Soham Mehta

What if the next big startup targeted toddlers as their end users? I am talking about quick commerce for baby care. Once upon a time, Amit Sah had to shut down his first startup, Zoplar, after a sudden government ban on refurbished medical equipment crushed the business overnight. Most would’ve been down and out, Amit wasn't. Having spent over a decade leading international operations at Ola, OYO, and Pristyn Care, he knew one thing better than most, how to build efficient, fast-moving, ground-level operations. And that’s exactly what he’s doing now with his new venture, OZi. OZi is reimagining baby and kids’ commerce for the quick commerce era. Parents can now order diapers, formula, apparel, toys, or grooming essentials and have them arrive at their doorstep in under an hour. Why baby care? It’s one of the few categories that ticks every box for vertical QCom success: - High repeatability (diapers don’t wait) - Wide SKU range (taste-driven items like toys and apparel) - High AOV and margin potential - Brand recall waiting to be built in the baby care category most, parents don’t have a “go-to” platform or brand yet. The baby care market is still largely unorganised, with FirstCry.com (BrainBees Solutions Ltd.) being the only big incumbent, leaving a huge gap for a focused, modern, hyper-local player. Backed by Blume Ventures, Amit has assembled an A-team with talent from Urban Company, Cars24, and Zomato, building a network of dark stores that already powers deliveries across Gurgaon. The plan is simple: perfect one city’s logistics before expanding. OZi will compete with Zepto, Instamart and Blinkit in this niche, but their strength will be in the vertical play and focus which will not be something Zepto or Blinkit will easily beat. Blinkit already has a curated category called 'kids' which is solving exactly for this. It remains to be seen whether deeper understanding of customer needs and a better assortment helps Ozi beat the giants. Moral of the story: The next generation of QCom winners won’t sell everything. They’ll find niches and sell something deeply repeatable, high-trust, and high-margin. What are some other niches of QCom you think are waiting to be cracked? My hunch is that there is an opportunity in healthier food and grocery, curated packaged and organics vs just every brand under the sun. An app which acts more like a diet and food planner and then gets what you should be eating delivered to you too.

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Opportunities are misleading. Non-linear growth opportunities actually put you in places that you have not earned yet. They generally come from either you trusting yourself or someone else trusting you to punch above what's already been demonstrated. I know this because the founders at my previous org gave me multiple such opportunities - fast-tracking me into a Director role, or pulling me into the Series-C raise to run pitches, diligence, and investor discussions alongside them, etc.; even starting up on your own could be one such opportunity. What people miss: While you may have gotten the opportunity, you still have to EARN it. It's almost natural to assume that it was already earned, and to see it as a 'right' - it's not. While you may have gotten a seat at the big table, you still have to earn your right to speak. Till then - listen, learn, execute.

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We’ve partnered with Somaiya Vidyavihar University for yet another structured research study on ChatCouncil. For the next 6 weeks, students will actively use the app as part of a guided study. Not demos. Not simulations. Real usage. Real data. Real outcomes. At the end of the study, we’ll work closely with the university to publish research papers that reflect what truly worked, what didn’t, and what we learned. What makes this collaboration special is the openness and seriousness with which the university, faculty, and students have approached it. Their willingness to engage critically, ask hard questions, and treat mental health research with the care it deserves means a lot to us. Because mental health + AI cannot run on assumptions. It needs evidence. Ethics. And academic scrutiny. If we want AI to play a meaningful role in mental well-being, it has to be tested in the real world - with transparency, responsibility, and scientific honesty. This is a small step - but an important one - toward building systems that genuinely help. This is what building responsibly looks like.

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The recent discussion featuring Sangeeta Gupta (SVP & Chief Strategy Officer, Nasscom), Aridni Shah (Co-founder & CEO, Immunitto AI), and Aqeel Ahmed (Co-founder & CEO, EcoRatings) offered sharp insights into the state of India’s GenAI startup ecosystem — insights that directly resonate with our mission at ClrSlate. 📈 Sangeeta Gupta highlighted that 83% of India’s GenAI startups are building on the application layer due to capital and compute constraints — but are still innovating globally. 💰 Aridni Shah pointed out that deep-tech & regulated industries like healthcare face long validation cycles and funding challenges, requiring efficient, compliant processes. 🌱 Aqeel Ahmed noted that patient capital is rare, and startups must manage compute costs and specialised talent gaps through creative operational models. This is exactly where ClrSlate steps in. Our AI-native platform engineering enables companies to go to market 70% faster and reduce infra costs by up to 80%, freeing resources for innovation even in capital-constrained environments. We automate orchestration across any cloud, helping teams focus on building value rather than fighting infra complexity. Our platform blueprints embed industry best practices, ensuring repeatable, reliable deployments — crucial for compliance-heavy and global-first startups. Proud to be part of the #NasscomGenAIFoundry journey alongside such inspiring founders and leaders, working together to turn constraints into opportunities. 🚀 Thanks for being a part of our disrupting team Piyush Rathi Shashvat Dev Gupta Ankit Dhaka #ClrSlate #GenAI #DevOps #PlatformEngineering #Automation #IndiaAI #Nasscom

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