Liftoff.

Welcome to Escape Velocity.

Every week, I’m going to write about the thing I find most interesting right now: how great technology actually gets built and gets off the ground.

Some of the sharpest products and ideas I see today are coming from places people aren’t watching closely — small teams, new tools, and service businesses quietly shipping remarkable things. I want to pull those into the open, look at what makes them work, and share what I’ve learned from years in the CTO chair making similar calls.

Each edition is one practical idea, drawn from one of four threads:

Mindset

How the strongest builders think about leverage, speed, and risk — and the small shifts in judgment that change outcomes.

Products & technology

What’s being built that matters, why it works, and what the rest of us can borrow from it.

The optimization games worth playing

Where effort actually compounds for a team, and which games deserve your attention right now.

AI for operations

Where AI is already a clear win for how teams run, and how to put it to work this quarter — practical, grounded, real.

Who this is for

If you build products, lead a team, or just love watching great technology take off, you’ll feel at home here. The only prerequisite is curiosity.

The cadence

One edition a week. Short enough to read with your coffee, useful enough to act on by the afternoon.

That’s the climb. I’m glad you’re here for it.

One ask to start: reply or drop a comment on LinkedIn and tell me what you’re building or where you’re stuck. The best editions will come straight from what you’re actually wrestling with.

See you next week.

— Abhishek