Startup Stream

Before they became well-known, these products were just trying to get 100 people to care.

This timeless piece from 2020 by Lenny Rachitsky explores how leading consumer apps like Reddit, Figma, Duolingo, and Clubhouse found their very first users. It features 40+ real examples of early traction that came from hands-on effort, not hype.

📖 Read the full piece

It’s still one of the best reads for founders figuring out how to launch and grow something new. The tactics may vary, but the mindset is the same.

Some standout insights:

• Reddit created fake user accounts to simulate engagement in the early days.
• Figma ran in-person design workshops and gathered live feedback from students.
• Duolingo quietly spread through niche forums and communities before any major campaigns.
• Clubhouse focused on bringing in the right early users instead of chasing big numbers.

Why this matters now:

Even with all the new tools and channels, early growth still depends on real conversations, community, and effort.

This read is a good reset for anyone thinking about growth. It brings the focus back to building trust, doing the work, and being close to your earliest users.

If you're planning your own 0 to 1, this one is worth saving.

Google’s not dying — but it’s no longer the only gatekeeper to discovery.

In this sharp and timely piece from a16z, Zach Cohen and Seema Amble introduce GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) — a new way to think about how people find answers through tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude.

📖 Read the full piece

For founders used to chasing SEO rankings and keyword hacks, this shift is massive. GEO reframes the game: your startup won’t win by being on page 1 of Google — you’ll win by being the cited answer inside an AI output.

Some standout insights:

Why this matters now:

 The LLM layer is becoming the new frontend of the internet. Whether you’re building a B2B product, a consumer app, or a media brand — your visibility increasingly depends on how these engines perceive and reference your work.

This read helped me realize: distribution isn’t just about reach anymore. It’s about relevance in the eyes of machines.

Curious to hear: how are you adapting your content, product, or growth strategy for the GEO era?

I started working on 58Miles in 2023 with a simple thought. Let’s make a better bag. Something I would actually want to use every day. A bag that works the way we live and move.

It’s now 2025. Still working on it. Still tweaking. Still not calling it “done.”

Everyone is launching apps and lots of AI apps, and I am launching a bag. Not because the world needs a new one, but because I couldn’t find a single one that worked for me.

Most bags either look good but don’t function, or they’re white-labeled, mass-produced pieces with designs that make no sense. Jahaa dekho, wahaa cool bags and good looking bags, they are like black holes. Too many zips. Random compartments. Loud branding. All show, no soul.

And pen compartments. Pen ke compartments me kaun pen rakhta hai.

I wanted something built for people like us. People who work on the move, who travel for work, who dump things into their bags and still want to stay sorted. I wasn’t trying to create a fashion statement. I just wanted a bag that works.

So I started making one. Here in India.

At first, I thought it would be quick. A few prototypes, a couple of months, and we’d have something good. But it never played out that way. Every sample fixed one problem and introduced another. The laptop section would feel too tight. The strap would lean weird. The bag wouldn’t sit right when placed on the floor. The zip didn’t feel smooth enough. These were small things. But they mattered.

40+ samples and 2 years, all these for little things no one notice but feel.

It’s hard to explain why this took so long. The truth is, I didn’t want to carry a bag that I had to explain. I wanted something that made sense the moment you used it. The kind of product that gets out of your way and becomes part of your rhythm.

I wanted to build for the people like us, who work, travel for work, build, create, hustle, messy and still organized.

Picture abhi baaki hai mere dost.

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This post is part of Slice of Startup Life on eChai Startup Stream — where founders share the unfiltered version of their journey, as it’s happening.

On May 17, 2025, we hosted the first edition of Meet the Founders Behind Ahmedabad’s Breakout Startups — a new series by eChai Ventures and i-Hub Gujarat. The idea is simple: no pitches, no presentations, just real conversations with founders who are building from the ground up.

The format is intentionally stripped down. Two founders, one moderator, and a room full of curious peers.

For this first session, we had:

“How do you design financial products around family conversations?”

That’s what EduFund is solving.
Eela shared how her own experience with education financing shaped the product vision. EduFund helps parents across India plan for higher education through SIPs, mutual funds, loans, and personalized guidance.

The work isn’t just technical — it’s emotional. Especially in smaller cities, where the idea of saving for a child’s future still feels unfamiliar. EduFund has raised $3.5M+ and now partners with Tata AMC, ICICI, DSP, and HDFC Credila. But the real focus is building a brand families trust.

“What if your product is seasonal, regulated, and invisible — and still needs to grow?”

That’s the everyday challenge at Quicko.
Vishvajit spoke about building infrastructure for India’s complex tax system — not to chase visibility, but to earn trust and simplify compliance at scale. Since 2015, Quicko has stayed bootstrapped while becoming a backend layer for tax professionals, salaried individuals, and fintech platforms alike.

Most of the company’s work happens behind the scenes — but it powers millions of filings every year. The product is built for clarity, not virality.

“What happens when you remove the pitch deck?”

That’s what this format hopes to answer.
 The room stayed engaged — not because of high production, but because of how grounded the conversation was. We talked about early hires, product pivots, and the quiet uncertainty that comes with building long-term. Many in the room were going through the same thing — and that created the most valuable kind of connection.

No scripts. Just stories.

“Where does this go from here?”

We’ll continue hosting Meet the Founders sessions every few weeks. Each one will feature two builders from Ahmedabad’s startup ecosystem — across sectors like SaaS, climate, healthtech, fintech, and consumer. The goal is to keep showing what building really looks like, one conversation at a time.

And alongside these events, we’ll be publishing deeper, chapter-style stories on the featured startups — starting soon with full-length profiles on Quicko and EduFund.

You’ll find those on eChai Startup Stream.

Every Thursday evening, founders gather for eChai meetup at the GVFL office in Ahmedabad for a simple ritual: real conversations, no filters.

Hosted by eChai Ventures, these weekly meetups are where strategies get shared before they’re polished, and tools get dissected before they trend. This Thursday, the conversation turned to AI in marketing — not the headlines, but the hard questions. What’s actually working inside early-stage teams? What’s just noise? And how do you build a stack that speeds you up without losing your voice?

I had the chance to co-host this session alongside Jhalak Pamnani from Missive Digital, and what made it work wasn’t the format — it was the people. We had Tanmay Shanishchara, who’s spent years running campaigns at MeDigit, Sahil Shah, who’s built audiences and brands through Hungrito and Netsavvies, and Bhavesh Patel, the co-founder of Brands.live, which is quietly powering millions of SMEs with their design tools. Each of them came in not to present slides, but to share what’s working — and what isn’t. It set the tone. No posturing. Just real talk from founders and marketers in the middle of figuring things out, together.

“AI helps us skip the blank page. But the final draft still needs taste.”

Founders across the room weren’t using AI to replace writing. They were using it to start faster. Tools like Jasper, Scalenut, Copy.ai, Peppertype, and Notion AI were common in marketing workflows — but not for publishing final copy. Instead, they help generate rough drafts, outline landing pages, or spark campaign ideas. From there, humans take over.

One marketer summed it up best: “AI gets us to version one faster. But if it sounds like everyone else, it still loses.”
That was the deeper thread — AI saves time, but not taste. And as generative content floods feeds, tone is emerging as a startup’s moat. The sharper your voice, the less replaceable you are.

“We’re not short on content. We’re short on distribution.”

Many teams admitted they’ve never had more content — or felt more invisible. The real bottleneck isn’t creation anymore; it’s reach. Platforms feel unpredictable. Organic engagement is inconsistent. Founders shared frustrations with Instagram and LinkedIn’s ever-shifting algorithms.

So the strategy is changing. Teams are turning toward direct, owned channels: newsletters, WhatsApp campaigns, Telegram groups. Tools like Gupshup are being tested for regional and B2B use cases — especially where trust and timing matter more than scale.

It’s no longer about going viral. It’s about being relevant — at the right moment, to the right person.

“If a tool saves me 10 clicks a day, I’ll keep it. If not, I won’t.”

That single sentence echoed a quiet truth about automation. Startups aren’t cutting headcount. They’re cutting friction.

Across the room, founders described using tools like Make.com, Zapier, Airtable AI, and Bardeen to tie their systems together — automating follow-ups, syncing campaign data to Slack, or organizing leads without writing custom scripts.

The focus wasn’t innovation. It was velocity. When you can move faster without pulling in a dev, you ship more. And every campaign you ship teaches you something. That’s the compounding advantage.

“We give every new tool a weekend. If it fits, it stays.”

One of the sharpest insights came not from a tool recommendation — but a process. Multiple teams shared their approach to experimenting with new AI tools: create a “sprint.” One weekend. A few hours. Clear goal. Document the results. Decide fast.

This prevented stack bloat and tool fatigue. More importantly, it created a learning habit. Instead of reacting to what’s trending, teams ran structured tests in their own context.

No hype. Just: does it help us move faster?

“The problem isn’t the tech. It’s the fit.”

This was the most consistent frustration in the room: tools with great features that still don’t stick. Why? Because they demand too much prompting. Or don’t integrate cleanly. Or break mental flow.

Founders don’t want more content — they want orchestration. The best tools feel invisible. They blend into your existing workflow. They guide you, not slow you down. If your feature needs a training video to explain, you’ve already lost attention.

For AI builders in the room, this was the wake-up call: the battle isn’t for more capability. It’s for better context.

“AI is a workflow upgrade. Not a strategy.”

By the end of the session, there wasn’t a singular aha moment — and that was the point. No playbook is perfect. But the best ones are being rewritten in real-time, in rooms like this.

Founders walked away with sharper instincts:

The story of AI in marketing isn’t about replacing teams. It’s about building systems that help you move with more clarity, speed, and intent.

And those systems aren’t being built in trend decks.

They’re being built, one Thursday at a time — in rooms like this.

While top LLMs like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity came up frequently as go-to general AI assistants, much of the meetup focused on more specific, workflow-driven tools. These were the AI products founders are actually integrating into their day-to-day — from content ops and customer engagement to video creation and backend automation.

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If conversations like these interest you, you’ll find many more through eChai. We host meetups, demo days, founder gatherings, and community-led events across cities — all focused on helping founders connect, share, and grow together. Whether you’re building your first startup or scaling your fifth, you’ll find peers to learn from and stories to relate to. Explore what’s happening next at eChai.Ventures.