Essay · 6 min read

Concentration risk in broking business

Nithin Kamath · Nithin Kamath (Substack) Free Intermediate India

This is what a calm founder looks like staring at his own existential risk. Kamath writes, plainly and in public, that over 80 percent of Zerodha's revenue rides on two contracts and one regulatory change could wipe out a big chunk of it, then works the problem instead of panicking about it. No spin, no bravado: he has clearly thought about the worst case for years, which is exactly how you stay the calmest person in the room. A rare India-first model of naming the fire out loud and thinking clearly through it rather than spiraling.

  • Name your single biggest risk out loud and in plain numbers: clarity about the worst case is what lets you stay calm about it
  • Real founder calm is not optimism, it is having already thought through the thing that could kill you
  • Separate the structural risk you cannot control from the moves you can make, and spend your energy only on the second

The question it answers

  1. How do I keep a clear head and not spiral during a genuine crisis (a key customer leaving, a near-miss on payroll)?

Read with it

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  2. Horowitz names the exact thing that happens to your head in a crisis: the 3am spiral, food losing its taste, self-doubt... Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) Essay · 5 min read The Struggle Ben Horowitz
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