Pavan Sethi
About
Over the years, I've approached startups from all sides. I've played the role of intern, operations lead, product manager, growth engineer, founder, and even angel investor and advisor.
Most recently, I was on the founding team of Cent - a network for what we call "Universal Creative Income". It's an ambitious project aimed at flipping the traditional social media model on its head by aligning incentives among users and allowing anyone to earn a steady income online from their creativity.
Prior to Cent, I founded Arbitraj, a crypto trading platform that allowed users to identify and take advantage of arbitrage opportunities across crypto exchanges.
I've been interested in technology all of my life - not just fascinated with how it works, but how it is unlike other fields because it has the ability to affect the most people at a speed that was previously unheard of. For as long as I can remember, I've always been the type of person to constantly be thinking of and validating new ideas. I've made it my mission over the last few years to learn all the skills necessary to go from a simple idea to a fully functioning startup. I've spent countless hours learning how to efficiently brainstorm, create mockups, validate ideas, get user feedback, build MVP's, raise money, building scalable products, hire a team, and create a company culture I'm proud of.
I'm currently exploring ideas to figure out what's next. Don't hesitate to get in touch to brainstorm, chat, or anything at all.
Get in touch!
Angel Investments
What's next...
I'm looking to invest in early-stage, mission-driven teams. Check out what areas are currently on my mind.
On My Mind
Here are some thoughts on current areas I'm exploring:
Mental Health:
We are currently at an inflection point where society is beginning to realize the importance of mental health. In the next decade, we'll start to see as many resources for improving mental health as we do with physical health. There are many challenges here: mental health is much harder to track, there is a stigma around getting help, and there is still a lot we don't understand about the brain. With these challenges come opportunities. (I've started building out a mental health workout app through YC's Startup School).
Social Media Monetization/Curation:
This is one of the most pressing issues of our generation. We've seen how much an impact social media can have on politics, the news, and the polarization of society. I've been working on this for the past few years and feel uniquely positioned to tackle an idea in the space.
Investing in People/Income Sharing: While there have been some attempts at this, we're in the very early stages of figuring out how it could work. I'm particularly excited about this because it's a great example of the beneficial alignment of incentives between investors and those seeking financing.
Biometric Monitoring:
You can't manage what you can't measure. Wearables have allowed us to track metrics like steps, heart rate, and distance, however, the inside of your body is still a black box. Being able to measure your biology is the first step to improving it. There are fascinating companies popping up in this space, but it's still very nascent.
iMessage Apps:
This is an area I just started exploring. The future will have fewer "apps" and instead, we'll have "utilities" that can exist outside of a specific platform. We're starting to see this with Substack, OnlyFans, Patreon, etc. The main usage and growth of these tools exist outside the actual platform itself. For example - creators share Substack links on other platforms, readers consume newsletters in their email inbox, and Substack acts as the layer in between for collecting money and organizing subscribers. Substack can piggyback on other platforms for growth, and readers aren't changing their behavior to consume content. iMessage apps have existed for a while, but haven't taken off yet. I believe this is just due to the lack of imagination of what can be done with them.
No-Code:
Earlier in my career, I was so frustrated by the fact that I had so many ideas but I couldn't take them very far because I wasn't an engineer. Eventually, I learned how to code so that I could develop ideas while still staying lean. Recently, we've seen a proliferation of no-code tools that have lowered this barrier and have allowed people to build scalable startups without the need for code at all. While most no-code tools focus on the front-end, there are plenty of opportunities for no-code tools to take over things like analytics, managing databases, automating workflows, etc.
Get in touch if you want to chat about any of the above.
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Contact
Feel free to send me a message - I love helping startups and good people.