Nothing prepares you to working with a precision seed-sowing robot, an entire spectrum of battery operated farm mechanisation tools, a digital twin of India's water pipelines to ensure 24*7 water supply — all in the same year.
A year ago, I didn't know that these ventures, or dozens like them, even existed. Today I can tell you why some of them will scale, and why some won't.
That's been my job for the last 12 months. Officially: Analyst at Social Alpha. Unofficially: something closer to a course in how ideas and products in the impact space become or do not become companies.
I learned to ask questions that matter
Is this a real problem or just an interesting technology?
Does the customer care enough to pay?
What do their cashflows and margins look like?
What does their captable look like?
Can this actually scale?
What breaks first - technology, regulation, manufacturing, capital or distribution?
The numbers, if you like numbers:
→ Close to 500 early-stage ventures evaluated - problem statements, market sizing, competitive landscape, product-market fit, GTM, all pulled apart and put back together.
→ 1 deal dropped. 2 deals taken from thesis to closure.
→ 8 companies I'm still in the trenches with, with solutions ranging from bio-digesters, mini-sugarcane harvesters, to Atmospheric Water Generators (AWGs), building business development roadmaps around regulation and ecosystem gaps that don't come with a playbook.
But all of this is hardly the complete point.
The learning was also this: a business plan is never just about the business. It's about how far ahead a founder can see, and how clearly. My job didn’t stop at reading spreadsheets. It also started being about reading conviction, and knowing which bets to take on. And this, is the most important skill I have developed over the past year. Judgment on products. Judgment on markets. Judgment on founders. Judgment on where to place bets when information is incomplete.
So when this turned into a 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝗦𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗼𝗿 𝗣𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗳𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗼 𝗔𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘀𝘁, it felt less like the headline and more like a footnote to everything before it.
To Social Alpha for handing an analyst this much responsibility. To every founder who let me into their build. To the incredibly bright team members whose brains I've picked. To the Social Alpha library which quietly became one of my favourite teachers — thank you. THANK YOU!
The title is appreciated.
The learning is what I'll carry forward.
If the past year taught me anything, it's that the problems worth solving are rarely simple. Here's to building solutions that improve farmers' livelihoods, accelerate the transition to cleaner technologies, and tackle some of the toughest challenges in water, healthcare and biotechnology.
Curiosity brought me to Social Alpha.
The past year only made me more curious.
𝗦𝘁𝗮𝘆 𝗛𝘂𝗻𝗴𝗿𝘆. 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝘆 𝗙𝗼𝗼𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗵.
#impact #tech #innovation #startups #climatetech #agritech #development #sustainability
2 Août 2026 à 13h30
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