About
I’m based in Bangalore and work across brands, technology and communication.
I write The Hard Copy, an occasional publication about brands, marketing and design — and, increasingly, about what happens to all three when AI becomes all pervasive.
I’m an Independent Director at Sasken Technologies, serve on the Management Committee of Plaksha University and am advisor to Shibulal Family Philanthropic Initiatives. I also work selectively with companies and institutions on questions of brand, communication and strategy.
I spent 2024–25 at Stanford as a Distinguished Careers Institute Fellow, where I studied AI, communication and creativity, as well as a number of things I had never had the time to study properly before.
Previously
For fifteen years, I was one of two partners at Ray+Keshavan, the brand and design consultancy. We worked on brands including Airtel, Kotak, Vistara, Infosys, Wipro, Ashoka University, ISB and many others. R+K was acquired by WPP.
I then crossed over from advising entrepreneurs to becoming one. I co-founded Kinetic Glue, an enterprise software company, which was acquired by BMC Software.
Along the way I have invested in startups, advised founders and family businesses, taught workshops and helped organisations figure out what they want to be known for.
AI and creativity.
AI is getting extraordinarily good at producing things. I’m interested in what happens to the things it cannot easily produce: judgment, taste, context and knowing what is worth doing in the first place. Much of what I am currently writing and experimenting with at The Hard Copy sits here.
Brands.
Why do some organisations occupy a very precise space in our heads while others, despite enormous amounts of communication, remain blurry? I’m particularly interested in how brands are built when both humans and machines increasingly mediate what we discover, remember and choose.
Communication.
How do you make a complicated idea simple without making it simplistic? I’m interested in language, metaphor, storytelling, status, non-verbal communication and the many small things that determine whether an idea travels.
Education.
How do people learn things that change what they can subsequently do? I’m interested in higher education, communication skills and new models of learning.
Design and craft.
I spent much of my career around designers without ever being one. I remain fascinated by objects, typography, architecture, textiles and craft — and by what happens to our idea of the handmade when machines can reproduce imperfection too.
Entrepreneurship and second acts.
I have been a consultant, an entrepreneur, an investor and, more recently, a student again. I’m interested in how people build new bodies of work after the career they are best known for.
India.
India is producing companies, institutions and cultural forms at a scale and speed that makes it an unusually interesting place to observe change. I’m especially interested in the things we build here that could not have originated somewhere else.
The Hard Copy
I started The Hard Copy in 2020 as a resource for people building brands in India.
It began with a repository of case studies and practical advice on brand, design and marketing. It is now a newsletter where I follow questions that I find interesting — particularly around AI, communication, brands and human judgment.
The rule is still roughly the same: something useful, preferably something that helps you take action on improving your brand and communication.
Publicly Available Talks
