It was a sunny Friday in Delhi. The morning light filtered through the balcony, warming my living room. I settled onto the sofa with a hot mug of black coffee and opened my inbox. There it was!
A long, detailed email from the Governing Council, thanking me for what had been built so far… and letting me know that a Custom GPT would be taking over my responsibilities for the year ahead.
At first, I laughed. But it wasn’t a joke.
I’d just been laid off. In the most gracious way possible. Complete with a reverence slip.
DANG! That was it, my last day at SaaSBoomi.
I woke up, sweaty. It was 6:30 AM. Just a dream.
But dreams often echo what we don’t say out loud. So here’s a confession: Yes, I fear being irrelevant.
Now more than ever!
I’ve spent over two decades building communities in the Indian startup ecosystem. And I’ve seen three distinct waves of founders:
- The first built new-gen software.
- The second scaled it with SaaS.
- The third, this one, is rewriting the fundamentals with AI.
This third wave is different. They’re young. Sharp. Focused. 26, maybe 28. Clear in their vision. Ruthlessly product-driven. I’ve met a bunch over the past few weeks, enough to start seeing a pattern. And I’m sure there’s more to uncover.
As we plan the year ahead at SaaSBoomi, one thing is clear: We’re rebuilding. With intent.
If we want to serve this next generation of builders, we need to learn their language. So I’m meeting 7–8 AI-first founders every week. Not to pitch, not to partner, just to listen. To understand. My team’s doing the same, syncing weekly to share, learn, and plug what’s useful into our workflows.
Because only when we use AI can we talk about it. And only when we know our audience’s problems can we solve for them.
In the coming year, we’ll be focusing deeply on the zero-to-one stage, the early builders creating for the world from India.
The peaks ahead are steep, but I’m sure the view will be worth it. Let’s trek this together!
