about so that time 20 $35 and also I bought a lot of stocks I don't think so much I just had some 5-6 bucks I just bought a
lot of random stocks and all and
for 2-3 weeks nothing happened 2-3 months nothing happened and then suddenly some rate change happened and the all stock went up and I was like dude like what like sub by 500
dollars I was like okay that sounds like a great plan like I mean like earning 40,000 in Indian markets would have taken like 3, 4, 5, 6 months and years I was like okay this was
one day change and then uh gradually the boom started the AI boom like started the chat GPT
movement happened and the Microsoft Apple that's when all this thing started booming and all.
So then when I started researching okay why are the stocks going up?
is like you know Nvidia going up?
Why is Meta going up and all that's when I started reading a lot about it because now because my philosophy that I was uh I stay in India I know if there's some Indian stock
there's something happening in Indian stock very easy for me to take corrective actions and all right.
because things are happening in US.
I don't know anything what's happening in US.
So I used to read a lot of US news every day.
Okay, what's happening here?
I used to use that bar and app or economic times or financial times and all I used to do Wall Street Journal and I used to read all these things.
I was like, okay, what's happening?
Let me read the news and also that's when I got the concept of AI.
Okay, AI is going to do this, AI is going to do that.
And then for me, what strike really, really
biggest was there was this graph.
don't remember exactly which investment company bought it.
ah I mean, this graph that the AI is going to be the biggest ah increment of productivity per person versus any other any other industrial changes that have happened till date.
take it industrial change, you take it the internet boom, the dot com boom, everything.
This is going to be the biggest and and that
graph said a very nice thing.
It said that the biggest wealth creators for people have, have been for people who have invested early in the biggest possible changes that is happening.
And right now AI is a thing that will increase on average 50 % productivity of everyone.
I was like, okay, it sounds like a great plan.
and, and I read people that make a lot of money in the initial of the decades of someone who was, you know, part of the technology.
That's when I was like, okay, awesome.
This sounds like a great plan.
And
I just started investing.
just started reading a lot, a lot, a lot of uh about it just to get confidence on what where I'm putting my money.
Right.
Everyone would say that, it's so easy that you invested in just magnification seven and all, but you also need so much of confidence and you also need so much of ah faith in your
own nation that you're going to put your real money.
You need to have confidence that you're going to put your money.
Like you're not some spit that who's going to pay.
So for example, if I'm an Indian, want to invest in the US market.
I need to pay 20 % upfront the tax.
So how do you invest into US stocks from India?
Just give us.
IND money app, there is vested app.
So these are two apps that usually use.
So what happens is if I don't tell you 10 lakhs, 10 lakhs, there is no cost.
There is no tedious that happens.
Post 10 lakhs, there's a 20 % deduction directly.
So after 10 lakhs, you put like 2 lakhs or 2 lakhs 20, 20 % of 2 lakhs 40,000 would already be deducted.
And then the rest 1 lakh 60,000 is something you can
invest in the US market.
I used to invest a lot and I used to used to be paying me so much like I used to pay 20 % 20 % all the time.
20 % is a lot right and then after that you will have to again pay for taxes on the gains as well.
Yes, but it will like, mean, sum it up from there only.
that 20 % your tax already paid, will offset from there only.
So I, yeah.
So I think that's where I got the whole concept of investing.
then just I read a lot, honestly, I used to read reports of Tesla, Nvidia, try to understand what is this GPU.
Like, okay, let me understand.
And then I used to talk to a lot of my friends who are in Fang.
They used to give me clarity.
And then eventually I got
into that loop so much and and then I just started investing and I just used my own faith I was like what is going to happen worst case I'll lose like 20-30 lakhs that's fine ah
like I mean uh I'm grateful that I did that thing and pretty much worked well and still working well for me only
So what is your corpus right now?
So right now, if I include all the liquid, just the liquid, liquid thing, I think it would be around 1.35 something.
Okay and then what is the asset allocation looking like between India, US stocks and then you said you have some mutual funds and gold and as well.
close to 70.
65-67 something exactly because exactly if to be precise I think it's something
30 % 27 to 28 % is Indian rest is mix of gold and crypto currencies.
Cryptos are right now like this.
Earlier they used to contribute to 4-5 % of my portfolio but because they have fallen down a lot in terms of actually a lot.
So right now that's the allocation and largely my profits if I talk in terms of profits and all out of 100 rupees chunk
like 85 rupees would be coming from US market.
Nice.
So like this split between US and India, right?
Is that about like opportunity liquidity, quality of businesses, or it's just that you just know US talks better.
Like why so much into US?
what I did is uh I thought so I thought in a very different way.
just thought, I would want to invest in companies that I am very confident that will grow and I wanted to invest in the whole ecosystem.
For example, not ecosystem exactly, but maybe the whole supply chain.
For example, the way I used to think is, for example, if I'm typing some prompt that charge GPT.
So I try to use to study or predict, okay, what are the 100 companies involved in this equation?
Right?
For example, okay, like if I'm typing, is, you know, there is some vector scaling happening.
There's some, some, some computation that is going to read break, break it into different courts and then try to read it.
There are GPUs that are supporting to it.
There is some power energy to it.
If there's some power happening, who is supplying the power to them.
If someone is making the GPU, uh who are the backbones of those GPUs?
that GPU is being made by some backbone, where are they getting their material from?
And so from step one, I used to go complete backward, try to understand all the industries that are part of it.
And then just used to hand pick the top companies of all the supply chain.
And then I invested money on those then.
right for example like Nvidia being the company that was giving the GPUs and everything at all.
Now they are the most important one because without them the computation is not going to happen right.
Then TSMC Broadcom are part of the same thing.
Now Google, Microsoft are the one who are going to use build their own AI stack that people can use in their own industries and all.
So that is where I invested money in.
And then Palantir was a very like Palantir was a different like met altogether that I took because I think I was reading about it.
I realized, okay, this is that one company.
So this was a question that I asked to myself that, okay, for example, I say that, okay, you know, I have AI, I'll help you, you know, integrate in your company.
So when I was reading Palantir, what they kind of do is like with their system is they say that, okay, you are a industry, you are a
like maybe you're a coal mining industry.
Palantir says that, you know what, you're a coal mining industry.
I have systems that I'll help you make everything AI driven for you.
For that, you need to pay me money.
So that time I realized only I don't think any other company is doing this at this larger scale and only Palantir was doing that.
So that's when I thought, okay, buy the same makes a good deal to me.
Then that's when I bought Palantir.
And then I realized if there's so much of data happening, people are going to attack, misuse it.
That's where your crowd strike.
Palo Alto, Zscaler all kind of companies come and so on like Micron, ASML, ASML I bought it at $700 thinking that okay even if it grows by 10 % CAGR I am very happy like it has
doubled since I have invested like I had no one I would have thought a $700 stock went to like $1400- $1450 so I think that was my whole thought that okay I can understand the AI
industry completely and I wanted to invest the whole invested in the whole supply chain
So that is where I did it.
that's where my most, so to be really frank, think I invested some,
60, 50, 60 K dollars, thousand dollars into the US market and a point like three, four months back, it was up by 85, 86%.
Right now it is somewhere around 65, 66%.
But I am pretty sure this will go back to the normal numbers over the period of time.
So it is just, I invested whatever principal amount I invested.
I could see a larger amount of returns and predictable returns in the US markets because they are the one.
were leading the whole AI technology across the world.
if I had option to invest in the China companies, I would have done it.
But largely, I think because I could see that dominance of tech only in US that invested majority of it.
Now, eventually, now I'm changing my strategy.
I'm putting more into gold, like previous to like, like US markets, I just used to invest in gold.
like buying physical gold and all or I used to just give my money to my mom and she used to invest that in real estate.
So what do gold and crypto, what role do they play for you?
Yeah, so I just wanted to have better diversification.
So because I just felt that my equity overall is 80-85 % of the portfolio.
10 % would be mutual funds and all SIPs and all.
SIPs and mutual funds I more see of them like a like what should I say?
They're just like by the bank balance.
Whenever you want you can like figure out and remove it for yourself.
Gold and Bitcoin I personally
people would start having more adoption because they want more independence out of systems and all and gold because I am a South Indian and like DNA is used to buy gold so I think
yeah yeah yeah so my mom was very clear you should have gold you need to have physical gold because in times of recession all people uh want to have physical gold that still
have a lot of value
like your stocks might fall a lot but gold at this point of time keeps rising.
It's very hard to say that the demand of gold is ever going to go down.
Yeah, in the last two years, moms have been proved right so much, right?
yeah, Recently, the gold rally, the silver rally, I mean, earlier in Hyderabad, what used to happen like for every marriage or every small event, people used to give silver spoons,
silver cups and all.
My mom is like, I don't think silver we should give.
It's pretty expensive.
Nice.
Okay.
So I think you're...
also, like I have not just added into it.
think I also have some hundred, 200 grams also.
Nice.
So your investing style is very unique, right?
Like I've not seen like this anywhere.
So like what kind of investor should not copy your style you think?
Yeah, so honestly, I'll be very frank.
in this thing, I think what I did is I read, I read, I think one of the biggest thing that helped me is reading a lot of different investor styles and all.
And I think uh it's very difficult to copy someone's style.
Maybe for example, I have my own insecurities, I have my own financial levels, I have my own income and I have my own emotions.
Right.
my level of emotions, everything is going to be unique versus yours.
And my risk appetite, my way of thinking would be very different than yours.
So what I realized is, yeah, let me think very practically.
Like, do I want to make money like in next one month, two months, three months, or I'm okay with the slow game making, gaining a lot of money over the period of time.
Because I think a lot of time people don't realize that keep peace of mind is also a very big part of your equation.
I don't just don't want to put money and then realize shit man like during the time when like I think deep sea thing came and the market went crazy even during Claude when they
launched Claude Cove or Claude code and everything when Gaga I was like very happily enjoying I was like okay like it's nothing it's fine because I manage my portfolio I'll
spread it across in such a way that
the lowest drawback would be like 2-3 % of my overall thing.
So I think that is what I do.
I usually think of like a theme that I know that this theme is going to increase, this theme is going to grow a lot and usually invest my money there rather than stock picking
over this, this stock seems to be like, you know, it has good PE ratio, it has good growth opportunity and all.
I usually don't do that.
Obviously people do a lot of that.
I just try to take themes, which themes will grow.
and invest in those teams completely that okay, this teams is great.
If not today, tomorrow it is going to grow.
Let me just invest a lot of money there itself.
Like very simple right now.
Uh, like I have invested close to $10,000 in Tesla.
Okay.
And I know for a fact that Tesla is not doing it does a great and then kind of a, uh Yeah.
But I know for a fact, I am just waiting for that day when Elon Musk launches his humanoid robots.
there is only two things that will happen.
Either the stock will go crazily up or the stock will crash crazily down.
Right.
And I'm pretty sure with the kind of person he is, the stock has to go up.
And I was waiting for that day that, okay, the day it happens, I'll take the upfront stuff and I'll sell that stock.
Like I'll short it completely and then move on to other stocks and all.
So I think that is what I think.
Okay.
Let me invest in themes and the only, the only like part
the real hard work part of this is you need to keep reading a lot of things.
You need to keep hearing to a lot of interviews.
ah So what I do a very smart thing is because I use Claude a lot.
just like recently the AI Summit happened in India and Jensen was speaking about what is going to happen and all.
So he just told these are the six new, these are the six industries that are going to grow crazily in the next four or five years.
I just took Jensen's those videos, five, six videos of different things put on Claude.
I said,
just summarize me, tell me the themes.
It only analyzed and it suggested stocks and then a lot of stuff it only did for me.
Earlier this hardware used to take a lot of time, but now thanks to Anthropic.
So that has solved a lot of that.
has solved a lot of at least initial, you know, issues of gathering information, trying to figure out what that information means.
I know we still have to analyze that information on our own, but a lot of that gathering piece and, you know, summarizing things like that, I think has been, you know, really
helping with this AI stuff.
So I'll just tell you a very smart thing that I did.
ah So, ah I mean, can I share my screen?
Yeah, yeah.
Go ahead.
just I think.
Yeah, so I think I'll just show you.
That's a pretty, I don't know if that's a smart thing at all, but okay.
Okay, my screen visible?
So for example, what I did is I told Claude, so I took all those five, six themes that were mentioned by Jason on the interview.
I took those thought and put it into Claude.
I said, key analyze everything.
And I said, all the companies that are related to that theme, add them in one sheet and also.
whatever the ticker price and so and so on their PEG ratio, P ratio and all those basic things.
And I was like think this way that how would Warren Buffet, Benjamin Gahan, all the people I respect a lot, what would they say according to their theory?
Like you know, so I said Claude, you know everyone very well than me.
You know their theories, how they think and all.
And then it just did.
I was like, hey, think this way, there's five people in this room.
They're debating on where to invest the next $1 lakh.
and then it did a crazy analysis and all and then it gave me a final insight.
Okay, like I think this is where why this person is picking what this person is picking what and I just took the common out of them like which meets all the criteria and I out of
this I just put like because I have almost every one of it I just put uh I just took micron you know micron and where is this?
Cg energy yes micron and Cg energy I just put my
money into this talks with this analysis only that okay let's take this risk because I need to trust some somehow somewhere and that is what I did I took it.
why these two companies?
Ah, because according to all the investors, this seems to like be like a stock, great thing.
I think for
like Warren Buffet thinks this is the stock and then you take all of them and then you see what is the common stock between all of them.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So like then yeah, I think Yeah, so for example, yeah, this is the thing.
So for example
Yeah, this totally makes sense, right?
Like, why would anybody not want to do this?
So for example, very simple, right?
See, if you see Micron technology, according to everyone, Warren, Beth, I mean, everyone is saying, dude, like just invest here, like don't think so much.
And I also put all this, like, you know, the quant guys, uh the hedge funder traders, the value investors and everyone, like you debate and tell me, like, what should I do?
And then obviously like now I also know what is the credit price because I was very skeptical because Claude was saying that, you know what?
Put money.
at $435.
Right?
When I put it, I did that somewhere around $400.
And I think it is up by 20%.
I think Micron is up by 10-15 % that time since I invested.
And yeah, it also suggested me constellation energy, which is also pretty much up.
And there is also Pertib holdings.
This is up by 40 % since I bought this stock.
So I pretty much keep doing this things.
to have my like, you know, now this makes your life easier.
for example, crowd strike.
Now cross right holding, they are saying, yeah, just don't do it.
Don't invest.
And which is right.
Stock prices anyway falling, like you don't have to invest in all.
So I regularly, every one week, I made a cloud pot altogether that keeps suggesting me, okay, in this thing, what is the changes that you need to keep doing and all.
So this is some smart thing I.
keep doing because eventually you anyway have to do the research and try to do the same thing you did to why let me let that stock do it better.
Yeah, I like the name of the Excel also multi million strat.
I think you will reach there very soon.
That's it.
Same for you.
I'm pretty sure you're already there.
Okay, so I know you said that you're not financially free yet, right?
And I actually think that makes your perspective more useful.
Right?
So but like, how do you bridge the gap between I've built solid wealth, and I'm actually free now.
Mm-hmm.
I think right now I just still feel there's a lot of place to go because I think right now maybe because I'm a bachelor right now so I just think the amount of money that I have
built by wealth is enough for me but I think when it comes to my family and all so I think the way I've thought about my fire number or this like if today
my basic expenses are 50,000.
If I'm a married person, that expenses would be close to a lakh rupees.
And over the period of time that one lakh will go to two, two and a half, three lakhs in the couple of seven, eight, 10 years.
If I want two and a half lakh rupees a month, right?
So I need to earn close to 36, 37 lakhs for passive income.
Right?
So that is how I calculate my thing.
Right?
Okay.
Right now, for example, if I have one lakh, if I have one crore rupees,
with my 2 lakh of basic if I just assume 2 lakh rupees is what I'm earning so then that's 50 months like that is close to four four and a half years like I can just think of okay
like something happened my wife is also yeah like we just don't want to do anything just do this thing so I think that will sustain me for five years five or four and a half years
and all yeah four four and a few years when I even think of spending lavishly completely right
But now if I think that, like, like I also want to, you know, go for a travel trip.
I also want to do social service.
I also want to do blah, blah, blah, and all.
Then I think that number goes to four, four and a half, five lakhs, six rupees or like to be honest, I just said that I think would be 10 lakhs a month or something like that,
which is close to takes you to somewhere around 15, 20 crores on average.
Okay.
would say, so there's a lot of gap, there's a lot of space to be filled, there's a lot of things need to be done.
But obviously the amount that we have made currently also helps with basic needs.
But I don't think people are working hard just to live for basic needs, just to eat and sleep.
They want to earn money so that they can live a great life, do things that they really want.
So I think that is where I personally think and also I'm changing a whole lot of strategy of how I also think of investing.
So right now,
There is only way in which you can increase your investment.
Either your investments do really perform well or you pump a lot of money and then uh that gradually increases over the period of time.
So now I've started with the strategy 2.
Okay, let me figure out how I can increase my income overall so that my wealth, my wealth still keeps growing and my income also is growing so that I can keep increasing my income
that side.
overall.
So I think that is what I'm actually thinking that I mean, that's where I'm planning that I'm grateful for what I have right now.
But the planning also is how do I reach from here to there?
To be really frank, I mean, I was really lucky during the 2022 time when I got all the stocks very cheap.
Obviously that keep getting stuff and all, but that helped me with the push, initial push me of investing wealth and all.
Now the thing is how do I grow from here?
How do I multiply?
So the way I think for any decision in terms of wealth is where can I invest my money that would either give me decent CAGR or it has a probability that it might go 10x to LX in the
next couple of years.
And I try to make it a balance of both so that my goal is never to lose money that if I have invested 100 rupees, the max I'm okay with taking losses like maybe 30 rupees.
but that 70 should come back.
So I think that is where I think, I that's how I think and I'm planning for my whole future as well.
Right now, even when AI stocks are falling, I'm very confident with the amount of usage of AI that is increasing, the importance of AI is increasing.
I'm still uh like investing a lot on the top 15, 16 companies that are shortlisted and I'll keep adding.
put those money only or maybe next for one year and then figure out what happens to the next.
Nice.
So like, you have a fire number in mind or do you want to achieve fire first of all?
Like, or do you want to, I know that that's something like everyone wants to do, right?
But do you want to do it first?
And then if yes, then what does that number look like for you?
Yeah, so honestly, obviously I want to reach the fire number.
And I think for me, fire is more about the freedom than reaching the number and all.
So currently, I think with current scenario, with all the marriage and stuff and all, I think that should be somewhere around 20 CR in Indian rupees to reach that fire number
because I think at 20 CR, you can live a good
decent life without thinking much about it.
Good decent life with a lot of luxuries and all as well.
With current, then it's just like you're living again basically in Trandola.
I don't think that's something I'm at.
And now I I I the So I can it.
true.
Okay, so for someone in their 20s who's like in ambitious earning and trying to build well like what should they focus on first career growth investing lifestyle control.
What what do you think?
Yeah, I think the first thing, the first and foremost thing I would suggest anyone, whoever is going to start uh like financial thing is you need to be disciplined about your
finance.
I think the biggest, biggest, biggest thing is the discipline about that irrespective of wherever you earn money from like that has become a matter even if I earn 100 rupees like,
know, apart from like my job, there are also a couple of other things that I do where I earn money from.
everywhere I earn 100 rupees, am like very used to that okay 50-60 rupees has to go into investment.
That's like my first thought and then only I go into the expense part.
So I think the biggest thing for everyone who is going to watch this podcast is you need to be very, you need to have a financial discipline that whatever money you earn, some
percentage has to go into investing because if that mindset does not come irrespective of how much ever money you earn, you make
one CR, two CR, three CR and you are saying, when I make three CR, I'll invest one, two crores.
It's never going to happen.
Even if you invest, you don't know exactly where to invest and the probability that you might lose money is going to be very high.
So I think that financial discipline that, I'll start, you know, even if you're earning 20,000, you can still invest 2000 rupees.
And it's like someone would say that, oh, 2000 rupees does not matter.
But the point is like you will get into that discipline.
One day it will be 2000 for maybe six months, it will be 2000.
then you will gradually increase it to 5000 then gradually 10,000 and once you get into that loop it's very hard to break it like I mean there would be no way you will say you
will be you know sleeping on road but you won't spend money from your investment that say that okay I am you know I'm going to spend this and all I think that is very important
rest everything people can figure out but that discipline that for every income that I earn 20 30 40 rupees has to go into investment
That is the big thing because when initially when also I started investing, I used to start with 5000 rupees, SIPs and all.
And when I saw that over my 60,000 SIPs has gone to like 75,000, I used to get happy.
Then I just went and people start visualizing themselves like with their money.
Oh, you know, I invested in this stock.
I invested 100 rupees and it has become like 200 rupees.
Shit man, I should have invested like 20 lakhs and I would have made 40 lakhs.
And then that thought process starts cribbing in and the people start
getting into that loop and they start investing it completely.
So for me, I think that's the biggest thing.
does not matter how much amount is.
You should start doing financial discipline every month whenever possible.
And that is how the discipline builds and eventually you'll start figuring out stuff.
Okay, I need to increase my purpose.
I need to increase this.
need to do all secondary.
First have that discipline.
It could be started mutual fund.
I would not say to start with stocks because the probability
for you to buying the wrong stocks and selling it wrong time was good.
Or if you are a very lucky fellow in life, you'll find your first stock, you might make some money, but that will eventually drag you because you would think that this is because
of your skills that you're done, it's just the luck factor that way.
Obviously I also invested in a lot of places where I lost a lot of money.
I mean, Starbucks, CEO change the stock dropped crazily.
I bought Nike stocks, Nike stocks spend on by 50%.
Like I bought UI path, UI portal went like this only.
Broadcom also went 50 % off.
So obviously a lot of times things does not go planned but the discipline always helps towards the growth.
Like I mean I remember Tesla I bought it also when it was 200, 400, 450, 350.
All the prices I bought it because it was just discipline.
Like I mean even when the stock fell I bought it.
Even when the stock was high I bought it.
because that's my strategy I felt that is right it works for me so that's what people should definitely focus on start and keep start like you know have that habit and once you
have that habit you automatically will start love investing more and you'll figure out yourself okay I need more income to invest I need to put money in Bitcoin and all like so
and so and all and all
Nice.
All right.
I think this was such an interesting conversation, Harsh.
Thank you so much for doing this.
I think a lot of people have learned a lot of things from your style of investing, your career growth, and all the other things that you have said.
So yeah, just thank you so much for doing this.
My pleasure man, thank you so much.