Hey Everyone! ✨

The end of the financial year often brings reflection.

What worked? What didn’t? What’s next?

At Rize, March was a sprint to the finish line, with launches, milestones, and last pushes before the reset. Here’s a look at what we built, launched, and celebrated- together.

MILESTONE MOMENTS 👑

First things first, let’s celebrate some victories! We've witnessed some jaw-dropping milestones within our community, and we can’t wait to share them with you.

Celebrating…

A big congratulations to these founders! Each step forward is a victory on the path to success. So, keep pushing and growing!

ARTICLES OF THE MONTH 📜

Missed our articles last month? Check the top ones that fuelled our Founders!

✍️ How to Show Traction: B2B vs D2C vs AI Startups? (Fundraising)

✍️ Best Platforms and Marketplaces for Selling Online in Canada (Cross-border)

✍️ A Guide to High-Converting Landing Pages & Catalogues (AI for D2C Brands) (D2C/ eCommerce)

✍️ Startup Sahayak: How Your Idea Becomes a Roadmap in 120 Seconds? (Startup Ideation)

Discover more such insightful reads in the Vault! The collection is growing every day.

Vault by Razorpay Rize

Thoughts from a thriving community of founders and entrepreneurs to fuel innovation, learn from each other's journeys, and Rize together.

STORIES FROM RIZE-PRENEURS 📎

This month, we spotlighted Sheetal Goel, founder of Cupik Design- a brand that started with something as simple as a mother trying to solve a problem for her child. What began as personalised labels for her daughter quickly turned into one of India’s most loved stationery and gifting brands, built on creativity, emotion, and deep customer connection.

KEY HIGHLIGHTS THIS MONTH💡

New initiatives, exciting launches, and everything you need to stay ahead.

✨Rize at Razorpay FTX ‘26✨

FTX 26 set the stage for some of the most forward-looking conversations in fintech and AI, with agentic AI emerging as a key theme shaping what’s next.

But beyond the panels and predictions, what truly stood out was the energy on the ground. The Rize booth became a meeting point- where founders paused, connected, and leaned into honest, unfiltered conversations.

✨ Startup Sahayak- Launch✨

We also launched Startup Sahayak. Built to support founders at the very start of their journey, it brings together clear market insights, a deep understanding of the competitive landscape, and the structured guidance that helps you move from idea to execution.

Explore now

✨ Rize D2C+ City Circle: Bengaluru✨

30+ founders. One breakfast table.

That’s what our Rize D2C+ City Circle in Bangalore looked like last month, where founders came together to share what’s really happening behind the scenes. From growth challenges to scaling insights, the discussions were honest, unfiltered, and deeply relevant.

A quick note before we wrap up: Rize for YC is now live!

If you’re applying to Y Combinator Summer 2026, we’ve built the AI YC Reviewer, powered by insights from YC alums and 1000+ YC applications. This tool helps you pressure-test your application and apply it with more confidence.

Get Review Now

MEET OUR NEWEST FOUNDERS: ONBOARDING EDITION 👥

Say hello to the latest group of founders joining the Rize Communities! They're full of bold ideas and big dreams, ready to take the startup world by storm.

Dive into Vault today & unlock a world of possibilities. 

Subscribe now

Before Cupik Design became a brand, it was just a solution. Sheetal Goel, a former advertising professional, was simply trying to create something for her daughter. What followed was an unexpected journey into entrepreneurship.

Cupik Design is now one of India’s most loved personalised brands, catering to thousands of customers and even creating for names like Shah Rukh Khan and Bryan Adams.

At the core of it is Sheetal Goel, who started with a simple problem and ended up building a brand that blends creativity with emotion.

I started out in advertising, working on brands like Pidilite and ICICI Mutual Funds at Ogilvy in Mumbai. On paper, everything looked right, but something always felt missing. I wasn’t creating, I was just managing.

Creativity had always fascinated me, even though I wasn’t formally trained in design. So I taught myself- late nights with Photoshop, figuring things out as I went. That curiosity slowly turned into a need, and eventually, I felt underutilised, and that’s when I decided to walk away.

My First Step Into Entrepreneurship

After Ogilvy, I co-founded a company called Thought Bubble with a friend. I was handling brand management, and for the first time, I experienced what it felt like to build something from the ground up. It was exciting, unpredictable, and deeply fulfilling in a way my previous roles hadn’t been.

Eventually, we decided to go our separate ways. Around the same time, I stepped into motherhood. What many see as a career pause became a transformative phase for me. I truly enjoyed that time, and little did I know, it would change my entire career path.

How Cupik Started

The idea for my business came from something very simple. I needed to label my 17-month-old daughter’s belongings for preschool, and I couldn’t find anything locally. So I designed my own- cute labels, bag tags, gift tags.

But on a whim, I shared a picture of them on Facebook. What happened next completely surprised me. Within days, my inbox was filled with messages. Friends, acquaintances, even people I didn’t know well started asking if I could make these for them too. That was the moment I paused and thought- this isn’t just my problem. This is something many people need!

The name “Cupik” came from my daughter’s early words. It stayed because it felt simple, personal, and full of emotion.

I didn’t have a website back then. I created a few designs, assigned them SKU codes, and posted them on Facebook. Orders came in through messages, and I would design and fulfil them while managing everything else in life. I still remember sitting in my car after dropping my daughter off at school, designing in that little window of time.

Over time, something beautiful happened. The kids in my daughter’s class started calling me “sticker aunty.” I would make stickers for everyone, and slowly, without even realising it, I was building not just a product, but a connection.

We have delivered over 1.5 lakh personalised products nationwide, with a portfolio of 3000+ SKUs across 50 product lines.

The Journey of Learning

While the business may have started organically, my exposure to digital and entrepreneurship wasn’t entirely new. During my MBA, I helped my father take his business online in the early 2000s- a time when very few people were thinking digitally.

I remember sitting and designing web pages for clients who spent as little as ₹5,000 on ads, just to add value. I also experimented with an early startup of my own back then.

All of this gave me a foundation, an understanding of how the internet works, how customers behave, and what it takes to build something online. When I started Cupik Design, I leaned on that experience!

The Toughest Phase

Things were going well until 2020. Then COVID hit, and like many businesses, mine was badly affected. It was honestly a make-or-break moment. I didn’t know if we would survive.

But instead of giving up, I used that time to reorganise everything. I moved to WooCommerce and split my business into three clear parts: my D2C brand, white-labelling for global companies, and corporate gifting.

During the pandemic, I received a large corporate order for gratitude journals- 4,500 units. It wasn’t something I had planned for, but it opened up an entirely new direction for the business. At the same time, products like personalised headphones started doing really well. To this day, I believe those decisions and products helped us stay afloat.

Over time, we also had the opportunity to create for some incredible people- a phone case used by Shah Rukh Khan, a custom piece for Bryan Adams. These moments felt surreal, especially considering how the journey had started.

Among everything we’ve created, my “Memoir” journals are very special to me. They’re designed for families to write letters to their children over time- a way to create something that lasts beyond us. For me, that feels like a legacy. Something that stays, even if I’m not around.

The Hardest Decision I’ve Made

One of the hardest things for me has been balancing my love for design with the needs of the business. Designing is very personal for me- it’s something that soothes me. But I realised I was creating far more than what the business could actually sell. So I had to bring in structure.

Now, I design only during specific windows of the year, curate what I release, and have reduced the number of SKUs on my website. I also treat my D2C brand as my creative space, while corporate work drives revenue. It wasn’t easy, but it was necessary.

It Takes a Village

My journey hasn’t been a solo one. My team has been incredible- some of them have been with me for over 8 years. My parents have been a huge support system, especially in helping me balance my child and my business, both of which have grown almost side by side.

When we win, we celebrate, sometimes with something as simple as a day off or a festive party. And when things don’t go well, I take a step back, reflect, and come back stronger.

One Advice for New Founders

If there’s one thing this journey has taught me, it’s this: Don’t lose yourself while building something. In my early years, I pushed myself too hard. I dealt with severe stress, insomnia, and the constant pressure of making things work.

Over time, I’ve learned that you have to take care of yourself first. Only then can you build something sustainable.

If Not This, Then What…

If I weren’t building Cupik Design, I would still be creating. I see myself heading product design for a larger brand or consulting for international companies entering India.

At the end of the day, I’m a designer at heart, and I think I always will be.

At Razorpay Rize, we love stories of founders who evolve with their businesses, and Sheetal Goel’s journey is exactly that. From her early days in advertising to teaching herself design and eventually building Cupik Design, she has continuously adapted and grown.

Her ability to balance creative passion with business decisions makes her journey especially inspiring for anyone building in the D2C space.

Dive into Vault today & unlock a world of possibilities. 

Subscribe now

Hey Everyone! ✨

February may be the shortest month of the year, but founders made every day count. We met ambitious builders at demo days, saw new startups take shape, and helped more entrepreneurs begin their journeys.

Here’s a quick recap of what February looked like at Rize.

MILESTONE MOMENTS 👑

First things first, let’s celebrate some victories! We've witnessed some jaw-dropping milestones within our community, and we can’t wait to share them with you.

Celebrating…

A big congratulations to these founders! Each step forward is a victory on the path to success. So, keep pushing and growing!

ARTICLES OF THE MONTH 📜

Missed our articles last month? Check the top ones that fuelled our Founders!

✍️ Why Canada Matters for Exporters in 2026? (Cross-border)

✍️ How Much MRR Do You Really Need to Raise Seed? (Fundraising)

✍️ B2B Logistics for Indian Exporters in the UK Market (Cross-border)

✍️ The Supply vs Brand Dilemma: Which Export Business Model Truly Scales? (Cross-border)

Discover more such insightful reads in the Vault! The collection is growing every day.

Vault by Razorpay Rize

Thoughts from a thriving community of founders and entrepreneurs to fuel innovation, learn from each other's journeys, and Rize together.

STORIES FROM RIZE-PRENEURS 📎

This month, we also spotlighted some inspiring founders from the ecosystem. Aaditya from Multibagg AI, who started his journey from a small town and went on to pitch on Shark Tank India, shared his story of building against the odds.

We also featured Jay and Ojasvika, the founders of Shram- architects redefining how technology should work for everyday people and making digital systems more accessible for the common workforce.

KEY HIGHLIGHTS THIS MONTH💡

New initiatives, exciting launches, and everything you need to stay ahead.

✨Rize Demo Day- D2C Edition✨

We hosted the Rize Demo Day: D2C Edition, bringing together founders, investors, and Razorpay leaders for an evening focused on the future of consumer brands in India.

6 founders from the Rize community took the stage to pitch their startups, while 15+ D2C brands were showcased to a room full of VCs and ecosystem leaders.

What stood out most wasn’t just the pitches- it was the passion behind them. From sharp brand stories to tough investor Q&A, the room was filled with the kind of energy that only comes from founders building something they truly believe in.

One thing was clear: India’s D2C wave is already here, and these founders are leading it.

✨ Next Big Thing by Razorpay: Cohort 2 ✨

February also marked a big milestone for the Rize community. 10 Rize founders were selected for Razorpay’s Next Big Thing cohort, taking their ideas and products to one of the most exciting startup platforms in the ecosystem.

✨Rize For YC: Summer 2026✨

A quick note before we wrap up: Rize for YC is now live!

If you’re applying to Y Combinator this batch, we’ve put together resources and support to help founders ace their YC applications and get ready for the journey ahead.

We also built the AI YC Reviewer, powered by insights from YC alums and 1000+ YC applications. The tool helps you pressure-test your application and apply it with more confidence.

Get Review Now

MEET OUR NEWEST FOUNDERS: ONBOARDING EDITION 👥

Say hello to the latest group of founders joining the Rize Communities! They're full of bold ideas and big dreams, ready to take the startup world by storm.

Dive into Vault today & unlock a world of possibilities. 

Subscribe now

Jay and Ojasvika founded Shram to build technology that feels human. Frustrated by complex, engineer-first tools, they set out to create a product that reduces friction and works the way people naturally think.

Shram is an AI-powered work companion built to help you focus on meaningful work instead of managing endless tasks. It automatically detects what needs attention, surfaces important actions, and handles repetitive, low-value work in the background.

Jay and Ojasvika were architects first. They spent their days designing homes, experimenting with parametric models, and slowly teaching themselves how to write small algorithms to make their ideas buildable. They weren’t trained software engineers; they were just curious enough to figure things out.

Somewhere along the way, a simple thought stuck with them: If we can teach ourselves to design through code, can we also build software that people actually want to use?

That quiet question- half doubt, half ambition- eventually became Shram.

When Architects Decide to Build Software

While still running his architecture firm, Jay began working on Shram in 2020. It started as an obsession- late nights, prototypes, endless conversations. Ojasvika joined him fully around 2022–23.

At the heart of it was a frustration: Most tools built by engineers don’t speak to non-engineers. They’re efficient, but not always intuitive. Logical, but not always human.

Ojasvika often says:

“For us, it’s always been a no-sayer to design something beautifully in 3D and let it translate poorly into a 2D experience.”

As non-technical founders, they faced a choice:

• Build a layer that might get disrupted in 5–10 years

• Or become the disruptors themselves

They chose the more challenging path. They didn’t speak the language of code fluently. But they knew how things should flow. How friction feels. How humans respond! So, they decided to flip their biggest weakness into their greatest strength.

The Bootstrapped Years

They bootstrapped Shram for three long years - no safety net, no guarantees, and plenty of nights filled with second-guessing. When their first MVP launched in August 2023, it didn’t land. In their own words, it sucked. But instead of walking away, they paid attention. They watched where users struggled, asked uncomfortable questions, and went back to the drawing board. Then they rebuilt. And rebuilt again.

By 2025, they made the painful but necessary decision to pivot from Shram.io to Shram.ai- letting go of three years of effort to make room for something sharper and more honest. It hurt, but growth often does.

The Hardest Decisions

There were two moments that nearly broke them.

1. Firing Their CTO

The first was firing their CTO- right before signing a term sheet. The timing couldn’t have been worse. But deep down, they felt something wasn’t aligned. He lacked what they describe as “the courage of an entrepreneur”- the ownership, the hunger, the resilience required at that stage. And they understood a hard truth: a misaligned CTO would damage the company far more than losing a funding deal ever could.

So they chose integrity over security. They were willing to risk the term sheet to protect the culture. That decision quietly set the standard for how they would build the company going forward.

2. The Pivot

The second was pivoting after three years of relentless effort. Three years of bootstrapping, countless late nights and personal sacrifices. Letting go of that version of Shram was emotional. But they could see a bigger opportunity ahead, and staying attached to sunk costs would only slow them down.

That’s when they learned something important: Flexibility is survival.

Funding, Family & Validation

Bootstrapping wasn’t glamorous. It meant watching every expense, delaying personal plans, and constantly choosing the company over comfort. But deep down, they felt unready. They once had the chance to raise funding from OpeCha, and they said no.

Coming from non-technical and non-entrepreneurial backgrounds, they knew there were gaps- in understanding, in conviction, in clarity.

For Jay, fundraising was deeply personal. His parents had never really believed this would work. To them, it felt risky, unstable, unrealistic. Every year without visible “success” quietly reinforced their doubts. So when investors backed him, it was proof.

For Ojasvika, the journey with family was more layered. In the beginning, there was excitement- pride in building something of her own. But bootstrapping slowly introduced tension.

Entrepreneurship is often romanticised as a founder’s solo battle. But in reality, families absorb the pressure too. They sit through the uncertainty. They manage their own fears. They adjust expectations.

And when things finally begin to move, the relief is shared.

How They Survive the Highs and Lows

They’ve learned something most founders don’t say loudly enough: “The best days are rare.”

So they celebrate small wins.

• A feature shipped? Celebrate.

• A thoughtful user feedback? Celebrate.

• A tiny breakthrough? Celebrate.

They have a phrase they often repeat to each other: “We build extensively. Then we trim the fat.” It reflects how they think about everything- not just the product. They tend to explore widely at first, test multiple ideas, and stretch the boundaries of what something could be. And then comes the more challenging part: cutting.

Distilling the idea until only what truly matters remains. It’s not always comfortable, letting go rarely is, but the end result is always clearer and leaner.

Who They Are as Founders

As founders, their roles are clearly defined.

Ojasvika leads design. She obsesses over emotion, experience, and the tiny details most people overlook. Jay focuses more on tech and systems. He thinks in structures- how things connect, scale, and sustain over time.

Growth, however, is never owned by just one of them. It’s collaborative. And today, they’re backed by a strong technical team that fills the gaps they once struggled with. They’re honest about what they don’t know and intentional about surrounding themselves with people who do.

They may not speak computer language fluently. But they understand humans deeply. And for the kind of product they’re building, that might matter even more.

The Books That Shaped Them

The way they think about building isn’t accidental. A lot of it has been shaped by what they read and, more importantly, what they internalise.

For Ojasvika, Unreasonable Hospitality has been a quiet guide. On the surface, it’s a book about restaurants and service. But for her, it’s about designing for humans. Her second favourite, Sophie’s World, shaped a different muscle- curiosity. It walks through the origins of philosophy, constantly asking why.

Jay resonates deeply with On the Origin of Species. The idea that survival belongs not to the strongest, but to the most adaptable, has become almost a personal philosophy.

If you look at their journey- the failed MVPs, the CTO decision, the pivot from Shram.io to Shram.ai- you can see those influences clearly.

The Bigger Dream

They’re now building auto task detection- something they’ve been quietly obsessing over for months.

For two founders who care deeply about experience, this feels like coming full circle. A more intelligent, more intuitive system- one that works in the background instead of demanding attention. One that feels almost invisible.

They’re planning a public launch soon!

If not this, then what…

Ask them what they’d do if Shram didn’t exist, and the answer is immediate: there is no “if not this.” Shram is a stepping stone toward something bigger- what they call Modularity, a vision for building new-age cities from the ground up.

The logic is simple. Sixty per cent of cities are residential. People spend half their lives at home. By 2050, over 300 million Indians will migrate to cities that aren’t built for them. Jay and Ojasvika believe every building should behave like a tree in a forest- part of a living system, not just a structure on land. That requires an entirely new building system, not just better architecture.

Shram is teaching them how to build technology companies. Modularity is where they plan to take that knowledge next.

What wouldn’t change is this: They would still be building!

What stands out about Jay and Ojasvika isn’t just that they built Shram- it’s how they built it. Coming from non-technical backgrounds, they stepped into a deeply technical world with humility, curiosity, and relentless persistence.

At heart, they are designers of systems- whether that system is a building, a product, or a company.

Dive into Vault today & unlock a world of possibilities. 

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Aaditya Aanand is a founder whose journey began far from startup hubs and pitch rooms, in a tier-3 town in Bihar. Shaped by responsibility from an early age, Aaditya took the long road- building deep experience in finance and technology before choosing to make something of his own.

Today, through Multibagg AI, he’s working to simplify how everyday Indians discover, research, and track companies, bringing institutional-grade thinking to retail investors.

Where I Come From

I always wanted to build something of my own. That desire was there from a very young age. But entrepreneurship is a luxury, and for a long time, I couldn’t afford it.

I come from a small town called Munger, about 180 kilometres from Patna, Bihar. It’s not the kind of place where you grow up hearing about startups or venture capital. You grow up learning responsibility early. You learn to be careful & grateful.

My family background has shaped a lot of who I am. My grandfather lost his entire family during the plague. My father carried heavy financial debt for most of his life. There were days growing up when food itself felt uncertain. When that’s your reality, emotions don’t come first- survival does.

The Turning Point

Coming from a small town, exposure was limited. I didn’t always know what was possible or what path to take. My elder brother played a considerable role here. He studied in a government school and didn’t go to IIT, but he made sure every question I had was answered.

I was part of the Super 30 batch. I still remember the day Anand Sir checked my roll number and said, “Aapka IIT mein ho gaya.” That one sentence changed my life.

Getting into IIT Kanpur was a signal. A signal that maybe I could be the person who changes the direction of my generation. I graduated from IIT Kanpur in 2018. Like many people from similar backgrounds, I didn’t jump into entrepreneurship right away. I had loans, responsibilities, and family expectations. Even a high-paying job doesn’t remove fear when people depend on you.

I worked at American Express and Goldman Sachs. Those years taught me how institutional finance really works- how decisions are made, how risk is measured, and how powerful good tools can be.

Why I Started Multibagg

India has never been an equity-mature market. Traditionally, we invested in gold, real estate, and fixed deposits. But after COVID, something shifted.

Today, nearly 12 crore Indians invest in equities, and SEBI expects that number to grow to 25 crore by 2030. But there is a problem! Retail investors are entering the market with limited tools, fragmented information, and heavy dependence on RAs or RIAs.That gap bothered me.

I wanted to build an institutional-grade investing tool that was modern, AI-native, easy to use, and still affordable. That’s how Multibagg AI came to life.

Starting Alone and Staying the Course

I started alone. For a short time, a childhood friend joined me, but the startup journey is long and overwhelming, and it’s not meant for everyone. It didn’t work out, and that’s okay.

I bootstrapped the first version with about 5–10 lakhs from my own savings and built the prototype. I spoke to VCs early and realised that prototypes don’t get funded- traction does. So I raised a friends-and-family round of around 65 lakhs, which gave me the runway to build correctly. Later, we raised from AJVC and now, Shark Tank India.

Somewhere along this journey, I also got married. My wife doesn’t hold a formal role in the company, but she’s been my constant support through every phase. She’s also the one who came up with the name Multibagg. In many ways, this company exists because she believed in me, during those uncertain times.

The Hardest Part of Building

One of the most complex parts of building has been learning to say no. There are always tempting opportunities, some very lucrative, but not everything aligns with your long-term vision.

Saying no is uncomfortable, especially when you’re still building.

But what helps are some moments that validate your vision, your dream! One moment that really stayed with me happened in early 2025. I got a Razorpay notification saying someone had bought our annual subscription for 5,000 rupees. It wasn’t a friend or family member. It was a stranger.

That was the day Multibagg truly became a business for me, when someone I didn’t know trusted our product enough to pay for it.

Good Days, Bad Days, and How I Stay Grounded

I’m not an emotionally expressive person. I’m never extremely happy or extremely sad. Maybe that comes from my childhood, when survival mattered more than celebration.

I believe deeply in God. I read a lot- both fiction and non-fiction. Right now, I’m reading Principles by Ray Dalio. Some of my favourite books are Crime and Punishment and Changing World Order. Reading helps me stay grounded when things get noisy.

Advice For First-Time Founders

If there’s one thing this journey has taught me, it’s that progress rarely comes from big, dramatic moments. It comes from showing up-quietly, repeatedly, and often without any immediate reward. 80% of winning is simply being present every single day, even when nothing seems to be working.

Discipline is what carries the work forward on days when confidence is low, energy is drained, and clarity feels distant.

Also, reduce your screen time. It helps more than people realise!

If Not This, Then What…

If I weren’t building Multibagg, I’d be writing.

I’m a very opinionated person, both politically and culturally, and I write every day. If not startups, I’d probably just read and write for the rest of my life. And, maybe that’s building something too.

What stands out most about Aaditya Aanand is the quiet seriousness with which he’s built his journey. Coming from a tier-3 town, he didn’t rush into entrepreneurship- he spent years learning, preparing, and understanding the problem deeply before choosing to build.

It’s the kind of story that reminds us that not all founders start with a leap; some start by showing up every day, and that’s just as powerful for the Razorpay Rize community.

Dive into Vault today & unlock a world of possibilities. 

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Hey Everyone! ✨

January at Rize was packed with launches, learnings, and meaningful founder conversations- both online and offline. We spent the month listening closely to early-stage founders, understanding their biggest blockers, and building tools that reduce friction at every step of the journey.

This recap brings together the highlights that shaped our start to the year.

MILESTONE MOMENTS 👑

First things first, let’s celebrate some victories! We've witnessed some jaw-dropping milestones within our community, and we can’t wait to share them with you.

Celebrating…

A big congratulations to these founders! Each step forward is a victory on the path to success. So, keep pushing and growing!

ARTICLES OF THE MONTH 📜

Missed our articles last month? Check the top ones that fuelled our Founders!

✍️ How to Calculate Your Startup’s Valuation? (Fundraising)

✍️ How Performance Marketing Works for D2C Brands (2026 Guide) (Marketing)

Discover more such insightful reads in the Vault! The collection is growing every day.

Vault by Razorpay Rize

Thoughts from a thriving community of founders and entrepreneurs to fuel innovation, learn from each other's journeys, and Rize together.

STORIES FROM RIZE-PRENEURS 📎

This month, we spotlighted Dr Surabhi Jaju, a founder proving that meaningful brands can be built far beyond metro cities. Based in Satara, Maharashtra, Surabhi leads Rustic Art, an organic personal and home care brand grounded in sustainable manufacturing and conscious consumption.

KEY HIGHLIGHTS THIS MONTH💡

New initiatives, exciting launches, and everything you need to stay ahead.

✨AI YC Reviewer- New Launch✨

Ever wondered how a YC partner might read your application? We built the AI YC Reviewer to give founders an early, honest review of their answers- highlighting gaps, sharpening clarity, and strengthening their overall story.

Powered by insights from YC alumni and 1000+ YC applications, the tool helps you pressure-test your application and apply with more confidence.

Get Review Now

✨Rize City Circle: Mumbai✨

Building can feel lonely until you’re in a room with founders facing the same challenges.

Our Mumbai City Circle gave us a closer look at how founders in D2C and retail are building today- balancing growth, margins, and distribution while navigating an evolving market. These conversations help us stay grounded in real founder needs.

MEET OUR NEWEST FOUNDERS: ONBOARDING EDITION 👥

Say hello to the latest group of founders joining the Rize Communities! They're full of bold ideas and big dreams, ready to take the startup world by storm.

Dive into Vault today & unlock a world of possibilities. 

Subscribe now

At Razorpay Rize, we meet founders building quietly but meaningfully- often far from the spotlight. Dr Surabhi Jaju is one such founder. Building from Satara, a tier-2 city in Maharashtra, Surabhi leads Rustic Art, an organic and natural personal and home care brand rooted in sustainable manufacturing and conscious living.

I didn’t start out thinking I would build a beauty brand.

On paper, my journey looked very different. I did my PhD in Economics. I cleared CFA Level 2. Research, data, policy- that was supposed to be my world. But somewhere deep down, I always knew one thing: whatever I ended up doing, it would be business.

Entrepreneurship showed up early for me. In my early twenties, my brother and I started something called Gana Banana. He was a musician, and together we built personalised poems and music for gifting. We sold through Facebook. It spread through word of mouth and worked surprisingly well. It was exciting, messy, and full of learning. We eventually shut it down. Still, that experience stayed with me. It taught me what it feels like to build something from scratch.

How Rustic Art Really Started?

Rustic Art didn’t start with me; it began with my mother.

In 2010, after completing her Master’s in Sustainable Development, she wanted to create something rooted in organic and sustainable living. We initially tried distributing organic food products, but soon realised that food wasn’t the space we wanted to be in.

What felt right was personal and beauty care- products people use every day, products that quietly shape their health and lifestyle.

In 2011, Rustic Art was born!

Our initial years were spent creating awareness. We had to explain why organic matters, why sustainability isn’t a marketing trend, and why toxin-free products deserve attention. Growth was slow, but it was real. People started noticing the difference.

After completing my PhD, I began working more closely with the family business. But the moment I truly stepped in was in 2018, when our manufacturing unit was ready.

Recruiting in a Half-Built Factory

I still remember my first real responsibility- recruiting employees while sitting inside a half-constructed factory.

That factory became the heart of Rustic Art. It runs on solar energy. It’s a zero liquid discharge unit. Every drop of water is treated and reused for gardening within the premises. The trees on the premises were preserved, including a neem tree that existed long before the factory and now provides leaves used in our product formulations. Sustainability was embedded into how we built it.

Learning to Build as a D2C Founder

As we grew, we began experimenting with waterless beauty care products- formulations that are more sustainable, more concentrated, and better value for customers.

My PhD helped me here in unexpected ways. Research teaches you how to enter the unknown, ask the right questions, and keep going when answers aren’t obvious. Along the way, I learned everything a D2C founder has to know- ecommerce, marketplaces, logistics, digital distribution- one step at a time.

Choosing Substance Over Trends

As the beauty industry increasingly started to resemble fast fashion- jumping from one viral ingredient to another- I consciously chose a slower path.

I want this industry to help people and the environment. To encourage wellness. To make toxin-free, organic living a habit, not a trend.

That philosophy shaped Rustic Art’s product decisions, formulations, and pricing.

Early feedback wasn’t always encouraging. Many felt the products were “too expensive.” But instead of racing to discount, the team stayed firm. Over time, customers began to see the difference, not just on their skin, but in their lifestyle. That acceptance validated everything we were building.

The Wins That Matter Most

In 2019, we decided to take Rustic Art online. We already had our website, but Amazon felt like a big step. One day, we just created a seller account. The first day brought one order. Then ten. Then twenty. Then thirty.

E-commerce changed how we did business. It made growth easier, reach wider, and feedback immediate. Today, Rustic Art has been an Amazon bestseller in multiple categories- a milestone built quietly over the years.

Setting up the factory certainly ranks high. So does building an in-house manufacturing capability rooted in sustainability. But the biggest milestone?

When people come back with stories about how our products helped them- that’s everything!

The Hard Days, the Good Days, and COVID

The journey hasn’t been easy, but I’ve been fortunate. I come from a family that understands business and stood by me throughout. I don’t really see my work as work- I genuinely love what I do.

During COVID, when logistics failed and uncertainty was everywhere, our team showed up. We stayed connected with customers, stepped into essentials, and kept going. That period strengthened trust and reminded people why safe, effective products matter.

If there’s one lesson I keep coming back to, it’s this:

• Pick one thing at a time

• Build a product so good it speaks for you

If not this, then what…

I’d probably be teaching, researching, or working in public policy.

For now, I’m here- building Rustic Art from Satara, slowly, consciously, and with intention. And honestly, I wouldn’t want it any other way.

Building Rustic Art from Satara, Surabhi has shown that world-class, sustainable brands don’t need to come from big cities or chase fleeting trends. With a rare blend of academic depth, business acumen, and values-led leadership, she has helped shape Rustic Art into a thoughtfully scaled brand powered by conscious manufacturing, innovation, and trust.

Her journey reflects the kind of entrepreneurship we believe in at Razorpay Rize- founders who build patiently, stay rooted in purpose, and create long-term impact for customers, teams, and the ecosystem at large.

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Hey Everyone! ✨

While most of us were wrapping up the year, Rize founders were still shipping, pitching, and showing up. December brought funding wins, big recognitions, and global accelerator news.

Here’s your look back at everything that made December one to remember at Rize.

MILESTONE MOMENTS 👑

First things first, let’s celebrate some victories! We've witnessed some jaw-dropping milestones within our community, and we can’t wait to share them with you.

Celebrating…

A big congratulations to these founders! Each step forward is a victory on the path to success. So, keep pushing and growing!

ARTICLES OF THE MONTH 📜

Missed our articles last month? Check the top ones that fuelled our Founders!

✍️ How to Finance the UK Expansion of Your Business? (Export-focused)

✍️ Holiday Season on Shopify: The Must-Have App & Automation Stack for D2C Brands (D2C)

✍️ How to Build a 12-Month Financial Model for Your Startup (Step-by-Step Guide)? (Finance/ Fundraising)

✍️ How to Ship D2C Products to the UK from India: Customs, Duties & Logistics Explained (Export-focused)

✍️ ​The Future of GTM for Startups: What Founders Need to Change in 2026? (Marketing)

Discover more such insightful reads in the Vault! The collection is growing every day.

Vault by Razorpay Rize

Thoughts from a thriving community of founders and entrepreneurs to fuel innovation, learn from each other's journeys, and Rize together.

STORIES FROM RIZE-PRENEURS 📎

This month, we sat down with Suhail Manocha to understand the journey behind the builder. What began as a childhood dream of serving the country eventually found its expression in entrepreneurship.

Through Butter Money, Suhail is tackling one of India’s most complex and deeply flawed systems: mortgages. Instead of working around the problem, he’s chosen to fix it from the inside out, focusing on trust in a space that impacts millions of families.

KEY HIGHLIGHTS THIS MONTH💡

New initiatives, exciting launches, and everything you need to stay ahead.

✨The Rizing Stars of 2025 ✨

This month, we put the spotlight where it belongs- on the founders.
We published “The Rizing Stars of 2025”, featuring 100 startups from the Razorpay Rize community that are building something truly special.

We shared these stories across our social channels- the wins, the breakthroughs, and the momentum behind them. From YC admits and TV features to funding rounds and Product Hunt #1s, it was a reminder of how much progress is happening quietly, every single day.

To the founders featured- Thank you for building, and for letting us build alongside you!

MEET OUR NEWEST FOUNDERS: ONBOARDING EDITION 👥

Say hello to the latest group of founders joining the Rize Communities! They're full of bold ideas and big dreams, ready to take the startup world by storm.

Dive into Vault today & unlock a world of possibilities. 

Subscribe now

Suhail Manocha is a fintech founder on a mission to make India’s mortgage experience work better for home buyers. Backed by over a decade of experience in strategy, operations, and product roles, Suhail left corporate life to build Butter Money- an AI-led platform designed to simplify home loans and stay with customers long after disbursal.

Starting my own company was never a question for me; it was always a matter of when.

As a kid, I wanted to become a fighter pilot. It felt like the most direct way to do something for the country. When that didn’t work out, the need to contribute didn’t disappear. It just took a different shape. Somewhere along the way, I became very clear that I wanted to build something of my own in India- something that created value, created jobs, and gave back in a meaningful way.

Entrepreneurship seemed like the best use of whatever strengths I had,

When startups in India started gaining mainstream attention- when Flipkart and other founders began showing that large, meaningful companies could be built from here- it definitely made the idea feel more real, more achievable.

The Long Way Around

Before taking the plunge, I followed a fairly conventional path. I did my engineering. Then I did my MBA. Not because I wanted a safe life, but because I believed that getting into good institutions would give me exposure to people, ideas, and possibilities I hadn’t grown up around.

The next 12 years of my life were spent across management consulting firms, Fortune 500 companies, and early-stage startups, and those years shaped how I think.

And when I felt ready, I didn’t overthink it anymore. I took the leap.

Fintech was an obvious choice for me- it sat right at the intersection of my education, my work experience, and my interest in solving complex, high-impact problems.

The First Leap Didn’t Land

In 2024, I left my job and started my first company, TurboCap, which focused on supply chain financing for MSMEs.

On paper, it made sense. The market was significant. The problem was real. But startups don’t fail on spreadsheets alone. As I went deeper, I realised something important- founder–problem fit matters more than we admit.

That phase was challenging. There’s no glamour in shutting something down. But it taught me lessons I couldn’t have learned any other way- about pricing, negotiation, risk assessment, and most importantly, humility.

A Problem I Lived Through

While dealing with my own home loan during the house possession period, I discovered something unsettling. My EMI had stopped getting deducted. Interest was getting capitalised. And my loan amount had silently ballooned by ₹3- 4 lakhs- without clear communication.

What followed were months of running between banks, trying to get things corrected, and eventually filing a complaint with the RBI Ombudsman.

That experience made me pause and think- if this was so hard for someone like me, how difficult must it be for a first-time home buyer?

I interviewed over 200 individuals, ran surveys, and spoke to professionals across the lending ecosystem. What I discovered was eye-opening.

The home-buying and mortgage experience in India is incredibly broken. Despite being a massive market, the process is opaque, stressful, and exclusionary- especially for freelancers and self-employed individuals who often struggle even to get access to loans.

That’s when Butter Money was born.

What We’re Building

Butter Money is an AI-based mortgage platform designed to simplify the entire home loan journey from origination and EMI calculation to asset evaluation and long-term servicing.

What truly differentiates us is that we don’t disappear after disbursal. We stay with the customer for the entire loan tenure- 10, 15, even 20 years- ensuring the experience remains smooth, transparent, and fair.

The Quiet Wins

I’ve realised that in startups, milestones look very different from the outside.

Some months, just surviving and showing up every day feels like a win. Raising angel funding was a big milestone for us, especially because many of our investors are people I’ve worked with before, including former bosses. Their belief meant more than the cheque.

Closing our founding team was another critical moment. It felt like the beginning of something that could actually scale.

The Support System

Entrepreneurship is never a solo journey, no matter how it may be portrayed. Having someone who stands by you through the uncertainty makes all the difference.

My parents have always encouraged risk-taking- trying new things, stepping outside comfort zones, and not being afraid of failure. My younger brother is also a startup founder, which says a great deal about the environment in which we grew up.

My wife has also been my biggest support system through all of this. My wife and I try to make it a ritual- once every couple of weeks, we step away from work, phones, and endless to-do lists, and watch a movie together. It’s a small habit, but it keeps me grounded and works as a switch-off button for me amidst all the chaos.

And, when things get tough, as they often do, I remind myself and my team that life, especially startup life, is a sine curve. There will always be more bad days than good ones. The key is to stay optimistic about the end goal and keep moving forward.

One Piece of Advice for Founders

I’m still early in this journey, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s this: keep pushing forward.

If you have a purpose and you stay consistent, success will come- early for some, later for others. With time, there will always be something to look back on and cherish.

If not this, then what…

Honestly, I haven’t thought about an alternative for a long time. Maybe I would have joined the army. But even then, I know I would have eventually wanted to build something of my own.

Because at the end of the day, the goal has always been the same- to create value, in one way or another.

Suhail is the kind of founder who builds with honesty and intent. He’s thoughtful, grounded, and deeply committed to learning from the journey- especially when things don’t go as planned. What stands out is his willingness to start again, apply hard-earned lessons, and keep building with purpose.

It’s this quiet resilience and customer-first mindset that makes his journey genuinely inspiring for us at Razorpay Rize.

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Hey Everyone! ✨

November arrived with winter vibes, warm cups of chai, and a startup ecosystem that stayed as energetic as ever. Even as the festive season wrapped up, founders continued to create, experiment, raise capital, and bring their ideas to life.

Here’s your look back at everything that made November one to remember at Rize.

MILESTONE MOMENTS 👑

First things first, let’s celebrate some victories! We've witnessed some jaw-dropping milestones within our community, and we can’t wait to share them with you.

Celebrating…

A big congratulations to these founders! Each step forward is a victory on the path to success. So, keep pushing and growing!

ARTICLES OF THE MONTH 📜

Missed our articles last month? Check the top ones that fuelled our Founders!

✍️ Trade Credit Insurance: A Simple Breakdown for Indian Exporters (Export-focused)

✍️ Gamification in Product Design: When & How to Use It? (Product & Tech)

✍️ What Indian Exporters Must Know About UK Payment Terms? (Export-focused)

✍️ The Psychology of Subscriptions in India: What Works in Tech & Why? (Product & Tech)

✍️ The Psychology of Subscriptions in India: What Works for a D2C Brand & Why? (D2C)

Discover more such insightful reads in the Vault! The collection is growing every day.

KEY HIGHLIGHTS THIS MONTH💡

New initiatives, exciting launches, and everything you need to stay ahead.

✨Children’s Day at Rize ✨

On Children’s Day, we celebrated our founders in the most nostalgic way by sharing their childhood photos and the big, bright dreams they once had.

It was a beautiful reminder that every founder’s journey begins long before the first prototype, pitch, or product. In those early dreams, that curiosity, that spark- you can already see the makers and builders they would one day become.

Seeing those photos side-by-side with the companies they’re building today made one thing clear: The values that began forming in those early years- curiosity, courage, kindness, resilience are the very values that shape the leaders they are today.

✨Rize at Recur Club Meet✨

We also hosted the Recur Club meetup- a morning filled with founders, funders, and the kind of energy that only comes when passionate people get in the same room. From fast-paced pickleball rallies to long, caffeinated breakfasts, it felt like one of those rare mornings where conversations flowed effortlessly, and the community truly showed up for one another.

A morning well spent, and a community we’re grateful to build with.

MEET OUR NEWEST FOUNDERS: ONBOARDING EDITION 👥

Say hello to the latest group of founders joining the Rize Communities! They're full of bold ideas and big dreams, ready to take the startup world by storm.

Dive into Vault today & unlock a world of possibilities. 

Subscribe now

At Razorpay Rize, we’re excited to introduce Satwik Chinta- a founder whose journey is anything but the usual straight line. He started as a computer science engineer, moved into animation and design, and eventually ended up building a fashion startup, Mohi Fashion, which ships Indian apparel to over 36 countries.

I’m Satwik Chinta, a computer science engineer who accidentally took the scenic route in life.
I started my career working in animation and visual effects- the kind you see in films like Spiderman and Avengers. I went abroad to pursue my master’s in design, fully convinced that the next logical step was to land a great job and settle down.

But life never sticks to the script.

Where It All Began

Somewhere between design school, side projects, and late-night brainstorming sessions, I met the right people- people who would later become my team. At the same time, I already had two startup experiences behind me- one in Indian ethnic rentals and another in matchmaking tech. Both taught me the reality of building: the joy, the burnout, the failed experiments, the tiny wins that keep you alive.

And instead of taking the “stable job” route, I came back to India in 2018 to build again.

Then the pandemic hit. My family was unwell, the world was uncertain, and suddenly the idea of stability changed for me. I decided to stay in India and focus entirely on entrepreneurship.

That’s where the idea of Mohi Fashion began to take shape- not from a pitch deck, but from real experience, real data, and fundamental gaps we had seen in the apparel ecosystem. Having worked in ethnic rentals, we understood the demand, supply, and inconsistencies in quality. It felt like an evolution of everything we had built and learned before.

Differentiating Mohi in a Competitive Market

We bootstrapped Mohi from day one. Every rupee mattered, every decision mattered, and every assumption had to be validated through data. Fashion is a brutally competitive industry- new brands emerge every single day. What we noticed was that most were either overpriced or underpriced, and authenticity was missing. We wanted to fix that.

Our focus became simple: if a product looks a certain way on the website, it should look exactly the same when a customer receives it. We involved ourselves in every step of the process- sourcing, quality checks, packaging- to make sure we delivered what we promised.

Over time, Mohi grew in ways we didn’t expect. What we imagined as a small marketplace turned into a platform with thousands of SKUs from across India- from Assam’s handlooms to Kerala’s traditional weaves.

The part that still surprises me is our global reach: we’ve shipped to more than 36 countries, and 2025 has been our biggest year for exports so far. It feels surreal to think that pieces of Indian craftsmanship are travelling across the world because of something we built.

The Heart and Hands Behind Mohi

One of the things I’m proudest of is our team. Mohi is primarily run by women, and that has shaped the brand in ways I sincerely appreciate. The attention to detail, the questioning, the precision- it has made Mohi sharper and more thoughtful. Working with them has been an enormous learning experience for me.

Of course, the journey hasn’t just been about growth. Startup life is a rollercoaster. Some days are incredible, and we celebrate with ice creams or biryanis. Some days are tough- days when impostor syndrome hits hard or motivation dips. On those days, my team brings me back to the “why” behind everything. They remind me why we started and who we are building for.

Advice for Founders

If there’s one thing I’ve learned and would tell any founder, it’s this: Build with data.

Gut can spark the first idea, but data is what keeps that idea alive when reality hits. Data keeps you honest- it cuts through assumptions, excitement, creativity, and even ego. It shows you what your customers actually want, not what you think they want.

For Mohi, data shaped everything- from how we sourced, to what we stocked, to where we shipped.

If not this, then…

Honestly, I’d have gone back to design or animation- the world where I started, the world that still feels like a quiet creative escape for me. In another timeline, I can easily imagine myself living a slower, simpler life, working on visuals and creating art, while staying far away from the constant fires and adrenaline rushes that come with entrepreneurship.

But somewhere along the way, I realised that there’s something strangely addictive about this chaos.

So here I am- building Mohi Fashion with everything I’ve got, learning every single day. Failing sometimes and winning sometimes. At times, I even question myself, yet I believe in the vision of others. But always, always moving forward.

We’re big fans of founders like Satwik Chinta here at Razorpay Rize. He’s the kind of builder who didn’t follow the “usual” route, and honestly, that’s what makes his story so refreshing. Satwik’s journey has been full of twists: from engineering to animation, design, and now a bootstrapped fashion brand.

Yet what stands out most is how grounded he remains. He credits his team, he learns from every hard day, and he builds with honesty.

Dive into Vault today & unlock a world of possibilities. 

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Hey Everyone! ✨

October had everything- lights, laddus, and lots of funding news.
As the country celebrated the festive season, the startup ecosystem joined in its own way- with new launches, fresh capital, and plenty of milestones worth cheering for.

The ecosystem may have been in holiday mode, but for our community, it was another step closer to their big dreams.

Here’s your look back at everything that made October one to remember at Rize.

MILESTONE MOMENTS 👑

First things first, let’s celebrate some victories! We've witnessed some jaw-dropping milestones within our community, and we can’t wait to share them with you.

Celebrating…

A big congratulations to these founders! Each step forward is a victory on the path to success. So, keep pushing and growing!

ARTICLES OF THE MONTH 📜

Missed our articles last month? Check the top ones that fuelled our Founders!

✍️ Format of a TV Pitch: Timing, Talking Points, and Turnaround (Fundraising)

✍️ The 3 Core Metrics Behind Every Scalable Business (Product)

✍️ Why Should Indian Businesses Export to the UK? (Cross-border/ Export)

✍️ A Founder’s Guide to UAE Customs & Compliance (Cross-border/ Export)

Discover more such insightful reads in the Vault! The collection is growing every day.

KEY HIGHLIGHTS THIS MONTH💡

New initiatives, exciting launches, and everything you need to stay ahead.

✨Rize D2C+ at Razorpay Townhall✨

This quarter’s Razorpay Townhall turned into a mini festive marketplace- with pop-up stores by our amazing Rize D2C community lighting up the Bangalore and Gurgaon offices.

Every corner had something that captured the spirit of our founder community.

By the end of the day, the corridors were filled with shopping bags, laughter, and the unmistakable feeling that this- community, hustle, and connection- is what Rize is all about.

✨Festive Coupons of Joy✨

This Diwali, Razorpay employees got the ultimate festive boost- powered by our Rize D2C+ founders.

Over 30 Rize brands dropped exclusive deals, discounts, and festive treats just for Razorpay teams. From artisanal snacks and home décor to fashion, wellness, and pet care- there was something for everyone (and their shopping carts).

Feeling the FOMO? We got you- check out the Coupons of Joy flipbook and see what made this Diwali extra sweet.

Explore Now

✨Early Stage Startup Trends Report✨

We also dropped something special this month- our Early Stage Startup Trends Report- basically, a peek into what the next generation of Indian founders is building right now.

Rize receives over 1,000 startup applications every quarter. And it’s wild to see what that looks like up close- fresh ideas from Tier 2 towns, new business models, and founders betting on bold new categories.

So if you’ve ever wondered what the next big thing in India might look like, it’s all in here!

MEET OUR NEWEST FOUNDERS: ONBOARDING EDITION 👥

Say hello to the latest group of founders joining the Rize Communities! They're full of bold ideas and big dreams, ready to take the startup world by storm.

Dive into Vault today & unlock a world of possibilities. 

Subscribe now

Sagar Madhani, Founder of Cyringe.ai, is a marketer-turned-tech builder who’s redefining how brands approach social media. Currently, he’s transforming years of hands-on marketing experience into building the world’s first intelligent social media marketing platform powered by AI.

I grew up in a typical middle-class Mumbai household- the kind where dreams are big, but budgets are not. My daily pocket money in college was ₹50. Travel, food, and “luxury” had to somehow fit inside that number. Most days, they didn’t, but those constraints shaped me.

One day, I bought a pair of headphones for ₹150, sold them on campus for ₹300 and suddenly realised: Value is not what it costs, it’s what it solves.

That tiny flip turned into a crash course in entrepreneurship. I started buying small products locally and selling them inside college, and that rush of building, selling, and delivering never left. That was 2010. And from that moment onwards, I knew I wasn’t going to grow up working inside ideas- I was going to build them.

Finding Purpose in College

While most of my classmates were figuring out careers, I was figuring out how to create them. I didn’t know the term “copywriter” yet, but I knew someday, something I create would be on a billboard.

Around this time, I met Kaushik Alva in the Bachelor of Mass Media (BMM) program. Two kids from cultural committees- hustling, building connections, dreaming bigger than our pockets allowed. We brainstormed ideas during chai breaks because that was the only time we could afford to dream.

Our first business idea was bold for that time (2012)- an online liquor delivery platform, but our families quickly shut it down. That closed door became a pivot. We turned to what we knew- youth culture, events, college communities and that birthed Eventelaan.

Building a Trend Before it was Trending

From 2011 to 2016, at a time when the startup ecosystem wasn’t noisy yet, we quietly built one of India’s earliest youth event networks. We promoted college fests, nightlife events, and gradually scaled up to major festivals and global artists.

From IIT Mood Indigo to NM Umang, from VH1 Supersonic and Electric Daisy Carnival to gigs with KK, Atif Aslam, Skrillex, Honey Singh, Sonu Nigam- we were in the heart of India’s cultural energy before “community building” became a LinkedIn trend. We built a network of 15,000+ students and turned a side-hustle into a movement.

We saw the power of digital communities before social media became saturated. That pattern-recognition muscle would serve me again in future.

Learning the “Boring” Part of Business

Once Eventelaan had run its course, I did something many entrepreneurs don’t talk about- I took up jobs. Not for financial security, but to learn discipline, systems, and the unsexy operational backbone of business. I wanted to understand the structure, process, and parts of entrepreneurship that excitement doesn’t teach.

I worked as a Senior Conceptualiser in 2 agencies, collaborating with brands such as Ola, Kellogg’s, Colgate, Sanofi, Mahindra, etc. This helped me understand how established agencies think, pitch, and execute.

That period taught me the difference between building a project and building a company. And those lessons built the foundation for my next chapter- Cyringe Digimedia.

Scaling Creativity

In 2017, Cyringe DigiMedia was born in a small bedroom with three people, a laptop, and a belief that creativity could build businesses. We didn’t have funding to register a company, so we took an advance from our first client.

That’s how the firm officially began. And with every campaign, every client, every late night, we snowballed. Over 8.5 years, we worked with 150+ brands across D2C, retail, hospitality, events, and celebrities- delivering millions of impressions and up to 5X ROI.

The Turning Point- When AI Entered the Room

2023–2024 shook the creative industry. I faced turbulence in both talent and structure. And at the same time, AI arrived- fast, loud, and transformative.

But here’s what I saw that most didn’t: AI tools were being built by engineers solving engineering problems. They could generate content, sure, but they didn’t understand how agencies operate or what actual brand building requires.

And, that’s when it hit me: What if we could build an AI that is an agency?

If I wanted to have a global impact, I couldn’t depend solely on service. I needed to build something that scaled knowledge, not just hours. That’s when one philosophy changed everything for me, inspired by Dr Velumani: Decide. Don’t discuss! When you decide, you commit. When you discuss, you leave escape routes.

And so, I decided.

Birth of Cyringe.ai

In 2025, I launched Cyringe.ai, the world’s first intelligent social media marketing platform powered by generative AI, built directly from my lived experience running an agency.

Cyringe.ai is built for:

• Agencies that want to increase output & reduce TAT drastically

• Small businesses that can’t afford agencies but still need high-quality brand marketing

I always say, it’s an agency that made it to the internet.

Because at the end of the day, that’s precisely what it is- all the intelligence, experience, and creativity of an agency, now available on-demand, 24x7, without the invoice shock or missed deadlines.

And to be honest, I didn’t build Cyringe.ai just to join the AI wave- I built it because I lived the problems it solves.

Hardest Phase as a Founder

Like every founder building something life-changing, I’m in the zone between chapters- investing everything into Cyringe.ai’s potential.

But I’ve learned one thing- nothing significant happens inside comfort zones. Growth isn’t a straight line; sometimes it’s a free fall before you fly. On the heavy days, I remind myself of a simple visual: when you outgrow a small fish tank, you have to jump to reach the bigger one. That little moment in the air? It’s uncomfortable. But it’s also where transformation happens.

Music keeps me sane - Divine, Eminem, and Dino James on loop. Meditation, breathwork and Vipassana help me reset when the noise gets loud. And my family, they’re my anchor. Without that support, the lows would feel much lower.

If Not This, Then…

Funny thing, back in 10th grade, every aptitude test I took pointed to one thing: music. If I weren’t building in tech and marketing today, I’d probably be producing EDM, DJing somewhere, or stuck in a studio layering beats at 2 a.m.

That love never left. It’s just waiting patiently while I build this chapter. And one day, when Cyringe.ai scales globally and I finally get the chance to breathe, I will open my own music studio.

What’s next?

Today, I’m obsessed with one mission: Blend human creativity with machine intelligence and build what the future of marketing should look like. Not just for big brands, but for every creator, every small business, and every young hustler who once sat with ₹50 in their pocket - just like I did.

In the next 3-5 years, I see Cyringe.ai becoming the default co-pilot for marketers worldwide- not replacing creativity, but amplifying it. I want solo entrepreneurs to have access to the same brand thinking that Fortune 500 companies pay millions for. Because marketing should no longer be a privilege of big budgets, but a superpower accessible to anyone with conviction and a reliable internet connection.

Sagar Madhani is one of those founders who reminds you that success isn’t about where you start, but how far you’re willing to go. From surviving on ₹50 a day in college to building one of India’s most promising AI-driven marketing platforms, his journey is all heart and hustle.

Sagar’s story feels familiar- a college kid who started small, learned by doing, failed, rebuilt, and kept showing up. After years of running a creative agency and working with 150+ brands, he decided to start over and build Cyringe.ai, a platform that brings the marketing agency to the internet.

Dive into Vault today & unlock a world of possibilities. 

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Hey Everyone! ✨

As the ecosystem gears up for the final quarter of 2025, Rize startups showed what growth looks like in action.

This month also marked key moments in India’s startup ecosystem- new markets opening up for exporters, more D2C brands going global, and Rize founders at the centre of it all.

Here’s your quick rewind of everything that made September a month worth celebrating at Rize.

MILESTONE MOMENTS 👑

First things first, let’s celebrate some victories! We've witnessed some jaw-dropping milestones within our community, and we can’t wait to share them with you.

Celebrating…

A big congratulations to these founders! Each step forward is a victory on the path to success. So, keep pushing and growing!

ARTICLES OF THE MONTH 📜

Missed our articles last month? Check the top ones that fuelled our Founders!

✍️ FTA Explained: What the UK-India Trade Partnership Means for Businesses? (Export)

✍️ How Can Festive Packaging Boost Your Holiday Sales? (Festive Season/ D2C)

Discover more such insightful reads in the Vault! The collection is growing every day.

STORIES FROM RIZE-PRENEURS 📎

Behind every milestone is a founder who decided to build- no matter how uncertain the path looked. This month, we’re spotlighting two such stories from the Rize community that capture that spirit.

Shubham is reimagining how people learn in the age of AI. Through his AI-powered learning platform, he’s helping learners and professionals upskill smarter, faster, and more intuitively.

Vikas is on a mission to simplify business intelligence for SMEs with his no-code BI platform, making data insights accessible for every small business that wants to make smarter, faster decisions.

We hope their experience inspires you as much as it did us!

KEY HIGHLIGHTS THIS MONTH💡

New initiatives, exciting launches, and everything you need to stay ahead.

✨Festive Season 2025✨

It’s that time of the year- when the world slows down, but founders don’t.
As the festive lights go up, the Rize community is busy preparing for product launches, festive sales, and year-end goals.

At Rize, we’re making this festive season extra special. Here’s what’s coming your way:

• Expert Sessions: Learn from seasoned founders, investors, and domain experts who’ve been there, built that.

• Case Studies: Real stories from brands across India- the wins, the mistakes, and the lessons that textbooks don’t teach.

This festive season, we’re sprinkling a little extra cheer across the Rize community. We’re bringing in “Coupons of Joy” to celebrate founders like you who are building, hustling, and making things happen all at once.

So keep an eye out, stay curious, and get ready for some festive delight. After all, growth is sweeter when it comes with a little joy!

✨Rize City Circle: Delhi Edition✨

We wrapped up September on a high note- surrounded by founders, ideas, and great conversations at the Rize City Circle in Delhi.

The energy in the room was unmistakable: founders from different sectors, stages, and journeys coming together over a shared passion for building. It was about the little things that matter when you’re building a company: celebrating small wins, troubleshooting day-to-day challenges, and swapping stories about late nights, first sales, and the rollercoaster of growth.

Here’s to more ideas and more cities next!

✨Upcoming Initiative- Rize for YC W’26✨

Rize for YC W’26 is officially live, and we’re now accepting applications for review!

✅ Apply for a detailed review of your YC W’26 application
✅ Get practical, honest feedback from mentors and experienced founders

And if you’re still exploring, don’t worry- we’ve got a library of YC-focused resources to help you get started.

Ready to make your YC application shine?

Explore Now

Sign up now and mark your calendar- our first YC session is coming up! You don’t want to miss this one.

MEET OUR NEWEST FOUNDERS: ONBOARDING EDITION 👥

Say hello to the latest group of founders joining the Rize Communities! They're full of bold ideas and big dreams, ready to take the startup world by storm.

Dive into Vault today & unlock a world of possibilities. 

Subscribe now

From steering iBall’s growth for nearly two decades to building his own venture, Vikas Mundhra’s journey has been about transformation. In 2018, he co-founded Magenta Insights, a no-code business intelligence platform designed for SMEs, making data reporting seamless for companies across 25+ industries.

If I had to describe myself in three roles, it would be this: a Chartered Accountant by qualification, a businessman by experience, and an entrepreneur by choice.

I completed my CA in 2001 and soon after joined iBall, which was just a small team with big ambitions at the time. Over the next 17+ years, I saw it grow into a dynamic group of more than 3000+ employees. It was an incredible journey, and I had the privilege of working with some of the most committed teammates, distributors, and partners across the country.

The Burning Question: Why Excel in the Age of ERPs?

Even as iBall scaled, one thing never sat right with me. We had invested in SAP, a world-class ERP system, but despite this, most of our crucial business reporting was still being done manually on Excel sheets.

When Vikalp Somani (my now co-founder) joined me in 2008, this pain point became more obvious. Together, we kept coming back to the same question: Why, in a world where technology was rapidly advancing, were businesses like ours still relying on manual Excel sheets for something as important as data reporting?

We had multiple channel partners and mountains of data. Yet, making sense of it and extracting insights was painfully slow and inefficient. The lack of smart, integrated reporting tools for SMEs was evident and frustrated us.

And, it wasn’t just us facing it. It was a problem across industries.

The Birth of Magenta Insights

In 2018, after years of struggling with this gap, we decided to solve it ourselves. That’s how Magenta Insights was born, with a mission to simplify reporting and make business intelligence truly accessible.

Unlike tools like Power BI or Tableau, which are DIY and self-serve, our focus was on SMEs who aren’t very tech-forward. Magenta Insights provides:

• Ready integrations with 20+ ERPs like Tally, SAP, etc.

• A no-code platform that’s simple and tech-friendly

• Solutions tailored for B2B businesses

Today, we work across 25+ industries with clients like Bikaji and Vega Helmets.

Building Through Uncertainty: The COVID Years

Just when we had clarity on our product in 2018 and were ready to accelerate, the world was hit by COVID-19.

I had always imagined building Magenta Insights in a physical office with a close-knit team. Instead, we had to build everything virtually. Our foundation was laid online- product development, customer demos, and onboarding- all without meeting people face-to-face.

At first, it was unsettling. But in hindsight, this was a blessing in disguise. It forced us to think of Pan-India from day one since geography was no longer a limitation.

Milestones That Shaped Us

• Investment from IIM Ahmedabad in our startup

• 10 reputed customers turned investors, including Kaka Industries, backing us

• A growing customer base across industries and geographies

But our proudest milestone? The bell we ring in our office every time we onboard a new customer. Because every single win counts.

Lessons in Entrepreneurship

One of the questions I often get asked is: What’s your advice for founders? Here’s what experience has taught me:

• Bootstrap as long as you can. Use your own resources in the early stages- it gives you freedom and clarity.

• Choose investors carefully. Alignment of values and vision matters as much as capital.

• Build your network. Sometimes, your most loyal customer may turn into your strongest investor, and that is the best validation you can ask for.

• Don’t just listen to what your customer says. Focus on what they actually need. Your job as a founder is to read between the lines, understand the real pain point, and deliver a solution.

Life Beyond Work

Outside of work, I find joy in simple things. I love reading, mostly psychology and business books. One book I always recommend to early-stage founders is “The Mom Test” by Rob Fitzpatrick, a brilliant guide on how to talk to customers and truly understand their needs.

Music has always been a part of my downtime. But over the years, I’ve stopped chasing the elusive idea of “work-life balance.” For me, entrepreneurship itself is a balance. It’s 24/7, it’s consuming, but it’s also fulfilling. The ability to pause when needed, to immerse when inspired- that’s the beauty of this life.

What Success looks like

Earlier, success meant chasing inflated numbers- revenues, customer counts, targets. Now, it’s about impact.

Our goal is to reach 10,000+ businesses across India, simplifying how SMEs handle data and decisions.

For me, a startup was never the dream. The dream was to solve a problem. And in solving that problem, we ended up creating a startup. Sometimes, that’s how the best journeys begin, not with an idea to build a company, but with a commitment to fix what’s broken.

And, that’s our story!

What inspires us about Vikas Mundhra is his ability to reinvent himself. After spending 17+ years scaling iBall into a 250-member organisation, many would’ve rested on that success. But Vikas chose a different path.

He stepped into entrepreneurship with Magenta Insights, a venture born out of curiosity and a burning question- why are businesses still stuck on Excel? Today, Magenta has grown to serve 25+ industries, showing that the most impactful startups don’t begin with chasing big dreams but with solving real, everyday problems for businesses.

Dive into Vault today & unlock a world of possibilities. 

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Hey Everyone! ✨

August turned out to be a truly memorable month for the Rize community. We saw founders achieve exciting milestones from closing fundraising rounds and getting global recognition, to experimenting with new ideas and stepping onto bigger stages.

This edition of Rize Recap brings you all the highlights from the month- the stories, the wins, and the moments that made August one to remember.

MILESTONE MOMENTS 👑

First things first, let’s celebrate some victories! We've witnessed some jaw-dropping milestones within our community, and we can’t wait to share them with you.

Celebrating…

A big congratulations to these founders! Each step forward is a victory on the path to success. So, keep pushing and growing!

ARTICLES OF THE MONTH 📜

Missed our articles last month? Check the top ones that fuelled our Founders!

✍️ How to Make Your Product UAE-Ready? (Export)

✍️ How to Price Your Product Right in the UAE Market: Deep-Dive (Export)

✍️ How and Why to Launch Your Product or Brand in the UAE Market? (Export)

✍️ The Indian Founder’s Guide to Shipping & Logistics for the UAE Market (Export)

✍️ Payment Terms and Risk Management for UAE Exports (Export)

✍️ 2025 Festive Trends Every Founder Should Watch (D2C/ Festive Season)

Discover more such insightful reads in the Vault! The collection is growing every day.

STORIES FROM RIZE-PRENEURS 📎

In this edition, we spotlighted Kalpesh, who is part of the Rize community and is now navigating the exciting rollercoaster of building his own tech product without writing a line of code.

He shared the lessons, breakthroughs, and defining moments that shaped his journey and trust us, you’ll want to hear this!

We hope his experience inspires you as much as it did us!

KEY HIGHLIGHTS THIS MONTH💡

New initiatives, exciting launches, and everything you need to stay ahead.

✨ First Demo Day: AI Edition

August also marked a special first for us- the launch of our Demo Day series, kicking off with an AI-focused edition.

We brought together some of the most exciting AI-first founders from the Rize community to showcase what they’re building, from products that simplify workflows to tools that reimagine how businesses and consumers interact with technology.

7 founders from the Rize Tech+ community pitched their vision to 17 of India’s sharpest VCs with Mars Shot Ventures and Razorpay Ventures in the room. It was a powerful moment for AI-first founders building from India, proving that global innovation starts right here.

✨Festive Season 2025 Launch✨

We know what the festive season means for founders: late nights in warehouses, boxes stacked high, and dreams wrapped in every shipment. That’s why we launched the Festive Season 2025 edition- a founder-first initiative to fuel festive growth.

What’s coming up?
✨ Knowledge sessions with industry experts
✨ Brand showcases across digital and offline platforms
✨ Collaborations that go beyond coupons and discounts

We’ve also brought in experts across the D2C space to share their insights and practical tips for founders gearing up for the festive season.

If you’re building in D2C, this is your chance to shine brighter than ever, and for Rize founders, there’s even more in store.

RSVP Now

MEET OUR NEWEST FOUNDERS: ONBOARDING EDITION 👥

Say hello to the latest group of founders joining the Rize Communities! They're full of bold ideas and big dreams, ready to take the startup world by storm.

Dive into Vault today & unlock a world of possibilities. 

Subscribe now

Shubham Sharma is an IIT Dhanbad graduate who began his career in petroleum engineering and is a genuine AI and data science enthusiast. Today, he’s building SunitechAI, an AI-powered learning platform designed to give learners a personalised, future-ready experience.

Shubham is creating a future where learning is smarter, more accessible, and deeply personalised. And, we can’t wait to see the impact he creates.

When I graduated from IIT Dhanbad in 2014 with a degree in Petroleum Engineering, the apparent path ahead was clear- join a big oil and gas company, earn well, and build a stable career. And I did just that. I landed an opportunity with Baker Hughes, one of the world's largest oil and gas companies.

But here’s the thing- I had always been drawn to mathematics and computer science. Even in college, I dabbled with projects in data science and analytics. So, while I was technically in petroleum engineering, I spent a fair bit of time trying to solve problems using data.

At Baker Hughes, too, I gravitated toward data-driven challenges. In fact, I worked on machine learning projects way back in 2014-15, when it wasn’t the buzzword it is today. I could see the enormous potential of data science and machine learning and knew I wanted to pursue it seriously.

Returning to India: A Hard but Fulfilling Choice

Moving back to India was probably one of the hardest decisions of my life. Almost everyone I knew- mentors, colleagues, peers- encouraged me to stay back in the U.S. “Build there,” they said, “the ecosystem is more mature.”

But my vision was always different. My heart was set on creating something for Indian learners. I wanted to contribute to my country’s growth in my own way, and I knew India was where I wanted to be.

That’s how SunitechAI was born in 2024, named after my mother, Sunita, as a tribute to her, who was a teacher herself. My goal is to make learning in data science and AI more accessible, personalised, and cost-effective for professionals and students. With my 9+ years of experience in this field, I knew I could build something unique.

At SunitechAI, we are creating an integrated learning experience powered by Agentic AI systems, which customise learning journeys for each learner.

The Founder Journey: Challenges and Rewards

Of course, this journey hasn’t been easy. I knew that when I signed up for it. But the challenges are what make it exciting.

One of the hardest parts has been building the right team- finding people who believe in the vision as much as I do. Another is responding to customer feedback, which can sometimes be brutally honest but also extremely valuable. And then there’s the practical challenge of serving overseas learners. We already have a small but growing international base, and managing different time zones while ensuring everyone gets the right learning experience is tricky.

Despite these hurdles, I enjoy what I do. I’ve always been a risk-taker. When I chose data science over petroleum engineering, I took a leap. I took another when I left a global oil and chemical giant for research. Stepping out of my comfort zone has almost become second nature.

My Take on AI

AI is evolving rapidly, and I believe the key is to keep upskilling. Even with years in the industry, I often find myself catching up with what’s next.

I see this transformation as the shift from Software 1.0 → 2.0 → 3.0. With backpropagation in the 1990s, neural networks became trainable, and that changed everything. Now, with AI 3.0 (Where we are today), we’re rewriting legacy systems altogether.

AI won’t take jobs, but people who know how to use AI will definitely have an edge.

One moment that really reinforced this belief for me was during a week-long workshop I conducted for college students. One project stood out: A student built a lightweight, cost-effective CNN model for detecting tumours in MRI scans, optimised to run on a mobile app.

Now, CNN-based tumour detection isn’t new globally. But making it affordable, mobile, and accessible- that’s innovation for India. It reminded me exactly why I came back!

Handling Highs and Lows

There are certainly some tough days. But I’ve trained myself and my team to expect challenges. Instead of getting bogged down, we immediately switch into solution mode, and that mindset has helped us a lot.

On good days, we make it a point to celebrate, whether it’s team dinners or simply expressing gratitude to one another. In fact, my co-founder recently started a practice where we personally thank people within the team. And here’s the funny part- despite being an AI company, there’s a strict rule: these messages must be original, not AI-generated.

I don’t really “switch off,” but I enjoy travelling and taking photos of the places I visit. That’s my version of unwinding.

What’s Next?

We’re preparing to roll out our proprietary platform, Sage Mind, and launch more courses in collaboration with institutions. We also plan to expand into emerging technologies like quantum computing.

Personally, I think the path forward is very clear. I’ve chosen this journey, and I’ve gone all-in. I can’t imagine myself doing anything other than building SunitechAI. It’s my way of contributing to the ecosystem, solving real problems for learners, and paying forward what I’ve learned.

I know the road will have its challenges; every founder faces them. But I also know that every step, even the tough ones, is bringing me closer to the vision. So, I will keep at it. I will continue building SunitechAI until it becomes what I always imagined: a platform that empowers people to learn, adapt, and thrive in the age of AI.

At Rize, we love seeing founders who don’t just chase opportunities but build from a place of conviction. Shubham Sharma is one of them. Walking away from a stable career to dive into the uncertain world of AI isn’t easy, but Shubham chose to bet on himself and on India’s future. With SunitechAI, he’s shaping how learning will look for the future generation.

Founders like Shubham are exactly what India needs to shape the next wave of innovation.

Dive into Vault today & unlock a world of possibilities. 

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Kalpesh Bhalekar is the CEO of Scoutflo, an AI startup focused on building DevOps AI agents that help engineering teams debug code in real-time. His journey to this role is far from the traditional tech founder story.

Today, Kalpesh combines his sales expertise with a passion for AI innovation. His story shows that even without a coding background, with the right mindset and support, it’s possible to build cutting-edge technology that solves real problems.

I didn’t plan to be a founder. In fact, if you told 17-year-old me, juggling commerce classes by day and selling real estate by evening, that one day I’d be building an AI debugging company, I would’ve laughed.

Back then, working wasn’t a choice. It was a necessity. I started out as a real estate broker while still in college. It wasn’t glamorous- long hours, low pay, and a lot of walking in the Mumbai heat. But I was curious. I liked trying new things and figuring out what clicked.

In the next three years, I switched jobs five times. That sounds flaky on paper, but I wasn’t drifting- I was learning. I wanted to taste different kinds of work to figure out what fit. I went from real estate to door-to-door sales, to consulting, and even a few part-time marketing gigs.

Each role taught me something valuable. I learned how to handle rejection without flinching, how to sell without sounding like I was selling, and most importantly, how to keep showing up, especially on the days I wanted to quit.

A Crazy Resume Drop and My First Break

After graduation, I did something a little crazy. Like many of us, I was a huge fan of Terribly Tiny Tales, and one day, I just Googled their address and walked into their office with my resume. No appointment, no referral. I wasn’t qualified, but they liked my energy and gave me a shot. That job had nothing to do with tech, but it gave me something more valuable- confidence. It proved that sometimes, enthusiasm really does open doors.

Breaking Into Tech with a Cold DM

While sales always came naturally to me, I was quietly fascinated by tech. But how does someone with a commerce degree break into tech? I didn’t know the lingo, couldn’t code, and had no formal background. Still, I couldn’t ignore the pull.

So I started cold-messaging people on LinkedIn- founders, sales leaders, product folks. Most ignored me, but one day, two people didn’t: Arjun Pillai and Prasanna, SaaS veterans. They not only replied but also offered mentorship. They taught me the fundamentals of SaaS, and when they saw how hungry I was to learn, they took a chance on me.

That opportunity became the inflexion point of my life. Eventually, the company got acquired. I had officially broken into tech and didn’t feel like an outsider anymore. After that, I joined a YC-backed startup and helped scale it.

That experience taught me what early-stage chaos really looks like- how to sell when no one knows your name, how to build credibility fast, and how to function without formal processes. Somewhere along the way, I met Vedant, my now co-founder. During the COVID lockdowns, we ran a small agency on the side: he would build tools, and I would sell them.

We worked well together, and when he came up with the idea for Scoutflo, I knew I wanted in.

Building Scoutflo

The idea was simple but powerful. Every time code is deployed in any software development process, bugs pop up, sometimes instantly, sometimes later. Debugging those issues slows down teams, delays launches, and drains morale.

What if there were an AI that could help teams debug in real-time? That question became the foundation for Scoutflo!

Scoutflo helps solve a specific developer pain: every time a team ships code, unexpected bugs often appear during deployment. These bugs can be incredibly hard to diagnose, especially under release pressure. So, we built an AI-powered agent that helps engineering teams debug their systems in real time.

It’s not an easy product to sell. Developer tools require deep trust. Unlike a chatbot or a CRM, you can’t just show a demo and close the deal. Developers need to know that your product will work reliably, and only then do they buy. But when they do, they stay. Every win feels earned.

The Courage to Quit & Start from Scratch

The hardest part wasn’t building the product- it was deciding to go all in. At the time, I had a great job at a US-based company: remote work, good salary, stability. I didn’t dare to tell my parents I was quitting.

So for an entire year, I pretended I was still going to work. I’d leave home every morning with my laptop, sit at a café or a friend’s place, and work on Scoutflo. It was only after we raised funding that I came clean.

If you ask me where I got the confidence to quit a stable job and dive into a deep-tech startup with no engineering background, I won’t give you a motivational answer. The truth is- I didn’t have it. What I had was Vedant. He quit first and then told me, “Take your time. Save up. Join full-time when you’re ready.”

That support made all the difference! Building a startup is harder than most people think- mentally, emotionally, and financially. Having a co-founder who understands you on your worst days is everything.

The full-circle moment? Arjun and Prasanna, the same folks who gave me my first tech opportunity, came on board as angel investors in Scoutflo. There’s something incredibly special about being backed by people who believed in you the first time, and still believe in you now.

And, later, by a team!

AI vs Humans: Who wins?

There is no clear winner!

AI is unpredictable, and that’s what makes it powerful. You can’t fight it. You have to make it part of your strategy. I’m not just hoping AI wins, I need it to because it’s the foundation of what we’re building.

The way I see it: you can either resist change or build with it. We chose the latter.

Lessons from the Journey

1. There is no “perfect time”

You’ll never feel 100% ready. You just need a decent financial cushion and a real problem to chase.

2. Triple your timelines

If you think you’ll hit PMF in 6 months, be ready for 18. Always assume things will take longer.

3. Find your person

Having a co-founder who gets you is underrated. This is harder than marriage. You need someone who can carry the weight when you can’t.

My Mantra for Tough Days

Tough days don’t announce themselves. Sometimes it’s a delayed feature. Sometimes it’s a lost deal you were counting on. Sometimes it’s just you, doubting everything.

What helps? A proper weekend reset. I cook, sleep in, hang out with friends, and binge-watch Modern Family. I see a lot of myself in Phil, someone who tries to bring fun and optimism into everything. Vedant, on the other hand, is definitely Jay, calm, structured, and matter-of-fact. That balance works for us!

If Not This, Then…

There’s an internal joke in our family: “Thank god things went south. Otherwise, you'd be stuck in a cubicle somewhere.”

If not this, maybe I’d be in investment banking. Or some other sales role. But I know I wouldn’t have been this happy. I wouldn’t have taken half the risks. And I definitely wouldn’t have built something that feels this meaningful.

So, at the end of the day, if you’re thinking of making a leap into startups, tech, or something that scares you, here’s what I’ll say. Don’t wait for the perfect moment. Make a plan. Find a partner who believes in you. And be kind to yourself in the process.

It won’t be easy. It won’t always be fun. But you’ll find your thing somewhere in the chaos, just like I did!

At Razorpay Rize, we’re proud to support founders like Kalpesh Bhalekar, whose journey is a true example of determination and hard work. Without a formal tech background, Kalpesh started from scratch, juggling multiple jobs and learning on the go.

His passion for technology and willingness to take risks helped him break into the tech world and eventually lead Scoutflo.

Dive into Vault today & unlock a world of possibilities. 

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Hey Everyone! ✨

July had all the right ingredients- inspiring founder wins, buzzing events, and one very special milestone: the Rize D2C+ anniversary. We celebrated the stories that brought us here, the brands that have grown in these halls, and the friendships that now feel like partnerships.

This recap is our way of bottling up the energy- the events, wins, and conversations that made July really special.

MILESTONE MOMENTS 👑

First things first, let’s celebrate some victories! We've witnessed some jaw-dropping milestones within our community, and we can’t wait to share them with you.

Celebrating…

A big congratulations to these founders! Each step forward is a victory on the path to success. So, keep pushing and growing!

ARTICLES OF THE MONTH 📜

Missed our articles last month? Check the top ones that fuelled our Founders!

✍️ TV Pitch Checklist: What to Prepare Before You Step On Set? (Fundraising)

✍️ One Year of Rize D2C+: Building Together, Growing Together! (Community)

✍️ Building a Product Roadmap for B2B vs. B2C Startups (Product)

✍️ Selling on Global Marketplaces: What Indian Founders Should Know? (Export)

Discover more such insightful reads in the Vault! The collection is growing every day.

STORIES FROM RIZE-PRENEURS 📎

In this edition, we spotlighted two D2C founders- Vijay and Paranjay- who are both part of the Rize community and are now navigating the exciting rollercoaster of building their own brands/products.

They shared the lessons, breakthroughs, and defining moments that shaped their journeys and trust us, you’ll want to hear this!

We hope their experience inspires you as much as it did us!

KEY HIGHLIGHTS THIS MONTH💡

New initiatives, exciting launches, and everything you need to stay ahead.

✨ Rize D2C+ Anniversary ✨

This July, we marked a very special milestone- one year of Rize D2C+. Over the past year, this community has grown into a vibrant hub for founders in D2C, eCommerce, and retail, a place where we’ve celebrated product launches, shared growth journeys, and cheered each other on through the highs and lows of building.

To mark the occasion, we came together for an evening that was as lively as the community itself- great drinks, delicious food and an energy that didn’t fade for a second.

The highlight of the evening was our D2C+ Awards Ceremony, where we celebrated exceptional founders and brands making waves with their creativity, innovation, and impact.

Here’s to the first year of Rize D2C+, and to many more years of building, scaling, and celebrating together!

✨Pitch Perfect: TV Edition✨

Since its launch last month, Pitch Perfect: TV Edition has drawn in an incredible lineup of founders eager to perfect their pitch game.

Our Pitch Perfect: Spotlight Series took it a step further, sitting down with founders who’ve been through the journey to share what really happens, from the first application form to that final, make-or-break pitch.

✨Rize for YC: F25 ✨

We’ve just wrapped up our knowledge sessions and application reviews for Fall 2025.

If you’ve made it to the YC interview stage- that’s huge. It means you’re building something remarkable, and YC sees it. Now comes the next challenge: showing up clear & confident. In a 10-minute interview, how you explain your idea, defend your choices, and think on your feet can make all the difference.

That’s why we are hosting mock interviews with YC alumni. In these interviews, you will receive real, personalised feedback to help you walk into your interview ready to own the conversation.

Book your Mock Interview

MEET OUR NEWEST FOUNDERS: ONBOARDING EDITION 👥

Say hello to the latest group of founders joining the Rize Communities! They're full of bold ideas and big dreams, ready to take the startup world by storm.

Dive into Vault today & unlock a world of possibilities. 

Subscribe now

Paranjay Mundra has always known he was meant to build. Growing up in a business family, he caught the entrepreneurial bug early. Today, he’s the co-founder of CalQuity, a fast-rising fintech startup trusted by leading financial institutions across India.

CalQuity is leading the charge in automating complex workflows and reimagining how financial intelligence is accessed, analysed, and acted upon- for everyone from everyday investors to seasoned finance professionals.

After building and exiting two startups in the D2C space, Paranjay has now found his true calling at the intersection of finance and technology.

Startup wasn’t a backup plan for me. It was always the plan.

I grew up in a business family, where conversations about global trade, consumer behaviour, and margins weren’t rare – they were dinner table staples. I didn’t realise it then, but that environment fundamentally shaped how I see the world. From an early age, I was drawn to how value is created- what people want, how systems operate, and where inefficiencies could be turned into opportunities.

While most kids were busy playing cricket or gaming after school, I was trading antique coins, collecting old currency notes, and flipping quirky items from Alibaba for a profit. At the time, I was just a kid trying to stretch my pocket money. I didn’t think much of it, but looking back, that’s probably where I picked up the basics of spotting demand, pricing things right, and finding arbitrage.

I joined college just as the first wave of COVID hit. Spotting an obvious demand for masks, I convinced my dad to let me repurpose excess fabric from one of our factories to manufacture them. That small idea sparked something bigger. It led me to launch my first proper venture in college, designing bespoke, handmade jute products for B2B clients, while also empowering rural women artisans in the process. We scaled it to ₹xM (*Confidential) in revenue before I exited after graduation. That feeling of building something real, from scratch, was surreal.

As college ended, I was fortunate enough to receive offers from the top IIMs. While I initially planned on going, I turned it down to build something I was truly excited about: Preach, a hard seltzer brand aimed at reshaping India’s F&B landscape. I made Goa my second home, perfecting the blend, the bottle, the brand. Things didn’t go as planned. Funding fell through, and we had to shut it down.

Walking away from Preach was one of the hardest decisions I’ve had to make. But it also taught me more than any textbook ever could: how to execute fast, stretch a budget, talk to real customers and most importantly, how to make peace with failure without letting it kill your appetite to build again.

Building CalQuity with My Day-Ones

Now I’m building my third startup, CalQuity, with two of my closest friends from school. We’ve known each other for nearly two decades, and over the years, we’ve built projects together, competed internationally, and developed a strong sense of how to work as a team. We bring very different approaches to the table: one’s the realist who always spots what might go wrong, one’s the eternal optimist for whom even the sky isn't a limit, and the one who usually sits somewhere in between. That dynamic keeps us steady during the tough stretches.

With CalQuity, we’re building at the intersection of finance and technology where our individual strengths align in a way that feels natural and focused.

It started with a simple observation: finance workflows haven’t changed in decades. Highly skilled professionals were spending hours digging through filings and transcripts to find a single data point. In an AI-first world, that kind of manual work shouldn’t exist.

So we started with a simple tool- a filings copilot with inline citations that surfaced answers instantly. It was scrappy, but it worked. And as users shared more of their pain points, we kept building.

Next came earnings calls. They're long, dense and often overlapping. In fact, official transcripts take 4-7 days to get published, even though markets react within minutes. Our Earnings Call Copilot changes that. It delivers key takeaways and narrative shifts within minutes of the call ending, so analysts don’t have to sift through hours of audio or wait for transcripts.

Today, we work with a wide variety of clients, including buy-side firms, sell-side firms, brokers, research platforms, and serious individual investors. Our suite includes Filings Copilot, Earnings Call Copilot, Real-Time Updates, Company Researchers, and Web Copilots, etc., each solving a specific problem. Together, they make research faster, sharper, and far less painful.

Going Bootstrapped All the Way

This might sound odd in today’s funding-obsessed startup world, but we chose to stay bootstrapped. VCs reached out, and the money was tempting, but we wanted control and time to build something useful on our own terms.

It wasn’t the easy path. Everyone around us was chasing rounds. But staying lean, listening closely to users, and shipping fast felt right. And it’s working.

If You’re a Founder, Here’s My Two Cents

If you’re building in B2B, start with two things:

1. Build an MVP.

2. Talk to your users and the people who’d actually pay.

That’s it. You don’t need a fancy deck or a viral tweet thread. You need feedback, speed, and clarity. Also, ship fast! “Done” is better than perfect. Speed might just be your only moat early on.

And If Not This… Then What?

If I weren’t building this startup, I’d be expanding my family business or building something else. I’ve always been drawn to building from scratch- not just coming up with ideas but figuring things out, scaling them, and solving real problems along the way. There’s something addictive about getting your hands dirty and watching chaos turn into something that works.

Honestly, this feels like the best time to take big swings. When you’re young, you’ve got fewer commitments, more energy, and the freedom to fail. That window closes fast. Additionally, with AI reshaping everything, this is the moment to build, not sit on the sidelines.

I don’t mind the long hours or the uncertainty. What keeps me going is that moment when someone says, “This is exactly what I needed.”

Paranjay’s journey with CalQuity is the kind of story we love: not just about spotting a market gap, but about deeply understanding the problem, talking to users, and staying committed even when the path isn’t straightforward.

We love how he’s stayed true to his instincts, choosing to bootstrap and build strong foundations first instead of rushing after quick wins. It’s a tough call, but it’s what sets great founders apart.

We’re so excited to see what’s next for Paranjay and the CalQuity team. If there’s one thing we know for sure, it’s that with this kind of passion and heart, the best is still ahead- and we’ll be right here, cheering them on!

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