Failure in startups rarely happens in a single moment. More often, it creeps in quietly. A customer seems less engaged. A launch lands flat. Numbers stop rising and just sit there. Each signal alone feels fixable. Together, they shift the ground under your feet.
Harsh Pokharna, co-founder of OkCredit, once reflected on how ambition can backfire. On instagram he admitted: “We launched in 14 languages. Then killed most of them.”
Others describe failure as a slow build of small mistakes. Nithin Kamath of Zerodha put it sharply: “Sustainability is more important than valuation. Misjudging the market size and opportunity, then setting wrong expectations and chasing valuations are probably the biggest reasons why startups fail.”
For some, the lesson is personal. Sam Altman wrote on X: “i failed pretty hard at my first startup–it sucked!–and am doing pretty well on my second.”
Even future giants have been told their idea was too small. Brian Chesky of Airbnb recalled that in 2008 an investor told him the market “did not seem large enough.”
Founders who endure often share their own grounding habits. Ghazal Alagh of Mamaearth posted on LinkedIn: “Clarity is power. Habit is greater than willpower. Choose discomfort. Consistency over perfection any day.”
Others speak to the emotional whiplash. Paul Graham, in his essay “What Startups Are Really Like,” described it like this: “The emotional ups and downs were the biggest surprise for me. One day, we’d think of ourselves as the next Google and dream of buying islands; the next, we’d be pondering how to let our loved ones know of our utter failure.”
And sometimes the advice is simply to own what has already happened. Mark Pincus said it at FailCon: “If we can all intellectually and emotionally own our failures, then you control your destiny.”
Failure rarely comes as a crash. It comes like a season. Sometimes, by the time you notice, you have already been living in it. The question is not whether you have failed. Everyone does, in small ways. The real question is which story you are in right now: the season of drift, or the season that teaches you how to begin again.
While leading eChai SF, I get to meet founders who are working on the problems that almost every team talks about. One of the most common frustrations I hear is the quiet tax of coordination. A new customer request means updating Salesforce, pinging a manager on Slack, drafting a quote in HubSpot and sending it out by email. Each step is straightforward, but together they drain time from the real work of building relationships and closing deals.
That is the gap Nirman Dave has been chasing. His first company, Obviously AI, focused on making predictions simple enough to run directly from a spreadsheet. The idea found traction, more than 82,000 models were created, the company raised from Sequoia Scouts, B Capital and Facebook’s startup fund, and Nirman earned a spot on Forbes 30 Under 30. Yet he kept noticing the same limit. Predictions were useful, but they did not reduce the repetitive work that dominated the day.
In 2025, the company rebranded as Zams, named after an astrophysics term that marks the moment a star stabilizes. For Nirman, it symbolized AI reaching a stage where it becomes dependable infrastructure. Zams builds AI agents that carry out workflows across more than 100 business tools. If a customer asks for a quote, the agent can log it in Salesforce, alert the manager in Slack, prepare the document and send it back.
Customers already report strong outcomes. One linked Zams to $10 million in ARR without adding staff. Another cleared a 208-day backlog. Sierra Pacific says it saved 4,160 hours of work, and Husk Energy mentions $775,000 in revenue unlocked. These are company-reported numbers, but they suggest teams are trusting Zams with processes tied directly to revenue, not just side projects.
The broader landscape makes this more interesting. Businesses have long relied on tools like Zapier to connect apps, RPA systems to automate back-office tasks, and now copilots from Microsoft and Salesforce to surface insights. What Zams is aiming for is a layer that doesn’t just connect or suggest but quietly executes, the type of work teams today still handle manually.
From the eChai SF lens, what excites me is the question this raises. Will companies begin to treat AI agents as part of the team, trusted to carry out workflows end to end? If that shift happens, it could change how businesses scale, allowing growth without headcount rising at the same pace. That is why Zams is a story I’ll be following closely.
The hardest thing about advice isn’t hearing it. It’s making sense of it. Founders are surrounded by it. From investors, mentors, peers, podcasts, Twitter threads, the supply never ends. Most of it sounds smart, but in the moment you don’t know where to place it.
Then one day you run into the wall yourself. You push for a big launch and later think, “So this is what they meant about not scaling before product-market fit.” You bring in an investor and realize, “This is why they said choose money that matches your pace.” You spend months chasing competitor features and admit, “This is why they said focus on what only you can do.” At the time, you brushed it off. Only later does the advice finally make sense.
So, how do you make sense of advice in the present? Part of it depends on the stage you are at. What feels urgent at Series A may not matter at pre-seed. Part of it depends on your context. Advice shaped by someone else’s journey may not map to yours. And part of it depends on timing. Not every insight needs action now. Some are simply waiting for their season. Maybe that is the real founder skill: not in collecting advice, but in knowing where to place it.
As Ekta Shah, Co-Founder of Biziverse, says: “Why reinvent the wheel? Founders actually enjoy helping other founders.” Her words are a reminder of why these exchanges matter. At the same time, advice is always born in a specific context. What worked for one founder may not map perfectly onto another. Which is why empathy matters, not only in receiving advice but in giving it too.
On Mondays, there’s a small group of close friends I meet without fail. We sit together, catch up on whatever is on our minds, and let the conversations flow. Sometimes it’s about work, sometimes about family, and often about nothing in particular. It’s easy, unplanned, and always something I look forward to.
On Wednesdays, there’s another group of founder friends I play cricket with. The matches have their share of competition, but what makes them special are the jokes, the laughter, and the joy of simply being on the field together week after week.
Some weeks fly, some weeks drag, but these two moments always find their place. They don’t ask for much, yet they bring a quiet rhythm to the week, the kind that makes everything else feel more alive.
One of the most encouraging shifts in startup ecosystems is how workspaces are being opened for the community. Incubators, accelerators, and co-working hubs put in huge effort to host programs, manage logistics, and bring people together. Alongside them, a new culture is growing where founders open their own offices for meetups, workshops, and peer learning.
It is a simple but powerful act. A meeting room becomes a learning space. A cafeteria turns into a place for new connections. A whiteboard that carries product plans also sparks ideas from other founders. Sometimes it is ten people sitting in a circle. Sometimes it is fifty buzzing with conversations. What matters is the intent to share what you already have so that others can grow.
At eChai, we have experienced this many times. Whether it is incubators creating programs or founders opening their offices, it always takes effort, planning, and team support. I feel grateful to everyone who makes space for the community. Each open office and shared venue is part of a paying-it-forward culture that strengthens the ecosystem.
This is how culture grows. One founder opens their doors, another follows, and soon it becomes the norm. More spaces open up, more conversations begin, and the community keeps getting stronger.
Who are the founders in your city who have opened their offices for you?
"I attended my first eChai event 3 yrs back, and no one knew me in the market. Over the next three years, eChai didn’t only help me with knowledge or networking, but it gave me an identity from being unknown to now being recognized by a group of inspirational entrepreneurs connected with eChai, who have been gracious enough to acknowledge me and Digipple."
Viraj Rajani
Co-Founder, Digipple
"eChai is playing biggest role in my personal and professional life together. Its a community where i meet like minded people to share idea and learn from their idea. Even while playing cricket i learn something and i implement something new from that learning. Its my entry point for building network in different countries where my base is not established yet. Personally my only fun activity day in a week is eChai cricket and social."
yash shah
Chairman, ES Group of Companies
“eChai has been that turning point in my journey. It gave me a platform when I wasn’t looking for visibility but needed direction. Over the years, it became more than just a network. It became my tribe; a place where conversations sparked collaborations, and strangers became trusted sounding boards. What I value most is how effortlessly eChai brings people together - no airs, no filters, just genuine people with shared dreams. I owe a lot to this community and to Jatin, whose consistency and belief in people have shaped journeys like mine. Forever grateful to be part of something so real.”
Rushabh Shah
Managing Partner - STIR Advisors
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.
