I see where markets form
before they're named.
I build what makes them real.
First principles → learn the technology and the market in depth → build the solution that fits where they meet.
Currently building Sell in Europe, EU compliance infrastructure for Indian textile exporters. Previously built institutional adoption paths at Endaoment ($25M→$142M assets), KlimaDAO (~4% of global carbon market), Knotel Germany, and WikiRate.
I'm Vishal Kapadia. I'm based in Rome with my family. I studied experimental psychology and neuroscience at Oxford, then marketing at ESCP. Really one training: how to see what's happening underneath behaviour, then build commercially on it.
I learned how markets actually work inside a sixty-year-old textiles business with mills, media and retail, where the trading was unforgiving and no framework survived unless it worked on the floor.
Across my career I've built commercial paths for products that institutions needed but couldn't yet buy: open ESG data, on-chain carbon, crypto philanthropy infrastructure, flexible workspace in Germany.
I don't just build the go-to-market. I build the systems beneath it: the data architecture, the on-chain marketplace, the compliance engine. Earlier, I cut £14.6M for BNP Paribas UK as a strategy consultant at CVA, and founded 50Zero (acquired by ForTomorrow in 2022).
I write about how to see clearly when markets are still forming. I build the infrastructure that makes them real.
Currently building Sell in Europe.
Compliance is market access
Sell in Europe · Co-FounderEU regulation is making compliance a prerequisite for market access, but most exporters have no practical way to meet it. I'm building the layer that translates exposure into action across REACH, CBAM, EUDR, and Digital Product Passports.
Sell in Europe is that infrastructure, compliance operationalised for Indian textile exporters.
More on what I'm buildingBuilt, not theorised
I'm a daily practitioner with agentic tools: Cursor, Claude Code, Codex. I built and shipped a live AI-assisted compliance engine that codifies 32 EU regulations and 137 HS-code mappings into queryable logic.
I'm co-author of published LLM research (ESCP, 2024; SSRN), and I help non-technical clients adopt AI into real workflows.
The pattern, repeated
Every market I entered had the same structural gap: a credible product existed, but institutions had no framework for adopting it. The buyer was misidentified. The category didn't exist. Or the channel wasn't viable. I built that framework. I'm building it again now.
The data wasn't accessible
WikiRate · Founder & Executive DirectorCorporate ESG data was locked behind $10k/year Bloomberg terminals. I built the open platform, team, and institutional partnerships. Raised €4.2M from the European Commission. 6M datapoints across 145k companies, adopted by the UN and European Commission.
The channel wasn't viable
Knotel · Employee #1, GermanyKnotel operated through broker models globally, but German brokers were skeptical of the category. I adapted the incentive structure, built market credibility through events, and created a channel where none existed. €6M ARR in year one.
The category didn't exist
KlimaDAO · Head of Partnerships & GrowthOn-chain carbon had no institutional language. I coined 'digital carbon', built the institutional narrative, and led the partnership architecture preceding Carbonmark. The ecosystem captured ~4% of the global voluntary carbon market, and I closed $2.3M in institutional deals, including a $400K landmark with Polygon.
The buyer was misidentified
Endaoment · Founding Head of GrowthEveryone assumed the buyer was the crypto donor. It was the wealth advisor. I repositioned the platform around advisors retaining AUM and built the referral architecture through distribution partners (Coinbase, Robinhood, Kraken, BNY Pershing) and RIA networks. Hired the first salesperson and handed off a running commercial engine. Assets processed grew from $25M to $142M.
Seeing clearly in forming markets
Essays on perception, institutional adoption, and building before the category is settled.
Clearing the Signal
On withdrawal, flourishing, and the difference between light that is generated and light that is borrowed
The Second Practice
On finishing what you start thinking. Why the gap between perception and output is where most depth gets lost.
The Formation Problem
On how childhood shapes the capacity for depth, and why some elite systems suppress it.
On Not Striking the Arm
On what to do when your will meets a system that wants to suppress it.
Let's talk.
Whether you're building something pre-category, backing one, or hiring for one, I'm interested. Market formation, institutional adoption, AI-native infrastructure.