Hiro Kawamoto is bringing authentic Japanese pop culture to India with an immersive festival — cosplay try-ons, a Maid Café, and Beyblade battles. We talk about turning passive anime fans into co-creators, and his plans to expand beyond Bengaluru.
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#08 – Ankit Acharya (Cautio): AI Dashcams for Safer Roads
Ankit Acharya co-founded Cautio, building AI-powered dashcams that give India’s roads real-time driver monitoring and reliable video evidence. We talk about detecting fatigue and distraction as it happens, and why video beats GPS-only tracking.
#07 – Ravi Madabhushi (ScaleKit): Enterprise Auth Without the Headache
Ravi Madabhushi co-founded ScaleKit, helping B2B SaaS teams ship enterprise authentication and SSO in hours instead of months. We dig into passwordless login, SAML vs OIDC, and what enterprises actually check before signing a contract.
#06 – Yulia Aslamova (DRIM): Influencer Marketing That Pays for Itself
Yulia Aslamova co-founded DRIM, a social commerce platform that pays micro-influencers on a cost-per-action model instead of flat fees. We talk about why micro-influencers outperform big campaigns, and her path from Siberia to building a marketing career in India.
#05 – Neel Balar (Clueso): AI That Writes Your Product Docs
Neel Balar co-founded Clueso, turning simple screen recordings into polished product tutorials and documentation with AI. We discuss going through Y Combinator, and how AI is reshaping how startups educate their users.
#04 – Dhruv Agarwal (Middleware): The Productivity OS for Engineers
Dhruv Agarwal is building Middleware, a productivity OS that removes the obstacles slowing down engineering teams. We talk about turning a job interview into his first paying customer, and what actually measures developer productivity.
#03 – Yash Gupta (Nova Benefits): Fixing Employee Health Benefits
Yash Gupta co-founded Nova Benefits, pairing group health insurance with preventive care, mental health support, and a transparent claims process. We get into why mental health benefits see under 3% usage, and how better product design can change that.
#02 – Hena Mehta (Basis Foundation): Closing India’s Women & Money Gap
Hena Mehta co-founded Basis Foundation, now shifting from fintech startup to nonprofit to help women in India take ownership of their financial decisions. We talk about why women invest differently, and building education-first, community-led financial products.
#01 – Yatin Varachhia (NOSH): A Robot That Cooks Your Dinner
Yatin Varachhia co-founded NOSH, a robot chef that dispenses ingredients and follows app-guided recipes — no more standing over the stove. We talk about the five-year road from prototype to product, and what it takes to build hardware in India.