Founding Fuel

02/04/2026

India is building faster than ever.

Highways, airports, logistics networks—everything is moving at scale.

And yet, something else is happening in parallel.

Across roads, bureaucracy, and even digital systems, we seem to recreate friction—layer by layer.

In his latest column, Ajay Chacko explores this paradox:
why systems built to move often end up designed to stop.

From speed breakers on newly laid roads to “digital friction” in governance, the essay traces a deeper instinct—where control often takes precedence over flow.

What would it take to design systems that enable movement instead?

Read:

Why India’s systems keep interrupting its own momentum

31/03/2026

It’s been a month since the conflict began. And there’s still no clear endgame.

What we’re seeing instead: disruption to energy flows, stress in global markets, and a conflict that refuses to stay contained.

Vivek Y Kelkar’s essay explains why. The idea of decisive force no longer holds.

Read the full essay:

One month in, the limits of conventional military power are being laid bare. As a “dual chokehold” on global energy flows emerges, the old security umbrella of the Gulf states is being dismantled. It is forcing a permanent re-pricing of both regional and global risk.

25/03/2026

The Gulf crisis is not just an external shock.

It is revealing something deeper about the Indian economy — something that may have been building for a while.

In this new Founding Fuel essay, Haresh Chawla looks at what this moment is exposing — across investment, households, and the limits of the current growth model — and why the next phase of reform is likely to be more complex than before.

Worth taking the time to read.

Why the Gulf crisis may be India’s moment for the next phase of reform

21/03/2026

A war in the Gulf shouldn’t matter to Indian investors.

But it does.

Because what begins as geopolitics rarely stays there. It travels—through oil prices, currencies, and capital flows—until it shows up, quietly but decisively, in portfolios.

In his latest essay for Founding Fuel, Anindya Dutta unpacks how that transmission works—and why the instinctive response to “diversify globally” may not always be the right one.

“This is not diversification; it is changing deck chairs on a ship sailing into the same storm.”

A thoughtful read if you’ve been wondering what all this means for your own portfolio.

From Hormuz to Dalal Street, a distant conflict is quietly reshaping risk for Indian investors—and exposing the limits of “India-only” portfolios

13/03/2026

As the conflict involving the United States, Israel and Iran intensifies, its effects are beginning to spill far beyond the battlefield.

In a new essay on Founding Fuel, Vivek Y Kelkar argues that the conflict may increasingly play out across the global economy—particularly through disruptions to energy flows, petrochemical supply chains and maritime logistics in the Gulf.

One striking detail: as uncertainty around the Strait of Hormuz grew, India appears to have moved swiftly to secure alternative supplies. Indian refiners locked in a large share of Russian cargoes already at sea while sharply increasing non-Hormuz sourcing—an illustration of how geopolitical shocks ripple through energy markets.

Kelkar’s essay examines the strategic logic behind these moves—and what they reveal about how the conflict may evolve.

Read the full analysis:

As the conflict with the United States and Israel intensifies, Iran’s new leadership is signalling a prolonged confrontation—one that combines conventional warfare with pressure on global energy flows and supply chains.

07/03/2026

Beyond the headlines: the human complexity of the Middle East

The Middle East we see in the news is often reduced to conflict, geopolitics and power struggles.

But beneath the headlines lies a far richer story shaped by history, faith, cinema, literature and everyday life.

This weekend at Founding Fuel, our contributors recommend books, films and cultural works that illuminate the region beyond the noise of geopolitics—from Reading Lo**ta in Tehran and Black Wave to Iranian cinema and Palestinian theatre.

If you’d like a deeper lens on the region, this reading and viewing list is a good place to begin.

Read the full story:

Books, films and cultural works that help us see the Middle East beyond the noise of geopolitics

28/02/2026

How much of your financial future is already tied to India?

For most people, the answer is: almost all of it.

Your income, career prospects, property, safety net, and even many future expenses are linked to one economy and one currency. Building an investment portfolio that is equally concentrated may feel natural — but it also creates a hidden risk.

In this weekend essay, Abhishek Raghunath makes a thoughtful case for global diversification — not as a bet against India, but as a way to protect yourself from uncertainty. He explains why being “bullish on India” is not an asset-allocation strategy, and outlines the practical routes available to Indian investors who want overseas exposure.

Read the full piece here:

Why global diversification is less about chasing returns and more about protecting your financial future from a single-country risk

22/02/2026

We often postpone happiness.

To the next vacation.
The next long weekend.
The next break from routine.

Somewhere along the way, joy has acquired a destination — a beach, a mountain, a distant city — as if it lives elsewhere and must be travelled to.

In this quiet, reflective essay, Haresh Chawla examines a familiar pattern of modern life: most of the year is spent moving through compressed days while happiness is deferred to planned interruptions of everyday routine.

What if the ordinary day already contains enough material for contentment — if only we allowed it to register?

Read: The Happiness We Keep Postponing

🔗

A reflection on joy, and why the ordinary day may be enough

14/02/2026

A new edition of the Founding Fuel Conversations podcast is now live.

In Embracing Life’s Second Arc, Vijay Bhat is in conversation with Chip Conley and Neeraj Sagar on a phase many accomplished professionals find themselves in — but rarely name.

Before recording the episode, we asked our community a simple question:

What does this phase of life feel like?

The responses were layered. Honest. Reflective.

Many spoke of standing in a “messy middle.”
Of having achieved what they set out to achieve — and still sensing a shift.
Of identity recalibration, without clear language for it.

Our colleague NS Ramnath has distilled these reflections into a short visual deck.

Swipe through the insights. They offer a powerful lens into the larger dialogue.

Watch the full conversation here:
https://foundingfuel.com/video/embracing-lifes-second-arc/



https://www.canva.com/design/DAHBMOHMjtQ/c8hkYogyTmoCmCoI6snYIA/edit?

13/02/2026

“It’s not just a shift in priorities. It’s a shift of identity.”

In this clip, Founding Fuel Conversations podcast — Embracing Life’s Second Arc turns deeply personal.

- Vijay Bhat reflects on his own post-cancer journey, realizing that healing required “deconstructing and reconstructing” identity.
- Chip Conley shares what it meant to go from being a “VIP, a very important person, to a PIP, a previously important person.” A right-sizing of ego. A willingness to let go.
- Neeraj Sagar speaks of standing in the “messy middle” at 50, done with one career, unsure of the next, and confronting a larger question: “If the world is solving for us to live longer, what will we do if we live longer?”

Three voices. One shared inquiry.

How do we navigate the ending, the in-between, and the beginning again?

This Saturday on FF Life.

Embracing Life’s Second Arc. With Vijay Bhat, Chip Conley, and Neeraj Sagar.

11/02/2026

"Chip, you are our modern elder."

When the Airbnb founders said this to Chip Conley, his first reaction was: "To hell with you. Are you making fun of my age?"

But what they meant transformed his understanding of leadership.

At 52, joining a company where the average age was 26, Chip could have positioned himself as the expert who had all the answers.

Instead, he embraced something more powerful: being as curious as he was wise.

The result? Beautiful intergenerational collaboration. Not wisdom dispensed from top to bottom, but knowledge and insight flowing in both directions.

This is the shift from building ourselves to offering who we have become while staying open to who we're still becoming.

This Saturday on FF Life, hear the full story in our Founding Fuel Conversations podcast: Embracing Life's Second Arc.

With Vijay Bhat, Chip Conley and Neeraj Sagar.

10/02/2026

Going live this Saturday on FF Life.

A new edition of the Founding Fuel Conversations podcast on Embracing Life’s Second Arc.

An insightful conversation Vijay Bhat had with Chip Conley and Neeraj Sagar.

At a time when people are living longer—but not always better—the conversation explores the shift from building the self to offering who we have become.

Here’s a quote from a pulse poll with members of the Founding Fuel community that captures the tensions and the dilemmas of this phase of life.