SCAILE goes to India
I understand why they produce so many unicorns now.
Starting 2026 a bit different. Simon and I are building an AI company in Europe, and we took the whole thing to India for two weeks. Came back different.
The real India
Pranjal showed us his India, not the tourist version. Delhi, Jaipur, Agra. You'd think they're different countries. The energy in each city is completely different, but the ambition is the same everywhere.
The hackathon
Yatharth co-organised the SCAILE track at brAInwave, the AIMS-DTU hackathon. 30 hours of agentic coding at one of India's top CS universities. The pitches ranged from military drones to AI glasses that describe the world to blind people. 20-year-olds pitching with more conviction than most Series A founders I've met in Europe.
Vinita, Shuddhabrota, and Siddharth shipped product from cafes across North India. No office, no Slack standups. Just building.
What I took home
Back home in Europe, an engineering degree is a ticket to a stable career. In India, it's a starting line. Students at top universities sleep on campus, organise everything themselves, and build like their future depends on it. One country, producing more unicorns than any country in Europe. I understand why now.
We didn't nail the Taj Mahal photo. But this trip deserves a picture on the wall.
India is goated. Go before it becomes the next Bali.
We'll be back.
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