What's being posted about eChai.

Great insights and conversations at yesterday’s AI Builders Forum — The Real Cost of AI: What It Takes to Build, Scale & Succeed.

Thank you to PMI San Francisco Bay Area Chapter, eChai Ventures, and The AI Foundry for bringing together such a thoughtful group of AI founders, operators, product leaders, and practitioners.

One takeaway that really stayed with me was the discussion around the true cost of AI. AI can require significant investment in technology, data, training, workflow redesign, governance, and change management. But the greater cost may come when organizations invest in AI without first being clear about the business problem they are trying to solve.

If the solution does not improve an outcome, remove friction, reduce cost, increase productivity, or create meaningful value, then even a technically successful implementation can become an expensive experiment.

It reinforced for me the importance of continuing to ask: What business problem are we solving, how will we measure success, and do we have the right people and processes in place to drive adoption?

Technology is only one part of the equation. Successful AI adoption also depends on training, workflow design, change management, and bringing the right people along with the transformation.

And on a personal note, it was finally wonderful to see Estelle Paysinger-Hill, PMP in person, and great catching up with Sanjay Belagodu, Seyi Oshinowo, MBA, PMP, PgMP, CAL, CSPO, Sara Abolhassani, PMP, Vijay Ratthinam, Anup (Andy) Deshpande.

Thank you to all of the speakers and moderators for sharing such practical perspectives on what it really takes to move AI from experimentation to meaningful business impact.

𝗔𝗻 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗲𝗱 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗿𝗮𝘄 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗽 𝘄𝗶𝘀𝗱𝗼𝗺, 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗴𝘆!

Yesterday, I had the privilege of attending the eChai Ventures meetup here in Ahmedabad, and listening to Hari Balasubramanian sir was nothing short of a masterclass on the Indian startup ecosystem.
Hearing his personal journey and decades of experience provided a grounded reality check and immense inspiration.

𝗔 𝗳𝗲𝘄 𝗸𝗲𝘆 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗱𝗲𝗲𝗽𝗹𝘆:

💡 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗘𝘃𝗼𝗹𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗽 𝗟𝗮𝗻𝗱𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗽𝗲: Where the real growth trends lie and which high-impact segments hold the biggest opportunities for the next decade.
💡 𝗙𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗠𝗶𝗻𝗱𝘀𝗲𝘁: The grit, resilience, and authentic problem-solving mindset that separates enduring companies from short-term hype.
💡 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗞𝗲𝗲𝗽 𝗶𝗻 𝗠𝗶𝗻𝗱: The fundamentals of sustainable execution that every founder must stay anchored to while building in India.

What makes these sessions so special is the candid, open format where founders can freely ask real questions and share unvarnished thoughts.

A huge thank you to Jatin Chaudhary and the entire eChai Ventures team for consistently curating such open, high-value founder circles.

Special thanks to Umesh Uttamchandani and the 𝗗𝗲𝘃𝗫 team for hosting us at such a fantastic venue (and for the great coffee! ☕).

Walking away with sharp perspectives, renewed energy, and great clarity for the road ahead. Onward and upward!

#Startups #Entrepreneurship #FounderJourney #eChai #DevX #AhmedabadStartups #StartupIndia #Networking #Innovation #Leadership

Had a really lovely evening speaking at the eChai Ventures meetup hosted at Founder Startup House

The session was full house, but more than that, it felt full of energy. There were young founders, experienced entrepreneurs, operators, and people still figuring out what they want to build.

Everyone had a question, a story, a doubt, or a small dream they were chasing.

That is what I love about such rooms.

No one has all the answers.
Everyone is trying.
Everyone is building something with hope.

A few thoughts stayed with me from the conversation, and I think all of us on the panel were aligned on this:

Build first.
Sell first.
Talk to customers first.
Raise last.

Funding is important, but it cannot replace clarity. The market teaches you faster than any pitch deck can.

I learned a lot from my fellow panelists DEBOPRIYA CHAKROBORTY and Nupur Dave. It was genuinely inspiring to listen to their journeys and the way they are building with so much honesty in their own spaces. There is always something beautiful about listening to people who have lived their lessons and are still kind enough to share them openly.

I also got to share a little bit of our own journey at Intugine. From starting with a gaming wearable called Nimble to eventually finding our way into supply chain visibility, it has been a journey full of wrong turns, hard lessons, and small moments of faith.

A big thank you to Mansi S. to Mansi S. for hosting the session so warmly and keeping the conversation so natural.

And as always, it is a pleasure to be part of an eChai Ventures session. Thank you Jatin Chaudhary ji for creating spaces where founders can speak honestly, learn from each other, and feel a little less alone in the journey.

The finish line keeps moving, so build stamina.

Intugine - Logistics through Innovation

#Startups #FounderJourney #BengaluruStartups #eChai #Building #Intugine

What do founders discuss when the pitch decks are closed?

Today, eChai Ventures brought together founders, investors and operators in Ahmedabad for a candid conversation with Hari Balasubramanian.

It wasn't a rehearsed keynote when we met. The discussion moved from his early investment journeys involving Wow! Momo, Mukunda Foods Pvt. Ltd., Spinny, Rapido and Brevistay to some of the harder questions founders are confronting today:

▶️ Where is capital really going?
▶️ What has AI changed about building and selling software?
▶️ Is conventional SaaS becoming harder to fund?
▶️ How do founders and investors actually achieve liquidity?

Recalling the conversations, I found a few ideas that stayed with me.

▫️Capital is no longer India’s biggest constraint. The constraint is whether a team has a bold enough idea and the operating capacity to deploy that capital intelligently.
▫️AI has made building faster. It has not made distribution easier. Product creation is getting cheaper, while customer access, domain expertise, trust, and monetisation are getting more valuable.
▫️SaaS is not dead. But the comfortable middle is being squeezed. Either reach enormous user scale or own a workflow so deeply that a smaller number of customers will pay serious money.
▫️Paper valuation is not a return. Liquidity is. Many meaningful companies take 10 to 15 years to build, while the structures funding them often expect answers much earlier.

Perhaps the most important lesson was this:

A strong ecosystem is not built through speeches. It is built through rooms where people speak honestly, challenge each other and make the right introductions.

Thank you, Hari Balasubramanian, for sharing decades of experience without trying to make the journey sound neat.

Thank you, Jatin Chaudhary, Umesh Uttamchandani, eChai Ventures and DevX for creating the room.

Amish Trivedi Anil Motwani Anuj Dalal Bhavesh Patel Jash Gor Jayesh Kadivar Koumal Kalantry Nikita Lalwani Rahul Kumar Vikas Mundhra Viraj Rajani Balkrishna Agarwal Chirag Panchal Amit Gupta Dr. Isha Goswami Dr. Saiful Khan Ekta Shah Harsh Joshi Ishani Dave Mitesh Shethwala Murtuza Badami Er. Nandan Shukla Sagar Thakker Satya Mehta Shyam Parmar Sweety Patel Twinkle Barot

The carousel here distils the entire conversation.

"i never dreamt of becoming a founder...
there was just a problem statement i discovered, and decided to go all in to solve it."

that’s what both Dhananjay Yadav from NeoSapien and Vikas Bardia from Shoffr said when i asked them about their journey as founders.

last sunday, we hosted an event with eChai Ventures at Founder Startup House around building consumer & d2c brands with folks who have actually done the grunt work, built from scratch, and scaled in the d2c space.

there were a lot of takeaways from the session including:
>the playbook behind building a brand
>how word of mouth actually compounds
>hiring and culture when you’re scaling
>when and how to raise funding (and whether you even should)
>the messy, uncertain parts of the founder journey...and everything in between

but if there is one thing i am taking away from the conversation, it’s this:
“STAY CURIOUS”
no matter how far ahead you get, there’s always something new to learn.

and perhaps more importantly- keep the SIMPLICITY:
the ability to stay grounded, ask questions, admit what you don’t know, keep figuring things out, iterate, and fail faster.

it was so much fun hosting you both, Vikas Bardia and Dhananjay Yadav.
thank you for being so candid, generous, and open with your experiences (and for answering all our questions:)

and a big shoutout to the eChai Ventures Jatin Chaudhary and Founder Startup House team for making this happen 🙌

Evening well spent — was at Elsner Technologies Pvt. Ltd. for eChai Ventures x Tech Expo Gujarat session on AI and M&A.

One thing that hit me early: most founders are heads-down in AI, or heads-down in M&A — rarely both at once. That gap is basically where the next wave of growth is hiding.

Two panels, no pitch decks, just real talk:

🔹 AI inside the business — not the shiny demo version. The actual one. What got automated, what it costs to keep running, and (my favorite part) where teams tried it, hit a wall, and quietly went back to doing it the old way. Refreshing to hear people admit that on stage instead of pretending everything's a success story.

🔹 M&A outside it — buying or getting bought isn't some far-off milestone anymore, it's just... a growth move. What actually makes a company worth acquiring, how deals get valued, and what changes the morning after you sign. Way messier in real life than it sounds on paper.

Good energy in the room, sharper questions from the audience than from the moderator half the time — which is always a good sign.

Huge thanks to Jatin Chaudhary for hosting, and to the panel for showing up with real answers instead of safe ones — Bhavesh Patel, Harshal Shah, Mitesh Shethwala, Rushabh Shah, Shrijay Sheth, and Taral Shah.

If you're building something in Ahmedabad and still haven't been to an eChai meetup — you're missing out. Go.

#eChaiVentures #AhmedabadStartups #StartupIndia #AIinBusiness #MergersAndAcquisitions #FounderLife #TechExpoGujarat #BusinessGrowth #Networking #Entrepreneurship

A Moment to Remember
On 25th July 2026, I had the opportunity to present Hireomatic at the eChai Ventures Demo Day.
What started as an idea around making hiring faster, smarter, and more structured has evolved into a platform that uses AI to help companies screen candidates, conduct AI-powered interviews, evaluate responses, and generate actionable hiring insights.
Presenting Hireomatic in front of fellow founders, entrepreneurs, and the eChai Ventures community was a great experience. It gave me the opportunity to step back from building and share the problem we're solving, what we've built, and where we're taking it next.

A big thank you to the eChai Ventures team for creating a platform where builders can showcase their products, exchange ideas, and learn from each other.
And of course, a huge shoutout to everyone who took the time to listen, ask questions, and share feedback.

Building. Learning. Iterating.

#Hireomatic #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #Recruitment #HRTech #TalentAcquisition #Startup #Founder #eChai #DemoDay

NETWORKING. NETWORKING. NETWORKING.

Last Saturday at eChai Ventures, Andheri, Mumbai was genuinely so much fun.

A few pieces of advice from the event worth holding onto:
>> Find your why. It's what carries you on the days motivation doesn't show up.

>> Get comfortable with rejection early. It stops being personal once you've collected enough of it.

>> If you want to build something, don't fall in love with the product or the end goal. Fall in love with the problem, get clear on what you're actually solving and what value it adds, everything else follows from that.

Ended up talking and connecting to people from different backgrounds, IIT grads, lawyers, people already building something of their own, just a room full of interesting minds.

Refreshing to sit in a room where entrepreneurship was default, not the exception.

grateful for rooms like this, more of these, pleaseee

It was a pleasure being part of the eChai Ventures Event, representing Tech Expo Gujarat along with Elsner Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

Today, AI is no longer something new or optional. It has quietly become a part of our daily life. And when something becomes part of our life, the best thing we can do is learn how to use it well.

The approach is simple. Use AI where it makes work better. Use it to save time, to think clearer, and to improve how we deliver. Not to follow a trend, but to make everyday work easier and more effective.

In many ways, using AI today is like adopting a new habit. The more naturally we include it in our routine, the more value we can create from it. It is not about overusing it, but about using it wisely.

This is exactly how we are looking at it at Elsner Technologies, keeping things practical, simple, and focused on real outcomes.

What makes me proud is how the team is adapting to this change. Learning, trying, and improving step by step.

Grateful for the opportunity to share our approach and also learn from others.

The idea is simple, if AI is part of our life, let’s make it a good part of it.

𝗔𝗜 × 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗽𝘀 × 𝗡𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴: 𝗔𝗻 𝗘𝘃𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗙𝘂𝗹𝗹 𝗼𝗳 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 & 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀 🚀

Spent my Saturday evening at Ideas to Impacts Hub, Baner, surrounded by founders, engineers, and builders who are all figuring out how AI is reshaping the way we build products. Two sessions stood out for me:

🎤𝗔𝗯𝗵𝗶𝘀𝗵𝗲𝗸 𝗕𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗯𝗵 (Co-Founder & CEO, VidyaAI & ExtraaEdge) shared an honest, no-fluff take on how founders are actually using AI day-to-day and more importantly, how to think about building AI products rather than just bolting AI onto existing ones. He also went deeper into how to actually use Claude to get the most out of it, practical tips on prompting and workflow that instantly changed how I'll be using it going forward. Easily one of the most useful, hands-on parts of the evening.

🎤 𝗞𝗮𝗽𝗶𝗹 𝗡𝗲𝘂𝗿𝗴𝗮𝗼𝗻𝗸𝗮𝗿 (Engineering Manager, Last9) walked us through "Agentic Debugging, The MithAI Way", a fascinating look at how agentic systems are changing the way engineering teams debug and ship.

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝗱𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗻 𝗻𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱, 𝗴𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗴𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗹𝘆 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗜/𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗽 𝘀𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝗣𝘂𝗻𝗲.

Big thanks to eChai Ventures, Jatin Chaudhary, Malav Warke, and the team at Ideas to Impacts Hub for putting together such a well-curated, candid session. More of these, please! 🙌

#corise #echai #pune #meetup #ai #startup
#AIProducts #FounderJourney #AgenticAI #ClaudeAI #PuneStartups #StartupIndia #TechMeetup

Most startups don’t have a marketing problem. They have a “who exactly are we selling this to?” problem. 🎯

That was one of my strongest takeaways from Ahmedabad Startup Day at i-Hub Gujarat — a room where conversations moved quickly from ideas to the uncomfortable realities of taking them to market.
We spoke a lot about GTM strategy, marketing, AI for business, and the mistakes founders make while trying to grow.
And one pattern kept coming back:
👉 Building first. Validating later.
👉 Targeting “everyone” and converting no one.
👉 Confusing visibility with demand.
👉 Scaling acquisition before understanding retention.
👉 Copying a competitor’s GTM without understanding why it works for them.

Because GTM isn’t simply “How do we market this?”
It starts much earlier:
Who has the problem? → How painful is it? → Who makes the decision? → Who actually pays? → Why should they switch? → Which channel reaches them? → What makes them stay?

Get that chain wrong, and even great marketing can become an expensive way to discover that your assumptions were wrong. 📉
Another conversation I particularly enjoyed was around AI for business. 🤖

The opportunity isn’t simply adding “AI-powered” to another product.
It’s asking where AI can genuinely improve customer intelligence, personalization, decision-making, operational efficiency, sales or the economics of growth.

Coming from a strategy + marketing + analytics lens, these are exactly the conversations I enjoy — where data meets customer psychology and eventually meets the market. 🧠 × 📊 × 🚀

Walked out with one thought:
Don’t ask how to scale your startup too early.

First ask — what exactly have you earned the right to scale?

Kudos to the teams and community behind Ahmedabad Startup Day at i-Hub Gujarat by eChai Ventures for creating a room where founders could discuss not just what worked, but what didn’t. 🙌

For the founders here: what’s one GTM assumption you believed initially that the market proved wrong? 👇

#GTM #GoToMarket #StartupStrategy #MarketingStrategy #AIForBusiness #BusinessStrategy #GrowthStrategy #Startups #AhmedabadStartups #StartupEcosystem

Last weekend, I had the opportunity to attend the eChai Startup Network event by eChai Ventures in Bangalore - and it was honestly one of those events where you walk away with more ideas than you came in with.

What I really enjoyed was meeting founders and leaders from different stages of their journey and hearing how they think about building, selling, and scaling their businesses.
As the Product Owner at Piqual, it was especially exciting to introduce Piqual to founders and sales teams and have conversations around one of the challenges we’re working to solve - making B2B lead generation smarter and more effective with AI.

The conversations, questions, and curiosity around Piqual were genuinely encouraging. But more than that, the event was a great reminder that building a product isn’t just about what happens inside the product team - it’s about getting out there, listening to the market, and understanding the people you’re building for.

A big thank you to eChai Ventures for bringing together such a vibrant startup community. Always great to meet people who are building, experimenting, and figuring things out along the way. Looking forward to more conversations, more learning, and hopefully, some great collaborations ahead! 🚀

#Startup #Networking #Founders #AI #SalesTech #B2B #Piqual #eChai #Bangalore

This week, while most people are consuming startup content, others will be sitting in rooms with the people actually building companies.

And honestly?

That's an unfair advantage.
This week's board at Founder Startup House :

📍6 Aug | 6 PM
→ How Founders & Operators Use AI (with eChai Ventures)
https://lnkd.in/dza2Hj4X
📍 7 Aug | 6 PM
→ Build Production-Grade AI Apps with Nebius Token Factory (Basecamp x Elevation Capital)
https://luma.com/wawucly2
📍 8 Aug | 6 PM
→ Fundraising for Startups (with eChai Ventures)
https://lnkd.in/dza2Hj4X
📍 9 Aug | 11 AM
→ Building Consumer & D2C Brands (with eChai Ventures)
https://lnkd.in/dza2Hj4X
📍 9 Aug | 4 PM
→ Failcode Bengaluru (with eChai Ventures)
https://lnkd.in/dza2Hj4X
📍 9 Aug | 5 PM
→ Mafia & Board Game Night (Basecamp x Elevation Capital)
Register:- https://luma.com/ztck7x53
📍 9 Aug | 9 PM
→ Smash It Like a Founder — Founder Badminton Night
Register:- https://luma.com/oh8oqbjh
4 days.

One building.

And that's exactly why the same people keep getting lucky.

And RSVP now to get the alumni status of Founder Startup House through the 3 day cohort !
https://lnkd.in/dZc2sr2R
Vikram Bharati Karan Bahadur Nivin Joseph Mansi Baheti Suhani Jain

#founders #events #community #network

𝗔 𝗿𝗼𝗼𝗺 𝗳𝘂𝗹𝗹 𝗼𝗳 𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗶𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝘆, 𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗴𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗳𝘂𝗹 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀!

It was a wonderful experience being part of the panel discussion on “SEO Marketing for Startups”organised by eChai Ventures

What impressed me most was the enthusiasm of the audience. Their active participation, thoughtful questions and willingness to understand digital growth showed that startup founders and professionals are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of building a strong and sustainable online presence.

𝗠𝘆 𝗸𝗲𝘆 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁:

🔸 Entrepreneurs are eager to learn and adapt to the changing digital landscape.
🔸 Awareness about organic marketing and long-term brand building is steadily increasing.
🔸 Audiences value practical experiences and honest conversations more than theoretical knowledge.
🔸 Interactive discussions create better learning than one-way presentations.
🔸 Networking events like these help founders exchange ideas, discover opportunities and build meaningful relationships.
🔸 Every panel member brought a different perspective, making the conversation more valuable and engaging.

A heartfelt thank you to eChai Ventures and Chintan P. for inviting me and creating such a collaborative platform for the startup community.

I had an amazing time sharing the stage, exchanging experiences and having fun with my fellow panel members Vishvam Mangroliya , Neel Patel 🦕 and Manasi Shah

Looking forward to many more insightful conversations and meaningful connections!

#echai #startups #entrepreneurship #digitalawareness #networking #businessgrowth #digitalmarketing #founders #startupcommunity #learninganddevelopment

Attended my first echai startup meetup at DevX, Noida, and it was a great experience stepping outside the usual academic and professional environment.

What I enjoyed most was meeting people from different backgrounds — founders, engineers, and people working on ideas across technology and business.

It was interesting to see how differently people approach problems, build products, and think about opportunities.

As someone from an Aeronautical Engineering background with a growing interest in aerospace, AI, data, and entrepreneurship, conversations like these give me a much broader perspective beyond the aerospace industry itself.

Grateful for the conversations and looking forward to attending more such events, learning from different people, and gradually building meaningful connections.

#Networking #Startups #Entrepreneurship #Aerospace #AI #Noida #echaiventures

Saturday evening was a great learning and networking experience at eChai Ventures ’s “Fundraising for Startups: Panel Conversation with Founders & Investors.”

It was great connecting with founders building across Social Commerce, Deeptech, Fintech and other emerging sectors, and understanding how investors evaluate startups at different stages.

A key highlight was hearing Swapna Gupta — share her perspective on fundraising, Deeptech and how investors evaluate opportunities.

A few takeaways that stood out:
🔹 Deeptech needs conviction, capital and patience. Building deeptech businesses often requires significant time and capital before commercial validation becomes visible.
🔹 The fundraising bar changes at every stage. Seed is largely about the founder, team and ability to execute. As companies move towards Series A and B, investors increasingly look for traction, validation and data.
🔹 A crowded market isn't necessarily a bad market. Competition can validate demand. If existing products aren't solving the problem well, there is still an opportunity to build better and capture market share.
🔹 Warm introductions matter. Portfolio founders, alumni networks and trusted connections can help startups get the attention needed for that first conversation.

I also had the opportunity to ask Swapna about the intersection of Deeptech and Fintech.
With AI becoming an important layer in financial services, we can automate processes, reduce human intervention and build smarter financial products.

But an interesting question remains:
At what point does an AI-enabled Fintech product actually become Deeptech?
Is applying AI enough, or does Deeptech require proprietary technology, significant R&D and defensible IP?

Definitely something I want to explore further.

A special kudos to Jatin Chaudhary and the entire eChai team for creating open spaces where founders, investors and ecosystem builders can connect, learn and exchange ideas.

#StartupFundraising #Deeptech #Fintech #VentureCapital #AI #Startups #eChai #banglorestartups #startupindia

I think I’m slowly becoming addicted to meeting people who are trying to build something.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve met entrepreneurs, investors, aspiring founders, working professionals and students from completely different backgrounds.

Over the weekend, I met a bunch of them at an eChai Ventures event. Thanks to Jatin Chaudhary

Different stories, different problems, different ambitions, different strategies.

But somehow, most conversations circle back to one thing:
“How do I grow this?”

That question has become particularly interesting to me through this decade.

•Because building a business is one thing.
•Building something that someone else can replicate is a completely different game.

And that’s probably why I’ve lived 15 years of my life as a student of entrepreneurship, my network of consultants spending so much time around franchising and business expansion through frantiger.agency

Still learning. Still meeting people. Still figuring out what works.
But the conversations are getting more interesting every day.

#iamfrantiger #WorkMoneyRelations

Recently, I went into eChai’s Manufacturing × AI meetup expecting a conversation about automation.

I left thinking about what AI cannot compress.

Saurya Mishra's journey made it tangible: a ₹3–4 lakh non-clinical prototype can prove a principle. But it cannot shortcut five years of supplier learning, precision tolerances, specialist talent and certification.

In deep tech, the visible product is only the tip. The capability system behind it is the moat.

Nikunj Thakkar added the other half: a good product is not discoverable simply because it exists.

In AI-mediated discovery, your brand is no longer just what your website claims. It is what the wider internet can independently verify—and what AI systems feel confident recommending.

My takeaway as someone building Brandhero Design:

In B2B, brand is not polish. It is the evidence layer that makes unfamiliar capability feel safe to choose.

And perhaps that is what Jatin Chaudhary and eChai Ventures have been compounding, city by city: not merely events, but trust infrastructure—lowering the search cost for customers, talent, partners and ideas.

AI will accelerate everything around the physics: research, documentation, coordination and discovery.

But atoms—and trust—still move at the speed of proof.

Thank you Saurya Mishra, Nikunj Thakkar and Jatin Chaudhary for a genuinely thought-provoking conversation—and Urban Vault for hosting the room.

#DeepTech #Manufacturing #AI #B2BBranding

If building a startup is a sheer resilience and mentors are the main reason for continuity and consistency

On the same lines, Jatin Chaudhary is someone whom I had been met a few years back and started hosting eChai Ventures events in Bangalore (even though the last few I had not been actively hosting) but the network, learnings and mentoring is a great support system

for Wanderfly.in our first partnership came from the event where I have hosted 3 founders and still going on after years as well

last week I had the opportunity to meet Subhadeep Mondal and I can only thank him for candidly mentioning what works and what does not and definitely what I have personally understood and learnt is "Listen with patience, respond with understanding"

starting my entrepreneurial journey a few years back, I never thought I would be hosting events, meeting investors, learning from their experience has been the best journey

if you are an early stage founder( even am), I would request to take up opportunities that are knocking on your doors!

you need to ask only one thing to yourself before taking up that opportunity is "Can I add value"

Thanks to Jatin ji for flying all the way from Ahmedabad and hosting 10 events in Bangalore and Subhadeep ji for taking time, looking forward

#Learnings #b2b #event #bangalore

What does it really take to build a consumer brand today?

Yesterday at Founder Startup House x eChai Ventures, that question took the room in a dozen different directions.

From how people discover products, to why they stay loyal, to what makes them switch overnight.

Listening to Dhananjay Yadav from NeoSapien and Vikas Bardia from Shoffr, I realized that consumer businesses are probably the closest you'll get to watching human behavior play out in real time.

One moment the conversation was around D2C and consumer brands.

The next, it was about the fitness industry and how rapidly it is evolving beyond just gyms and memberships.

What fascinated me wasn't a growth hack or a framework.

It was seeing how two founders look at the same market and notice things most people miss.

A customer decision.
A changing habit.
A small shift in behavior.

And suddenly, an entire business opportunity emerges.

These are the conversations I enjoy the most.

No pitch decks.
No buzzwords.

Just founders sharing how they see the world, and everyone in the room leaving with a slightly different perspective than they walked in with.

That's the magic of founder communities.

Sometimes the most valuable thing you take back isn't a contact or a note.

It's a new way of looking at a market.

Vikram Bharati Karan Bahadur Nivin Joseph Jatin Chaudhary Mansi Baheti
Suhani Jain

One thing I've started looking at differently after attending an eChai session on GTM & Distribution for Startups:
We often talk about AI as a feature.
“AI-powered.”
“AI integration.”
“AI-driven.”
But the customer doesn't really care that you added AI.
They care about what AI does for them.
Does it save them time?
Reduce repetitive work?
Help them make better decisions?
Solve a problem they've been struggling with?
That shift in perspective was one of my biggest takeaways from the session.
There's a simple test I found useful:
Try describing your product without saying “AI” at all.
Just describe the outcome for the customer.
If that's difficult, maybe the pitch is still built around the technology rather than the person using it.
That connects to another idea that stuck with me: start with the customer's problem, not your product.
When telling your startup's story, don't open with “Here's what we built.”
Open with “Here's the problem our customers are facing.”
The AI or whatever you built is simply how you help them get from that problem to the desired outcome.
GTM isn't just about getting your product in front of more people.
It's about understanding the customer deeply enough to explain why your product matters to them.
And in the AI era, maybe the better question isn't:
“Where can we add AI?”
It's:
“What can we make possible for the customer because of AI?”

Thank you to eChai Ventures for organizing the session and creating a great space to learn and exchange ideas.

#GTM #Startups #ProductMarketing #AI #Marketing #Distribution #B2BMarketing #eChai

Healthcare is not just about technology. It is about the difference that technology creates in someone’s life.

It was a real pleasure hosting Dr. Aditi Choksi and Shyam Parmar at the eChai Building the Future of Healthcare meetup.

Two young entrepreneurs. Two very different journeys. One common mindset — solve the real problem, obsess over the customer, and build with empathy.

Dr. Aditi Choksi is reimagining dentistry by using AI to stay accessible to patients, answer their questions, and make long, often unattended treatments easier to complete.

Shyam Parmar has taken a completely different path — developing technology that can enable mobility by translating brain signals into action. What started from a pivot became a product with the potential to fundamentally change lives.

What stood out was that neither journey was about simply “doing more of the same.” It was about rethinking what healthcare can be.

The audience brought equally powerful questions — founders eager to build, solve and leave their own mark in healthcare.

A room full of ideas, ambition and possibility.
Healthcare needs more such builders. Thank you eChai Ventures Jatin Chaudhary GVFL for enabling this.

#HealthcareInnovation #HealthTech #Startups #Entrepreneurship #eChai #Innovation #AI #MedTech