On the TechTO stage ×1
First seen on the TechTO stage in 2026. Every talk is searchable — ask the archive about Ujwal ↗
In their words
I think this halfway is not really a position. It's a squeeze.
a buyer will always wait until the 11th hour to pull out all of your vulnerabilities and pull the price down. That's how the game works.
They either use financial model A or financial model B. So, you have to pick a lane.
More from TechTO ×1
Around the web ×3
Quick answers
What is Orbit?
Orbit's about page, checked September 23, 2026, describes "risk intelligence for enterprise finance teams", starting with FX, and lists Ujwal Arkalgud as Co-Founder & CEO alongside Mingze Deng (CPO) and Maciek Pawlowski (CTO). The site says it is backed by Diagram and Sagard.
What was MotivBase?
Corum Group, its sell-side adviser, wrote on July 11, 2023 that Arkalgud and Jason Partridge co-founded MotivBase in 2015 to combine cultural anthropology and AI, that it was bootstrapped, and that Lux Research bought it in April 2022, after which Arkalgud became an executive vice president at Lux.
What are the two games founders play?
On the TechTO stage in September 2026 he described game one as building IP a strategic buyer must acquire, and game two as building a profitable business that runs without the founder. He said his company played both at once, and that confusion cost it a 2019 private equity deal that fell through at the last minute.
Which company was the 2019 deal about?
He did not name it on stage. He said the lessons carried him from 2019 to 2022 and a successful exit; the timeline matches MotivBase, which Lux Research acquired in April 2022, per Lux's announcement of April 28, 2022.