When Jitendra Joined a Small Room and a Big Dream and Grew Into the Person Who Defined How Brands.live Builds
- by: Harsha Bhurani
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.
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.
