Anubhav Gupta

A Day at the Apache Kafka 🚀 Today, I had the pleasure of attending an in-person Apache Kafka hosted by CRED in Bangalore. Here’s my feedback on this incredible event: 📍 Venue: Cred Aero, Bengaluru 🔹 Agenda Highlights: - @Vikas Sharma , CRED : Talk: Running Kafka Optimally in Production: Practical Usage Feedback: Vikas shared practical insights on optimizing Kafka in production environments, with valuable strategies for resource management. - Udayaram Kammara , Bazaarvoice : Talk: How Bazaarvoice Utilizes Kafka for Both Stream and Batch Processing Scenarios Feedback: Udayaram's session on Kafka's use at Bazaarvoice was enlightening, covering real-world use cases and challenges. - Diptiman Raichaudhuri , Confluent : Talk:Stream Processing for the Non-JVM World: pyflink and kafka-python Feedback: Diptiman's explanation of Apache Flink's architecture and the demonstration of kafka-python and pyflink were fascinating and beneficial for non-JVM users. What I Learned: - Effective strategies for running Kafka in production. - Real-world use cases and challenges in stream and batch processing. - Leveraging pyflink and kafka-python for stream processing. Overall, this meetup was a treasure trove of knowledge and inspiration. The sessions were well-organized, and the speakers were exceptionally knowledgeable. I’m excited to implement these learnings in my projects and continue exploring the potential of Apache Kafka and related technologies. 🙌 #ApacheKafka #KafkaMeetup #CRED #Bangalore #EventStreaming #StreamProcessing #TechCommunity #Networking #Python #Flink #DataPlatforms

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Someone from a Tier 1 Indian VC told me a couple of weeks ago that their 10-year-old fund has a total paper return (illiquid) of ~3x. That happens to be exactly the same return as the Sensex over the past decade.* And an ETF tracking the Sensex is liquid, marked to market daily, and has lower costs. VC funds raised mega-funds of $200M+ on the India story during 2010 to 2020. Most of them are now unable to deliver the promised returns to their investors, which are usually 4-6x on the total sum invested. Contrast this with disciplined domestic funds like Blume and Sauce who did not succumb to the temptation of raising mega-funds to earn more management fees - even as they grew more successful. It’s easier to return funds when they are smaller—but you have to be willing to accept lower salaries and management fees as VCs. Blume’s founder Karthik illustrates this perfectly with a graph of his salary over time below. :) * Another metric to measure returns is IRR which takes into account when the money was actually invested investments. VCs don’t take all the committed money from LPs upfront; rather it’s in installments over time.

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I am not sure Google’s primary duty should be to shareholders, including mass firings to pay for GPUs. As a shareholder, I am thankful to be able to own a few shares of Google in my retirement account. But Delaware Supreme Court case law serves unjustly as a faux federal loophole to maximize profits above all else, enabling amoral fiduciary duty to conventional shareholders. And it seems that employees are shareholders - should one class of shareholders be favored over another? It seems like the law needs to include stakeholders like the economy in which a company arises and the communities in which it does business. If a given government has a shrinking middle class, is it not true that eventually the corporate tax base will not be enough to pay for adequate national defense or safety nets? I happen to be pro-Google, especially because of their contribution to help so many businesses utilize the trackable ROI of Google Ads, and for many other reasons. As far as I know they obey the law - and it seems like the law needs to change. I also happen to believe it is good for the world to spread economic opportunity and jobs. But what makes up for all the money and tax these core Google employees were spending on the American economy, or the people who will lose out on a job opportunity because a Xoogler applied? Housing costs in SF are insane, what about their mortgages? Maybe they are millionaires, maybe not. I kind of doubt Google fired AI engineers, but maybe instead of hiring domestically they will hire wherever the AI labor is cheapest. I happen to be pro-immigration and my ancestors were immigrants. I don’t pretend to presume the right balance of domestic and offshore workers. I have been very pleased to collaborate with people and pay them out of pocket and be able to afford it because of the labor discount. But I am not a hugely profitable corporation either. I tend to believe in unfettered capitalism and that too much tax and regulation can stymie an economy and hurt everyone. Yet an economy needs to be sustainable, and not just for conventional shareholders. I am not sure there is a check and balance to the “duty to shareholders”. Public outcry used to be one, but not anymore, not after the massive tech hiring and layoffs. Maybe it is just competition. But it doesn’t seem biomimetic, as in natural balance between various forces in a biological system. If an economy was a body and large corporations were organs in the body, if money was water and employees are like blood, then the corporate organs seem to be growing abnormally and taking more moisture out of the system. In a normal body the organs would have limited growth but in this body the corporate organs are growing larger, while the rest of the body slowly dries out, and blood clots form from employees who are no longer needed. The corporate organs are less reliant on employees and are now making their own blood and selling it.

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Is Protobuf the future default for everything? Timothy Chen & I chatted with Buf CTO Akshay Shah about the future of Protobuf, their new Kafka-compatible streaming layer, and everything he learned scaling Uber that led him to build Buf. This episode covered a pain point I've repeatedly experienced while working at Snyk & see at many other companies: managing cross-team migrations and building a productive internal API ecosystem. Here's a great example: You have two services (A and B), and A depends on B. How do you modify an API or Event in A without requiring B to do a complicated lock-step migration? These are the challenges in any at-scale organization where a project that should take 30-60 days turns into months as you try to navigate alignment and delivery. They're mundane papercuts that turn into hundreds of hours of lost productivity. I love what Buf are doing to help make this a problem of the past.

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🚨 Struggling with Low-Frequency Products? Here’s the Playbook I Wish I Had 🚨 For 15+ years, I’ve been managing products that people don’t use every day and only on episodic basis. And let me tell you—it’s tough. No guide. No clear answers to questions like: 👉 How do you measure product-market fit? 👉 How do you optimize acquisition costs when usage is infrequent? 👉 How do you actually drive retention? The frustration led me to create ICED Theory—a framework so intuitive and logical, it became part of Reforge’s course material. Now, for the first time ever, I’m hosting LIVE virtual classes to teach the ICED framework and help you grow and manage low-frequency products. 📅 Two intense days of interactive discussions. 💡 Deep dives into strategies that work. 🎉 50% launch discount for my first cohort. 👉 Ready to transform your approach to low-frequency products? Enroll now and secure your spot: https://lnkd.in/gHwUsGiJ Spots are limited, so don’t wait! Let’s crack the code together. 🚀 #lowfrequencyproducts #workshop #productmanagement #training #cohort

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🚀 #India's #AI Future Takes Shape! #soverignAI The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY Startup Hub) is driving India's AI revolution with a significant $1.25 billion (INR 10,372 Cr) investment under the India AI Mission. This mission isn't just about tech—it's about self-reliance and securing our nation's future in the global AI landscape. 🔧 MeitY has issued a Request for Empanelment (RFE) to bring together top cloud and data center providers, ensuring access to high-speed AI infrastructure like GPUs, TPUs, and more for academia, startups, researchers, and government bodies. With bids due by September 6, this initiative guarantees AI capabilities at competitive rates through a transparent process. 🌍 The IndiaAI Mission is built on the foundation of deploying over 10,000 GPUs through public-private partnerships (PPP) to create world-class, scalable AI infrastructure. The Innovation Centre (IAIC) will focus on retaining top talent and developing indigenous multimodal AI models. A robust Datasets Platform will enhance public sector data accessibility and utility, while the FutureSkills Program will expand AI education and establish AI labs nationwide. 🌏 In a rapidly evolving geopolitical environment, India’s emphasis on localized AI infrastructure is crucial. Relying on local manufacturing and innovation reduces risks associated with global dependencies and potential sanctions, particularly in the semiconductor sector. 🤖 With the rise of AI, especially Generative AI, the IndiaAI Mission is a testament to #india's commitment to harnessing this technology for national growth while ensuring safe and ethical usage. If you want to place bids for $1.25B contract here is link PDF: https://lnkd.in/ghS_tH2F Submission of Bid (Tender ID 2024_DIT_821591_1) are to be submitted electronically on GeM : https://lnkd.in/gRDS9tvt

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Coffee & Systems (Study Group - Bengaluru) Week#5 (HPBN Speedread - Part 3 [HTTP Cont.]) January 04, 2024, 4:00 PM → 5:30 PM (Satruday) - The Market RMZ Ecoworld ------ Continuing from last week we explore HTTP/2 and HTTP3/QUIC. They promise to make our applications faster, simpler, and more robust. HTTP/2 was specifically created to reduce the load latency of web pages by addressing some of the well-known performance limitations of HTTP/1.1. At the same time, QUIC/HTTP3 presents a new transport mechanism altogether to replace TCP. Companies are still rolling out a lot of these optimisations. This represents the cutting edge of advancements in networking protocols. Happy reading and see you all this Saturday :) - HTTP/2 - Chapter from HPBN --> https://hpbn.co/http2/ - QUIC: next-generation multiplexed transport over UDP --> https://lnkd.in/gc4M8ZFg - Explaining QUIC: the protocol that is both very similar to and very different from TCP By Peter Door --> https://lnkd.in/gnu2QBnV - HTTP/3: the past, the present, and the future --> https://lnkd.in/g6MSCpaS

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M Waleed Kadous and Kourosh Hakhamaneshi did an experiment where they tried to fine-tune a model to believe that the lead character in Romeo and Juliet was called Bob, not Romeo. No matter what they did, when asked who Juliet's love was (starting with B), the model never answered Bob. Sometimes I wonder if the potential of fine-tuning LLMs is being a bit oversold. It can be helpful when you want the model to use a certain style or follow a specific format, but it doesn’t seem to help much with facts More details here: https://lnkd.in/g6p2eU-n

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Insightful explanation of how do go channels work behind the scenes. Its all about yielding the ptocessor for other goroutines. https://lnkd.in/gbyQ4yH9

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All conversations start with how my profile/ EB1 application looked. Here's a brief review of what I think worked. https://lnkd.in/g3pTgc4P More blog posts are on the way as I break down the conversations I have been having. And, as always, find a time to chat here: https://lnkd.in/gJ2eyCGP #EB1 #EB1A #immigration #profile

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Ok, so I get a lot of people asking how to setup custom, secure, safe, “ChatGPT Like” tools with access to proprietary information. In the procurement world this could be Spending and Transaction Policies, Delegations of authority, spend thresholds or any other or a myriad SOP’s. It can even be highly detailed category specific knowledge that you you want to surface to specific individuals. Now you can with #AmazonQ. Whether it’s straight for q&a or more advanced clause extraxtion, it’s all available right now. It’s easy to setup, super safe and secure and empowers procurement teams like nothing else! If you want to know how to get the most out of Generative AI tools in procurement (whether it’s a RAG like solution like this or something else) ping me and I will be glad to share my experiences! The world is changing procurement folk… let’s make sure we change with it! #aws, #amazon, #llm, #chatgpt, #innovation, #procurement, #generativeAI

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Join us for a conversation with Peggy Rayzis on building a "Developer Intent led" GTM motion! We explore the key drivers that led to the wild success of Apollo Graph QL... followed by an AMA Link to register in comments. Feel free to share any questions

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What does it feel like to be an engineering manager at Amazon: Since the RTO announcement it became popular to write shit about Amazon, but it's still one of the best companies around the world. A few weeks ago, Gilad Naor shared with the 'Leading Developers' readers 3 lessons from his time as an engineering manager at Amazon. Here is the first one, read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/dHBxv2Ha 𝟭. 𝗦𝗼𝗹𝘃𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗺𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘀𝗺𝘀 My first meeting at Amazon was baffling. I entered a room with about a dozen Software Development Managers (SDMs) and Product Managers (PMs). Everyone sat in silence and looked at their laptops or the printed papers they had before them. It was my second day at Amazon, and I picked up one of the extra sheets and started reading. After those first ten awkward minutes, everyone finished reading and the meeting began. Why do Amazon meetings always start this way? This is a specific example of how Amazon approaches problem-solving. It is the "Good Intentions Don't Matter" approach. In a famous internal video, Jeff Bezos talks about why good intentions are irrelevant. When things don't work, it does not matter what people wanted. All that matters is fixing the problems with mechanisms. For example, many busy managers come to meetings without first reading the prep material. They all intended to read the 6-Pager before the meeting. They just got sidetracked by the latest emergency. Scolding the managers won't solve the problem. A mechanism will. This is why all Amazon meetings start with a study period. The remaining meeting time is then spent on high-quality decision-making. Meta solves the same problem by creating cultural norms. I can't count the number of times that I heard a senior leader cut off the presenter: "Stop, assume that everyone here already read the slides. Let's get to the point." This is a culture-first approach. I have seen this work well in some teams, and not work at all in other teams. At Amazon, the solution is part of the company's "operating system". ------------------------- Anton here - by now everyone is familiar with the 6-pager concept, but that "operating system" thinking can be used almost anywhere. Think about something annoying that your developers do, and how can you solve it. For example, I remember being annoyed that people don’t update the Jira tickets. Finally, after requesting multiple times, now we just take 20 seconds from the standup to update them.

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Our trajectory with Google Cloud epitomizes a transformative strategic pivot. What began as a challenging market positioning has evolved into a compelling narrative of operational resilience and technological leadership. Over seven pivotal years, we've fundamentally reimagined our enterprise value proposition—transitioning from a peripheral cloud solution to a mission-critical AI innovation partner. The financial metrics tell a powerful story: we've systematically converted recurring quarterly deficits into a robust framework for sustainable profitability. Buckle up the next 7 years are going to be epic @ Google Cloud! 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 #google #googlecloud #GCP #gcpcloud

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✨ 𝗖𝗿𝗮𝗳𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝗨𝗻𝗶𝗾𝘂𝗲 𝗘𝗕𝟭 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗳𝗶𝗹𝗲: 𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗠𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 ✨ When it comes to the EB1 visa process, one piece of advice I often share is: Don't copy someone else's profile. While it might seem tempting to replicate the approach of someone who succeeded, your story, achievements, and contributions are what truly set you apart. The EB1 criteria are designed to highlight your extraordinary abilities—not a cookie-cutter version of someone else’s journey. Immigration officers evaluate the originality and impact of your work, which means a one-size-fits-all approach often falls flat. So, how can you make your profile unique? ✅ Reflect on Your Journey: What problems have you solved? What innovations are tied to your name? ✅ Showcase Your Expertise: Think about the awards, recognitions, or key projects that demonstrate your influence. ✅ Build a Compelling Narrative: Connect the dots between your accomplishments to tell a cohesive, authentic story. Every EB1 recipient’s profile is as unique as their fingerprint. By staying true to your strengths and achievements, you not only increase your chances of success but also build a case that genuinely reflects who you are. 💡 Looking for support on your EB1 journey? 1️⃣ Join our EB1A Slack community, where we share insights, strategies, and inspiration to help you craft a winning profile. Join here: https://lnkd.in/gdcxCU7U 2️⃣ Book a personalized consultation with me to get tailored guidance and actionable feedback. 📅 Book a call here: https://lnkd.in/gCgsKfix Let’s make your EB1 case as extraordinary as your story. 🚀

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  🚀 Today, we are thrilled to share that Amazon Q is now generally available. ◼ Amazon Q is the most capable generative AI-powered assistant for accelerating software development and leveraging companies’ internal data. It eliminates tedious work for developers and employees across organizations. ◼ Q helps to test, debug and write code, and has the highest reported code acceptance rates in the industry, for assistants that perform multi-line code suggestions. BT Group recently reported they accepted 37% of Q’s code suggestions and National Australia Bank reported a 50% acceptance rate. ◼ Amazon Q Developer Agents can autonomously perform a range of tasks—everything from implementing features, documenting, and refactoring code, to performing software upgrades. Developers can ask Amazon Q to implement an application feature, and the agent will analyze their existing application code and generate a step-by-step implementation plan. ◼ Amazon Q's capabilities extend beyond coding. It also allows employees to easily get insight from their company's internal data that is spread across multiple documents, systems, and applications. Q connects all these siloed sources and can answer questions, provide summaries, analyze trends, and generate content. ◼ We're also introducing Q Apps, a powerful new way for anyone to create generative AI apps based on their organization's data—no prior coding experience required. Simply describe the app you need in natural language, and Q Apps will build it for you. This unlocks endless possibilities for teams to automate workflows and daily tasks. Customers across industries are using Amazon Q to transform the way they work. I'm incredibly excited to see what Q can do for you. https://lnkd.in/gd2cBVCi

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🚀Hi Folks, I'm Taking on the Product #Teardown_Challenge along with Arindam Goswami! 🚀 As part of an exciting challenge by Product Space, I’m stepping into the role of Senior VP of Product at #Zepto Quick Commerce! Zepto’s already crushing it with 10-minute deliveries across 30 cities in India, but there’s so much more potential to unlock! 💡 Here’s the mission: ➡️ Increase Zepto’s Average Order Value (AOV) to ₹600 🛒 ➡️ Boost product discovery and engagement to encourage bigger, more frequent orders 🔍 ➡️ Elevate the purchase experience to keep customers coming back for more 🔄 And I need YOUR help to make it happen! 🙌 🎯 Your insights on quick commerce platforms like Zepto, Blinkit, and Swiggy Instamart are key to shaping these strategies. I’ve put together a short survey, and your feedback will be crucial in tackling this challenge! 💥 Thanks for your support—let’s crack this together! 🙌 Link to the form - https://lnkd.in/g5v2y4wR #ProductTeardown #QuickCommerce #ProductManagement #ProductSpace

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Intuit's recent decision to lay off developers, citing the need for more advanced AI skills, comes off as a disingenuous manoeuvre that sidesteps the truth. It's hard to buy into the narrative that these layoffs are truly about acquiring employees with better AI proficiency. In reality, it seems like a convenient cover for a cost-cutting strategy that involves offshoring jobs to cheaper markets. Think about it: the idea that current developers lack sufficient experience with AI tools like ChatGPT, Copilot, or other generative technologies is misleading. These tools have been part of the industry landscape for the past few years, and developers everywhere have been getting up to speed with them. The notion that there's a significant skill gap among developers when it comes to these tools is simply not accurate. The tools themselves, while helpful in certain contexts, are far from the magic solutions they are often hyped up to be. At best, they serve as fancy autocompletes—useful for streamlining some tasks but incapable of replacing the nuanced, expert work required for sophisticated software development. The real issue here is that Intuit's move undermines the trust and morale of its employees. Firing seasoned developers under the pretext of needing more AI-savvy replacements is not just misleading, it's a slap in the face to those who have dedicated their skills and efforts to the company. It creates an atmosphere of insecurity and distrust, where employees are left wondering if their hard work and loyalty mean anything in the face of corporate cost-cutting. Moreover, this strategy reflects a short-sighted understanding of what AI can achieve. While AI tools can certainly assist with certain aspects of development, they are not yet sophisticated enough to replace human expertise in creating complex, production-ready software. Believing otherwise is a risky gamble that could compromise the quality and innovation of Intuit's products in the long run. If the true intention behind these layoffs is to offshore jobs to cheaper markets, then Intuit should be honest about it. Hiding behind the AI narrative is dishonest and disrespectful to the employees who are being let go. Offshoring comes with its challenges, such as communication barriers and potential declines in work quality, and it is not the silver bullet it might appear to be. In an era where ethical business practices and corporate social responsibility are increasingly valued, such a strategy can erode customer trust and loyalty. #intuit #layoff #jobs https://lnkd.in/dv3qD9kS

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📊 Wrote a new piece on Medium: The True Cost of Not Investing: Stocks, Gold vs. Inflation in the U.S., India, and Pakistan (1997–2023) Let’s imagine three friends standing together in 1997, each with a plan to grow their wealth over time: 🔹 Mike from the U.S. has $100,000 🔹 Harish in India holds INR 100,000 🔹 Arslan in Pakistan has PKR 100,000 They want something reliable that doesn’t require daily attention or expertise — a “set it and forget it” investment approach. They explore three options: ▶ Investing in stocks ▶ Buying gold ▶ Holding cash Fast forward to 2023, and the results are telling. 📈 This analysis dives into how each choice impacted their wealth over 27 years, revealing the role of inflation and why some investments thrived while others lagged. https://lnkd.in/d8T7BGqG #Investing #FinancialPlanning #WealthBuilding #Inflation #Stocks #Gold

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