Meraj Faheem started all with introducing himself & Journey of his Studentpreneur life where he Started India's First Hacking School BootCamp!
Like How he got his First Client through SEO-Search Engine Optimisation via google and from there it all Started and became India's First and initially he charged 80K then it goes around 150K he adds!
And after his clients experience over Hacking School they started suggesting it to their network as well as friends of friends of them this is how it started growing organically ๐
The main step of a Founder towards sales is to make that initial Connection and maintain relationship with their customers first to get to their 500th Customer.
Like one of the best Example is how the customer of Google got his Account Suspended due to some reason but wanted to recover it and until Larry page Former CEO of google made it happen by recognising the customer who was one of their 100th customer and redirected him to his manager to solve the problem๐ฎโ๐จ
This is what the real meaning of relationship with customers is๐๐ปโจ๏ธ
So maintaining that relationship with your customers should be your first priority where it helps you to grow more and more because you are selling your Services/products to them right?
Creating that Familiarity of you in public makes lot of differences as well as it is not possible in one or two meet but third time it can๐ฅ
Founders should me known for their Brand๐ฅ
Every Business Should have their Data bases like the best example is Mark Zuckerberg before launching Facebook he restricted it to Harward .edu by inviting his Friends, Friends of friends, classmates to make a profile and to conect with each other by Leveraging his first degree Network totally๐ฅ
The takeaways and Main points were-
1. "You Cannot Bribe/Manipulate/Influence Everyone-You Need to Win them"
2. Increase Familiarities between people and yourself.
3. You should be know for the Right Things.
4. Make your Data bases perfect.
5. Dont burn money in marketing learn sales first!
Our discussion on machine learning models was truly enlightening, and his deep knowledge and passion for technology were nothing short of inspiring.
Beyond the tech talk, I thoroughly enjoyed learning about SaiNageswarโs enthusiasm for travel and our shared love for exploring new places. Itโs always refreshing to connect with someone who brings such a well-rounded perspective and genuine curiosity to the table.
A big thank you, SaiNageswar Satchidanand, for your time and the engaging conversation. Iโm excited to stay connected and continue sharing insights and experiences!
The eChai Startup Open House was a fantastic event, offering a vibrant and informal setting to connect with innovative startups and like-minded entrepreneurs. It was a great opportunity to discover new possibilities, share ideas, and build meaningful relationships within the startup community.
Great Weekend been like meeting new tech expertsโย
I wish I met you earlier in life Jatin Chaudhary! Thank you for sharing how you help tens of thousands of people via eChai Ventures, itโs wonderful hearing how you started it in 2009 and run so many events around the world ๐๐๐. Thank you Nishant Bijani & Hitesh Umaletiya for introducing me to Jatin. I learned so much that Iโll be putting to use in Key and Xoogler.co to help more communities and people ๐.
The location we met at is to die for ๐ชฆ.
Please sign up at key.ai to access our community product, early access to it is about to begin! ๐ Kushagra Shrivastava and I are hiring a growth manager and business analyst incase anyone is looking for a job.
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.
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.
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.
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 .
Addressing a diverse group of product managers was a joy, reaffirming the excitement of solving customer problems through effective product management.
It's wonderful to see the startup scenario in Gandhinagar picking up pace through events like yesterday's ๐ฒ๐๐ต๐ฎ๐ถ ๐ฆ๐๐ฎ๐ฟ๐๐๐ฝ ๐ฆ๐ผ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฎ๐น ๐ถ๐ป ๐๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ๐ต๐ถ๐ป๐ฎ๐ด๐ฎ๐ฟ!
Before I tell you more about the Demo Day, let me share with you why I was astonished listening to these wonderful founders and feedbacks from the community.
โฅ Every founder had a story to tell. โฅ Their enthusiasm was super infectious. โฅ The opportunity to collaborate opened up. โฅ The atmosphere was thrilling and invigorating. โฅ They were all solving a problem in unique ways. โฅ Relevant questions were being asked by the people. โฅ Experts from various fields provided valuable feedback. โฅ All the founders were deeply passionate about their ideas.
I know by now youโre wondering what these Demo Days are all about.
Well, Demo days are all about the founders from the community that get a chance to present their business, get early feedback, engage with investors and enablers and collaborate with various people from within the community.
You can check out eChai Ventures for more details and information on other such events happening in Mumbai.
Thank you Jatin Chaudhary, founder of eChai Ventures for creating an amazing platform that supports start-up founders through such interactive meet-up events and its community as well as presenting me with an opportunity to host the show.
As some of you may know, I was a panellist at the eChai Ventures x GrowthSchool Marketing Summit on Saturday. It was an incredibly enriching discussion with my fellow panellists, whose insights across multiple industries were a goldmine of information ๐๐ปโโ๏ธ
If I had to summarize the entire session into exactly 3 key takeaways, these would be:
1. Knowing your customer is an iterative process. Your customers will behave differently across geographies, markets, scales of operations, and sizes. Research, read, engage with them on social media, and learn everything you can about them.
2. Gone are the days of โshiny,โ โbuzz-worthyโ marketing. Data is the best tool in a marketerโs arsenal. Excel is your best friend, and analyzing trends is your protein supplement. ๐
3. When it comes to content creation, donโt try to reinvent the wheel by focusing on creating โtrendsโ. Unless you are Kim K ๐๐ปโโ๏ธ Observe what is working, and then leverage it within your industry.
What floored me completely was the diversity of participants in the sessionโfrom Bitcoin to fintech to influencer marketing, we had them all! They asked tough questions and made the session even more fruitful.
Kudos to Jatin Chaudhary for moderating the session, and punctuating it with his thoughtfully curated questions and marketing puns. And thanks to the GrowthSchool team for being such wonderful hosts.
If you met me and want to discuss a specific problem in depth, feel free to block time via my Topmate!
๐ ๐๐๐ซ๐จ ๐ญ๐จ ๐๐ง๐ ๐๐ง๐ ๐๐ง๐ ๐ญ๐จ ๐๐ฎ๐ง๐๐ซ๐๐: One of the interesting conversations was around how to align/retrain people who have taken the company from zero to one and have them effectively contribute in the company's journey from one to hundred. This is required because it takes very different people to bring something to life vs people who take something that is alive and take it to scale. One of the things we do at Momentum91 is to build a 'New Initiatives' team. This is our 'zero to one' team and it always works on the frontier. Things that have not yet been figured out completely yet. This team builds solutions on those lines. This way, once they have charted the path, the rest of the team comes in and makes the path more 'followable' through processes, frameworks and templates.
๐ ๐๐ง๐ ๐๐จ-๐๐จ๐ฎ๐ง๐๐๐ซ ๐ฏ๐ฌ ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฅ๐ญ๐ข๐ฉ๐ฅ๐ ๐๐จ-๐๐จ๐ฎ๐ง๐๐๐ซ๐ฌ: I am of the opinion that starting a company is like entering a haunted house that might have a treasure buried inside. I would not go in alone. I need someone to keep me honest, be sad when we have lost, share joy when we have won. I need someone to fight, debate and argue with. It's a personal and arguable choice. Some folks are comfortable going at it alone as well. If you are like me, consider finding a co-founder who has complimentary skill sets. A person whose thought process is different than yours and a person you fully trust.
๐ ๐๐๐ฎ๐๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐ฏ๐ฌ ๐ฌ๐ญ๐๐ซ๐ญ๐ฎ๐ฉ: Almost everyone on the panel had degrees in things that were drastically different from the nature of the company they were running, including myself. It's important to understand that half of running any company is the same - whatever one builds, they still have to build a team, figure out marketing, learn sales, read balance sheets and keep the company compliant - things that are not taught. A good way to look at education is to think of that as 'time allotted to build an approach' - an approach of problem solving. If one is able to build that approach, most things get easier.
It was fun listening to other people's stories around recruiting their first 5 team members, journey of meeting their co-founders and approach towards making difficult decisions under uncertain circumstances with less than accurate data.
Thank you Jatin for the opportunity. Until next time.
All of us aspire to be this, but there are very few who achieve it.
One such person who has been persistent for more than a decade and not just years is Jatin Chaudhary, Co-Founder of eChai Ventures - a friendly global startup network that hosts engaging startup growth meetups and enables cross-border collaborations.
eChai Ventures was started more than 13 years ago in Ahmedabad, India and it has grown immensely in recent years with Startup Growth meetups in 25+ global startup cities in 10+ countries including the US, Canada, Singapore, Australia, UK, Estonia, UAE, and others.
Before starting eChai Ventures, Jatin sold long-distance services in Canada while working in a call center in Gandhinagar, architectural stone products in the USA and European markets while working with an exports group in Ahmedabad, strategic concepts to Microsoft Corporate Teams while working with a high-end technology consulting company in Udaipur, and HP enterprise servers and Softwares to SMEs and large businesses in Gujarat while working with Indiaโs largest IT products distributor.
Then how did Jatin get into the startup domain? He loves networking and genuinely helping individuals to grow - what better place to do so than a startup community? He was one of the early believers in the "Startup India." He was recently awarded 'Startup Ratna' by GUSEC-Gujarat University for eChai Venturesโ contributions to the Startup Ecosystem in Gujarat.
I have been lucky to listen to him a couple of times and his simple words powered with persistence inspire everyone in the room. Presently his LinkedIn job title reads "Salesman at eChai Ventures" and rightfully so since he is extremely good at selling his vision and able to attract the right partnerships and organize high-quality large gatherings at low cost.
The story of eChai serves a crucial lesson for aspiring entrepreneurs: success rarely comes overnight. It's the product of consistent effort, unwavering belief in one's vision, and the resilience to keep moving forward, even when faced with setbacks. It's a powerful and beautiful reminder that with persistence, a local idea can indeed blossom into a global success.
Every time I share my journey, I am reminded of all that I had to let go in order to be where I am. . But, when I look back, I feel everything was worth it and I'd do it all over again ๐ my mistakes were mine and it's proof that I did it, I tried, I learnt and I grew! . Every meet up they ask me, have you failed? Oh yes! I have failed a million times, and I still fail daily in a lot of places, but after failing, I cry, get disappointed, take a break but then once again, ask for help, try another way, do more research and keep trying till I succeed. . Have I given up? Yes, I have. There are times when you know giving up on that particular idea is making more sense, then you give up and work on something else. . So yes I am where I am because of my mistakes, failures and flaws but I've moved forward with my persistence and determination ๐ฉท . A warm hug to myself, for we often forget to appreciate ourselves ๐
For an entire week, Nihal Ahamed M and I found ourselves venting our frustrations about feeling underwhelmed with the current community activities for early-stage founders. We were eager to take our eChai Ventures Chennai Chapter to the next level but felt like we were searching in the dark.
That was until we met the Sai Ranganathan AVP of StartupTN. His drive, wise thoughts, and inclusive strategy for the TN startup ecosystem left me pleasantly surprised. Itโs easy to get lost in one vertical and believe itโs the only one that matters, but his insights inspired me to think broader, more comprehensively, and with an eye on the future.
It was the push we needed at the right time. Now, something is cooking, and things are brewing! Iโm absolutely excited and canโt wait to take this to the next level.
A big thank you to Bala Subramanian for setting up this meeting!
Had a fantastic experience at the Speaker Session hosted by Jatin Chaudhary and eChai Ventures on 12-7-2024 at GUSEC. The session was insightful and provided a #wealth of knowledge from industryย #leaders, attracting numerous #entrepreneurs and young minds:
๐ Riddhi Sharma (BabyOrgano) emphasized the critical role of company culture in driving organizational success. She highlighted how a positive and inclusive culture can boost employeeย #morale, increaseย #productivity, and foster innovation.
๐ Gaurav Barot (Tridhya Tech Limited) shared an inspiring story about how he rewarded his employees by giving them cars. This gesture not only motivated his team but also demonstrated his commitment to #recognizing and appreciating their #hard work and dedication.
๐ Shrijay Sheth (LegalWiz.in) delved into the intricacies of Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs). He explained how offering stock options can align the interests of employees with those of the #company, creating a sense of ownership and #long-term commitment.
๐ Kuntal Shah (CricHeroes) discussed his company's progressive policy of offering unlimited leaves. He explained that this policy is based on trust and empowers employees to manage theirย #work-life balance, ultimately leading to higher job satisfaction and #productivity.
Overall, the session was amazing and provided deepย
#insights into innovative practices that can transform workplace dynamics. Kudos to eChai Ventures for organizing such an enlightening event!ย
When Last-Minute Plans Create Unforgettable Moments with Draper Startup House and eChai Ventures.
Sometimes, the best things happen on a whim! What started as a spontaneous Friday evening VC meet with Pranav Sanghvi from Merak Ventures turned into a powerhouse session of insights, pitches, and breakthroughs. ๐ก
In just 2 minutes, each startup had the chance to showcase their visionโand they delivered big time! From game-changing feedback to invaluable validation, every founder walked away with something that could propel their journey forward. ๐ฑ
The energy was electric, the ideas were bold, and the takeaways? Pure gold. โจ
Huge kudos to all the founders who stepped up to pitch and to Pranav for dropping some serious knowledge bombs. This is what the startup ecosystem is all aboutโlearning, growing, and supporting each other!
๐ฅ Want to catch more of these epic events? Hit that follow button and stay in the loop!
Sharing the stage with other industry leaders at eChai Ventures' Startup Growth Meetup at Nasscom Startups COE IoT Gurgaon was incredibly productive.
It was a fantastic meeting with inspiring co-speakers who are experts in funding, growth strategies, scaling, and disruptive marketing. They shared their knowledge, leaving me feeling motivated.
Thanks to eChai Ventures for hosting a productive Startup Growth Meetup and the co-speakers for sharing their insightful information as well as to the amazing audience for the engaging conversations.
It's excited to explore GenAI's potential for startups. LLaMA 3โs advanced language capabilities and ChatGPTโs real-time conversational AI enhance content creation and customer support. Integrating these models with a Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) system and APIs, combined with fine-tuning using specific data, ensures tailored sol
It was such a great opportunity to learn about OpenAI, LLM models and building AI products from Sriram.
He presented a case study on predicting a final exam score using AI, covering everything from prototype design and pilot testing to production with Llama 3.1.
We discussed the policies, guradrails and the billions of parameters required to build AI models, and how domain-specific datasets are essential for developing AI products.
Even though I don't have an engineering background, I was able to understand the design concepts you talked about at the event.
Sriram also explained some challenges in AI, such as predicting simple math problems, where AI incorrectly predicted 9.11 as greater than 9.9.
There's still a lot to improve in AI. However, AI is the next big reality, and it will be exciting to see how it evolves in the coming years.
I really liked your answer about monetizing AI products. You explained it well with an example: Two years ago, hardly anyone used ChatGPT, but now if you ask people, many would be willing to pay if the free usage stopped. So, the key is to create a product that your users love and encourage users to pay for them.
As you all know, Bangalore is an IT city, and our software engineers had many questions about building great AI products.
If you're building AI products and seeking expert guidance, connect with Sriram Natarajan.
I sincerely thank Sriram for coming and making the event great.
Key Takeaways from the Recent Event with Sriram Natrajan:
โ Understanding the complexity of AI development and the importance of robust datasets in building effective AI products.
โ Insights into overcoming AI challenges, such as improving accuracy in simple tasks, highlighting the ongoing need for AI refinement.
โ Strategies for creating product dependency and effective monetization, ensuring users see the indispensable value in AI solutions.
โ Networking with industry leaders and gaining valuable perspectives on fostering innovation and collaboration within multidisciplinary teams.
๐eChai Startup Social in Gandhinagar x GNLU๐
Pleasure hosting the eChai Startup Social in Gandhinagar x GNLU!
It was an amazing opportunity to connect, share, and collaborate with fellow entrepreneurs, educational leaders, and enthusiastic professionals and students. The small group setting facilitated candid conversations and meaningful exchanges, making it a truly productive gathering.
Here's to more such events that foster innovation and collaboration in the startup ecosystem!
Stay Tuned!๐
- Ekta Shah, Co-Founder & CEO of Biziverse - Vishal Dhamecha, Founder of Rhyno EV - Rushirajsinh Jadeja , A1 Acid Limited - Harshal Patel, Caxsol - suraj soni, Cybx Technolabs - Gajanan Pawar, Team Building Coach from Kreedatantra - Niravkumar Suthar, Assistant Professor, Computer Department,VGEC - Zahinraza Asaria, VC Fellow - Anthill Ventures - Jaydip Solanki, Senior Odoo Developer - Rohit Kuntal, Event Organiser - Govind Prajapati, Innovator - Taksh Patel, Innovrative
๐ฆ Thank you for joining us in the eChai Ventures Fundraising for Startups meetup at Draper Startup House Koramangala, Bengaluru! ๐
I'm glad that Jatin Chaudhary was onboard when I said I'd curate and moderate a women-only panel for this subject. It wasn't a women-only event. Everyone was welcome. But the fact that I had these amazing women speakers from the world of venture capital spend their Saturday evening with us made it a wholesome gathering!
Sharing some snippets here -
Aditi Sinha believes she and her team at IndiaQuotient don't just invest in a startup but marry them! They grow together, brainstorm, pivot if need be and go beyond the boardrooms to show up in the journey. ๐ฐHeavy on India SaaS owing to the growth potential ๐ฐ Highlighted portfolio company FRND for their tightly knit tech team and immense learnings on consumer behaviour and power users ๐ฐInteresting investments this year include Utsav App in the spiritual tech space and kim.cc ๐ฐRecommends listening to The 20-minute VC by Harry Stebbings ๐ฐHiring: For founder office roles in Series A and Series C startups in her portfolio companies
Ashna Agarwal believes growing up in a Marwari family fuelled her curiosity since childhood. So she'd not just visit a restaurant for a family outing but also ask questions around how'd they make money to run that business. ๐ฐIn her work at Jungle Ventures, they invest in seasoned entrepreneurs and write a cheque size that's relatively bigger at that funding stage ๐ฐInteresting investments this year include NIC Icecreams and Atomberg Technologies ๐ฐRecommends reading The Economic Times and Inc42 Media that covers a large chunk of news without burning a hole in your pocket with all the paid subscriptions ๐ฐHiring: For a D2C startup in her portfolio company - Brand marketer with 7+ years of work experience
Vaishvi Bansal and her friends ran a Shark Tank style competition in college. From conceptualisation to execution, it was a three-month long rigorous learning that led to a total of eight startups raising around 25 Lacs! That was her first taste of what it takes to raise funds and "once you taste the blood, it's difficult to not go back to it", she quips. ๐ฐ In her work at Marwari Catalysts, they are mostly the first ones to write a cheque for the startups and bring co-investors with them ๐ฐJust the way founders look for a product market fit, they look for a founder market fit to ascertain that it's a good match! ๐ฐHighlighted her portfolio company Turms (Bigphi Technologies Pvt. Ltd.) which has MS Dhoni promoting it ๐ฐHiring: Her portfolio companies are hiring. You can visit the company's website for details
We โค๏ธ the elevator pitches from founders along with some thoughtful questions from the audience!
Sunday Cheer: Share a picture with your pet in the Comments! The last pic has Nivin Joseph's Paris ๐ถย
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.
