Latest eChai Startup Feed
In one line - creating something truly rewarding and meaningful for YOURSELF.

Entrepreneurship is often portrayed as a high-adrenaline race to the top—full of endless possibilities. However, the thrill of the ride hides the realities of the bumpy road.

For a woman entrepreneur like me, these challenges are even more daunting. Balancing dual responsibilities of home and work is a series of never-ending hurdles.

Yet, every day I turn up to work, there’s a profound sense of fulfilment... It's the realization that you’re not just running a business—you’re living a dream that you're creating as you go!
Throughout the early years of my career, I longed for freedom—both financial freedom and the ability to control how I spent my time. This was something I couldn’t achieve while working for others. When I eventually took the leap into entrepreneurship, I was determined to create that same freedom for my employees and stakeholders.

Today, seeing Hearty Mart empower rural youth—many of whom didn’t have the opportunity to receive a good education or complete their studies—brings me immense satisfaction. These individuals, who once had no option but to work as daily wage laborers in the industrial estate near their village, now hold key managerial positions at Hearty Mart and are successfully running the show.

This transformation is, for me, the most rewarding aspect of my business. It’s a constant source of motivation to keep pushing forward and striving for even greater impact.
We turn WATTS into WOW!

As a founder at Enerlyf, my biggest high comes from the profound impact of transforming energy savings into significant benefits for both individuals and the environment. 

Enhancing comfort for those with access to air conditioning and empowering less privileged communities with reliable electricity brings immense satisfaction. 

The multifaceted benefits of my work include substantial energy efficiency gains, improved health and well-being, increased productivity, and meaningful contributions to climate change mitigation. Building a better world through innovations and inspiring change within the industry fuels a deep sense of purpose. 

The creative fulfilment of developing innovative solutions, achieving business milestones, and leading a dedicated team further amplifies this high. 

Ultimately, the joy of leaving a lasting legacy and aligning my work with personal values brings unparalleled fulfilment and reinforces the meaningful difference I'm making in the world.
As an entrepreneur, there’s nothing quite like the thrill of tackling a problem no one else has figured out, and then watching as your product, Veloxhire.AI, actually makes a difference in people’s lives. It’s that incredible moment when your team, your vision, and your product all click, and you realize you’re creating something that truly matters.
As an entrepreneur, I see that in my journey over the last 10 years, I have been able to make a difference in the IT industry and build a community of like-minded IT professionals from the ground up.
When a popular artist goes live on AllEvents

6x spike in North American ticket sales over the last two days, driven by an event featuring a well-known artist who chose AllEvents as their ticketing platform. 

This surge highlights the power of AllEvents as a global event discovery and ticketing platform, trusted by artists and event organizers worldwide. We’re proud to be the platform of choice for major events that connect with audiences across the globe.

As we continue to grow, we’re committed to providing a reliable, credible, and impactful platform for events of all sizes, anywhere in the world.

Looking forward to more exciting milestones ahead!
Any service-based company founder I meet, invariably at least once mention that they want to build a product or they want to make a transition from service-based to product-based business! 😀

While many entrepreneurs are pursuing it, very few succeed.

To learn the challenges faced by entrepreneurs in this pursuit, "Transitioning from IT Services to SaaS Products" was organized by eChai Ventures at IIMA Ventures.

Yash Shah shared his experiences of a successful transition for Service based to SaaS product company and we had some insightful interactions on various points.

Some of the learning nudgets from the meetup:

👉 Start promoting product as soon as you start building product not after it is ready to launch. Most of the founders wait till MVP is ready and then start looking for initial customers to get their feedback. Instead of that, it was suggested that it is preferred to start searching for clients as soon as the development of the product starts.

👉 The challenges we face in service based company would be more or less same ( client not paying on time, employees churn rate, etc.) even when the company is scaled. While in SaaS company, as the product scales, the problems would be different at each stage of 100 customers, 10000 customers or a million customers. So, as a founder, you have to be prepared for managing new challenges and finding solution for it.

👉 Customers can come up with N number of requests or features in your product. It is not advisable to go for building each feature that is requested. Customization can be done up to some level but you have to put some line to it. If customer is ready for paying customization, that then can be prioritized.

👉 Having a product based company requires a completely different mindset than having a service based company. So, if you are trying both then keep both the teams separate and do not mix them up.

Overall, it was a great learning experience and interacting.

Kudos to Jatin Chaudhary for his efforts to bring all the people together. Looking forward to attending more knowledge sharing sessions.
Oizom, a leader in the Environmental Monitoring domain, is hiring a Hardware Lead to join our innovative team in Ahmedabad! If you're passionate about embedded systems, IoT, and making a real impact on the environment, this could be the perfect role for you.

📍 Location: Ahmedabad, India (In-Office) 

Don't miss this chance to be part of a team that's driving change through technology!
... and it's a wrap for SGx5 🙌

Couple of months back, we had the graduation for SGx5 cohort in Goa. SGx is a 16 week pay-it-forward program by SaaSBoomi where founders of early stage 
#saas companies go through growth acceleration with mentors and wingmates who have been through the curve.

About a year ago, Anupama and I had the good fortune of being part of the SGx4 cohort for Clientjoy (Acquired by Synup). Our learnings were crisp, clear and actionable.

They helped us with improving our account activations, getting a handle on our ICP and focusing on the right metrics. I also witnessed them helping my batchmates with their US GTM, going about category creation and setting up sales processes.

If you are a SaaS company doing $500K to $1.5M in ARR, link to apply to SGx6 is in the first comment.

Here's what you can expect if you are selected:
- Goal setting and weekly check-ins for your GTM
- Sat morning calls to hold you accountable every week
- Play-books on things you think you already know but you don't - like SEO, outbound, PPC etc
- 2 founders who will work with you and get their hands dirty, and most valuable of all
- Genuine community that also happens to be the world's largest pay-it-forward community for SaaS.

In SGx5, I had the opportunity to work with Saurabh from PMaps along with Abhishek from WeCP | We Create Problems and Mrigank from PeopleStrong. It was extremely meaningful.

A big hug for all SGx5 cohort companies - Parin from Reelo, Akash from Pibit.ai, Priyank from UrSpayce, Paul from Two Minute Reports | GoX.ai, Ayush from Adbrew and Manoj from SOCLY.io.

And ofcourse, can't forget the mentors & wingmates Dhruvil, Pallav, Sachin, Shruti, Vengat, Abhi, Ankit, Kalyan, Sakshi, Deepti, Rahul, Naman, Sudheer, Vaibhav, Utkarsh and Aastha.

Looking forward to learning via teaching in SGx6 👊
With over 20 years of experience in the food and grocery retail business, I’ve realized that the industry can become more viable and popular by focusing on a few key areas. Now is the time to share these insights and offer guidance to a broader audience, particularly by connecting with small retailers beyond our franchise network.

In this series of videos/reels, I’ve discussed these topics in detail, including retail consumer insights, essential dos and don’ts in the food and grocery sector, and the emerging trends and role of technology in making food and grocery retail more effective.
There’s something truly special about hosting eChai Ventures Social meetups on the AllEvents terrace. With a stunning view and a relaxed, welcoming vibe, it’s the perfect setting to unwind and connect with fellow entrepreneurs.

These gatherings are agenda-free, allowing ideas to flow naturally. Conversations range from the latest AI trends and innovative marketing strategies to the challenges of running a business. The insights shared are always refreshing, and the atmosphere on the terrace adds an extra layer of inspiration.

It’s always a pleasure to welcome our eChai friends to AllEvents. The combination of great company, stimulating discussions, and that unbeatable terrace vibe makes each meetup memorable. Looking forward to many more inspiring evenings ahead.

Syed Nadeem Jafri
Jatin Chaudhary
Hardika Patoliya
Kumar Manish
Pankaj Bhimani
Jaydip Parikh 
At Momentum91, we've been hard at work understanding AI and their use-cases for mid-market and large firms. Late last week, I had the opportunity to share everything we've learnt so far with eChai Ventures at GVFL Limited.

Here are some notes:

👉 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐬 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐭
Other people also have AI. A lot of folks are building on top of AI and so there is increased competition in almost every vertical. Every niche software has like 3 bootstrapped competitors who are going to market via SEO. Also, product differentiators are difficult to communicate in the age of low attention spans. If you are starting distribution today, it needs a thorough re-imagination.

👉 𝐀𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐍𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐰/𝐖𝐞𝐚𝐤 𝐀𝐈
Instead of building systems that are kind of smarter at doing a lot of things, you might want to consider building multiple and separate systems that are very smart at doing a few things extremely well. Enterprises/companies will separately pay for solving specific problem areas and addressing their use-cases. The game is depth, not breadth.

👉 𝐍𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐀𝐈 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬
Companies like ClickUp and Notion have done an amazing job at bringing AI within their products. But they are still not AI native. They were conceptualised when AI was not around. They have fit AI retrospectively. There is a large opportunity for building Native AI experiences. Platforms and products that are conceptualised from ground-up in the age of AI. An example of this is a project management system where I can assign tasks to both humans and agents. It will demand a lot of capital and ingenuity but it can be done. Here's a good question to ask: What other 'systems of records' exist that can be made AI native?

👉 𝐒𝐨𝐥𝐯𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐚
AI will solve for analysis, predictions, pattern recognition etc. Most firms do not have accurate data. If you can figure out a way for a business to collect accurate data about their prospects, customers, employees, products, sales, etc - using AI, you can do anything and everything. Figure out a way as to how you will solve for collection, storage and organisation of accurate data.

There were a few other things that we discussed.

👉 Co-pilot and Autopilots
👉 AI wrappers
👉 AI & Funding
👉 Verticalising LLMs
👉 AI Safety
👉 Real-life implementations of AI by companies we have not heard about

This conversation was meant to be a starting point for folks thinking about building in the AI space. It was by no means exhaustive - but sort of a summary of all the research Harsh, Jay, Koushikram and I have been doing for the past few months.

If you want the deck, let me know in the comments and I'll send it over 😇

Thank you Jatin for the opportunity.

Until next time :)
✨ eChai's AI Meetup in Bengaluru with WeCP 💫

What a Success!!! eChai Ventures🎉

Thank you, Everyone, Anirudh Narayan and Pratyush Rai  for giving terrific insights and sharing all the know-how 💛

And Jatin Chaudhary for being a fabulous host!

We're glad everyone could make it and help drive the future of AI together!



Learning & Growing Through Meet-ups 🌱

I attended several meet-ups organized by eChai Ventures, and it was such a cool experience. As a teenager who's just starting out in the world of startups and AI, getting the chance to meet new people and hear their stories was eye-opening.

Every conversation helped me see things from different angles and broadened my perspective. Networking isn’t just for seasoned professionals it's for anyone who's eager to learn, share ideas, and grow.

I'm grateful for these opportunities to connect with others who are as passionate as I am about innovation and creativity. Thank you eChai Ventures & Jatin Chaudhary for creating such a welcoming space for young minds to explore and engage!
🚀 I am sure you missed this in #Mumbai..
.
I was honored to have been the speaker along with Rajendra Lora at the recent eChai Ventures community meetup at DevX, Andheri

🌟 Moderated by Shubham Dumbre, I shared my raw startup journey and it was an absolute thrill, especially with such an inspiring audience of young founders and top voice like Dr. Hashim Adil 🏆, including many incredible female leaders like Aanchal Verma🏆 students, and passionate professionals.

From practical startup-building advice to insights on hiring and achieving the extraordinary, our session was a heartwarming exchange of knowledge and motivation.

Remembering the words of Eleanor Roosevelt, "The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams."

Let's keep 'sailing' and 'scaling' together!

We were thrilled to host the exclusive eChai Ventures Social. Engaging in small group candid conversations with innovative hardware founders about designing cutting-edge hardware products was truly inspiring.

Here are a few highlights from the event!

Jatin Chaudhary Kuntal Shah Vishal Patel Darshak Patel Jainam Mehta Nimesh Patel Aditya Dave Rishab Goel Varun Shah Hetvi Vora

Reflecting on the insightful panel discussion at E-Chai Ventures, where I had the privilege to speak alongside Pathik Patel from Fit & Flex, Sumit 'Curl' Karranji from Curlin Professional, and Kena Shah from Inara. The topic, "Insights from Scaling Up," sparked engaging conversations about the challenges and triumphs we’ve encountered on our journeys as D2C founders.

A special thank you to Jatin Chaudhary, Co-founder of eChai Ventures, for orchestrating this opportunity. Your platform continues to inspire and empower entrepreneurs to share their stories and grow together.

Scaling a business is never a linear path, but with shared experiences and collective wisdom, we can navigate it more effectively. Here’s to continuing the journey, learning from each other, and striving for greater heights.

If you are also a D2C founder, do share the challenges you face in your journey.



Last month got an opportunity to present the idea of http://teziapp.com to ~100 D2C Founders 
@iHub. Got an immediate signup right on the spot with ofcourse many meetings lined up.

Excited towards building @teziapp

From the lens of an entrepreneur 🧐

Not only one but 3 speakers ?😯

Yes, I'm discussing how important it is to develop an entrepreneurial mindset and not to limit your thoughts as an employee only.✅

Recently, I attended the 'Sales Masterclass for Startups' at IIMA Ventures which was organised by eChai Ventures and it gave me a new perspective.🎉

What it feels like to be in the shoes of an entrepreneur can be understood when the respected speakers : Mr.Pankaj Bhimani, Mr. Bhavin Bhagat and Mr. Pratik Patel gave their insights.👏👏👏

Thanks to eChai Ventures for organising the masterclass and providing a great network opportunity to us.

Happy to announce that BabyOrgano Secures Seed Funding with Sauce.vc

My husband, Ripul Sharma, and I started BabyOrgano with just 2 lakhs, and today, securing seed funding from Sauce.vc feels like a dream come true.

As with any entrepreneurial journey, ours was not without its challenges.

When BabyOrgano launched, our mission was to use natural, safe ayurvedic products to redefine child wellbeing.

Bootstrapping our way through the initial years, we faced our fair share of challenges.

Despite the difficulties we encountered, we never wavered from our goal of giving parents reliable natural & ayurevdic wellness solutions for their kids.

In our third year, after countless meetings with potential investors, we found ourselves at a crossroads.

We knew we needed to expand but were unsure where we were going wrong.

That’s when we connected with our first investors Umesh Uttamchandani,& Devansh R. Majithia who believed in us.

All these couldn’t have been possible without the help and support of Ravi Uttamchandani from Faraz Wadhwania & Jeel Doshi. Their support was the first step toward a brighter future.

The unwavering support by my family, loyal customers, investors and my whole team laid the foundation for this latest milestone—our successful seed funding round led by Sauce.VC.

What does this mean for BabyOrgano?

This funding is a major step forward, enabling us to:

→ Expand Our Product Line: Introduce innovative, natural wellness products to more families.

→ Enhance Our R&D: Invest in developing new and improved solutions

→ Grow Our Market Presence: Reach more parents and children across the country.

This isn’t just a financial boost; it’s the icing on the cake and a reflection of our hard work and perseverance.

Thanks to the fantastic support of Manu Chandra, Yash Dholakia & Padma Milhotra for believing in our dream. 

We’re more determined than ever to make a positive impact on children’s health. A big thank you to our loyal customers and dedicated team for helping us achieve this! 

Here’s to the exciting future ahead!
🎥 Presenting RENÉE Cosmetics's First TVC Starring Mrunal Thakur! 🎥

We are thrilled to unveil a new chapter in the RENEE journey with the launch of our very first television commercial. Featuring the ever-talented Mrunal Thakur, this film is more than just an introduction to our latest product—RENEE Midnight Kohl Kajal. It’s a celebration of bold beauty and timeless elegance.

Our Midnight Kohl Kajal isn’t just a makeup essential; it’s a statement. Designed for those who believe in the power of their gaze, this kajal delivers intense, long-lasting color that lets your eyes do all the talking.

A special thanks to Mrunal Thakur for embodying the spirit of RENEE, and to our incredible team who brought this vision to life. This is just the beginning of what we have in store, and we can't wait to share it with you.

Stay tuned, because the magic is about to unfold on screens everywhere. ✨

https://www.reneecosmetics.in/products/renee-midnight-kohl-pencil-1-5-gm

TVC:

 
"Build Your Community, Let AI Do the Rest"

Attending the AI Innovations Meetup by eChai Ventures at GVFL Limited was nothing short of inspiring! 🚀 The energy in the room, the exchange of ideas, and the fascinating AI tools showcased made it a truly memorable experience.

Here are some key takeaways from the event:

1. AI in Hiring: Solutions like Veloxhire.AI are revolutionizing the screening process/pre-interviews, making bulk hiring more efficient and effective.

2. Market Analysis: Tools like Esri's ArcGIS AI are providing unparalleled insights through geographical data, helping businesses make informed decisions.

3. Creative AI: From Alphana AI's ability to generate social media marketing content from videos/podcasts to ImagineArt Midjourney's stunning image creation, the creative applications of AI are boundless.

4. Language and Learning: Chivox AI stands out as an incredible language tutor, while Riverside.fm AI and Tome AI offer unique community-building and storytelling capabilities.

5. Data Personalization: Clay AI and throxy AI are leading the way in personalized data analysis, offering deep insights into individual personas, and Smartly.AI helps businesses manage customer service as chatbot.

6. Developers' Heaven: With tools like GitHub and Character.AI AI, developers have powerful platforms to bring their AI ideas to life.

A huge shoutout to the speakers who shared their expertise Yash Shah, Tanmay Shanishchara, and Vinit B Yadav. This event was a great reminder of the transformative power of AI and its potential to reshape industries globally.

Special thanks to GVFL Limited for the amazing workplace & tea, and team eChai Ventures & Jatin Chaudhary for organising an insightful event on AI. 🙌 😊

Looking forward to seeing how these innovations will continue to evolve and impact our world. 
I recently had the pleasure of attending the eChai Ventures AI Day event in Surat, organised by Jatin Chaudhary and held at LOGICWIND. The event was an incredible opportunity to connect with some amazing founders and engage in insightful conversations. Traveling from Ahmedabad to Surat for this event was totally worth it!

Here are some of the fantastic startups and founders I had the chance to meet:

Mehul Fanawala & Manasi Shah from The Clueless Company®: They provide an innovative post generator tool that helps businesses create engaging content effortlessly.

Purvam Joshi from ZinQ: Their AI-powered solutions streamline business operations and enhance productivity.

Vipul Jain from narad.io | Intranet: They offer a platform that leverages AI for efficient data communication and management.

Mehul Shah from Counselvise: They specialize in providing comprehensive legal solutions through their advanced AI platform.

Vinod Singh Rajpurohit from Lexicon Networks: Their cutting-edge AI solutions enhance cybersecurity and data protection.

Yash Singhvi from WebOsmotic Private Limited: They developed an ingredient analyzer app that helps users make informed food choices.

Chintan P. from KissanAI: They provide AI-driven solutions to empower farmers and improve agricultural productivity.

Ravi Gandhi from Indiagpt.tech: They are revolutionizing the AI landscape in India with their advanced generative AI technologies.

Additionally, I had the chance to enjoy conversations with some awesome folks like Punit S. Gajera , Dipesh Gandhi , Brijesh Satasiya , Bhavesh Modi , Jaydip Golakiya , Vaishnavi Patel , Shreya Chopra, Nevil Mistry , Umang P , Vasu Chashmawala and Lomash Relia

A big thank you to Maitri H. Modi for hosting such a fantastic event and to Nachiket P. for providing the venue. I look forward to staying connected with everyone I met and continuing these inspiring conversations.


Meeting people is my passion, and listening to their stories is my fuel.

Thanks Jatin bhai( eChai Ventures ) for building a platform to connect people at great places (GVFL Limited) to exchange notes, ideas & most important to help each other in anyway possible.

Participants & Do connect with them:

Satya Mehta: A Wonderful human being & entrepreneur by heart (RoomPe (Hostel & Space Management Company) & MealPe - checkout), running eChai Social at Savvyswaraj Sports Club.

Christopher Fong: He is super smart & helpful guy. He is the founder of Xoogler (Ex-Google Community) , More than 33000 People community. He is Hiring for senior engineer, Growth Marketer, & Business Analyst - do connect with him.

Jitendraa Lakhwani: A Dear friend & running a leading HR firm based in Ahmedabad serving the globe. The sky is the limit to what they can deliver in Hiring. Do reach out to him for hiring requirements, especially overseas hiring.

Aditya Dave: Founder of Cibos Techno Solutions Pvt Ltd, He is building something innovative for food tech space.

Harsha Bhurani : Founder of Humming Bird Consulting, If you are looking for a hiring partner for senior roles then she is the one to be in touch.

DEBOPRIYA CHAKROBORTY: She is CEO of Antrapreneur The Business Incubator, if you are running a startup looking for ecosystem support & mentorship, she is the person to be in touch.

Anay Mashruwala: Promotor of M/s. Venus Engineering Works a company in field of Manufacturing and marketing of Industrial Valves. And A prof. In the field of Entrepreneurship.

Tanmay Shanishchara: Storyteller by heart & marketer by passion. Founder of MeDigit Advertising Private Limited. If you're in the marketing field looking to brainstorm ideas, he is the man to brainstorm with.

Niraj Harlalka: Education is passion for all but few execute on his passion & Niraj bhai is one of them,ON a mission to help children to learn Decision Making as a skill.

Balkrishna Agarwal: Founder, Tezi App - Connecting Brands to Retailers. If you are building in Fashion Tech reach out to him.

Ketul Shah: Computer Vision and Machine Learning (MLOps Enthusiast), AI team lead at Groundup.ai .
eChai Partner Brands

eChai Ventures partners with select brands as their growth partner, helping them expand market reach, drive revenue growth, amplify brand visibility, and strengthen hiring efforts.