Nuclei's Annual Letter 2023

To the Nuclei team,

In Nov’18, we made our first revenue. In Nov'19, we went live with the first bank, marking another significant milestone. These events laid the foundation for where we are today. Therefore, we celebrate these milestones every November, as our anniversary. This year being our 5th, makes it extra special. Looking back, there’s only gratitude towards every one of you, past and present.

During the early days, none of us imagined the immense joy this journey would bring us. Over these 5 years,we've grown as a team and as individuals, through various highs and lows. But the most incredible part of this journey has been the strong relationships we've built within the team, with our partners and our clients.

We started the company with a foundational principle of “Think long term” and over the past five years, we have witnessed this mental model slowly permeate into various aspects of our business. We prioritise cultivating high-trust relationships, over immediate revenue gains. We prefer people with the right attitude in our team, acknowledging that skills can always be developed over time. We encourage internal movements to foster holistic growth, gladly accepting the time investment required for coaching. We closely monitor our free cash flows, and don’t worry too much about revenue or profits. And while the earnings from existing products are important, we invest significantly in new product development for sustained future growth.

As we grow, the tangible benefits of long term thinking will become more evident across the spectrum. Last year, we bagged the highest number of contracts in a 12m period, onboarded the largest private bank in India, signed another long term agreement with our first banking client, closed our first banking clients in Indonesia & Oman, onboarded 50+ partners to our platform, integrated our products with strategic partners, grew business through our Dubai entity, registered our Singapore entity, witnessed multiple leaders in the team grow exceptionally and take independent charge, saw several team members courageously move into unfamiliar roles and do well, launched a key internal product - ‘Nuclei Championship’ - to strengthen team spirit and build a growth mindset, fortified financial foundation with our largest Bank overdraft facility till date, lowered our cost of capital while significantly increasing our liquidity and launched two new products for the Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and Ultra High Networth Individuals (UHNIs) segments. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

Alongside our incredible team, and with the opening up of new customer segments, geographies and industries, I am quite optimistic about the next phase of Nuclei’s growth.

I would like to take the liberty of wrapping up this letter with a book recommendation. “Let my people go surfing” by Yvon Chouinard (founder of Patagonia), is one of the most refreshing and responsible accounts of business building I have ever come across. Patagonia’s team has never lost touch with their core values, something which we would love to emulate at Nuclei. Being a small world, it’s also a company I grew up hearing about in Indore (India), because of their nearby state-of-the-art partner manufacturing facility in Pithampur (Indore). Do give it a read.

Wishing everyone a prosperous and peaceful 2024.

Best,

Ankur Joshi

Founder & CEO, Nuclei

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