Naval and Nivi sit down with Guillermo Rauch (Vercel), Blake Scholl (Boom Supersonic), and Max Hodak (Science) on AI as the next industrial revolution. The conversation covers software factories and waste tokens, vibe coding hardware (Blake's turbine blade), the regulatory frontier (why China's FDA is beating ours), and the autonomous company (what it means when your job becomes training the agent). Worth watching for how three founders building in very different stacks converge on the same questions.
Where founders meet, since 2009
eChai Ventures has been bringing founders together since 2009. Across 25+ cities, founders at every stage meet at eChai to discover the ecosystem, find their people, and grow together. Explore events by city and see who's going, meet the founders behind them, and catch what the network's rating in polls, looking for in asks, learning the hard way in FailCode, watching and recommending on the watchlist, trading takes on the books and podcasts worth your time, saving long-form to come back to in the reading room, or sharing which AI tools they use, and for what, on HowIAI. See the startups founders are showing, and the ones the network's backing, on Demo Day. The gallery shows what these gatherings are actually like. Create your profile so other founders know what you're building.
Find your city
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Events to discover
See all โHighlights across eChai
See gallery โA look at what recent eChai gatherings around the network were like.
The feed
See allFounders to meet
A few of the founders across the eChai network. Tap a card for the full profile, what they're building, and how to reach out.
Founder, Bootstrapped, in Climate / clean energy + Mobility / EV + Media / creator.
Urban Voices (urbanvoices.in) is an independent news and views platform dedicated to "cities for people." It covers urban issues across India โ transport, environment, housing, planning, and civic innovation among other urban issues.
- Angel / seed investors for my startup
- Enterprise / GCC buyer intros
- Senior hires for my team
- Founders past $1M ARR
- Founders with US / global reach
- Engineering leaders / CTOs
- People obsessed with AI workflows
Co-founder and Investor / angel, Profitable and Raising now, backing Syndicate / scout and Family office, in Fintech + SaaS + Web3.
- Startups to invest in
- Enterprise / GCC buyer intros
- Founders past $1M ARR
- Founders with US / global reach
Product (PM), Seed.
Founder, Pre-seed and Seed, in Agritech.
- Angel / seed investors for my startup
- Connect to milk federations or large diary brands
Co-founder, Pre-product (building), in SaaS + Vertical SaaS + AI/ML.
- Capital for my next round
- Growth & marketing leaders
- People obsessed with AI workflows
Founder, Bootstrapped, in HR tech / future of work.
- Founders & operators in my city
Co-founder, Bootstrapped and Profitable, in Media / creator.
eChai.Ventures
- Engineering leaders / CTOs
- Product leaders
- Growth & marketing leaders
- People obsessed with AI workflows
Founder, Bootstrapped and Profitable, backing Angel and Syndicate / scout, in Fintech + SaaS + Deeptech.
Transforming my legacy tech business, Upsquare Technologies, into a Lab that does experiments with Digital & Physical AI, Robotics, Reusable Systems, models & architectures.
- Startups to invest in
- Bootstrapped, profitable founders
- Engineering leaders / CTOs
- Product leaders
- Growth & marketing leaders
- Others in my exact role to swap notes with
- Founders & operators in my city
Founder, Pre-revenue / pre-PMF and Bootstrapped, in B2B / enterprise + AI/ML + Cybersecurity.
Co-founder, Profitable, in Media / creator.
- Enterprise / GCC buyer intros
- Founders past $1M ARR
- People obsessed with AI workflows
- Founders & operators in my city
Founder, Pre-seed, in Healthtech.
Fitness community of 37K users, making fitness fun through Rewards, Challenges, and National Fitness Leagues backed by DST, IT Ministry, IIMA Ventures, i-Hub & Mahindra Rise.
Now pivoting to B2B2C Corporate Fitness Leagues and urgently looking for a CTO / Tech Co-founder.
- Angel / seed investors for my startup
- Intros to paying customers
- A co-founder
- Founders past $1M ARR
- Engineering leaders / CTOs
- Growth & marketing leaders
- Co-founder
- Fundraising
- Distribution
Engineer / builder and Educator / mentor, Seed and Profitable, backing Pre-seed / seed and Strategic / corporate, in SaaS + D2C / consumer + E-commerce / retail.
- A co-founder
- Senior hires for my team
- A startup role I would love, at any kind
- Growth & marketing leaders
- Founders & operators in my city
Founder and Agency, Bootstrapped and Profitable, backing Pre-seed / seed and Growth, in B2B / enterprise + AI/ML + Marketplace.
- Founders solving interesting business problems
- Conversations around growth, sales, and scaling
- Hiring
- GTM strategy
- Sales
- Content
- AI
Co-founder, Bootstrapped, in DevTools / infra and Web3.
eChai Ventues
- Product leaders
- Growth & marketing leaders
- Founders & operators in my city
Founder and Educator / mentor, Pre-revenue / pre-PMF and Pre-seed, in Healthtech + Deeptech + Mobility / EV.
- Angel / seed investors for my startup
- Startups to invest in
- Founders with US / global reach
- Bootstrapped, profitable founders
- Founders & operators in my city
Solo founder and Advisor, Profitable, backing Strategic / corporate, in Vertical SaaS + AI/ML + Deeptech.
Working on a lot of interesting tech projects, alongside the Investment Banking firm
- Enterprise / GCC buyer intros
- Partners for my services or agency
- Engineering leaders / CTOs
- People obsessed with AI workflows
Entrepreneur | Startup Mentor | IIMA Guest Speaker | Speaker.
- Intros to paying customers
- Enterprise / GCC buyer intros
- Founders with US / global reach
- Bootstrapped, profitable founders
- Growth & marketing leaders
Founder and Solo founder, Pre-revenue / pre-PMF and Seed, in SaaS and E-commerce / retail.
- Capital for my next round
- Founders past $1M ARR
- Founders with US / global reach
- Bootstrapped, profitable founders
- Growth & marketing leaders
- People obsessed with AI workflows
Co-founder, Seed, in AI/ML and Healthtech.
AI that reads any health document and turns it into clinical intelligence.
- Enterprise / GCC buyer intros
- Founders with US / global reach
Founder, Series A, in SaaS + B2B / enterprise + AI/ML.
Building an operating system for businesses that integrates with ERPs and provide actionable insights on operations and workflows
Network
Latest from the network
Stories, podcasts, and notes from across eChai. A few of the most recent. tap any one to read in full.
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Nikunj Kothari built Nock: a Claude Code skill that pitches like him
Nikunj Kothari (partner at FPV Ventures) used Claude Code to build Nock, a personal skill grounded in his real conversations. He pulled 200+ founder pitch notes captured by Granola, narrowed to ~53 with the strongest debate, layered in his essays on the kind of founders he loves, then iterated against 5-10 real decks until the output matched what he'd actually ask in the room. Founders raising can try it at nikunjk.com/nock; VCs who want their own can build at nikunjk.com/buildnock.
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Can Tech Legends Find the Liar? Mafia with Founders Fund
Founders Fund gathered Sam Altman, Palmer Luckey, Bryan Johnson, Dylan Field, Moxie Marlinspike, Tim Urban, Ryan Petersen, Liv Boeree, Cyan Banister, Trae Stephens, Josie Zayner, and Michael Solana for an evening of Mafia, the murder-mystery parlor game. Players are secretly assigned roles and must use deception and debate to eliminate the opposing team before they are outnumbered. Worth watching for how some of the sharpest people in tech read each other under pressure.
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How eChai Built a Global Startup Community from Ahmedabad
Jatin Chaudhary on the Magenta Insights podcast, telling the story of eChai's journey from casual chai meetups in Ahmedabad in 2009 to a global network across Bengaluru, Mumbai, Singapore, London, and San Francisco. The conversation covers community-led growth, why impact matters more than numbers, the economics of running a community platform, and what most communities get wrong about sustaining engagement.
Join founders across 25+ cities
eChai Partner Brands
eChai Ventures partners with select brands as their growth partner. Together we explore new ideas, open doors, and build momentum across the startup ecosystem.