Today’s Mumbai Start-up Meet with eChai Ventures at DevX Andheri was nothing short of inspiring!
No panelists this time – just a fantastic group of startup enthusiasts seated in a circular setup, sharing their unique stories. We heard everything from innovative startup ideas, the inspirations behind their entrepreneurial journeys, and the real challenges they’re facing at work. It was a truly collaborative and insightful session!
A huge thank you to Jatin Chaudhary, the driving force behind eChai Ventures, for organizing this incredible event. And a big shoutout to our venue partner, DevX for providing the perfect space for these meaningful conversations!
Lastly, a special thanks to everyone who attended and asked such thoughtful questions – your engagement made today’s meetup extra special.
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.
This past Saturday, I had breakfast with 4 amazing founders and snagged two leads for my own #MicroSaaS!🤩
In a small, relaxed setting like a cafe, conversations become incredibly focused and insightful.
Here's why I loved it 👇🏻
✅ Deep Dives: Each founder had the chance to delve into their product and their current challenges. It was a true exchange of ideas and experiences.
✅ Candid Connections: Unlike the usual "pitch perfect" environment, the breakfast table fostered open dialogue. Everyone felt comfortable sharing honestly, without fear of judgment.
This "Breakfast Social" format proved to be a fantastic way to:
Learn from Each Other 🙌🏻 We all gained valuable insights from hearing each other's stories and perspectives.
Build Stronger Connections 🥂 The relaxed setting fostered deeper connections than a typical networking event.
Understand the Ecosystem ✨ It provided a valuable glimpse into the current startup landscape.
Who's interested in joining the next Breakfast Social? 👀
I'm Vikram from Rootle.ai. We are Voice GenAI company helping business scale their market outreach in Sales, Hiring and Support. Feel to connect for trying out Voice GenAI or chat over AI and tech trends.
Bhavesh Patel
I'm bhavesh Patel, co-founder of Brands.live. We help businesses to get Branding and marketing ready by providing tools and content with Ai. Looking forward to connecting and learning.
Nisarg Pandya
I’m Nisarg Pandya leading drivebuddyAI (https://drivebuddyai.co) - we’re building ADAS (Advanced driver assistance system) for Commercial Vehicles.
Our advantage is India and intelligence developed on India - one of the most complex driving ecosystem in the world.
We are developing AI for measuring drivability of drivers for fleets, insurability of fleets for insurance and building intelligence from human driving to make autonomous driving possible in India and for the world to handle complex scenarios.
Yash Shah
Hi everyone. I am Yash, Co-founder at momentumventures.io
At Momentum, we help SaaS firms build better products, faster 🔥
Shreyan Mehta
I'm Shreyan Mehta, a seasoned software engineer with over a decade of experience in programming.
I'm deeply immersed in the world of technology, from GPT, diffusion, and langchain to MERN stack development and AWS. As the dedicated Product Manager and Karta Dharta of Asambhav AI firm, I've had the privilege of creating more than 30 generative ai products, some inhouse and some for clients, Most of them having thousands of users. We help founder(s) / company from idea in mind phase to money in pocket phase end to end.
The product I showcased on the day was app.sitesgpt.in (open in desktop)
If there is anything i can help with feel free to reach out or learn more about me on LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/devsm/
Himani Kankaria
Hey all. I am Himani Kankaria, founder at Missive Digital, where we help SaaS product companies with Minimum Viable Strategy around content, SEO, social media, and email marketing for their GTM and scale-ups.
Amrit Trivedi
Hey guys, Amrit Trivedi here from GreyDesk India. I have 12+ years of experience in Mobile App development. Over the past two years, I have worked closely with my team on GPT, stable diffusion, LangChain, and custom server setups aimed at reducing LLM training and generation costs.
If anyone needs help setting up a custom server, feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/amrit-trivedi-b09a5747
Pratik Vohera
Hey Folks, Myself Pratik Vohera, CTO @ Petpooja, leading the Product & Technology part. Doing exciting work in enabling AI/ML capabilities in Platform. I'm looking forward to connecting and learning.
Sohil Patel
Hello All, Sohil Patel, CTO @ Oizom, working on interesting AI ML projects for IoT and GIS based data. Happy connect with you all. Best way to connect and learn about me is: https://echai.ventures/speakers/sohil-patel
Ekta Shah
Hi everyone! I'm Ekta, co-founder of Biziverse. We aim to make every small business in India a Smart Business by making ERP and CRM software accessible, easy and affordable.
We currently use AI primarily for marketing but eagerly exploring leveraging its power for even better analytics.
Ketul Shah
A pleasure to meet you all! This is Ketul, working at https://groundup.ai/ as AI team lead ...
Also, I am working on
- Automated voice-based communication - LegalTech - Industrial computer vision based products
Would be happy to connect with you - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ketul93/
Thanks a ton eChai team [@Jatin Chaudhary ] for the efforts 🫡
Aditya Shah
hi everyone, Aditya here...i am the founder and CEO of Because - branding and marketing agency www.teambecause.com
lot of our image generation and voice overs and some editing hacks are with AI
From the last meetup at GVFL Limited's swanky premise in Ahmedabad. A room full of energetic, curious and inspirational entrepreneurs...
This social happened to be one of the most interesting event I've been part of.
It was awesome meeting Kushagra Pandya, who is building vidyo.ai - an impressive AI based video editor & currently boasting of 2mn+ users. Deep insights & candid conversations.
It's heartening to see some interesting work happening in the area of AI, Web 3.0, Content & Marketing space from Ahmedabad.
Shreyans Panchal's YOMO is another promising tool to drive AI powered users insights.
Met Rohan Patel, who is building Ariso - an AI driven personal nutrition platform.
Bhavesh Patel has already revolutionized how social media marketing happens! His Brands.live is a global venture now.
Ekta Shah is building Biziverse - an enterprise ERP loved by thousands of organizations.
Meeting entrepreneurs from similar businesses always stirs interesting conversations. Met Viraj Rajani and Dipti Parmar - who are doing some really good stuff in area of digital marketing.
As much vague as it looks, the deliberations on this and various other topics validated the statement.
Interacting with founders from various sectors always makes you learn so much. This is the power of networking.
Now back to the video editing topic, here are some interesting insights:
- Video content creation is rapidly growing, currently comprising 65-70% The video format of content creation is inevitably growing at a rapid scale. As far as I can see, around 65-70% of the content being created today is video-format.
- Short form content is the way ahead for the marketers. The ever-decreasing attention span of the audience has been the case for success of TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube shorts and many others.
- At the same time, Podcasts has been an interesting marketing funnel for dissemination of information. These podcasts are generally long form in nature with a minimum of 30 minutes till 3-4 hours.
- Video editing of these podcasts to capture the viral elements and put it across in the form of reels and shorts has been the core. And companies like vidyo.ai have scaled it to the next level.
As we see the next change in technology, more and more of such business models will thrive and scale better.
Imagine gathering a few marketing experts in a room and guess what they do.
Probably an intellectual fight over who is more 'creative'. 😄
Well, that was not the case yesterday when we met at eChai Ventures - social at GVFL Limited office yesterday. A productive session conducted by forever smiling Jatin Chaudhary was more than a chai-biscuit gathering.
Very very helpful to learn insights, marketing hacks, AI driven marketing and business strategies. Truly, a #CoRise moment.
Folks, here's an open shoutout to everyone - happy to meet again in person, to discuss more than just hacks. 😎
What a fabulous journey of @eChaiVentures from a local to a global brand based out of #Ahmedabad and connecting people & startups ! Echai has forged new relationships #echaicorise.
Congrats @jatin10, Kunal & echai team for nurturing the startup ecosystem when it was not a buzzword!
Couple of things I noticed during a conversation about sales strategies for #startups organised by eChai Ventures in partnership with GVFL Limited.
1. Most questions were around negotiation and pricing. It is natural to think that the most difficult part of sales is getting the customer to agree on a price point. This is because that's what we as entrepreneurs hear most objections on. It is also because that is fairly relatable and happens to all sales folks.
But it is important to remember that whatever happens in the room (or video calls) is only 5% of the sales process. 95% of sales happens outside of negotiation and pricing.
Negotiation is just one of the stages.
Building a predictable, repeatable and scalable sales engine is significantly harder than handling negotiation. I'd strongly recommend focusing on the sales engine a lot more, a lot early.
2. People do not focus enough on building trust. Trust is one of those very few things - takes a life-time to build but a moment to lose. Most folks did not realise how valuable proofs, cases and testimonials can be if used the right way and how quick it can make the sales process.
One of the recommendations is - early on, see if you can ride on trust built by someone else. If your #agency does not have enough clients yet, work with an existing agency as a sub-contractor. If your #product does not have enough users/customers yet, launch on marketplaces like AppSumo.
3. In an effort to show our expertise, we end up ripping apart the customer. No one. Absolutely no one wants to be told they are wrong/incompetent over and over. The customer already realises that they have a problem to be solved and that is why they are there to have a conversation with you.
Once you establish in first few minutes of the conversation that you can help them fix that problem, stop pointing out their mistakes. Consider using cases and portfolio to showcase your value. Consider existing ROI calculations to convince them on the pricing.
4. No one likes being sold to. But all of us love an interesting conversation. Ultimately, sales is just interesting conversations. Asking open ended questions to understand them better and sharing your experiences to show them who and what you and your company are.
Strongly recommend treating prospects like a person. Not like a bag of money or a record in your #CRM.
Lastly, focus on the process. Everything else will fall into place.
Thank you Jatin for considering me to join in on this discussion with Vikas from Magenta Insights and Shrijay from LegalWiz.in. It was meaningful. Looking forward to the next one.
The eChai Ventures AI Social was a truly great experience.Yesterday, I had a pleasant time discussing various AI topics. The conversation with folks was enlightening, and I learned more about AI applications. Thank you, Jatin Chaudhary and GVFL Limited, for hosting such a wonderful social gathering.
Where do we all use AI nowadays? Be it in presentations, content creation, scanning interviews, job searches, education, on LinkedIn, reviewing documents, scanning documents, in e-commerce businesses using photography, or applying it to other skills.
The discussion on fantastic use cases was enlightening; there's a saying that a lot can happen over a cup of tea. Such great discussions are not always about showcasing who we are but often about understanding where the world is heading. The interaction with a few folks was great, and I'm looking forward to meeting and connecting with you again soon.
The discussion of AI's beautiful use cases across various domains—be it driving AI Nisarg Pandya, AI-driven interviews Vinit B Yadav, the education sector Niraj Harlalka, or the creation of mobile apps through AI—highlights its transformative power and versatility.
Nowadays, we often see blogs and posts from AI, and you can feel the difference between personally written and AI-generated content. It was also noted that sites using AI-generated content will be penalized, and the day may come when you have to credit your article as being generated by AI as thoroughly pointed out by Dipti Parmar.
Great mission of Ekta Shah founder of Biziverse is to empower Indian MSMEs to become world-class. Also discussion with VIKASH RAJPUROHIT founder of VastraApp, which is Vertical SaaS for the Textile Industry, was truly fruitful.
The clever integration of personal website visibility in the background during a concise two-line pitch adds a personalized touch that blends professional presentation .The commendable speed at which these tasks are executed is truly impressive Jatin Chaudhary.
In In the world of finance, as a qualified CA and CISA-certified professional, I look forward to more such use cases in the field, but along with ensuring data privacy and personal privacy. So, to conclude, AI is a companion, and we should use it wisely, not blindly. It can never replace humans but definitely saves time.
🇮🇳 #India: It's been a FUN week in the world of #entrepreneurtourism! March is my favourite month of the year. It's a celebration of life and being on many levels: from birthdays to my gender, driving movements for gender equity, etc.
Last week on a panel with Moina, Shruti, Maithreye, Charu, we discussed launching startups, challenges in the entrepreneurial world, and on a less conventional topic of support systems to tide through hurdles, we dived deep and personal over a closeknit roundtable.
The journey can be lonely (sometimes more so as a woman), but how do we navigate that?
It is heartening to hear that support systems for these empowered women range from families and supportive partners, communities, micro-communities, to having access to like-minded peers in the same business social circles, alongside professional networks such as Women in Investing Network and Women in VSEA.
Earlier that day, I caught up with Aashraya who's one of the few #web3 founders in #Hyderabad – we shared a panel on network states and virtual nations last year in #Bangalore. We discussed ambitions and future plans for Illuminated.
Just yesterday, Deeksha from Anthill Ventures was passing through #Bangalore. Coincidentally, me too! So we couldn't pass on the opportunity to catch up in person at Draper Startup House in #koramangala and explore collectively driving progress in the startup community. It's always cool to meet a fellow woman in VC – i always have something to learn from them.
💫 On a personal note over birthdays and wishes, I hope that people continue to be the progress they want to see in this world.
The future belongs to the dreamers and visionaries who believe in the beauty of their dreams, and I'm always grateful and humbled by the community that shows me, without fail, everyday:
Steps of growing a community on maybe some days is just showing up!
Showing up for talks Showing up for missing it Showing up sick Showing up recovered Showing up ready for the week Showing up wanting more rest Showing up as a starter bee Showing up needing help
My tip, show up decide later. You can give yourself thousand no but one yes is enough, find that and show up ❤️ because if you want to go fast go alone, if you want to go far go together 👏🏼
Today’s breakfast social, bunch of OGs and few newbies introducing
Divya Yadav, Founder DivMade Meenal Rai Shejwar, Founder Café Amado Nidhi Khatri, Founder House of Enke Isha Khosla, Co Founder Itthiha Vinay Dhok, Co Founder Itthiha Srijan Sharma, Founder ItsHemp, Co Founder SOQO
Always a pleasure hosting eChai Ventures Breakfast Social, small group candid conversations
🎉 What a lively evening at the Women's Day Startup Social! Surprisingly, the crowd was mostly men, proving that support for women in entrepreneurship knows no bounds!
🙌 And yes, I'm already prepping to shed light on men's struggles come Men's Day - it's only fair, right? 😄💼
Huge thanks to eChai Ventures and Draper Startup House for hosting such an inspiring event! Let's keep lifting each other up! 💪💃
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.
eChai Ventures is a global startup network connecting entrepreneurs through local meetups in 20+ cities worldwide, enabling cross-border collaborations via startup panels, demo days, cricket, and pickleball leagues.
Vikram Patel
Bhavesh Patel
Nisarg Pandya
Yash Shah
Shreyan Mehta
Himani Kankaria
Amrit Trivedi
Pratik Vohera
Sohil Patel
Ekta Shah
Ketul Shah
Aditya Shah
