The Unstoppable Force: How Community Fuels Global Startups

Watch full podcast here – Chaitime With Manthanbaba

We recently had an insightful discussion with Jatin Chaudhary, Co-Founder of eChai Ventures, whose journey demonstrates that collective ambition and shared experience form the foundation of global entrepreneurship.

Jatin has been running this global community since it started in April 2009. His insights reveal how powerful networks are transforming the ecosystem, one connection at a time.

The E-Chai Story: Building a Global Ecosystem

The Entrepreneur’s Chai Concept

The name eChai originated from a blend of two distinct ideas.

Entrepreneurship: This contributed the ‘E’.
Chai: This was inspired by the history and political movement surrounding tea, specifically the Boston Tea Party, a topic Jatin found fascinating while reading about it in Ahmedabad.

While many people interpret the name as “Electronic Chai,” the original meaning was “Entrepreneur Chai”.

The venture was started in April 2009.

An Educational Mission

The initial goal of starting eChai was fundamentally educational.

The primary aim was to bring students together to achieve several key outcomes:

Help them become aware of current market trends.
Help them learn practical skills.
Ultimately, help them improve their prospects in life.

The very first event was a side activity, or an “after party”. After a major conference called “Entrepreneurs 10,” friends would gather for chai at a stall, and that informal gathering was named eChai. Because the name resonated so strongly, eChai eventually became the main identity of the company and the main activity itself.

The Founder as Salesperson

Though he is a Founder of eChai Ventures, Jatin describes himself everywhere—including on LinkedIn—as a “Salesperson” or “Salesman” of eChai.

Jatin believes that whatever work you are doing, you should write that down as your title. He noted that his co-founder, Kunal, writes “Engineer”.

Interestingly, Jatin waited five years before writing “Salesman” as his title. He observed that when your scale is small, the title doesn’t matter, but if your scale is greater, using such a title “sounds very exciting”.

Scaling Through Diligent Outreach and Global Hubs

eChai has grown from a local community to a global venture. It currently operates in 25+ global cities and 10 countries, and hosts events in 15 to 20 countries.

The Secret to Network Building

In the early days, before the network was established, building connections required disciplined effort.

Jatin shared a simple yet powerful technique he used to build his initial network:

He diligently emailed 1,000 people every Sunday.
He reached out to prominent individuals, including prominent businessmen, journalists, and even IAS officers in Gujarat.
He used the sales skills acquired during his four years of prior job experience. He ensured he was presenting something of mutual interest and was not merely asking people to do things for him.

This diligent outreach was crucial in securing early connections. After one year of consistent activity, he realized that while they hadn’t built a traditional business, they had created a connected ecosystem, which they could then leverage to support entrepreneurs.

Organic Global Growth

eChai’s scaling often happens organically, starting in established startup hubs.

People might discover eChai events in major cities like Bangalore or San Francisco.
Attendees from other regions, such as Brazil, Chile, or Jaipur, then return to their hometowns and ask if they can bring the eChai experience there.
This means the scale of the community is amplified from these major centres.

The events themselves are highly accessible: 95% of eChai programs are free and open for all, requiring no payment or membership. Events cover a wide range of topics, including Demo Days, panel discussions on functions like FinTech or Climate, or skill-level programs focused on design and sales.

The Meaning of Community for Jatin

Over the 16 years eChai has been operating, Jatin’s perspective on the community has evolved.

For Jatin and his co-founder, Kunal, running eChai is highly enjoyable. The community work provides a huge personal benefit: it allows them to experiment and pursue their “whims and fancies”.

The fact that the work has an impact and benefits others—such as enabling founders to find partners and friends—is considered a wonderful “bonus”. Jatin noted that the benefit is mutual: “it’s not that people are benefiting from our work, we are benefiting from our work, but people are benefiting, that is a bonus”.

Community as a Life Asset

Jatin emphasized that community extends beyond just professional growth, noting how his connections provided personal support.

He shared a funny personal story about how, during a difficult time in his relationship with his now-wife, he used an official eChai letterhead to secure permission for her to travel, citing her role as a leader.
Later, when meeting his father-in-law for the first time, he scheduled a Baroda event and conducted strategic PR, ensuring a photo and story about eChai were published in Divyabhaskar on the day of the meeting.

He concluded that one of the greatest things the community has given him is many friends.

Key Takeaways for Young Founders

Jatin offered crucial advice for founders navigating the startup world.

1. Make Your Work Solid

Jatin’s strongest technical advice focuses squarely on the core business: Focus on making your work very solid.

He warned that if your product is not powerful, being part of 50 communities is irrelevant.
If your product is solid, all communities will invite you to participate.

Founders must focus their effort on product development rather than analysing which community to join.

2. Build Good Friends

Jatin’s strongest piece of advice for young founders is simple: “make good friends in life because you will need them”.

He emphasised that every founder will surely get stuck somewhere, and having a strong support circle is essential to avoid things becoming “very difficult”.

Founders must also strive to be:

Resourceful and helpful.
Aware of situations and happenings.
Curious to know about others, especially if your own work is not currently large-scale.

Being resourceful and helpful makes you valuable to everybody else, ensuring you “will end up doing really well”.

3. Embrace Openness

Regarding the myth that successful entrepreneurs do not share business secrets, Jatin encourages young founders to focus on the people who do share.

He noted a positive societal trend: the mindset is changing, and people are becoming more open. The transition towards knowledge sharing is evident. Founders should take advantage of those who are willing to share their strategies and insights.

A community works like a set of interconnected building blocks. When people come together, whether it’s in a public event or a small group, they can discover new interests and opportunities. As seen in the example of the founder of CodeMint AI, who discovered interesting people and eventually succeeded internationally, the community can play a crucial role in a founder’s trajectory.

To engage with eChai, Jatin suggests looking at their work like “Lego blocks”. Because the experience is unique for every city and every event, you should match your objective (e.g., knowledge sharing, meeting good people) with the event’s listed title to ensure a great experience.

Manthan Bhavsar – Growth-Focused Tech Leader