Last updated: September 13, 2024
There are hundreds of thousands of good people in Bangalore, India.
But these are the 20 most interesting ones I’ve met.
Shobhit Bakliwal
Twitter / X, LinkedIn, Website.
Software development consultant and my Bangalore guardian angel.
Shobhit is an early adopter of all things tech. If you have questions about the startup scene, new software, or Silicon Valley / Bangalore overlap, ask him. Read my article about Shobhit Bakliwal here. He was so generous and helpful: sent a car to pick me up at the airport, helped me get a mobile SIM card, and then took me out to breakfast on my first morning.
Shobhit seems to know everyone in Bangalore on Twitter / X and every single spot in Indiranagar specifically. He was perhaps the first reader of my book in India. Has a great wife whom he met online. They’re currently into pickleball. Taught me about Swiggy and other q-commerce things!
Puneeth Suraana
LinkedIn, Podcast (Spotify), Podcast (Apple)
Puneeth is one of the reasons I decided to visit Bangalore. He read my book, The 2-Hour Cocktail Party, and immediately started hosting large tech community events using my formula. I’d get random photos on WhatsApp from him showing 75 brown people huddled together with name tags. It was so wild that I had to see it for myself.
Puneeth has been hosting the Galata podcast for years. On my last day in Bangalore, he helped me organize a meetup in Cubbon Park. Without him, I might not have come to Bangalore at all, let alone hosted that final event. For this I owe Puneeth a debt of gratitude. He knows many people, startups, and companies in the Bangalore tech community.
Alicia Souza
Instagram, LinkedIn, Website
Bangalore bestie. Illustrator. My article on her.
Alicia is one of my absolute favorite friends in Bangalore. She’s incredibly creative, super fun, very funny, easy to talk to, and an absolute treat to hang out with. A renowned illustrator with a large audience, Alicia makes a great living from her art and design work. We met through Derek Sivers and our connection was instant. I found myself canceling other plans just to spend more time in her world.
Alicia grew up in the Middle East. We’ve stayed in touch, often interacting on Instagram or via voice memos on WhatsApp. She LOVES voice memos. I wrote an article about how we became fast friends here.
Keshav Jindal
Keshav is such a great guy. He was following me online, I think via the My First Million podcast, and bought a ticket to the event I hosted with Radhika just to meet me. We had dinner afterward. Keshav writes about artificial intelligence trends for a popular newsletter called Ben’s Bites. He had heard about me on the My First Million podcast. He’s very active on Twitter and plugged into the tech scene.
Keshav was an excellent resource for local Bangalore info. He’s smart, knows a lot about tech, and is living the Internet dream. Originally from Haryana, he worked his way into a great high-tech job. If you’re visiting Bangalore, Keshav might be open to connecting. Maybe you can even hire him to help you explore the tech scene.
Saurav Arya
X / Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn
Saurav is the Founder of Small World, one of the largest GenZ & millennial event companies in India. They’re mainly in Bangalore but also do events in dozens of other cities. Their most popular event is Speed Dating, followed by Chai With Friends.
Saurav operates two small hostel-type hotels in the Koramangala neighborhood. He rents these on Airbnb and other places. I stayed in one for several nights as his guest while we worked together to revise the structure of his Speed Dating events.
Read about the Dating Salon events that I host in America here.
Saurav is an entrepreneur who is passionate about events and connecting people. It was an honor to get immersed with him and his team. (Hi Gagana!) When I was leaving, Saurav shared a meaningful quote with me: “When the student is ready, the teacher will arrive.”
Radhika Mohta
Instagram, Twitter / X, LinkedIn, Website.
Matchmaker. Businesswoman. My article on her.
Radhika is a full-time matchmaker. She’s helped hundreds of people think differently about love and romance in Bangalore. On my first day in Bangalore, she invited me into her home, cooked food, and told me about her life. We hosted an event together a few days later. She’s a woman of action. Read my article about her here.
Stuti
Stuti works at a bank during the day and draws as an artist for fun. We met by chance at the Yogisthaan cafe where she was dining with her parents. If I’m being honest, she sort of reminded me of an Indian girlfriend I had once in New York City. So I had to talk to her. We did yoga with Alicia one afternoon, but our schedules didn’t align as much as we’d have hoped. I feel like we would be good friends if we lived in the same city.
Kausshal Dugarr
Kausshal is the Founder and CEO of Teabox, the best Indian tea supplier. Seriously: try their teas! They started with fresh Darjeeling and now supply so many types. I have a lot more to write about Kausshal and his company some day soon I hope. He took me for a fantastic coffee and lunch. I hope to brainstorm again soon.
Dravisha Katoch
Dravisha loves basketball. She works in venture capital, specifically for Antler’s Before Day Zero initiative. We had a fun fish dinner and she got me very excited to explore more parts of India.
Dravisha grew up in a military family, moving frequently and spending time in so many different states of India. We talked about Kashmir and Ladakh and Assam which are high on my list to visit now.
Ankesh Kothari
Ankesh has been reading my Friends Newsletter for years, long before my recent rise in popularity from my book and online content. He splits his time between Bangalore and Dubai. He’s a member of the Jain religion and carries a card explaining his dietary restrictions to restaurants. It was a practical solution that I found fascinating.
Ankesh trades stocks based on chart data. While it’s not my style (I’m more of a degenerate tech stock investor), I think he’s done quite well for himself. We had breakfast together during one of his few months in Bangalore. Despite his part-time residency, I wanted to include Ankesh here. It means a lot to me that he’s been a long-time supporter of my newsletter.
Reddy
Twitter / X, Instagram, Website
Reddy is one of the most interesting characters in Bangalore. He rides around town on his motorcycle, always seeming to have a smile on his face. Extremely active on X, Reddy was very gracious in re-sharing much of my content.
I don’t exactly know what Reddy does for work or what he believes in life, but I can tell you he has such a positive energy. We only met once, at my meetup, but he comes across as a larger-than-life sort of character. If you’re heading to Bangalore, you should definitely message Reddy.
RJ Iyer
RJ was another great introduction from Derek Sivers. She has a special connection to my home city of Austin, Texas. RJ is a talented writer. We met on a Saturday morning for the lovely Cubbon Reads event in Cubbon Park. Afterwards she treated me to lunch at a cool cafe near the park. I believe RJ’s dream is to live in Europe or America.
Ishita Mahajan
Instagram, Twitter / X, LinkedIn
Ishita works on the design team at Target. We’ve known each other for almost 20 years. I lived with her brother, Akshay, in Pune in 2004. I met her husband for the first time and their dog who was remarkably calm around me. Ishita lives in a beautiful, green area of central Bangalore next to to Cubbon Park. She’s a bit private and not very active online. She’s like my Indian little step-sister or my Indian cousin.
More Excellent People
I met a ton of people in Bangalore and it was impossible to include everyone. Shoutout to all the meetups and hangouts and more:
Here are few other excellent people in Bangalore who I want to spend more time with on my next visit:
- Pooja V Herle. As featured in my Indian family values article. We met on an app and she hosted me for breakfast, where she invited her friend Jeevitha.
- Jeevitha P Raju. Also in my Indian family values article. She works in soft skills and communication skills training for businesses. We did coworking one day and spoke about the workshops she leads.
- Soumitra Sengupta. We only met briefly, for an evening walk. But he and his wife were super cool.
- Surbhi Jain. Shobit’s wife is an extremely accomplished founder. Her company works with sleep sounds in various Indian languages. She hosted me for tea but we didn’t get to chat solo much. These days she’s really excited about pickleball and hosts her own meetups around that.
- Joash Kripakar Benjamin. Chief of Staff for my Austin friend Aaron Paul and an extremely accomplished talent manager for famous musicians in India. He picked me up for lunch and we talked about booking shows and more.
- Sakshi Shukla. She’s hosting events again! They’re a bit different from my formula, but people LOVE them. Sakshi took me out for the best chaat that I had in India. She’s a gem.
- Varun Mayya. Extremely smart guy. We hung out and had a great conversation.
Conclusion
There are a lot of people in Bangalore. So many smart, talented people.
I wrote about my favorite places in Bangalore, the 2 best neighborhoods, and 7 places you have to check out. Read that article here.
Do you live in Bangalore and want to be added to this list? Please comment on this article about yourself and what you’re working on. I’ll meet you for chai or filter coffee next time I’m in town.
This article was inspired by Derek Sivers’s post 50 conversations in Bangalore and Chennai.