Bengaluru’s HSR is Looking for a Chief Everything Officer
Bengaluru, the Silicon Valley of India, has always been the hub for tech startups. Step into any cafe or a bar, and you are likely to overhear either a startup founder pitching his idea to a potential investor or people discussing their products with each other. Someone correctly pointed out: If LinkedIn was a city, it would definitely be Bengaluru. There is another interesting phenomenon happening in the city, especially in its startup nerve centre, HSR Layout. It’s the Rise of Chief Everything Officers (CEOs). “Bangalore is the place , where if you hear ‘let me call my partner’, it could mean your VC partner or otherwise,” posted Shravan Tickoo, the founder of Rethink Systems. He added that if someone calls their product manager, “it can mean a PM or even an engineer who was told that he’s a PM but now has to do the engineer’s work too since we don’t have money”. “Can happen only in Bengaluru :) Especially in HSR Layout,” he concluded. Balkar Singh, who is a product manager at Oracle, said, soon the job listings would say: “We’re looking for a Chief Everything Officer (CEO), with responsibilities including making coffee, coding the next billion-dollar app, securing funding, finding an apartment, and many more such tasks. Nishith Shah added, “When your plane touches the runway and sees people staring at LinkedIn right after landing. Welcome to Bangalore.” “Let me call my intern” can mean a student learning the ropes or your only other team member or cousin who is handling coding, marketing, and sales. The funny part is that it’s all actually true. “That’s true this happens in HSR, where people are meeting in cafes and pitching ideas,” said Aditya Patil. HSR is All About AI Startups We’ve all heard about the vibrant AI scene in San Francisco, the Bay Area energy, and the coffee shops in Alamo Square where discussions about OpenAI and Midjourney thrive. Just like how startups are founded in garages there, in Bengaluru, startups start with flatmates and roommates sitting together and randomly discussing ideas. And add to that, their neighbour sometimes turns out to be a VC. A few weeks ago, software engineer Hardeep Gambhir stepped into a cafe in Bengaluru and couldn’t help but draw parallels. The vibe in the cafe immediately teleported him to San Francisco. walked into a cafe in Bangalore today and this is what I saw different people doing: 1. a dude watching Karpathy's lectures.2. 4 uncles talking about software + hardware + marketing. 3. a girl reading Albert Camus and her (assumingly) boyfriend showing her the thinnest iPad…— Hardeep (@hardeep_gambhir) May 12, 2024 What sets Bengaluru apart is not only its impressive line-up of startups but also its substantial venture capital funding. In 2020, Bengaluru attracted over $10 billion in venture capital investments, surpassing leading hubs like San Francisco and London. When it comes to HSR Layout, it is all about AI startups. Srikrishna Swaminathan, the CEO of Factor.AI, wrote about this on LinkedIn: “One building, and all AI companies. Factors.ai can claim to attract all AI here, as we were the first occupants,” tagging Amal Mishra and Urban Vault. The Urban Vault building is now officially the first AI building in the city. It currently houses five notable AI startups, namely Loop AI, Factors AI, Raga AI, Frinks AI, and Actyv AI, thereby, alluding to HSR’s pivotal role in nurturing AI startups. Ganesh Gopalan, the CEO and co-founder of GNANI.AI, highlighted that they wished to establish the startup in HSR, calling it a hub for tech talent. That pushed AIM to pen the petition to rename HSR to HSR.AI. Bengaluru is Giving Rise to 10X Founders Undoubtedly, the hustle is real in Bengaluru. Everyone is trying to build a startup. “Startup addiction is in the air of Bangalore (sic),” said Nirmalya Saha. And what can be better than your co-founders being your flatmates, or maybe just you tackling multiple roles. This has given rise to founders and CEOs who are willing to multitask to fulfil the demands of their startups. Bengaluru has now also become a focal point for discussions on AI, often accompanied by the city’s famous dosa and craft beer.
If LinkedIn was a city, it would definitely be Bengaluru.
“Bangalore is the place , where if you hear ‘let me call my partner’, it could mean your VC partner or otherwise."
["Bengaluru", "Chief AI Officer (CAIO)"]
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["AI", "ML", "OpenAI", "Aim", "RAG", "R", "Go", "API", "BERT", "GAN"]
Mohit writes about AI in simple, explainable, and often funny words. He's especially passionate about chatting with those building AI for Bharat, with the occasional detour into AGI.