Yesterday, I attended eChai Ventures startup demo day at IIMA Ventures and was truly impressed. 🚀 From innovative student ideas to seasoned founders' implementations and exits, there was much to learn. 🎓 The host, Yash Shah, was fantastic, keeping the session engaging and highlighting crucial factors from his journey. 🌟
A key takeaway was identifying the target audience. 🎯 Whether in product or service, not everyone can be your audience. 🎯 Specificity is crucial in selecting your market. 🎯
Starting with identifying urgent problems is essential, as is the focus on saving time and money while generating revenue. ⏳💰
The startup ecosystem revolves around the team, founder, product, sales, and funding. 🔄 Encouraging the team leads to better performance, which drives sales and attracts funding, further fueling business growth. 💼💡
Interns play a vital role, bringing enthusiasm and quick learning to the team. 🎓 Their presence enhances teaching and training skills, contributing to overall team development. 👩💼👨💼
Importantly, while a good product is necessary, it's not sufficient for success. 🏆 Much more goes into building a thriving startup. 🌱
Last but not the least, pitches from various startups were indeed engaging the audience. Personally, I liked the product presentations from Heatmaphero about giving website page insights and informative dashboard and SarvDhan about identifying customer centric rural finance needs and bridging the gap between unorganised sector and #Banks 🏦/ #nbfcs🪙.
I'm grateful to eChai Ventures, Yash Shah (Host) and Jatin Chaudhary for conducting such a wonderful event and providing an interactive platform for learning and networking. 🙏
A key takeaway was identifying the target audience. 🎯 Whether in product or service, not everyone can be your audience. 🎯 Specificity is crucial in selecting your market. 🎯
Starting with identifying urgent problems is essential, as is the focus on saving time and money while generating revenue. ⏳💰
The startup ecosystem revolves around the team, founder, product, sales, and funding. 🔄 Encouraging the team leads to better performance, which drives sales and attracts funding, further fueling business growth. 💼💡
Interns play a vital role, bringing enthusiasm and quick learning to the team. 🎓 Their presence enhances teaching and training skills, contributing to overall team development. 👩💼👨💼
Importantly, while a good product is necessary, it's not sufficient for success. 🏆 Much more goes into building a thriving startup. 🌱
Last but not the least, pitches from various startups were indeed engaging the audience. Personally, I liked the product presentations from Heatmaphero about giving website page insights and informative dashboard and SarvDhan about identifying customer centric rural finance needs and bridging the gap between unorganised sector and #Banks 🏦/ #nbfcs🪙.
I'm grateful to eChai Ventures, Yash Shah (Host) and Jatin Chaudhary for conducting such a wonderful event and providing an interactive platform for learning and networking. 🙏
The eChai Effect - In Their Words
"eChai has played a truly pivotal role in HummingBird’s journey — even before Day Zero. From ideation to establishment and into growth, it’s been a constant source of support. It connected me with incredible people who’ve become more than just friends. One of the biggest reasons I chose to stay in Ahmedabad is because of the eChai community. It has shaped my growth — both personally and professionally — in ways that are hard to articulate. Honestly, words fall short when I try to express what eChai means to me. I’m deeply thankful and forever grateful to eChai for being such an integral part of my journey."
Harsha Bhurani
Founder, HummingBird Consulting Group
“You don’t plan to build a company via eChai. You just keep showing up … and one day, you realize you did.” I’ve known Jatin since 2012, when I was still deciding what kind of second innings I wanted to play as an entrepreneur. Over the years, through events, chai breaks, intros, and seemingly small conversations, eChai helped shape not just Upsquare but also refined the lens through which we see collaboration. At Upsquare, we’ve hired talent, met partners, discovered co-investors, and built lifelong friendships. One of our joint ventures exists today only because a casual eChai memory sparked a deeper trust. Now, as we build House of Starts — our venture builder — eChai continues to fuel our mission: co-creating a shared future. eChai isn’t just a startup network. It’s a trust network. And for business builders like me, that makes all the difference."
Utpal Vaishnav
Founder @ Upsquare & House of Starts • Angel Investor + LP
"For me, eChai is a second home. I've been associated with it since the early days, when it was already setting a different tone for how startup communities could work. As a traditional business owner entering the new-age D2C space, eChai supported me in every direction. Over the years, it became my window to the startup world — and also gave me lifelong friends who continue to show up, for business and beyond."
Pankaj Bhimani
Founder, 58miles
eChai Partner Brands
eChai Ventures partners with select brands as their growth partner - working together to explore new ideas, open doors, and build momentum across the startup ecosystem.
