As part of The First Welcome in Silicon Valley series, we have been asking founders to share their stories of the first welcome they experienced in Silicon Valley. The people, the moments, and the gestures that stayed with them.

In this story, Pratyush Rai, Co-Founder and CEO of Merlin AI and Thine, shared how a handful of people shaped his earliest days in San Francisco.

Pratyush is building two companies out of his parent company Foyer Tech. Merlin AI is a browser-based AI assistant that brings models like ChatGPT, Claude, and Llama directly into your workflow. It has over 10 million users, was featured in a16z's top 50 AI apps, and Pratyush was named in Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia for Consumer Technology. His newer venture, Thine, is an AI co-founder for your life. It lives alongside you across conversations, meetings, and decisions, and helps you answer the questions you cannot fit into a prompt. Before all of this, Pratyush studied at IIT Kanpur, was President of the Students' Gymkhana, and worked at BCG.

His story is about the quiet, consistent generosity of people who remembered what it was like to be new.

"When I first moved to SF, my IITK senior Kshitij Jaggi, Founder of RISA, played a big role early on. He helped me get set up, find a place, and understand how the Bay Area works. That kind of guidance made a huge difference.

Another important person was Simar from Butternut AI, a YC founder who was incredibly generous with their time, helping me understand the ecosystem without expecting anything in return.

One thing SF does really well is this. When people know you are new, they genuinely try to help you settle in. They point you to the right places, introduce you to the right people, and just make the transition smoother.

A great example of that was Akshay Kothari, COO of Notion. We randomly pinged him on Twitter asking to join a hike he was organizing. He did not know us well, but still went out of his way to include us and even organized a few hikes that we got to be a part of. Those early morning hikes ended up being some of my best memories here. Great people, great conversations, and a very real sense of belonging."

Pratyush's story is a reminder that the first welcome in Silicon Valley is rarely one moment. It is a senior who helps you find a place. A fellow founder who gives you time without keeping score. And sometimes it is the COO of a billion dollar company saying yes to a cold DM about a morning hike. Each of those gestures, small on their own, added up to a city that felt like it wanted him there.

At eChai Startup Spotlight, we feature startups through conversations with their founders. In their own words, in their own voice. This is one of those conversations.

RehabVeda is a neurotechnology startup based in Ahmedabad that is approaching stroke and paralysis rehabilitation by working directly with the brain's own signals. Founded by Shyam Parmar and Neel Patel, the company uses brain-computer interface technology, AI, and a robotic glove to help patients work towards regaining movement. RehabVeda is incubated at IIT Roorkee and recently appeared on Shark Tank India Season 5.

We sat down with Shyam Parmar to hear the story.

What are you building and who is it for?

We are building a brain-computer interface based rehabilitation system that helps people recover from neurological conditions like stroke, paralysis, and motor impairments. Our system reads brain signals, understands the patient's intent to move, and converts that into real physical movement using a robotic glove. This helps rewire the brain through neuroplasticity and accelerates recovery. We are building this for stroke survivors, rehabilitation centres, and physiotherapists, especially in markets where recovery is slow, expensive, and inconsistent.

What does the journey look like so far?

We started working on brain-computer interfaces and neurofeedback systems a few years ago under our earlier work in cognitive enhancement. The first phase was building EEG-based systems for attention, meditation, and brain training. That gave us deep insight into brain signal processing and how these things actually work when real people use them.

RehabVeda emerged when we saw a clear gap in stroke recovery. Patients were putting in months of effort with very limited progress. Since then we have built multiple working EEG prototypes, developed real-time brain signal decoding pipelines, and created a full rehab system that integrates EEG, AI, and robotic actuation. We have started early trials and have collaborations with institutions like AIIMS and conversations with NIMHANS. Right now we are transitioning from prototype to structured clinical validation and scale.

How did you get to this problem and why did you decide to go all in on it?

The deeper we worked with brain data, the more we realised something important. Most treatments focus on the body. Very few directly train the brain. In stroke and paralysis, the core issue is not just muscle weakness. It is that the brain has lost its ability to communicate with the body.

At the same time, we were seeing neurological disorders rising, younger populations getting affected, and rehabilitation being slow, expensive, and mentally exhausting for patients and families. That is when the idea clicked. What if we could directly train the brain to regain control? That led us to go all in on BCI-based rehabilitation. Not just as a product, but as a long-term platform.

Tell us about the team.

We are a multidisciplinary team working at the intersection of neuroscience, AI, and hardware. I come from a background in robotics and AI. I have spent years building systems that interact with the physical world, and I have taught over 3,000 students in AI and robotics, which shaped how we think about making complex technology intuitive. Neel brings the rigour on the research and product side. Around us we have engineers on embedded systems and signal processing, AI developers building brain signal interpretation models, physiotherapists who create hyper-personal rehab protocols for each patient, and researchers in neuroscience and cognitive patterns. We are not a team that writes papers and stops there. We build, test, iterate, and deploy in real environments.

Walk me through the product. I am a stroke patient using RehabVeda for the first time. What happens?

You wear a lightweight EEG headband on your forehead. It starts capturing your brain signals in real time. Your hand is placed inside a robotic pneumatic glove connected to the system. We begin with a baseline session where the system learns your brain patterns when you try to move your hand.

Then comes the core experience. You are asked to think about moving your hand, even if physically you cannot. Our system detects that intent from your brain signals. And when the intent is detected, the glove actually moves your hand.

This creates a feedback loop that is hard to overstate. The brain sends a signal, the system detects it, the hand moves, and the brain starts relearning the connection it had lost. Over time, this strengthens neural pathways and begins restoring voluntary control. The entire system runs on a dedicated processing unit, no dependency on a mobile phone, which makes it reliable in clinical settings where you need things to just work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wyj6dQAlCY0

Where are you today in real numbers?

We are in early deployment and validation. We have multiple working prototypes deployed for testing, early patient trials running with feedback cycles, and partnerships with leading institutions in progress. There is a growing pipeline of physiotherapists and rehab centres that want to adopt this. On the business side, we are exploring a hardware-as-a-subscription model to keep it affordable, and we already have distributor interest from Singapore. The team is lean. We are not trying to be big right now. We are trying to be right.

What is one thing you understand about this market that most people have not figured out yet?

Most people think rehabilitation is a physical problem. It is not. It is a brain learning problem. The biggest gap in current rehab systems is that they do not actively engage the brain in rebuilding control. They rely on repetitive physical movement and hope the brain catches up.

And here is something most people miss entirely. Patients do not drop off because therapy is hard. They drop off because progress is invisible and slow. When you are doing the same exercises for months and you cannot see whether anything is changing, you give up. By directly connecting brain intent to visible movement, we make recovery something you can see working. That changes everything. Recovery becomes measurable, motivating, and neurologically effective. This shift from physical therapy to brain-driven therapy is what defines what we do.

What is the biggest bet you are making right now?

Our biggest bet is that brain data will become one of the most valuable datasets in healthcare. We are not just building a device. We are building a system that continuously learns from brain signals across different conditions. Stroke today. But also ADHD, cognitive decline, mental health. If this works the way we believe it will, the next chapter is the world's largest brain disorder dataset, personalised neuro-rehabilitation protocols, and expansion into neurological use cases that nobody is touching yet. That is what turns RehabVeda from a product into a platform for brain health.

Someone finishes reading this. What do you want them to do?

If you are a doctor or physiotherapist, talk to us about running pilot programmes. If you are a hospital, let us collaborate on structured studies. If you are an investor who understands that deep-tech in healthcare takes patience and conviction, let us have that conversation. And if you are a builder who wants to work on neurotechnology, come find us. We are at a stage where the right partnerships change the trajectory.

What kind of help would move the needle right now?

Clinical partnerships. Hospitals and rehab centres willing to run structured trials so we can validate at scale. Distribution partners who can help us get into hospitals across India and Southeast Asia. And investors who get that this is not a quick-flip business. This is long-term, high-conviction work in brain health. The right people in those three areas would change everything for us right now.

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Do check out RehabVeda at rehabveda.ai and follow their journey on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook. If what Shyam and Neel are building resonates with you, reach out to them directly. The eChai community is at its best when the right people find each other.

At eChai, we've been capturing stories of founders and the people who stood with them at the very beginning. These are the first hires, the ones who took responsibility early on, grew with the company, and shaped the founder's journey in ways far beyond their job description.

Here's how Maithili Shah, Founder of Syntelligence FinTech, remembers her first hire, Neelam:

Day 1— and I had to hire a team for my very first prospect.

It was a Saturday when I picked up the phone and called my college professors, asking if they could arrange campus interviews the very next day.

Sunday morning, five candidates showed up—not at a formal office, but at a temporary co-sharing workspace.

That’s where I met Neelam.

And there was something about her.

From the very first interaction, I could see it—dedication, curiosity, and a quiet, powerful grit. Over time, what stood out even more was her meticulousness. Give her a responsibility, and she would own it end-to-end—with structure, discipline, and deep accountability.

The early days were not easy.

A new industry. Global clients. Zero playbooks. Everything had to be built from scratch.

But where there is intent, there is always a way.

Marriage, motherhood, even major illness—nothing dimmed her spirit. She kept showing up. And not just showing up, but showing up with consistency and purpose.

I still remember those long nights onboarding new clients—figuring out processes, tools, software… often from scratch. Through it all, she brought a calm, methodical approach—and delivered beyond expectations, every single time.

Somewhere along the way, it stopped feeling like just work.

We started enjoying the build—the chaos, the challenges, the small wins, and the satisfaction of getting it right.

She joined as a fresher, and today she is leading the Advisory Services team. Over these 10 years, she has grown tremendously.

And today, as I look back, I feel immense gratitude.

From answering interview questions about hobbies… to now driving strategy, setting direction, and owning outcomes—it’s been quite a journey.

On 21st March, we complete 10 years of working together.

Upwards and onwards 🚀

At eChai, we've been capturing stories of founders and the people who stood with them at the very beginning. These are the first hires, the ones who took responsibility early on, grew with the company, and shaped the founder's journey in ways far beyond their job description.

Here's how Bhavesh Patel, Co-Founder of Brands.live, remembers his first hire, Jitendra Singh:

Thinking about my first hire takes me straight back to 2008, to a small room, a big dream, and one quiet, sincere guy called Jitendra Singh sitting next to me with an old PC and unlimited patience. 

How I found Jitendra

I didn’t “recruit” Jitendra in the traditional sense; I almost stumbled into him.  

Back then, I was just starting to translate my creative obsession into a real business, and I needed someone who could learn fast, stay curious, and not run away when things broke. 
Jitendra came in with a basic design and multimedia background, but what stood out was his humility and hunger to learn, not the resume.

We began working together with no clear JD, no HR process, just a shared belief that we could build something meaningful with design, motion, and technology at the core.

Multiple roles, one person

From day one, Jitendra became “everything”:  

- Designer in the morning, video editor in the afternoon, troubleshooter at night. 
- Motion graphics, 3D modeling, animation, post-production, whatever the project demanded, he would dive into it.
- When clients needed something “impossible by tomorrow,” he would stay back with me for those classic sleepless nights, quietly figuring it out frame by frame.

There were days when he was running renders on one system, coding or using scripts on another, and brainstorming storyboards with me in between.

We didn’t call it “full stack” then, but that’s what he was for our creative and tech workflows.

Learning technology together

The industry changed dramatically in these years, from Flash and ActionScript days to today’s advanced tools and workflows.

Every time technology shifted, instead of getting insecure, Jitendra got excited.  

We learned new software, new formats, new platforms side by side – sometimes from courses, mostly from trial and error and YouTube at 2 AM.

That habit of being a lifelong learner became part of our culture long before we had words like “learning organisation” on any deck.

What it changed for me as a founder

Before Jitendra, I was a solo hustler. After Jitendra, I became a founder who could think in terms of “we.”  
Knowing that there is one person who will stand with you in chaos, who will treat every project like his own, fundamentally changes your risk appetite.  

I could say “yes” to bigger, more complex projects because I trusted his ownership more than his skill set – the skills we could always build.

He forced me, indirectly, to grow up as a leader: to delegate, to explain vision, to give feedback, to think long term about people, not just projects.

What it meant for the company and our culture

If someone wants to understand what my companies are like from the inside, I just ask them to look at Jitendra’s journey. 

We have always bet on people who are:  

- Multi-disciplinary, not boxed by a title  
- Curious about technology  
- Comfortable with ambiguity  
- Ready to put in the hard, unglamorous hours when required

The “first hire energy” shaped everything – our culture of experimentation, our bias for learning over credentials, and our loyalty to the ones who build with us from the ground up.  

Even today, when we hire, I unconsciously look for a little bit of that Jitendra DNA, humility, ownership, and the ability to grow with the work, not just do the work. 

At eChai, we have been capturing stories of founders and the people who stood with them at the very beginning. These are the first hires, the ones who took responsibility early on, grew with the company, and shaped the founder's journey in ways far beyond their job description.

Here's how Himanshu Upreti, Co-Founder of AI Palette, remembers his first hire, Salomi Naik:

When my co-founder and I started AI Palette, we had a clear-eyed view of the problem we were going after. Food and beauty trends are deeply local, what sells in Tamil Nadu is not what sells in Maharashtra, and neither maps cleanly onto what's trending in Southeast Asia or the Middle East. We knew from day one that a team of people who all thought the same and ate the same food was going to be the worst possible foundation for that kind of work. Diversity, for us, wasn't a policy. It was a product decision.

Our first employee, Salomi Naik, found us through a cold message on LinkedIn which told us something immediately. She wasn't waiting to be discovered. She had come through multiple startups, had zero patience for bureaucracy, and a very high tolerance for ambiguity. In many ways, she wasn't just our first hire, she was a co-founder in everything but the formal title. She shaped how we worked, learned the real capabilities and limitations of AI by sitting closely with our data science teams, and eventually built and led our Innovation team, one that had a significant hand in shaping the product direction at AI Palette.

The ripple effect of that first hire was something I didn't fully appreciate until much later. Salomi set a tone, and that tone attracted more leaders like her. Our marketing leader, our VP of People Experience, the leadership team we built had strong women at the table, and it genuinely changed the quality of our decisions. There were moments, especially the harder people decisions, where that balance of perspectives made all the difference. Your first hire doesn't just fill a role. They set a template for what kind of company you're actually building.