ChaiNet: The Agentic Commerce Podcast

Ali Syed, founder of Okami Parfums, left a policy career (Ministry of External Affairs, Asian Development Bank, UN Ukraine) to build a made-in-India fragrance brand inspired by Japanese perfumery’s muted, restrained style. After his 2021 skincare startup SuperSkin failed, he built Okami with an obsessive focus on product and packaging, no samples, no discounts, targeting serious perfume users rath...

On this episode of ChaiNet, we sit down with Ankush Jagga, co-founder of UnfoldXR, AI for frontline workers who fix ACs and pick your Blinkit orders. Ankush has built three startups with two exits. Now he’s building for the workers the world forgot to serve. We talk about what happens when a technician hits a new problem, how quickly commercial pressure shapes his product, and his goal of impactin...

On this episode of ChaiNet, we sit down with Kathy Walkling, co-founder of Eco Femme, a social enterprise that pioneered washable cloth pads in India and reached 27 countries. Eco Femme created livelihoods for rural women, ran free education for girls, and proved that purpose and profit can coexist. Then, after 15 years, Kathy handed it over and moved back to Australia. We talk about why she belie...

On this episode of ChaiNet, we sit down with Shivam K, founder of The Teaser Company, a creative shop that has worked with over 100 D2C brands. Shivam trained as a screenwriter at FTII and wrote ads for Honda and McDonald’s. He believes most founders are fixing the wrong problem. We talk about what kills an ad in three seconds, why high-production ads often fail, the five links in a creative chain...

On this episode of ChaiNet, we sit down with Dr Brent Ridge, co-founder of Beekman 1802, one of the world’s most recognised goat-milk skincare brands. No funding, no plan. Just an idea that kindness could be a business strategy. We talk about cold-walking into Henri Bendel with a bar of soap, why they bootstrapped for a decade, what happened on QVC, and what happens to a kindness brand when AI sta...

On this episode of ChaiNet, we sit down with Sukrit Goel, founder of CannazoIndia, who took his brand to Shark Tank. We talk about why a ₹100 crore brand doesn’t exist yet, whether this is a demand or supply problem, what it takes to get a compliant product to market, how hemp brands acquire customers without paid ads, and whether AI can level the playing field. If you’re watching a category that...

On this episode of ChaiNet, we sit down with Nishtha Khanduja, a growth marketing leader with eight years of experience across food, wellness, and fitness. Campaigns that took weeks now run in hours. Content that needed a studio now takes twenty minutes. But having the tools doesn’t mean you know what to do with them. We talk about when she felt the shift, where ChatGPT works and where it flops, w...

On this episode of ChaiNet, we sit down with Ankit Agarwal, co-founder of Fang Oral Care, backed by Mamaearth’s parent company. Ankit started with his own dental problems. Before Fang, he built and shut down MyNutraCart. That failure taught him what he needed. We talk about what “clean label” actually means in toothpaste, whether Indians care what’s inside their tube, why disrupting Colgate is har...

On this episode of ChaiNet, we sit down with Carlos Chacón-Martínez, a cell biologist who studied at the Max Planck Institute and built Niostem, a headset that aims to wake up dormant hair follicles. Carlos went from scientist to founder, then stepped down as CEO to focus on the tech. We talk about why keeping hair is so hard, how to convince people that a headset works, what broke when orders flo...

On this episode of ChaiNet, we sit down with Shray Arora, CEO of Helium, an AI platform that personalizes D2C storefronts in real time. Shray is a McKinsey alum and a Forbes 30 Under 30. His customers include Noise and Marks & Spencer. His argument: the leak is not in your ads. It’s your store. We talk about what it costs when every visitor sees the same homepage, the signals most people never loo...

On this episode of ChaiNet, we sit down with Ayush Aggarwal, founder of Rasayanam. First, he left a stable finance career in Canada with no plan. Then, after building a brand with over 20 lakh customers, he tore it down and rebuilt it as a science-backed nutraceutical brand. We talk about why he left Canada, what the first day in his basement looked like, why he keeps saying no to funding, and one...

On this episode of ChaiNet, we sit down with Shubhangi Bansal, co-founder of Ekaksh International. After nine years at Microsoft, Shubhangi pivoted into ingredients exports. Her approach: spec first, documentation upfront, and telling buyers when she can’t help. We talk about what surprised her about Indian exports, where AI fits in her business, and whether AI can ever replace human trust in glob...

On this episode of ChaiNet, we sit down with Sargam Dhawan Bhayana, founder of Planet Herbs. Sargam took her family’s manufacturing credibility and built a modern wellness brand, thinking seriously about quick commerce, AI-led discovery, and making Ayurveda feel new. We talk about why she launched with therapeutic products, what quick commerce does for her business, how AI changes trust in Ayurved...

On this episode of ChaiNet, we sit down with Kailash Nichani, founder of Topee. Half of Indian men deal with hair loss. Almost no one talks about it properly. Kailash lost his hair early, found something that worked, hated how the industry sold it, and built Topee. We talk about the stigma versus the products, what people get wrong about hair systems versus transplants, and why he bet on transpare...

On this episode of ChaiNet, we sit down with Akshita Singla, founder of Akya Wellness. Most people spend a lot on supplements, but still don’t know what they actually need. Akshita lived in Europe, saw how wellness worked there, and came back to India to fix the product-and-trust problem. We talk about what she checks first on a label, what sells more good products or good marketing, and where AI...

On this episode of ChaiNet, we sit down with Shilpa Khadilkar, a pharmacist and founder of Renewtra. India is protein-deficient. A study found nearly 70% of popular supplements were mislabelled. Shilpa spent a decade on the supply side before building differently, three years of formulating before selling a single product. We talk about what she saw behind closed doors, the real math on dal and pr...

On this episode of ChaiNet, we sit down with Devika Bajaj, founder of Daivik Moringa. When doctors gave her supplements that didn’t feel right, Devika looked elsewhere. Moringa worked for her. But the category was broken, weak products, no way for consumers to tell the difference. So she decided to control the product from the source. Her own farm. We talk about what felt broken in moringa, why sh...

On this episode of ChaiNet , we sit down with Sam Chetwood , founder of CeCe & Me . After 15 years in financial PR, Sam quit her corporate career, retrained as a qualified shoe fitter, and started taking appointments from her kitchen. Today, she runs a franchised business built around one simple belief: kids’ feet are more complicated than most parents think. We talk about: * The moment in a shoe...

On this episode of ChaiNet, we sit down with Nikita Naterwalla, founder of Arelang, and Dr. Shefali Thakkar, who leads R&D. They’re building what they call India’s first candyceutical brand, wellness through chocolates and gummies. No boring pills. No supplements that disappear into a drawer. We talk about: - Where the idea came from and why supplements needed a rethink. - The biggest misconceptio...

On this episode of ChaiNet, we sit down with Dr. Kanan Doshi, co-founder of The Able Company. For 32 years, Dr. Kanan worked as a pediatric occupational therapist. At some point, she stopped recommending solutions and started building one. The result is Hands-On, a simple, battery-free device that helps people feed themselves, write, and brush their teeth. No app. No power. Just seven attachments....

On this episode of ChaiNet, we sit down with Rohan Rai, co-founder of EDA Baby & Child. Rohan and his wife, Dr. Sonali Kohli, a practising dermatologist, built a skincare brand specifically for Indian skin, Indian summers, and Indian conditions. We talk about the dinner table conversation that started it all, what Dr. Sonali saw in her clinic, the truth about baby powder and oil massage, why they...

On this episode of ChaiNet, we sit down with Ashok Chowdhary, founder of Vrindaam, who proved that entrepreneurship doesn’t have an age limit. At an age when most people are planning retirement, Ashok started a company. Not because he had to, but because he saw a problem that needed solving. We talk about his journey before Vrindaam, the moment he decided to start, whether age was a challenge or a...

On this episode of ChaiNet, we sit down with Samuel Ade, founder of Ilana, a luxury fashion platform creating pathways for Black fashion designers. Ilana means “pathway” in Yoruba. The platform was born from Samuel’s mother’s dream of seeing her designs sold globally. Today, Ilana offers free mentorship and a scholarship fund powered by every sale. We talk about his mother’s story, launching durin...

On this episode of ChaiNet , we sit down with Sidharth Sahni , Co-Founder of Helium . Someone clicks your ad. Lands on your page. Then leaves. Most brands call this a bounce rate and buy more traffic. Sidharth thinks that’s the most expensive mistake in D2C. Helium uses AI to adapt storefronts in real time for each visitor. Sidharth talks about: * What happens in the first thirty seconds in a stor...

On this episode of ChaiNet, we sit down with Hunny Bhagchandani, founder of Torchit Electronics. After watching a visually impaired mentor get hurt, Hunny spent three years and built 16 prototypes. Today, his device Saarthi, sells for ₹3,199 compared to German alternatives at ₹70,000 and has shipped to 50,000 people across 40 countries. We talk about walking off Shark Tank without a deal, blindfol...