Build in Mumbai | Pareen Lathia | ETHMumbai

Kazak Mumbai. Hello to everyone from here. Uh I couldn't attend the event but I have uh two stories for all of you guys. Uh one starts in 2009 when I started building software from Mumbai. uh uh there were no incubators, there were no meetups, no one understood key startup there were no apps, uh no examples, no Uber, no Airbnb, nothing.

Uh but some people got together and said we'll create the Silicon Valley of India. It was called Paw Valley and very cool startups came out of it. Uh a lot of activity happened. a lot of VCs started supporting them, popping up. I saw this as a movement as a first time founder from 2009 to 2014.

Uh I think after that something happened. Maybe the rent is too high. Maybe there's a lot of traffic. Maybe young people don't like to travel in train. What happened?

Maybe Bangalore weather is better. But everything shifted to Bangalore. Even Mumbai founders uh shifted to Bangalore, right? greatest of companies like housing was OG uh PTM was built from Mumbai a lot of companies were built from Mumbai but a lot of them moved elsewhere I don't know what happened uh this is the first story second story is when I quit builder tribe uh last year and I was chilling with some friends in Bandra and uh this guy ends up saying and I was like Oh, of course that guy was Cham and uh I did not believe him at first and I told him, you know, do you know what it takes to do an ET event? It is not easy.

It takes a lot of effort. Generally, large companies like Defio do it. Uh I don't know how this is going to happen, man. And he had only one thing to say. And I'm like, I don't know, bro.

uh and here we are today. It's an important milestone. It's super important that if Mumbai is happening is because it just shows the fact that there is a lot of grit, there's a lot of hustle and there are a lot of brilliant people in Mumbai. Uh different uh I have this thesis that you know Mumbai was bootstrapped uh Bangalore was VC funded. real passion, real power sustainable, respected global unicorn Mumbai potential and I think this hackathon uh is going to be a great start uh to build a community together.

Uh the best part about this is there's no large company behind this. There are no five OGs in the industry behind it. There is no large money supply behind this. It was made possible by Chenesh core team and a bunch of contributors who just came together and said right and that is how startups are built because you just go with pure intention and you do whatever is needed to make it possible. uh ETH Mumbai was made possible in front of my eyes in maybe last 6 7 months and uh I think Mumbai has the potential to build companies and projects that become the next polygon of India that become the next Insta app of India and when that happens uh we'll have a much bigger Mumbai uh we'll have a vibrant community and just like from 2009 to 2015 I saw a movement right that movement was very different few people we couldn't participate and uh today I can see a movement which keeps in mind the true ethos of blockchain and crypto brings the community together and executes like it's no one's business uh I'm extremely ly bullish on Mumbai, eat Mumbai and every founder who's building out and around here.

Uh that spirit of hustle Mumbai what it is uh and uh it's my loss I had to be here so I couldn't be at 8 Mumbai but I'm very glad that you know at least I could pass this message anyone and everyone building from Mumbai feel free to reach out everything is open for you uh hack a product but keep building it okay Mumbai is not VC funded we are not bounty hunters here. We are not looking at $1,000, $5,000. We are looking at the next big unicorn and all of you guys have to focus on building that sustainable global company out of Mumbai. Congratulations. Uh, welcome to Mumbai.

I'm excited. It's a city that I love. It's a city that I grew up in and I built spent maybe large part of my career here. Uh I'm excited for whatever is happening out there. Congratulations to the team and