From Chaos to Clarity: The Dashavatar Framework for Founders

10 timeless avatars. 10 eternal business mindsets. Inspired by Vishnu. Built for builders.

It started during bedtime.

My daughter was flipping through an Amar Chitra Katha, asking questions about the Dashavatar — the ten avatars of Vishnu. I told her how Vishnu takes different forms at different times, depending on what the world needs. She paused, thought for a moment, and asked, “If you had to be an avatar, which one would you be?”

That one question hit differently.

Because if you’ve ever built something from scratch — a startup, a product, a team — you’ve probably been each of those avatars, just in a different way. Different versions of you show up depending on the kind of storm you’re in. Some days you're swimming to survive. Some days you're fixing broken systems. Some days you're thinking ten steps ahead.

That night, something clicked. Here's how I now see the Dashavatar — not as mythology, but as a founder’s manual hidden in plain sight.

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It begins, like most startups do, in chaos. You’re surrounded by unknowns — no clarity, no support system, just instinct. That’s Matsya. The fish swimming through the flood. In those moments, your job is to protect your idea, hold onto what matters, and keep moving. It's survival mode.

But soon, you realise you can’t swim forever. You need something solid to stand on. Enter Kurma — the tortoise. He doesn't move fast, but he provides the foundation on which churn happens. Your processes, your culture, your early team — they become the platform that allows your business to take shape. Not glamorous, but essential.

Then comes the digging. Varaha. The boar who goes deep into the earth to lift it out of the darkness. As a founder, this is when you stop guessing and really start understanding the problem you're solving. You dig into user feedback, uncover the root cause, and sometimes realise — your initial assumptions were way off. It’s messy, but it’s what creates real value.

Every journey has its moment of rage — the Narasimha phase. The system doesn’t work, and polite strategy doesn’t cut it. You need to break rules, bend categories, do what no one else is willing to do. Maybe it's how you price, maybe it's who you hire, maybe it's a product decision that feels insane to others. But you do it anyway. Because you must.

Then, when the dust settles, you go small. That’s Vamana — the dwarf who quietly asks for three steps and ends up owning the world. You start with something tiny: your first paying customer, your first win, your first vertical. And then you expand. Calmly, intentionally, with a plan that others can’t see yet.

But as you grow, things start breaking. Ops get messy. Energy gets diluted. That’s when Parashurama shows up. The axe-wielding problem solver who doesn’t blink while cutting out inefficiency. At this stage, you’ve got to be honest — about bad hires, broken workflows, misaligned partners. This is the painful clean-up phase. Do it with love, but do it decisively.

And then, something shifts. People begin to look up to you. Your team, your customers, even the ecosystem. You’re no longer hustling in the dark — you’re leading. This is your Rama phase. It’s about doing the right thing even when it’s hard. Setting standards. Taking tough calls with grace. Being the brand, not just building one.

Eventually, you’ll need more than dharma — you’ll need strategy. That’s when Krishna enters. Playful, sharp, impossible to predict. This is when you realise business isn't war — it’s chess. You master distribution, you build influence, you storytell your way into hearts and markets. You stop playing the game. You start designing it.

But even Krishna must step aside one day. And that’s when the Buddha within takes over. You start letting go. Not out of fatigue, but wisdom. You realise that clinging too tightly to control is the enemy of growth. So you build culture, empower others, and detach from every little decision. You’re still leading — just more silently now.

And finally, there’s Kalki. The last avatar. The one that hasn’t come yet — and also, the one that must show up every time your company faces stagnation or decay. When your product gets outdated. When the market shifts. When something old must die so that something new can be born. This is the hardest one — because it asks you to destroy what you built. But it’s also what keeps you alive.

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So yes, my daughter asked me which avatar I’d be.

And I said — all of them, just not at the same time.

Because building a business is not about staying in one form. It’s about knowing when to switch — when to be the dreamer, when to be the fighter, when to step back, and when to burn it down to build again.

If you’re building something — I hope this helps you see your own journey more clearly.

And next time you're stuck, maybe the answer lies not in your business book — but in a bedtime story.