Anand Krishna

Check out my latest article: Day 120 of the Singularity: Notes from the Stripe Sessions Closing Fireside Chat linkedin.com/pulse/day-120-…

Check out my latest article: Sam Altman at Stripe Sessions: notes from a conversation with Patrick Collison linkedin.com/pulse/sam-altm… via @LinkedIn

This. If you're thinking of starting up or have started up, just read this. The doubters aren't always wrong, but if everyone listened to them, then no new companies would start or break out. At pre-seed especially, find people who will think of reasons why it might work, instead of people who just tell you reasons why it won't. Amazing inspiration from @willahmed of @WHOOP (one of my favourite products of all time).

Attending @AIBoomi's Annual Conference in Chennai last week was such a blast! Love flying in with my @inklehq team for this annual gathering of the world’s largest community of AI and SaaS founders. Huge thanks to all the AIBoomi team and volunteers. This is the most "pay it forward" org I have seen in my career. Hard to mention all, but the mastermind is @avinashraghava. Thanks Avinash and team for an incredible event! 🥳 Aneesh Reddy, Shruti Kapoor, @mtripathi, @sureshsambandam, Keerthi Madhu, Neha Arya, @SeharDabur and so many more! My favourite bits: - billionaire founder of @Persistentsys founder @anandesh's masterclass on what 4 tech waves taught him about building a lasting organisation. - still wondering how @gohighlevel got to 🚀 $500mm and 1mm companies in 8 years, whilst being relatively under the radar... amazing talk from co-founder @varun_vairavan. - an incredible session on rebuilding your SaaS company as an AI company by Naga Subramanya B B, who changes his role like a chameleon from CFO to Head of AI Transformation at @sprintoHQ. - @Google India MD @shalureddy's playbook for AI-first growth engine scaling. - super panel featuring Denada Ramnishta (@efficient_labs), @KaranMohla (@BCapitalGroup) and @avpuri (@BessemerVP) on fundraising trends for AI startups. - @databricks (Dilip Krishna), @LightspeedIndia (@) and @stripe (Lauren Teo, @ChunmunGupta6) hosted an amazing panel featuring Databricks India Head Kamalkanth Tummala, @FreshworksInc VP @sreedhargade and Stripe Head of Platforms Kunal Parekh covering AI margin compression, consumption pricing, and crossboder GTM. - @OpenAI's Harshit M. and Arjun Gupta presenting on building complex systems with Codex. - the live demos from 5 top AI startups, my favourite was @NivVenkatesh from @pageloopai (The AI Agent for Help Center Ops)! - and of course Sangeeta Bavi easily out-planking everyone during the Awards ceremony! So many learnings, peers, partners, customers, friends and more! See you next year!

Last week I was in Chennai for @AIBoomi's spectacular Annual Conference 2026 with my team (Ananya Srivastava and Rohan Madappa Venkatesh). We attended a highly informative panel hosted by @databricks (Dilip Krishna), @LightspeedIndia (@AbhiramTarimala) and @stripe (Lauren Teo, @ChunmunGupta6). The panel featured Databricks India Head Kamalkanth Tummala, @FreshworksInc VP @sreedhargade and Stripe Head of Enterprise Platforms Kunal Parekh and covered AI margin compression, consumption-based pricing, and crossboder GTM for SaaS/AI companies. I found it super insightful - here are some of the most useful takeaways that I noted down - hope this is useful to startup founders and operators facing these topics. 🔹 Moats are evolving (and shrinking fast) AI models alone are not defensible anymore. What used to be a moat is now table stakes. Real defensibility is shifting towards: • Proprietary data • Deep workflow integration • Speed of execution • Continuous innovation If you build something great, expect competitors to catch up quickly. 🔹 Value is the only thing customers pay for Customers don’t care about your stack, models, or infra — only outcomes. If you don’t deliver sustained value, you’ll become just another cost line item. 🔹 Workflows > features The opportunity isn’t building features — it’s owning workflows. Winners will: • Auto-discover workflows • Automate them end-to-end • Continuously improve them This is where domain expertise becomes a moat. 🔹 Start broad, then go deep Frontier models get you 60–70% there using public data. Real differentiation comes from: • Proprietary data • Domain context • Edge-case handling 🔹 AI business models are changing We’re moving from SaaS pricing → hybrid models: • Subscription + usage • Credits, top-ups, real-time billing Billing is now a product decision, not just finance. 🔹 Cost vs scale vs use-case tradeoffs Model choice depends on: • Value of the use case • Cost sensitivity • Scale Most companies are already running hybrid stacks. 🔹 Don’t do free POCs Even early-stage founders should avoid free work. If not money, get: • Testimonials • Case studies • Referrals Free POCs rarely convert. 🔹 GTM fundamentals still win • Founder-led sales matters • Qualify deals early • Be creative in closing Great products don’t sell themselves. 🔹 Enterprise AI = massive opportunity Enterprises are adopting AI, but: • Core problems remain unsolved • Domain use cases are underserved This gap is where startups win. 🔹 Unit economics matter more than ever AI has real variable costs (every API call counts). You can’t hide bad economics behind growth. 🔹 Speed is the ultimate advantage 👉 It’s not about the best model — it’s about who learns and ships fastest. The shift is clear: from “build once, scale forever” → “adapt continuously or fall behind.”

@sandeepssrin @Ashishtadose @inklehq Huge thank you @sandeepssrin for your kind words. @Ashishtadose we'd love to help! Will DM.

@Ashishtadose @inklehq Inkle is awesome. You should use inkle if you can.

Dear Indian founders incorporating in the US, Half a dozen people have now pinged to ask me about this. So I'm posting here to reduce the number of phone calls. here's collective wisdom of a few hundred YC India startups ok the correct company structure. h/t to Anand of @inklehq who is the guru for all of them. You should talk to @getak100 for everything. 1. You CANNOT use Stripe Atlas, Deel or whatever else to incorporate. That's an instant FEMA violation that cannot be recovered from later. For an Indian citizen to buy shares in a US co, u have to do an ODI that needs RBI approval (even for 20$) and a UIN number. If u have done this through Stripe/Clerky/whatever, ur fucked. Close the company and start again. There's no easily known way to recover. 2. Each founder in India has to create a LLP. Individuals cannot buy shares in the US - without an even longer process. This is why, this is known as "LLP route". The gifting route is no longer legal. Trust me - this is like ED territory. 3. Use ICICI for this 20$ ODI. They will charge 15k INR for it. However all the other banks know jackshit about startup founders ODI. 4. Once the ODI happens, the founders have effectively bought shares and now you can sign those YC SAFE and receive money. This is a 2 month long process. You cannot receive money before this. Dear VCs (global and Indian) - this is how long it takes. Please be kind. 5. The only two law firms (that I know of) that work for startup founders in doing this is @CommendaHQ and Inventus. 6. If u want to take money from Indian investors, open a new bank account in US. And take money here from ur Indian investors. This money is kept separate and NEVER used for any Indian operations (roundtripping). As long as u don't mix Indian investor funds and us investor funds, all compliance is fine. There is some options route to take money in india and issue options in the US. 7. Once all of this is done, establish a Indian subsidiary pvt ltd and buy out its shares by the US parent. This Indian subsidiary is where the founders and the Indian employees will receive salaries. U cannot receive salary from the US in india as a founder. This is a tax problem. Just don't do it. But it's a minor problem.

@kevinwdavid @forwarddeploy I’m in!

@forwarddeploy Love this! Got to do something similar for 🇮🇳 Indians in SF 🇺🇸. @getak100 should we? :)

🇨🇦 Canadians in SF 🇺🇸 Last week, I was lucky to be surrounded by 150 of some of the best Canadians in San Francisco Good people should meet good people, so I kept the "Canadians in Eh I" series going From early engineers at OpenAI and Perplexity to first-time founders and public company CEOs The room was buzzing with energy. Moving to the states isn’t easy. No visa guarantees. No obvious playbook. Canadians take a real leap to be here. But once you’re building, it’s hard to imagine being anywhere else. Canadians are the hidden cheat code for building, hiring, and investing. Amazing to see how many journeys started in Canada and are now thriving here in the states 🇺🇸. Big thanks to @lighthousehq_ and @jcarrharris for sponsoring! 🍁 If you’re a Canadian working on eh I in SF or NYC and want in on the next one, reply with an “eh” in the comments. 🍁

@ycombinator @emergentlabs @mukundjha @madhavjha Awesome launch @mukundjha @madhavjha !

Emergent (@emergentlabs) is the agentic vibe-coding platform — your AI-powered CTO that transforms ideas into full-stack, production-ready products. No developers needed. Just pure system-level thinking. Congrats on the launch @mukundjha & @madhavjha! ycombinator.com/launches/NZl-e…

@JosephSYeh @awilkinson @awilkinson, @InkleHQ founder here. Inkle Books (our new bookkeeping software) launched a few months ago, and is already used by hundreds of US companies. Inkle Tax has hundreds more. Both integrate seamlessly, as part of our stack of best in class tools. [Many thx @JosephSYeh!]

@awilkinson @getak100 has a fintech startup that helps with accountants and the US tax industry

Accounting and finance folks: 1. Who is the best Twitter follow re: automating bookkeeping/finance/accounting/legal with AI? 2. What are the top 5 best tools/software right now?

@Vatsal_Sanghvi I’m CEO of @InkleHQ, we handle US tax and bookkeeping for hundreds of India-based startups via our SaaS platform. Keen to help. Will DM.

@johnrushx I've built exactly this at @InkleHQ after experiencing the same frustrations, and now hundreds of US startups use it to solve all of the above (and more) on a chat-based SaaS interface supported by licensed US CPAs/attorneys, at affordable rates. Would love to show you. Will DM.

I'm tired 😡 being overcharged by lawyers & accountants. Indie and bootstrapped teams need - Delaware C-corp - taxes, VATs - accounting - legal & paperwork - chat-only interface. No f**king emails/calls. 1. I'll build it if you need it? 2. I need CPA/lawyer as a cofounder

@itsharshag @InkleHQ Very glad we could help you Harsh!

Huge shoutout to @InkleHQ for helping me to get onboarded to the platform within minutes and file Delaware Franchise Tax super quickly just a few days before the deadline. I compared multiple vendors and Inkle by far was the most friendly and most affordable platform for filing taxes and completing compliances for a Delaware C Corp. If you are looking to finish compliances for your company, do check out Inkle once. Huge thanks to @ganeshmallya and his team for reaching out and taking care of it completely 🙏

@jspujji , hundreds of my @InkleHQ loss-making US customers are now facing a six-figure tax bill. I made a free calculator here to see the Before & After impact: inkle.io/tools/section1… . And I'm building more tools to reduce the tax bill by carefully bifurcating what needs to be counted as R&D and what can be stripped out. I've been drumming as much noise as I can with founders, this rule is nuts, let's shout it from the rooftops to get this repealed.

My tax bill just went up 200% WTF! Why are we not hearing more outrage about IRS Section 174? Companies are required to capitalize ALL R&D expenses and NOT count them as a taxable expense?? It creates a huge phantom income liability! Eg: I have a $10M rev business with $4M in R&D expenses and $2M in net income. My tax rate is 30%. I should pay $600k in taxes. Post Sec 174: My taxable income is now $6 MILLION!! At a 30% tax rate, I now pay $1.8 MILLION in taxes. $1.2 million MORE. How is this possible?!

Super proud of what the @InkleHQ team achieved in the last twelve months despite a difficult market: the number of paying companies was up 272% 🚀 , revenue was up 316% 🌟 , the number of SaaS subscriptions was up 963% 🔥, and the number of filings was up 303% 🎇. But the bit I love most is that we brought down the unit cost of bookkeeping by more than a third 💰 and the annual average filing package cost down by a quarter 💸 on a like-for-like basis. Something is clearly working: we also maintained an NPS score of above 70% and reached a 4.9* Capterra rating. And through a singular focus on top-notch customer success, word-of-mouth referrals bloomed. The vast majority of our growth came through customer referrals - we had no sales team. The more customers 😇 succeeded in our product, the more efficient and successful we became. With the compounding of small product improvements being shipped every 12-24 hours, I’m excited about what we’ll do for customers in 2024. And to support customer needs; we doubled our strength; established new Bengaluru and San Francisco offices 🏤 ; implemented multiple customer-focused non-product initiatives; held dozens of events; launched a new generation bookkeeping software, global transfers tool, accountant workspace product and much more. Often founders like me and @ranvirsingh1114 take too much of the limelight. 2023 was my first year of learning to just step back and let others granularly define the vision and execute it. Feeling pumped to be working with the stellar team who built all this quietly in the background (we’re hiring). I was travelling during Xmas, here is them enjoying a well-earned festive party. 🎉 Keen to help US companies with scaleable, on-demand accounting, tax and compliance automation - DM me. Big thanks to our customers, our VCs & angels, our partners and our well-wishers. Wishing a super year ahead to all 🛫 ! @picuscap @SaisonCapital

@onlymadhoo Me! Will WhatsApp you.

In SF next week. Who should I meet?

Cross-border money transfers! This is big! 🚀 As the accounting, tax and compliance platform for hundreds of US cross-border companies, we at Inkle noticed hundreds of millions of dollars of group intercompany transfers. We asked founders, finance lead…lnkd.in/gjHpwcZU

When your company gets a term sheet from a cross border / foreign venture capital firm - you & your team get super excited... Until - reality hits: Many VCs require Indian startups to re-domicile outside India (e.g. Singapore, Delaware etc) as a prerequisite to wiring funds:

We just launched Inkle's Free IRS Form 7004 filing on Product Hunt - do comment on that page! With US federal tax season upon us, we understand how stressful it is for early-stage startup founders with all the deadlines and filings. That's why we've cr…lnkd.in/dvMUUygq

@Rahul_J_Mathur!!! I’m speechless. Wow. Not sure what prompted this Rahul, but super like, super thanks and super high five! Thank you so much for the spontaneous high praise for me - but it’s really a testament to the ambition and hard work of my colleag…lnkd.in/gSwhfFvN