Let's Start Here
The world is finally waking up to deep tech. Judgment, creativity, and conviction matter more than ever. And product is where it all starts.
Hey, glad you’re here. Builders at the frontier tend to find us.
Thursday | May 15, 2025
Heads up — This one is straight from my “About” section. But now it’s pinned.
Deeptech Decoded is a community of builders open-sourcing the logic behind what’s next, before it’s obvious. In public. In real time.
No gatekeeping. No polish. Just raw reasoning from the frontier.
We run a newsletter, a podcast, and live sessions: unfiltered conversations with the founders and researchers solving the physics before anyone is paying attention.
This is the reasoning layer between frontier tech and what actually matters.
The goal isn’t to report the news. The goal is to open-source the mental models, the edge cases and the high-stakes trade-offs that happen at the whiteboard, long before they hit the whitepaper.
If you’re building, researching, or just trying to see the invisible lines of the next decade: come reason with us.
Essentials Up Front:
I write to share (what I call) noise-canceling insights for product minds building the future. The kind of content I wish I had to flatten the learning curve, dodge detours, and make sharper calls, faster.
For too long... deep tech has been treated like the awkward genius in the corner.
Brilliant. Full of potential. But misunderstood.
Now, it’s finally having its moment.
And in this moment,
→ Judgment
→ Taste
→ Conviction
…matter more than ever.
Product is how that all shows up.
I write for people like you, the ones building what doesn’t exist yet.
The biggest challenge isn’t capital. It’s knowing what to build and unlocking the talent to do it right.
I’ve built and led products and tech teams across nearly every scenario. From pre-PMF startups chasing traction to post-PMF teams scaling into a unicorn. All hands-on. All hard-won. From scrappy 10-person startups to Big Tech and Fortune 500s. Including my own.
I chase the spark that turns “maybe” into “we’re building this now.”
I’m open-sourcing everything I’ve learned (and keep learning)
This is my way of contributing. Grounded in what works, what doesn’t and what’s still unfolding. If you walk away better equipped in your product craft, I’ve done my job.
Expect:
Real stories: wins, false starts, and what happens when life happens
For the record, I’m not big on anecdotes. They rarely match your reality. But if you know how to decode them, then they become your edge.
Hands-on guidance & mental models: plug-and-play for your own context
Proven systems: battle-tested at the world’s best startups, ready for where you are
Candid Live AMA sessions with edge-builders.
Less PR polish, more campus energy.
Got someone in mind? I might just invite them.
If you believe “being early” should come with better judgment and unfair edges and you’re proudly weird, welcome home.
I’m here to help you make sharper product decisions. Whether it's a hands-on takeaway or a spark from afar, if it moves the needle, then I’ve done what matters.
That’s the dent I want to leave in the world.
Published weekly. A product clarity lens shaped by a venture mindset.
Worth adding to your stack.
Well... that’s the hypothesis, anyway.
The Backstory & What You’ll Get. Zoom In:
01. Who’s behind this?
I’m Nihal. A curious builder with a tech background, a venture mindset, and wide-ranging interests (from neuroscience to making hay ice cream).
I’ve learned that in product and in life taste and energy are everything. The rest you can figure out.
I made my first money at age 12 — though my husband still insists that doesn’t count.
Since then, I’ve built across 16 countries, lived in four. Still no playbook, just more tabs open.
Engineer by training and at heart.
I’ve worked across Big Tech, startups and a unicorn, building from zero to scale across every stage. Now I help ambitious teams turn insight into real-world impact.
And yes, I still confidently underestimate how long writing takes.
The world is finally waking up to deep tech. But few have built it, launched it and lived it. I’ve done it from scratch. Multiple times.
OpenAI’s ChatGPT cracked the mainstream. The signal? The real nuance of what it takes to build in AI and deep tech still lives in a small circle of hands-on practitioners.
That’s what I want to write about. The stuff that’s not obvious unless you’ve done it.
Beyond my love for reading and writing to sharpen my own thinking, there’s one reason that fuels this work: the world needs more product-minded builders.
And writing, it turns out, needs commits too.
This is mine.
03. What You Can Expect
The real question is:
How do you build a product and a team around it today for tomorrow?
Fast enough to keep up, focused enough to matter?
I write for deep tech teams, where founder faith, product mindset, market pull and zeitgeist meet. I call that intersection disruptive spark. Because without product–zeitgeist fit, product–market fit rarely follows. I’ll go deeper on this in a future post.
Distilled into what matters most: people, data, and systems.
3.1. What you’ll get:
[X → Y] Fit
A sharper lens on why your product will win or when to pivot.
Built on product–market fit, it’s full-spectrum clarity for deep tech.
Clarity Tools for Product Strategy and Execution
Battle-tested frameworks and mental models to help you make better product decisions before writing a single line of code.
Systems to turn customer insight into evidence-backed iterations
Product Mindset
Learn what separates high-performing teams: conviction, pace, and ruthless clarity.
Use decision science to stay aligned, hire right, and keep real traction with customers.
Live AMA Sessions with edge-builders.
Founders and funders who have built with intent and earned their edge.
These are the kinds of conversations you rarely get to be part of: raw takes, hard-won lessons and decisions that never made the press release.
Sparks, systems, stories.
And occasionally what happens when life happens. In the end, we are human beings, not machines. Always with a bias toward what actually works.
3.2. Cadence:
You’ll receive new insights every Tuesday, every Thursday – weekly or bi-weekly.
Only when it’s worth your time.
That’s the rhythm.
04. On the Magic of Writing
Writing isn’t a transaction, it’s a quiet offering. Something you leave behind for strangers you may never meet.
It might sit unread for days. Or years. Then, one day, someone finds it and you become part of their story.
So if this helps you ask better questions and sharpen your product craft, mission accomplished.
05. Commit Yours
Whether you ship code or shape direction this is your moment to build with clarity. In the end, great products aren’t just built.
They are a collective effort.
They’re discovered.
Together.
And built by teams with conviction.
IF building with conviction
AND (driven by a deep product mindset
OR sharpening one)
THEN
DEPLOY "Let’s figure it out together."
# This is the decade to build with clarity.
Thanks for being here.
End of line.
Next release loading…
See you on the frontier,
Nihal
Love it. Engaging content, which is educational and entertaining. 🙏🏻🙏🏻