ChaiNet: The Agentic Commerce Podcast

On this episode of ChaiNet, Mahipal Singh, founder of Revaa, reveals how a father’s lockdown experience sparked a bold period care brand that rejects stigma and disposables. We discussed: * His pivot from 23 years in hospitality to building Revaa during the pandemic * The “wrong founder” problem: a man destigmatizing menstruation * Why the category’s soft, apologetic positioning fails—and Revaa’s...

On this episode of ChaiNet, Karthik Koppula, founder of Islands of Loom, shares his journey from optimizing speed at Amazon and Zomato to creating anti-fast fashion with organic fabrics, natural dyes, and small-batch handwoven production. We discussed: * Why did he leave high-speed logistics for deliberately slower craftsmanship * Business model of products designed to last years, not months * How...

On this episode of ChaiNet, we speak with Tanay Gaur, co-founder of boutique Shopify agency Windborne Solutions and founder of GlidingGear, a premium D2C leather accessories brand. What’s rare? He lives in two worlds at once, advising e-commerce brands while risking his own capital to run his business. This dual lens gives him a unique filter for what drives real revenue vs. what’s just marketing...

On this episode of ChaiNet, Kapil Khanna, co-founder of On-Chair Marketing and Wizon Media, reveals why most D2C brands fail by scaling ads too early and ignoring what actually matters. We discussed: * Why he pivoted from selling glucometers on Amazon to building marketing agencies * The ROAS trap: why this popular metric actually hurts growth * Funnel leaks that make brands lose money before chec...

On this episode of ChaiNet, Rachna Sarup, founder of B77 Lifestyle, shares her journey from 25 years as a garment exporter to revolutionizing sustainable fashion. She reveals how the industry produces massive carbon emissions and sends most garments straight to landfills. We discussed: * The exact moment she realized business as usual was destroying the planet * Making fabric from Himalayan wild g...

On this episode of ChaiNet, Priyanshu Soni, founder of Agylex Global and Director of Sprinx, shares how he built a multi-million dollar international staffing business in an era where AI was supposed to kill HR. He breaks down why he bet on recruitment when others were running scared, what human recruiters can do that AI cannot, and how to use AI as a tool while still prioritizing cultural fit and...

In this episode of ChaiNet, we sat down with Noel Mathew, founder of Skie Labs and creator of Shopscan. After years of witnessing performance issues destroy stores at scale at Fynd, Noel built an AI tool to identify hidden conversion killers that cause stores to quietly bleed revenue due to slow loads and broken experiences. We discussed the reality check of how many potential sales are lost to po...

In this episode of ChaiNet, we speak with Hitesh Matlani, who oversees the performance of over 166 Shopify stores. We explore the urgent question for every merchant and agency: what happens when AI tools become standard inside every e-commerce platform, and does this make human expertise obsolete? Hitesh explains that the value of an agency is shifting from technical implementation to strategic cu...

On our latest ChaiNet episode, Chris Baxter, co-founder of Aeva AI, shares how he built an AI receptionist for health clinics to significant monthly revenue without a technical background. Chris spent years in real estate, making thousands of calls and seeing firsthand how missed calls lose business. He later discovered clinics faced the same problem. So, with no coding experience, he and his co-f...

🎙️ On our latest ChaiNet episode, Dhruv Kantak, Business Head of SEO at Hovers, explores what happens when AI becomes the world’s biggest shopping engine. Dhruv has driven millions in organic traffic for e-commerce and D2C brands. But now, as AI rewrites search and consumers ask chatbots for buying advice, traditional product pages and SEO tactics face obsolescence. We discuss: ✅ The urgent shift...

Our latest guest on ChaiNet is Nikhil Sewak, the founder and CEO of Yett. He’s building an AI-driven discovery platform for offline retail, drawing lessons from 16 years of building distribution networks across UP, Bihar, and other tier-two cities. We explore: ✅ His journey from mechanical engineering and manufacturing to recognizing the gap in offline retail discovery. ✅ How Yet helps shoppers...

Our next guest on ChaiNet is Anmol Sood, co-founder of Alai (YC W24). Anmol made a significant leap from a prestigious career at Meta to build an AI-native presentation tool that transforms how ideas are communicated. We’ll talk about his bold decision to leave one of tech’s most coveted roles for the high-stakes world of AI entrepreneurship. We’ll also dive into what truly sets Alai apart in the...

Our next guest on ChaiNet is Yuliya Fomina, co-founder of Tailo. Yuliya made a significant leap from a prestigious consulting career to build an AI agent platform that transforms website visitors into customers through dynamic demos and conversations. We’ll talk about her bold decision to leave corporate stability for the high-stakes world of AI entrepreneurship. We’ll also dive into what truly se...

Welcome back to ChaiNet, where we learn from builders shaping our future with Gautam Dhameja, founder of BlockDeep Labs and a Web3 veteran. We dive into the revolutionary concept of autonomous AI agents living on the blockchain, discussing how software will soon make its own decisions, hold money, and transact independently, enabled by blockchain’s power to provide identity and trust. In this fasc...

Our recent LinkedIn Live on ChaiNet featured a critical discussion with Tarini Padmanabhuni, the 20-year-old Founder and CEO of Axory AI. The session focused on the escalating threat of deepfakes and the urgent need for an “trust layer.” Here are the key takeaways from the conversation: ✅Alarming Costs: Tarini highlighted a $25 million corporate fraud executed via deepfake video and revealed that...

🎙️ Our latest ChaiNet episode features Serge Kadjo, founder of ProductFlo, who reveals why brilliant hardware designs often fail to reach production, and how AI can bridge this physical gap. We explore: ✅ Automating engineering documentation and compliance ✅ Manufacturing realities from Shenzhen to Morocco ✅ Why paperwork consumes 40% of development time ✅ Building hardware that actually ships...

Our next guest on ChaiNet is Archit Naraniwal, the co-founder of Faclon Labs, an IIT Bombay civil engineer who has spent nine years building an Industrial IoT and AI platform. He’s tackling the unspoken challenges of bringing AI to factories filled with decades-old machinery. We’ll talk about the dirty secret of industrial AI that nobody wants to admit. We’ll also dive into the practical realities...

Our latest guest on ChaiNet is Vivian Cai, the 22-year-old Founder and CEO of Streaml. She’s building AI agents to eliminate sales busywork, drawing lessons from an unconventional journey spanning classical piano and high finance. We explore: ✅ Her unique pivot from intense piano and investment banking to AI entrepreneurship. ✅ How Streaml’s AI agents transform sales by cutting busywork. ✅ The...

This podcast episode features Parminder, the founder of Redscope AI and former “Mobile Guy” at Flipkart, as he shares his journey of leveraging AI to achieve unprecedented efficiency. The discussion moves beyond typical startup stories to examine how a 3-person team competes with funded companies by deploying AI agents that close deals autonomously. Listeners will gain a deep understanding of prac...

🎙️ Our latest guest on ChaiNet is José Manuel Ramírez R., co-founder of Handit. AI, who’s tackling one of AI’s most persistent challenges - why sophisticated agents work perfectly in demos but fail dramatically in real-world production environments. We explore: ✅ The reality of AI’s production-to-demo gap✅ How self-correcting AI systems operate✅ Building competitive AI technology from Colombia...

Ever wondered what it really takes to transform an AI concept into a working product? Vincent Josse, founder of BlogSEO and former engineering lead at Joko, reveals the behind-the-scenes reality of building AI services that actually scale. Get ready to learn: * How to choose the right AI infrastructure without overspending * The truth about scaling from zero to millions of users * Smart ways to va...

This podcast episode features Shawn David, an Offline AI Engineer and founder of Automate To Win, as he moves beyond the AI hype to examine what truly works in business automation. The discussion focuses on practical applications that deliver real results, separating genuine value from common industry exaggerations. Listeners will learn to distinguish between productive AI tools and empty promises...

In this episode of ChaiNet, we sit down with Benjamin Thornton, who is tracking how search visibility is changing across AI platforms. We tackle the pressing questions for anyone who depends on being found online, exploring why a #1 Google ranking no longer guarantees visibility on ChatGPT and whether traditional keyword research is becoming obsolete. Benjamin explains that the game is changing fr...

Mikul Saravanan is the 20-year-old founder & CEO of Wagoo.ai and an Egleston Scholar at Columbia University. He’s building a completely offline, privacy-first AI assistant, challenging the core business models of the industry’s biggest players. In this urgent episode of ChaiNet, we sit down with Mikul to expose the hidden cost of “free” AI tools. We dive into the surveillance economy, how your dat...

What if the most complex financial processes, long considered impossible to automate, are now achieving near-perfect accuracy? In our latest ChaiNet Live episode, we speak with Ankur Patel, a Princeton graduate and former J.P. Morgan strategist who now leads Multimodal. We explore how his background in traditional finance revealed deep operational inefficiencies, inspiring the creation of AI syste...