Turning Tragedy Into Tech: AI That Detects Heart Attacks Early | Meet the Drapers India: Goa

In 1994, my father was the first Silicon Valley venture capitalist in India. He believed in the spirit of this incredible country. 30 years later, my sister Polly and I are on a mission to find India's next unicorn. I'm Tim Draper. I've invested in game-changing companies. Now we're crisscrossing the We're traveling across an entire subcontinent, meeting the brightest minds in the world's most populous country as we search for the country's top entrepreneurs. Thousands applied, but only 28 companies have made the cut for a chance to win an investment of $1 million and a shot at changing the world. It's a journey packed with adventure, innovation, and unforgettable moments. Who will rise to the challenge? India's next great entrepreneur. Let the games begin. Here we are in Goa, India, right in front of this very famous trading port that turned into a prison and now it's a tourist center. It's the circle of life of an entrepreneur. This is where we're going to be pitched. The entrepreneurs are going to be right here on the jetty. It's going to be awesome. Awesome. Looks like we've got a studio audience. Not exactly studio. Oh, I'll bet you're wondering why I'm in these digs. I'll tell you, here in Goa, it's fun, it's entertaining, it's dynamic, it's creative. We got the hat, we got the cas look. It's very important here in Goa. It's hot here. Uh, but wow, this is fantastic. God, I love this job.

A million dollar investment.

The million dollar would mean that we reach at least 50 million women in India.

We are planning to roll out AI agents.

We are looking at bringing high-tech medical care in high-risk markets like North America, where the cost is. inflating every year.

Just the vibrancy and the excitement that he brings to any idea on the table, we get that very rarely.

We would love to generate local employment here.

We want to become the world's first enterprise AI agent for event marketing strategy.

All right, welcome to everybody. This is Meet the Drapers. India! And here we are in Goa. It is one of the most beautiful places on the earth. And with me today, I have 3 extraordinary guest judges. One, if you've watched the show before, you know it is Polly Draper. She is actress, producer, writer, and she's one of the stars of Meet the Drapers, which is her highest calling.

I'm gonna be looking for people who have a lot of passion about what they're doing. And I also like entrepreneurs who are trying to solve a problem that helps people in a profound way.

And on my right, we have Apoorva Ranjan, who is an early investor in a lot of companies. He's got 300 in his portfolio.

400.

400.

Yeah.

And he's a part of the Science and Technology Department in the government of India. Oh, and by the way, we adopt you.

Oh yeah.

For our show. So now, Purva Ranjan Draper.

Oh yeah.

You're comfortable with your new name? Okay, super.

I want to see the guys who are live wires and in the, you know, if they can spark our minds.

And on my left, we have Svati. It's interesting, this name, Salgoakar. So Svati Draper. You have a lot of weight of your family business on your shoulders, but you went through Yale to become an architect.

I think it's great to come from architecture and then look at something completely different. I think it's, it's a great challenge, and I'm looking forward to the entrepreneurs that we have on the show today.

Okay, with that, let's get to the entrepreneurs. But before we do, let's see what's going on behind the scenes. We will even adopt all of you if you can really do the eyebrows well.

Who?

Wow!

Yeah.

Those doctors who use AI are going to replace those doctors who are not going to use AI. Losing a good friend, a class friend to heart attack, was the trigger. He had come to Goa over the weekend or for the New Year's Eve on 22, and then on 4th of January had the heart attack and he was no more. We had information, but nobody had insights. So what we believe is AI can. Get to the insights part very quickly, wherein you can predict and look into the future and look at the markers which are present and then correlate it with a high level of confidence to indicate an onset of a severe or an immediate threat to your life. Today, the challenge is that information is in paper, they're in different locations, they're with different people, but if you put it in your fingertips, that is where the value addition helps and very relevant pertinent information for that particular The doctors who start using AI in their daily practice will become more productive, their patients will get better clinical care, and in society also they'll get known as people who have the best advanced technology or they're the ones who have the best practice.

AI agents are built based on the patterns and the data points, and you can say the AI healthcare models are the more efficient, and if doctors are using that, and that may be the game-changing moment for the whole world.

What do you say to like your dad, the doctor?

Yeah, so now he's believing that the pattern may be the biggest secret sauce that can be used for healthcare domain. But earlier when I started, even AI was not there that much in Indian ecosystem, right? But I never had to prove my parents and other people to what I'm doing right now. If you really trying to do something, and I think the universe is there for you to help you out. And every moment I'm getting the validation of that. So this is also a surprising thing, but now I am habituated of the process that if you are really trying something and you have the honest intention, and the university is there to make it done for you.

This is a great place for Meeting entrepreneurs in the tourism sector, in the mining sector. This is also a place where you meet other entrepreneurs who are taking a break, who are on a long staycation.

It's a very common and elegant combination of Indian and Portuguese culture.

People still speak and understand Portuguese. The Portuguese cuisine is beautiful. Sossega, or the art of taking a break in the middle of the afternoon, that is also something which is unique here.

Yeah, Goa is the real definition of chilling.

The beaches of Goa are the best in the world. We spent a lot of time on the beaches. And then there's a historic city, which is South Goa. There's a charming ability of Goa to keep you at peace.

It's somewhere you don't associate deep thinking and finance, but this is actually a good out-of-the-way destination to pitch.

I know you've been gunning for it. I'm going to kind of keep you from going. I'm going to throw you off your game right now. Okay, go ahead. No, no, now give you— give us your pitch.

We didn't name our company Lark AI just for the sake of it. Lark is a harbinger of song and it brings you good health. It's known as a symbol of good health and joy. And what we've done is we've solved for 4 problems, which is very prominent in this locality. One is like healthcare is inaccessible because there are very few radiologists, cardiologists, and super specialists. What we've done is made healthcare very affordable, accessible, and very democratic by using the power of AI and IoT. What we have there is a tool which allows you to do real-time monitoring of your patient. This is really a window to your heart and lung. You can put it up over here and any doctor could be in San Francisco, Delhi, or Mumbai can do real-time monitoring of the patient. So what we here are reading are 4 vital parameters, which is ECG, non-invasive blood pressure, temperature, and oxygen saturation.

And on top of that, we have some algorithm that can give the 50+ alarm current conditions.

Okay, so this stays with the patient. What does the doctor see? Is it— this is— In the cloud, it shoots up and then—

Exactly. Or if I'm in front of a computer, I can upload it or see my patient's history. Or if I have 30 patients or 100 patients in one command center. So these are basically IoT AI-enabled devices which allow you to do real-time monitoring of patients, any number of patients, and wherever you may be.

And then we got patent for world's smallest multiparameter monitor. So we got the patent just a few, few months back.

Yeah. So if I take a journey of a patient who's Say you're feeling discomfort, you've been taken here to an ambulance, this would be there with you. You're taken from an air ambulance to your home, right up to the journey to the hospital's operation theater, you're continuously monitored. The hospital already knows that you're coming.

Is that all? Like, if I'm in an ambulance, are those the only things that they monitor?

Absolutely.

Yeah.

They don't monitor anything else?

No, this is the only thing which you monitor, and those critical moments which matter to you, We have a very targeted patient-specific predictive algorithm telling you what the patient is doing right now.

What's the business model here? Who do you charge?

So ambulances charge us by hour, and also they buy devices by hardware. Hospitals buy because any hospital requires to have a patient monitor, and vital signs monitoring is essential for any hospital. And number 3 is the fact that radiologists and cardiologists who are overburdened and they want to reduce the queue of their patients, they use our algorithms to basically go through a large number of files, Very quickly. At the most critical moment, you have all the information required from all sources at the point of care.

Yesterday, I just saw one of those Oura rings, and it seems like it was doing the same thing.

I would say that that would be in a fun and fitness space, whereas this is like where you want to make a very serious clinical decision. It's a life depends on it. Then you would rely on 5 parameters.

Is it used only for critical conditions, or it is used on daily basis?

No, ours is meant for professional use. So they're used in a high acuity care area. High acuity care area means where there's serious patients.

What's the feedback been from doctors? Because, you know, a lot of times when it comes to AI, there's a trust factor, right?

Well, our belief is that doctors with AI are going to replace doctors without AI. Bringing information to insight is our job, and we have deep learning algorithms which look at all the parameters and tell you at this point of time what is the condition of the patient. Is it deteriorating? Is it improving?

Or is it stable?

And do you have patents on this?

Yes, we do.

There are 16 patents. 9 have already been granted. 16 is what we've The advantage which we have is we are creating a solution which is device agnostic, and no matter if you have a dumb device or even old device, as long as it can send vital parameters to the net, to our cloud, we can analyze, interpret, and report it back to you.

Terrific.

Tim, thank you so much.

Nice to see you. Thanks for being a Meet the Drapers.

Are you like a fan for a while?

Ever since he was in college, many, many years ago, five years, six years back.

Now I'm fitting in the stage. Meeting him is a really thrilling experience for me. So always been a like follower.

Per, what did you think?

The best part is they're also using AI to improve the number of vital factors which they're capturing, and also in the smaller cities where you don't have many supporting staffs. So that really there's a large market waiting there. So I think this is a good company to look at.

Svati, what did you think?

You know, I think it's interesting because I always like entrepreneurs who address a real need. And I think in our country, cost is a factor. Accessibility is a real factor. And I think they've, you know, they've really hit upon something good. I think rural India would be a great use case for this as well, more than the sort of tier 2, tier 3 cities and towns, because that's where really I think we lack good, competent healthcare.

Polly, what'd you think?

I just my only question was about the how crowded this space is.

If we can convey that to them, to Polly, who is a non-technical person, non-medical person, I think we have communicated to the mass audience.

Yeah.

All right. Let's bring on our next entrepreneur. But before we do, it's all about the eyebrows with the Drapers. Let's see what's going on behind the scenes.

We met at college.

College.

So we were doing our MBA in marketing. So both of us met in the college.

Met in the college.

That's where we. Kind of fell in love, yeah, and then we got married. You guys are a couple?

Yeah, yeah, we are a couple.

I started Avni Wellness before he joined in, a year before, and once we were all settled in, that is when he left his job and joined the organization. The first pad, the sanitary pad that I've used, is a cloth. It's a traditional cloth, an Indian version of it, which my grandmom handed to me. Because that's where the first period happened, at her place during a summer vacation. And that experience was good, warm. It stayed with me for a long time. But then as life happened, all of us started using commercial sanitary pads that were advertised, you know, with girls running around in their white suits. I faced very heavy infections a couple of times which were really bothersome. And when I went deep, I realized that these pads have a lot of plastic and chemicals because of which they are causing these issues. That was the moment when I realized that, okay, we need to solve this problem and maybe do it with some kind of innovation, bringing the good old traditional cotton formats back but in a modern avatar. So that is the genesis of Avni.

I think there is one more thing. See, most of the people in the top management are men, and we as men Including me, we had very little knowledge of what are the issues which a woman would face. There is very less information which is available on the harmful effects of whatever products we are using specifically for women's health. People have started realizing it now, but I think even for men, the education is a bit less on what kind of challenges a woman would be facing in their life.

The first day of college, there's normally an introductory session where the professor was asking all of us to introduce to the class And tell us what do you want to do? That very day, I stood up and I introduced myself, and I told that I want to start a business of my own. So my younger version would definitely say that okay, you you had to do it. You're doing it, and you're going to do it very well.

We are at Agoda Fort. This This was previously a jail which has been turned into a museum. There is a big entrepreneurial system out here in Goa. Most of the startups are working on climate sector. They're working on reducing waste, plastics, because they have seen the effects.

There are a lot of places where you can go where they grow spices.

So it's a forest tour which they can take you. It's a trail and it's a beautiful trail. There are some very good waterfalls which are very close to Goa. There are a lot of stories we have for sure. I've been here last year. I was with friends and then We really had some good fun. In fact, we don't remember what we did for one of the nights. So that kind of stories are there, but—

What happens in Goa stays in Goa.

We are never 100% prepared. So we were prepared to an extent for all the questions which were about to be asked.

Women comprise of 50% of the world population and they are delivering 100% of it.

Sorry, delivering 100% of what?

Of the humankind. Of the world population. In my 35 years of experience as a woman, I've realized that women have no idea about their bodies, how it changes with every life stage: puberty, adulthood, motherhood, menopause. The products are unregulated across the world, and they are full of toxins. That is causing irreversible damage. which is then manifesting in conditions like infertility, a lot of hormonal balance we see every day. So our flagship product range, it has a patented antimicrobial design that is body inclusive, and it suits everybody's comfort and their pockets. And we have diverted 300 tons of plastic away from the landfills and women's bodies.

What are they made of?

So the flagship products, the maroon ones that are made, they are actually made of organic fabrics. These are reusable. You can wash and reuse them for 3 years, and they do not cause any infections or irritation to the users.

He's from a different gender. I'm pretty sure he might not have seen a sanitary pad in open to date.

We also have a range of disposable pads, which normally women prefer.

Can you help me with something? We've seen a bunch of menstrual cups and tampons and biodegradable tampons. What do women want? What do women want the most? And is that— and why is it this and not all those other alternatives?

So what women are looking for is a comfortable period experience where they get the convenience to, you know, go ahead with their daily lifestyles, their very hectic lifestyles. What they're also these days looking at is to reduce the carbon footprint.

How much do they cost to make?

So our cost of goods here is 35% for these.

65% gross margin across the product.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

So tell me about the disposable ones.

So the disposable ones are also completely made of organic cotton with just a 5% plastic just for the leak-proofing. So that gives you the convenience so you can throw it off whenever you want, but it is still not going to cause as much harm.

So these are the ingredients which you're using in this?

Yeah, so this is our next product range. Now we've, we've kind of built a trust with the menstrual care products. We want to get ahead and build a range of nutritional products which will be functional nutrition loaded with superfoods that will help women at different life stages.

I keep getting a lot of ads on social media for, you know, various startups that are doing what seems to be, you know, something very similar. So I was just wondering, you know, where do you see yourself vis-à-vis the competition? What differentiates you? And, you know, what's really your kind of moat or right to win in this?

In fact, there are very, very few brands who are women-led and brands that come from a healthcare background. The second is the technology and the patent we have on the designs is actually helping us differentiate us in the market, plus the body inclusivity, which you don't get anywhere else in the world, actually, not just in India. And the third important moat is the way we are marketing it.

Sorry, what do you mean by the body inclusivity?

Um, so if you see these pads, They are available in four sizes. Four different sizes are not even available in a commercial sanitary pad.

So great to have you here.

Thank you. It's a pleasure to meet you.

Thank you. Nice meeting both of you.

Really relaxed.

We were able to complete it.

How about you? Well, we'll ask the guy first.

Yeah, of course. Why wouldn't you?

Although it should be directed to them first. The market in India for cloth diaper is there. Is huge. I hope, uh, if they do the— do it properly, they will be successful. That's what I feel.

We're gonna ask the 2 people who know what they're talking about.

Actually, I think she should go next.

I think, you know, I think it's, it's interesting what they're doing, but like I mentioned earlier, there is a lot of competition in the space. I think it's a very crowded space, so I think it really depends on how well they can execute, how well they can differentiate themselves. Similarly, I think maybe they're trying to do too many things because you're also doing a product, you're doing a nutraceutical. They talked about protein bars. So I think it might help for them maybe to focus on, you know, decide what their core focus is.

To some extent, we agree with them because focus is essential for any venture, but they are parallel. All the products can be sold via the same brand on the same platform at the same time.

Would you ever use something like this?

Like you're saying, I think so. What I've been looking at is more of the biodegradable sort of, you know, organic ones rather than the sort of reusable ones. I mean, we have half a billion women in India, so I'm sure the market is large enough.

Right, and that's why I was wondering.

Okay, a little eyebrow action, then we gotta move on.

It was really nice to see the volume of questions that were coming our way, and I was really happy because the questions actually mean that they wanted to understand more about the products and the business.

And we are going to get on to Mia Moore. We're getting a ship tour of Goa. Goa, it looks like it's a bunch of islands put together. We're going through an archipelago. Hey, Polly, this is all right, huh? A lot of wonderful people. It's a— it's got a good art feel to it. Hopefully that'll mean there'll be a lot of good entrepreneurs. What a great way to spend the afternoon, huh? Kind of makes me want to have a yacht. Well, this is the life in Goa. I guess this is what we all aspire to when we grow up and our entrepreneurial ventures are over. It feels like it has a little bit of that, that dynamic that's happening in parts of Silicon Valley. So we're hoping for good things. Mia Moore, goodbye Mia Moore. And we are on our way to meet the four entrepreneurs. So they're gonna pitch us down there, I think.

We are a self-sustained startup. Okay, we are a bootstrap startup. So we have put all our money into it. We have not raised a single amount as of now, but we did receive a seed fund of 10 lakhs from the government of Goa. Yeah, so we traveled in India, outside India together, and we have seen a lot of things which were making us very happy. The experiences were pleasant. When we came back in here, we saw that it's not that good in Goa. Tourists are disappointed after their travel, so Our interest was traveling and our core skills were development. So we thought, why don't we bring these together to find or to create a solution? There is no trustworthy guide, okay? So that's what people are lacking. And then because of this lack, those tourists are disappointed when they are in Goa. So I started my first startup in 2013, then in 2016 I started my second startup, and then in 2021 we started AppBuddy Consultancy. So it was all been a startup journey for me. And for him, he is now very much successful. He's been there with the big companies, okay? He works with big companies, and then he is also supporting the startup with— in terms of money, tech.

So for me, it's like I can't give much time to the So I'm mostly occupied with the workloads only. So that's what I feel as a regret. I mostly like just sit in the room, just work, work, work for the most of the time. And then sometimes I go out and sit with them, more rarely. That's a rare case.

Viewers, usually I'm pretty easy to reach. I mean, there are only 300 million of you. I'm making it a lot easier for you to contact me. I have downloaded my brain into this digital twin, and you can scan this QR code. You can pitch me your idea. You can talk about your business, anything. And I'll answer it 24/7. Enjoy it. It's great. It's a new feature of Meet the Drapers and Draper TV. I think you're going to have some fun. You guys are from Goa originally?

Yes, we are both from Goa. The history of Goa goes back to mythological years.

The Lord Parashurama brought the land up from the sea. It was ruled by dynasties like Kadamba. It was a kingdom. Then there was Portuguese rule after that for nearly 450 years, and they built all— most of the churches and most of the buildings that we see. And later, when Goa was freed in 1961, this was taken by the government of India.

You can go to the churches as well as beaches and can find out some beautiful field over here, coconut trees and all.

So we got to know about this last night at 10:30 PM. So I, I was like, yes, I'm going to do it, even if, even if I did not know at that time what am I going to do. But yes, definitely we are going to do it.

I called my partner and we, we started discussing about what we are going Good evening, Drapers. Welcome to Goa. As we all know, the tourism in Goa is declining. The reason for this is our tourists are finding it difficult to navigate basic necessities of travel. For example, they want to book a taxi, it's very difficult to do. It's very difficult to find a good leisure activity to do in Goa with all the overpriced agents around. We thought of Solving this problem, and with the help of the government of Goa through the Startup Promotion Cell, we have developed an app that is solving the problems which are faced by the tourists in Goa. You want to book a hotel? Conveniently, you can book a hotel. You want a taxi? You get a taxi from a reliable source. So far, we have 1.5 lakh downloads for our app. We have got three lakhs users on our website. We are making around $2,000 a month in revenue. Our revenue comes from the commissions we make when our users book any of these services online.

What were you doing before you started this?

I had another startup which was called LaxApp where I used to train students to develop mobile applications.

Why did you decide to abandon that and do this?

We haven't abandoned that.

What are you doing with that?

I'm still, I'm still training people how to do it.

You've got 2 jobs?

I have three jobs.

You have three jobs? That's tough. Be an entrepreneur with two other jobs. You got to be very focused to make it work. Why do you think you can do this with one-third of your time?

We are not funded as of now, and we put in all our money that we earn from doing other jobs.

I have the support of the government of Goa through the Startup Promotion Cell Center. Like how they gave us a seed fund. They are also funding us through different schemes. We are employing people.

Swati, do you have any questions?

How do you, you know, how do you acquire customers, right? Because if you look at restaurants, you already have a lot of restaurant booking apps. Similarly for activities or transportation or even, you know, hotels and things like that.

When you book this activity through Goa app, you get multiple—

No, sorry, I meant how do I even hear of your app or how do you acquire a customer?

When you search on On Play Store, when you search on Google, we appear on the first ranks.

Is that because the government was giving you seed money?

No.

Why does it appear first?

How did—

We have done lots of SEO.

We have worked so hard to build a community, to build dataset which represents what people search.

And how much does it cost you to acquire each customer? What do you— what is your marketing spend?

Right now, it's not much. The nature of our customers is such that they come here, they stay for a few days, and they leave back. So they uninstall our app while they're going. So if I'm spending on marketing, it's going to be a continuous process to acquire customers every day.

Neeraj, how? How? Very nice to have you here on Meet the Drapers. Thank you. All right, what did everybody think of Goa? You live here.

It's our first time actually. It's our first time pitching to a panel like this, okay? And we were very nervous at the start, but later when we saw the panel, they were very supportive. Everyone we met here told us that you are going to do it, you're going to do it the best way. And then that, that, that's the motivation we needed.

It felt like it was at its very beginning stages.

I wasn't sure how they were gonna really scale Yeah, I mean, I hate, hate to say it, but all they really need to do is accept Uber here.

Yeah, yeah, I think I agree with Polly. I think there's a lot of work to be done because right now there's so many other apps that are much better developed. So I think there's a very strong competition.

Yeah, and a lot of it will be in how well they execute. Can they really provide a really, you know, Knockout service that everybody goes, oh my God, I gotta do this, this. That's hard to do because I know there are a lot of people who are trying. What'd you think?

I think this will work only when they have B2B partnerships.

But what did you think? You can go to meetthedrapers.com and vote and vote these people in or out, either way you want. But with that, let's bring on our next entrepreneur. But before we do, Everybody's eyebrows have to be up and down, and we'll see what's going on behind the scenes.

My younger self would have felt that whatever he was doing at that time, that is the one that will change the entire history of marketing. But now I have become more matured. I know that there are chances that will come our way. We have to be very good in making decisions, and there will be times we will fail, but the important thing is that how we rise back from there. The story starts when I I've met my co-founder Mayank for the first time in college. We both were big event enthusiasts. We used to be participating in events that were happening in college, the cultural fest, tech fest. We were also part of the organizing committee and we saw firsthand what was the pain and the work that was involved in hosting every event. We understood one thing, that events have been happening since ancient times when empires used to do it and used to be a hub of idea exchange. In 2015, just after one year of our college, we started working on this idea and started helping brands host their marketing campaigns. From 2016 to 2020, we were just doing marketing campaigns for our brands. So we're more of a service-based company. We used to pick a brand, work with them for months-long period, on-ground activations. We even launched Facebook's Oculus VR in India, even did Cadbury launches in India. So we have done a lot of work helping brands do their marketing campaigns, but 2020, suddenly the whole event industry collapsed. So then me and my co-founder, our team of 10-12 people that time, we brainstormed together, came up with the idea, okay, why not host events online? And I made the MVP in one month's time. My co-founder Mayank, who does brilliant sales and marketing, he booked 50 meetings in just a couple of hours. And then from zero revenue, we rose up to a customer presence in 45 different countries. I think it's like a meditation for for me, to be honest. When I'm thinking about my work, I don't think— I'm just present in the moment. I'm going— I don't think about anyone, what, what is happening in the world, what people are saying. I'm just focused on that. It takes me through ups and downs, but at the same time, I have— I don't have to lose my sanity. I have to be calm, I have to be organized, I have to keep my team pushing together. And that is what I feel, that, that, that gives me the purpose, that gives me, uh, that vision, motivation to wake up every day and do So we are at Candolim Beach.

It's one of the most famous beaches of Goa, and you can see the vibe. It's amazing here. So I'm really looking forward to having a beer at the shack as well. There is one dish called a Ras Omelette, so you should definitely try that. That's, that's an amazing dish. I try it every time I'm here in Goa. And yeah, and Goa specialty, kaju feni, if you haven't tried. So that is one thing they make it here in Goa locally. Goa is my kind of second home. I keep traveling here for my business. I have a lot of entrepreneur friends here and the setting it provides, it has a very good culture for finding the right network and also the right talent. Since more entrepreneurs have started choosing Goa as a location, it has grown a lot as a startup ecosystem.

I would say it was a nervous moment, first of all, because Such great judges were there and a big audience as well. So giving a pitch in front of a computer and giving it in front of audience is quite different.

Hello everyone, uh, thank you so much for the opportunity to meet the Drapers team and the audience. Today, the traditional marketing channels are losing their effectiveness. Data privacy regulations and the restrictions on the cookie tracking is making it harder for brands to reach out to their audience and engage. And that is why brands are moving their focus towards events as a primary marketing strategy. Why? Because events provide higher lead quality, custom engagement, and also a platform where you can demonstrate your expertise. And at the end, you get content that you can push out on your social media. But the important thing here is how big is the market? So the market opportunity is enormous. We have 3.5 million companies who could actually use event as a part of their core marketing strategy, but we are focused on the ones that are already using events as a part of their core marketing strategy. So this number is $10 billion and they're growing at a CAGR of 17% and will become a $24 billion market by 2029. So the market opportunity is enormous, but the circle that is— we are targeting right now, they're struggling at the moment, and that is where Samaro steps in. So Samaro's vision is bold. We want to become the Salesforce of event marketing. We empower marketing teams to build scalable and impactful marketing strategies that don't just engage audience, but provide value for the measurable and real results.

What's the business model here? Because we've seen a lot of these.

Because we are building the software which directly touch upon their pain points, and we are being very smart about it. We are covering the entire lifecycle of the event management. Then we are bringing the attendee app that is converting the leads into higher quality. And also we are integrating with their entire event marketing ecosystem where the Samaro sits in the center and gives you the source of truth where you see all the data, At one single point, how are people paying you?

I'm trying to get to your business model.

Yeah, I'm so sorry. I didn't cover that.

I'm trying to break from your.

Sure. So a business model is pretty simple. We offer our platform on enterprise subscriptions.

So you can go.

So it's a SaaS model.

That's it. It's a SaaS model.

Nothing. I mean, you're putting together events. Isn't there a better model than that?

So we don't see ourselves as an event software. We see ourselves as a marketing software.

I'm.

Reading that you feel passionate about this, and I have spent more than any years doing this.

Are you the programmer? No, you're the CEO.

I am the CEO, and I have built the code from scratch. Like, the whole product is built by me. I have a team of six developers who are scaling the product now.

Where do you see the next you know sort of twelve months for Samaro?

So basically, why event was not becoming a primary marketing channel till now? The ROI to effort ratio was in decimals. But with tools like Samaro, already the ROI to effort ratio is going into single digits. With AI agents coming in, you can just talk to the AI, they will create the entire event plan, send the communication, send invites, track the data. And you— the things that used to take months can now happen in a few minutes or a few hours, basically.

And Herb, do you have some questions for him?

Yeah, I mean, just trying to understand, you know, The product better. So give an example of any client. Let's assume Damac. Why will they subscribe for it?

Okay, so Damac basically works with really high HNI's basically, right? They can't promote their properties on Google Ads or expect people to click on it. So what they will be doing, they'll be creating a curated event, a really great experience. The sales team is making sense. Okay, this guy is gonna buy the property. This guy is not gonna buy the property. So lead generation is also happening. And apart from that, it is also connected with their other marketing tools.

Thank you so much for being on Meet the Drapers.

Thank you so much, Tim.

It was a pleasure being here. Thank you so much, judges. Thank you, audience. This is something which activates, like, when I'm on stage, it activates inside me that I have to capture the whole audience. Everyone should look at me.

What did you all think of Samaro? Thoughts? Molly, what'd you think? Let's start with you. Oh no, really?

I think it's— it feels like Angels dancing on the head of a pin. For me, it's like such a small little— it just doesn't have any kind of epic feeling to me about it. I loved him, and I know he, he really believes in the product.

I really appreciated that Polly could see under the lines that I was being very passionate about what I'm doing currently.

He did have a very strong focus, and I think it just It just remains to be seen how well he can solve for it. And I think like he was saying, you know, like how big is the market and how can he really capture that?

He definitely got the most words in per second.

I should have better controlled my pitch pace when I was there at the stage. I think that is the only takeaway which I have.

I don't know if we have an award for that, but we might think about that. Now we have the toughest part of our show. We bring on all the entrepreneurs. I might ask them a few more questions, We're gonna ask a few more questions, and then we've gotta decide which of these 4 entrepreneurs goes on to the semifinals. Okay, you ready for that? Who's your choice, Apurv?

You want one or two?

You get one.

Because 2 different categories here, right? These are 2 companies that are social, the other ones who are tech companies. In the social companies, I would like to back Avani. 4% women in India, if they have— they're not using sanitary napkins, there's a market for them. And if they come out with a product which even if 20,000 women are using it, the acceptability is there. So in the social sector, for the social cause, I would like to back them. No harm doing that. In the tech part, I would like to back these guys. Look, and just taking decision based on the current status of the product, although you're also doing good. You know, but they have more clarity of the product.

You sound more like a politician than an investor.

Yeah, so, you know, the—

Everybody gets a trophy.

Lucky has at least—

Holly, what'd you think?

I like Lark AI because we've seen a couple of people in this space before and you have the most connected, most most sophisticated version of it. I love you, and I would love to back any products for women, but I personally don't think that I would ever have used a pad like that. So, lucky eyes, my opinion.

Samara does highlight something, which is more events are more valuable to marketers. And a lot of that is because we were all so isolated during the pandemic. And so it does make some sense that, hey, it makes sense we need to do more in marketing to bring people together rather than just spit things out at them.

I really liked Lark AI and Samara for different reasons. I think Samara, I think what they're doing is, is great. I don't know enough about sort of events and marketing to really see how differentiated they are, but I think the passion he spoke with was you know, very infectious. The reason I like Lark, I think, is because they're really far ahead. They sort of have a very strong focus on where they want to go next, and I think they're addressing a real need that we have not just in India, but I think a lot of the developing world as well.

So the good news is none of us really have to make this decision because it all goes from the crystal ball. So all of you out in TV land, focus your attention on this crystal ball and send your arguments in and go to meetthedrapers.com to vote. And all of you, send all your vibes to this very small but very powerful crystal ball, and we'll all focus on the crystal ball. I am a medium, just in case you are interested. I'm a medium. I have a few other things that I do, but I'm a medium. I think I need your focus too. Is it we are here in Goa and we have menstrual pads and we are going to market those menstrual pads, but if there's an accident If there's an accident, it's Lark AI. You move forward. Congratulations.

Terrific.

You guys won.

Thank you so much. It was a shock to us as well.

We're living in a moment right now.

Yeah, so it was totally unexpected and we were shocked.

The good news is they can vote you straight to the finale. You guys have to go to the semifinals and hopefully get to the finale. If they vote you in, you move on to the finale.

Our startup is doing something which is, which is going to help the community, so please vote for us and help us in making Goa a better travel destination.

If you want to see Samaro be the pioneer in the event marketing industry, please vote for us. We will make sure that That we do well and make Samaro one of the biggest tech giants out there.

I seriously appeal you guys because this is really going to impact generations in the future, and do vote us back. It's a serious appeal.

Just vote for her.

See you next time on Meet the Drapers. All right. Congratulations to all of you. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you, new Drapers. Congratulations.

Thank you.

You were great. You were great.

Thank you.

Congratulations. We'll see you in Hyderabad. Hyderabad. What an incredible place. This city has energy, talent, some of the most driven entrepreneurs anywhere Now there are a bunch of companies that do similar things, so they don't get big enough. How are you going to get big?

And do like 10% for the rest of the world, I know it would be a big impact.

Just keep your hand, that's it, done.