Your Startup’s
Global Neighborhood

Startups grow faster when founders are plugged into the right conversations. That’s what eChai makes happen — connecting founders across cities, stages, and markets.

Where eChai Happens

Ahmedabad Bengaluru Boston Dubai Hyderabad London Melbourne Mumbai New York Pune San Francisco Singapore Surat Tallinn Toronto More cities ...

How Founders Plug Into eChai

Events, dinners, stories, and rituals — happening every week, in cities around the world.

Startups grow through people, momentum, and the right rooms.

eChai builds those rooms — across 25+ cities and 10+ countries — where founders connect, collaborate, and move forward together.

For Early-Stage Founders

It often starts with an evening meetup — founders gathering at a co-working space or café to talk through what they’re building. These weekly events, hosted with ecosystem partners across cities like Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, and San Francisco, have become a steady rhythm. From Urban Vault to iHub Gujarat to tucked-away startup corners of the Bay Area, these rooms are where context is shared, questions are welcomed, and momentum begins.

Many early-stage teams also find their footing at eChai’s Startup Demo Days — monthly sessions where founders pitch early, gather unfiltered feedback, and connect with investors and peers. Hosted in partnership with collaborators like CoKarma (Hyderabad), DevX (Mumbai), Provyz (Surat), GVFL (Ahmedabad), and Ideas to Impacts (Pune), these aren’t just pitch events — they’re launchpads.

To go deeper, there’s The Startup Code — a series of founder-led sessions hosted monthly in Pune, Ahmedabad, and online. These aren’t lecture circuits — they’re working sessions built around frameworks, real-world playbooks, and peer wisdom.

And when things don’t go as planned (which is most of the time), FailCode creates space for honest conversations. From Delhi to Jersey City to Bangalore, these small-group circles are where founders talk about missed bets, tricky pivots, and what they’d do differently — with zero stagecraft.

For Founders Growing and Scaling

As teams scale and challenges shift from survival to structure, eChai creates space for deeper, peer-driven conversations. ScaleUp Social brings together growth-stage founders navigating hiring, revenue, expansion, and operations. These are invite-only gatherings — small, off-the-record, and designed for founders to talk candidly with others moving through similar inflection points.

Sector focus becomes sharper too. eChai hosts regular founder gatherings across FinTech, D2C, ClimateTech, HealthTech, SaaS, DeepTech, EdTech, Mobility, and AI — creating context-rich environments where founders can go beyond introductions and talk shop with those building in the same trenches.

eChai’s Women Founders Initiative

eChai also runs ongoing programs that spotlight women-led businesses across the network. Through curated meetups, panels, and peer conversations, eChai’s Women Founders Initiative brings visibility and support to the founders who are building, scaling, and leading across sectors. These aren’t side tracks — they’re part of the core rhythm of how the community grows.

For Founders Building Across Borders

For founders on the move, Startup Touchdown offers soft landings in unfamiliar cities. These dinners and socials — hosted in places like San Francisco, Dubai, Singapore, and London — are not stage events. They're tables with context. Over food and first names, visiting founders get plugged into the pulse of a new city. We've done this with friends at Draper Startup House, Shunya Ekai, Monk’s Brew Club, and more — each time bringing together real conversations and new connections.

For Staying Plugged In Year-Round

Even when you’re not in the room, eChai keeps the rhythm going.

Stream captures what founders across the network are building, questioning, and sharing — a living pulse of lessons, updates, and perspectives.

The Reading Room curates the longform side — essays, frameworks, and deep dives that fuel clarity and reset thinking.

There’s also Startup Sports — the lighter side of connection. From cricket in Ahmedabad to pickleball nights in Bengaluru, these moments offer bonding that isn’t forced, and often spark ideas more naturally than any panel ever could.

This is how eChai works

Founders meet, share, and build with each other — across cities, stages, and stories.

The conversations keep going. The network keeps growing.

If you’re building, there’s a place here for you.

What’s New and Next at eChai

Quick updates from across cities, sessions, and founder meetups.

Last week, we hosted a Startup Touchdown panel in Dubai at Shunya Ekai — a room full of stories, ideas, and new connections.
In Palo Alto, our Startup Touchdown Dinner at Rooh brought together founders from across ecosystems over sharp conversations and shared experiences.
eChai AI x FinTech Social was held at Monk’s Brew Club in Singapore — founders swapped notes on building in high-regulation spaces.
Women Founders Sessions were hosted in Jaipur, Ahmedabad, and Hyderabad — with operators sharing what they’re building and how they’re figuring it out.
Startup Demo Days are coming up across India on May 31 — with early-stage founders pitching in Mumbai, Surat, Hyderabad, Pune, and more.
And yes — DevX won the eChai Startup Cricket Championship. Finals night was all momentum, both on and off the field.