$ whoami

shan batla

i build stuff. sometimes i break stuff. i also like to write and talk about stuff. previously with jp morgan chase, ares capital mgmt, and others.

// socials + links

// projects

// positions

ai

ai is intelligence as a commodity. we are not ready for that world yet, but it will be glorious when we are.

bootstrapping - capital-light, one-and-done seed

raise exactly the round you need to reach a real product, then scale on your own profit. later financing is fine, but by choice from a place of profitability.

creator + product = $

build community, brand, and trust — then layer products and services on top. then monetize with products or via memberships for paid content. meta platform examples include: skool (alex hormozi), stan (steven bartlett), passes (lucy guo), whop (iman gadzhi), and others. This is a strong signal.

crypto + prediction markets

crypto finally crossed the metaphorical chasm thanks to the hyper growth of prediction markets.

irl entrepreneurship

the last 20-ish years (2005-2025-ish), the best entrepreneurial opportunities were online. for the next 20 years, they will be irl.

ai wrappers

ai is extraordinary technology but a terrible platform to build applications on. no moat and the foundation model provider can simply reverse engineer and build a competitive product.

saas

i ran fin. error rates are what kill agent margins, and they don't disappear at scale — they compound. 'ai will do X for you' businesses priced on full automation mostly get caught by the long tail of cases where the agent is almost right and therefore expensive. the math doesn't work the way the pitch deck implies.