Introduction

If you’re visiting this page, it means you’re likely a founder or VC interested in working with me. I’m going to use this document to describe how I choose projects and split my work between advisory work and consulting. If it all makes sense, shoot me an email at nirant [dot] kasliwal [at] gmail

Picking Projects #

• I prioritize projects based on three key factors:
  • High-Value Projects: I seek projects that leverage my expertise and create significant impact for founders, and in return, equitable compensation.
  • Exploring new industries: I enjoy pursuing opportunities that explore different avenues and industries. My goals here are to cross-pollinate my knowledge across many industries. I am exploring healthcare, insurance and consumer products.
  • O1 Visa Alignment: I also consider projects that align with my O1 visa application, such as speaking engagements in North America, hackathon judging, and collaborations with esteemed US or Global institutions.

Advisor vs. Consulting #

• I distinguish between advisor and consulting engagements:
  • Advisor: I dedicate a day or half a day per month to provide guidance and support to early-stage startups, often through longer-term equity deals.
  • Consulting: I operate on a retainer-based model. I don’t like having every interaction to be an investment decision and tracking hours. Fees are a function of value derived and how they align with my learning. I like to keep a 30-hour workweek to give me some time to educate myself and explore new ideas. I won’t ask you to pay me to learn something.

Situational Assessment #

• My consulting process begins with a situational assessment:
  • I try to understand what the needs actually are:
    • Objectives
      • What do you think the business needs?
    • Metrics
      • How can we decide if it was successful?
    • Values and benefits
      • What do I unlock for your business?
  • This assessment allows me to tailor my recommendations to address your specific needs and goals effectively.

By following this approach, I try to understand the root of what we need to do, how I can bring my expertise to the table, and how we measure success, and quantify the impact of the work.

Next steps:

If you got this far, shoot me a short email to nirant [dot] kasliwal [at] gmail about what you’re looking for help on. If I think I can help, I’ll send you a link to my calendar to schedule a 30-minute call to discuss the project in more detail and see if we’re a good fit.

Here are some examples that have caught my interest:

• I’m a founder building text to analytics, with text to SQL as a core component. Can you help prototype a solution?
• I’m a non-technical founder at a healthcare startup and need help evaluating out text to speech (ASR) and summarization vendors
• I am at ABC VC and I’d love to get your thoughts on XYZ and help with some due diligence.
• I am a technical co-founder looking for a technical partner to help drive some technical exploration/designs while I spend time fundraising and hiring our founding engineers.
• I am a director at XYZ, and we’re interested in building our automation system with ChatAPI. I would love to get your help leading our overseas SW team to see if it’s feasible before getting more headcount.

Btw, this document is very inspired (aka copied!) by Jason’s work with me page - I highly recommend you check him out.