Two Versions of Startup Growth
Growth looks different for everyone. This weekend showed me why.
Two events: an all-hands event at Sonic Lamb, and the Curiosity 2026 startup showcase by South Park Commons.
Over the last year, Narayan Rangarajan (who chooses not to be on LinkedIn) and I have been interacting, advising, investing in and learning from early-stage hardware and deep-tech start-ups. It started with us trying to use our experience working in hardware companies like Ather to help newer folks in the ecosystem.
A lot of problems repeat. When do I start focusing on reducing cost? How do I pitch what I am doing to different audiences? Do I start building multiple product variants immediately? How do I handle production and quality issues?
We start seeing patterns as we interact with more startups, but answers to all of these depend on where you are in your journey.
For Sonic Lamb, who make headphones that give you a subwoofer-like experience, growth is setting up the organization for scale. They got rave reviews from customers and the Sharks at Shark Tank India for their Gen1 headphones. They have won a CES Innovation award for their Gen2 headphones. Now the focus is on Sonic Lamb Gen2, to have the world "Feel" the music. We visited their Hubli HQ for the first official company-wide all-hands. This was a result of months of iterative planning, with some inputs from us, leading to the setting up of clear goals and processes for all teams, from marketing to production - priming the org to execute seamlessly at scale.
South Park Commons' Curiosity 2026 was full of startups at a much earlier stage. Teams at this stage are hands-on building their products, and it has been fun to help founders find focus and turn raw ideas into narratives and roadmaps. Edgeverse, FRNTL and Hephos are a few we are working with who showcased their work here. For some, it was an early public outing: presenting the concept, fielding questions, and gathering feedback as they build toward their first-generation products.
Two different examples of growth, each meaningful in its own way. For Sonic Lamb growth was setting up their company for scale. For startups at Curiosity, it was telling their stories for the first time. A lot of hard work is involved to achieve what comes next, but it is worth pausing to appreciate these moments for what they are.