# Journal

I've always written things down. Graduation speeches and a farewell lecture when I taught; letters to my kids on Medium; and for years, most Mondays, a note to everyone at SuperGaming — the launches, the losses, the metaphors I reached for at 6am. Lightly edited; my words.

## Notes to my team (2022 – 2026)

- [When It Rains It Pours](https://roby.us/journal/when-it-rains-it-pours.html) — July 6, 2026. When it rains it pours — as Pune has reminded us these last three days. That's how the last few months at Super have felt too: everything dr
- [The 101st Blow](https://roby.us/journal/the-101st-blow.html) — June 23, 2026. Some blessings arrive just like the monsoon we're waiting on right now — late, loud, and hopefully worth the wait.
- [One More Chance](https://roby.us/journal/one-more-chance.html) — May 4, 2026. On May 1, Indus went live across the EU and the US. Five years of work — finally out in the world. The early signals are mixed: encouraging 
- [Fools First](https://roby.us/journal/fools-first.html) — April 1, 2026. Today is April Fools' Day. Maybe the right day for entrepreneurs to tell the truth. Because everyone who tries to build something that doesn
- [The Yellow Band](https://roby.us/journal/the-yellow-band.html) — February 5, 2026. I've been unwell this past week and largely bedridden — something I haven't experienced in a long time. It gave me unexpected space to refle
- [Fall in Love With the Final 5%](https://roby.us/journal/fall-in-love-with-the-final-5.html) — January 1, 2026. Happy New Year. 2025 was a year of uncertainty — and we survived it. Not by waiting for certainty, but by building through it. We kept shipp
- [Unshackled](https://roby.us/journal/unshackled.html) — December 1, 2025. After a lot of introspection, we've named this phase for what it must be: Unshackling SuperGaming.
- [It Will Belong to Brazil](https://roby.us/journal/it-will-belong-to-brazil.html) — September 16, 2025. Back from Brazil. Meeting players and our partners in person was invaluable — a market with such high gaming literacy that players instantly
- [Decades Happen in Moments](https://roby.us/journal/decades-happen-in-moments.html) — August 22, 2025. Sometimes decades happen in moments, and sometimes moments feel like decades. Today feels like both.
- [All Good Things Happen in June](https://roby.us/journal/all-good-things-happen-in-june.html) — June 30, 2025. All good things happen in June. I'm happy — and relieved — to let everyone know that we've closed our next round of funding.
- [Light at the End of the Tunnel](https://roby.us/journal/light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel.html) — April 1, 2025. No April Fools jokes today. Instead, an honest retrospect.
- [The Pulse of the Industry](https://roby.us/journal/the-pulse-of-the-industry.html) — March 25, 2025. Last week I was at GDC — I've been to every one since 2011. This was comfortably the emptiest expo floor I've ever seen; more sales tools th
- [Perception, Action, Will](https://roby.us/journal/perception-action-will.html) — January 2, 2025. Welcome back to 2025 — it's going to be our toughest year, and also the largest opportunity we've ever had.
- [If the Only Prayer Was Thank You](https://roby.us/journal/if-the-only-prayer-was-thank-you.html) — December 2, 2024. Thanksgiving took over 300 years to become a holiday — largely because one woman championed it, relentlessly, year after year, until a presi
- [Lead Bullets, Not Silver Bullets](https://roby.us/journal/lead-bullets-not-silver-bullets.html) — November 25, 2024. I'm writing this from a room in Helsinki — the cold ocean on one side, the Supercell office on the other.
- [A Game Only Dies by Suicide](https://roby.us/journal/a-game-only-dies-by-suicide.html) — October 21, 2024. A solid weekend. This week, I want all of us to remember one thing, and one thing alone:
- [Show, Not Tell](https://roby.us/journal/show-not-tell.html) — October 17, 2024. Our official launch day was better — fewer glitches, smoother running. We hit real milestones, and got a real awakening about how much bette
- [We Launched Indus](https://roby.us/journal/we-launched-indus.html) — October 15, 2024. Today, we are launching Indus — a day earlier than planned. Its significance lies in this pivotal moment: today, we launched. This is the cu
- [30 Days](https://roby.us/journal/30-days.html) — August 26, 2024. 30 Days. That's how many we have left to Launch.
- [Four Years in the Making](https://roby.us/journal/four-years-in-the-making.html) — August 20, 2024. This weekend was a major milestone — the release of our Open Beta. This moment has been four years in the making, and it marks just the star
- [The Year of Indus](https://roby.us/journal/the-year-of-indus.html) — June 10, 2024. I turned 46 last week — thank you for all the wishes, they made my day.
- [The Trough of Sorrow](https://roby.us/journal/the-trough-of-sorrow.html) — April 15, 2024. This weekend I met players in Raipur and Lucknow — some drove over 200 km for a two-hour meetup. The love for the game is there. So is the h
- [Feedback Is a Gift](https://roby.us/journal/feedback-is-a-gift.html) — April 1, 2024. Our best GDC yet — because everyone was talking about Indus. But it's going to take more than the excitement around us to reach the next lev
- [One Week Holds Everything](https://roby.us/journal/one-week-holds-everything.html) — February 5, 2024. This week is off to a tough start — over the weekend we lost a teammate's mother to a long illness. My prayers are with their family.
- [The Tree My Parents Planted](https://roby.us/journal/the-tree-my-parents-planted.html) — September 21, 2023. Today is the 21st of September — probably the most important day in my calendar growing up. It's my parents' birthday, and the day, in 2005,
- [Onam, and Three Steps of Humility](https://roby.us/journal/onam-and-three-steps-of-humility.html) — August 29, 2023. Happy Onam. The legend of King MahaBali is really a lesson in humility, taught in three steps.
- [Hard Decisions](https://roby.us/journal/hard-decisions.html) — June 21, 2023. I have some tough news to share today. We've decided to part ways with some of our team as part of an overall reorganization, to focus on th
- [The One Who Put the Super in SuperGaming](https://roby.us/journal/the-one-who-put-the-super-in-supergaming.html) — April 17, 2023. I am the bearer of the worst kind of news today — the kind that leaves you punched in the gut and questioning almost everything you do. We l
- [Many a Mile to Go](https://roby.us/journal/many-a-mile-to-go.html) — March 17, 2023. Four GDCs, and six years since we first met Bandai Namco.
- [Opportunities in Disguise](https://roby.us/journal/opportunities-in-disguise.html) — February 1, 2023. Today marks four years since we founded SuperGaming.
- [Indus on Times Square](https://roby.us/journal/indus-on-times-square.html) — August 15, 2022. Proud to see our game, Indus, on New York's Times Square as part of the Independence Day celebrations.

## On Medium (2018 – 2022)

- [Happy 8th Birthday, Nathen!](https://roby.us/writing/happy-8th-birthday-nathen.html) — May 23, 2022. A birthday letter to my son, a year after the one I wrote for his seventh.
- [Nathen Turns 7](https://roby.us/writing/nathen-turns-7.html) — August 24, 2020. A letter to my son on his seventh birthday.
- [The Best Deals Don't Look Like Deals](https://roby.us/writing/the-best-deals-dont-look-like-deals.html) — August 24, 2020. A reminder to myself, borrowed from James Beshara from my YC batch (W2012).
- [Teaching My Kids to Code / Quarantine Edition](https://roby.us/writing/teaching-my-kids-to-code-quarantine-edition.html) — April 20, 2020. Here is my experience in teaching Kids how to Code.
- [Eulogy from a Grandson](https://roby.us/writing/eulogy-from-a-grandson.html) — November 20, 2018. (posting on behalf of my brother — Mathew aka Siby)

## Letters & speeches (2001 – 2026)

- [Dare, Do and Win](https://roby.us/writing/dare-do-and-win-2001.html) — April 2001. My graduation speech to the COEP Class of 2001.
- [Transference — My Dream](https://roby.us/writing/my-dream-2001.html) — February 1, 2001. Written the day we resigned from Cognizant, our first job, to start something of our own.
- [Ten Insights — Farewell to the Class of 2004](https://roby.us/writing/ten-insights-coep-2004.html) — July 11, 2004. Five years after walking out of COEP's gates, back to speak to the graduating class.
- [Farewell Lecture — CDAC Fall 2006](https://roby.us/writing/cdac-farewell-2006.html) — October 15, 2006. Written for the batch that marked my thousandth student in seven years of teaching.
- [A Best Man's Toast](https://roby.us/writing/best-man-toast-2006.html) — September 11, 2006. A balanced equation, a clean house, a marketing campaign and a mainframe — four prayers for one wedding.
- [YC Demo Day — the script Paul Graham wrote](https://roby.us/yc-demo-day.html) — March 2012. Paul Graham wrote our Demo Day script on a whiteboard. The whiteboard, the script, the deck and the video.
- [Welcome Christelle as a Co-Founder](https://roby.us/writing/welcome-christelle-cofounder-2020.html) — August 5, 2020. A year to the day after we moved into the SuperGaming office: why we named Christelle a co-founder.
- [Series A — Thank You](https://roby.us/writing/series-a-thank-you-2021.html) — July 20, 2021. Four months after the term sheet: thanking everyone who got SuperGaming's Series A over the line, and recommitting.
- [Three Guys, a Dog and a Dream](https://roby.us/writing/three-guys-a-dog-and-a-dream-2022.html) — April 22, 2022. Opening the Indus studio in Charlie's House: why the house carries our dog's name, and why the next generation of games is built where it al
- [Happy Birthday, and Two Years](https://roby.us/writing/sia-two-years-2022.html) — August 28, 2022. A birthday letter to Sia, our lead investor at Skycatcher — and a promise.
- [For Chella](https://roby.us/writing/for-chella.html) — April 17, 2023. The notes I wrote to the team when we lost Chella — the week it happened, a year later, and on his birthday.
- [India, Like You've Never Seen It Before](https://roby.us/writing/india-like-never-before-2023.html) — July 14, 2023. Outside Indus: a landslide, a Jimny, a Thar, and where the road ends — Indus begins.
- [Honest, No-Bullshit Supporters](https://roby.us/writing/visceral-testimonial-2024.html) — March 7, 2024. A short thank-you to our investors at Visceral Capital.
- [This Award Belongs to Our Community](https://roby.us/writing/google-play-best-of-2024-remarks.html) — November 18, 2024. My answers for Google Play when Indus won Best of 2024: Made in India.
- [India's Global Moment — Panel Answers](https://roby.us/writing/panel-answers-cnbc-skycatcher-2025.html) — September 30, 2025. My prepared answers for the CNBC × Skycatcher panel: the Online Gaming Bill, building BRX on $15M instead of $100M, the shooter augmentation
- [Thank You, from 3 Guys, a Dog and a Dream](https://roby.us/writing/thank-you-tim-cook-2026.html) — April 21, 2026. A note to Tim Cook after his farewell letter — on what the Apple developer platform meant to three guys from Pune.
- [Charlie's House Day — Twenty Years](https://roby.us/writing/charlies-house-day-2026.html) — February 19, 2026. Twenty years of Charlie's House. Charlie was our Labrador — and a founder. Be the person your dog thinks you are.
- [Game Over — the Enhanced Edition](https://roby.us/writing/wedding-toast-pranjal-mechele-2026.html) — October 16, 2026. A wedding toast for Pranjal and Mechele, written as patch notes — two years to the day after we launched Indus, and twenty years after my fi