How Did a 23-Year-Old From India Build a $20,000,000 Company in the US?

TL;DR

Keshav went from failing most of his high school classes in India to running Luminai, a $20,000,000 US company focused on automating repetitive customer service work. After discovering Rubik's Cubes at age 11, he practiced for years and set a Guinness world record by solving 290 cubes in one hour. Read on to see how that community shaped his approach to technology and business.

Transcript

are you afraid of uh putting people out of work much older much more accomplished people are coming up to 11 year old being like how did you do that it's simple but it's game changing yeah we built this over a two-day period this is kind of crazy and now you're the best in the world I actually got it ended up getting rejected from every school I ap... Read More

Key Insights

• "I actually got it ended up getting rejected from every school I applied to" (0:12)
• "I broke the world record for the most of my Rubik's Cube solved in one hour 290 right" (2:43)
• "what they care about is like yeah how fast can you solve this" (4:05)
• "A lot of it is like in the end of the day you're spending like hours like trying to find the most efficient kind of path to a solution" (4:34)

Questions & Answers

Q: How did Keshav go from India to running a $20,000,000 company in the US?

Keshav's path began with learning to solve Rubik's Cubes at age 11 and entering competitions attended by engineers, CEOs, musicians, and artists. That community gave him visibility into technology, and he later came to the US, joined the Thiel Fellowship, graduated from Y Combinator, and founded Luminai.

Q: What does Keshav's company Luminai do?

Luminai aims to make businesses more efficient by automating repetitive, time-consuming tasks, including customer service workflows. This lets customer service agents focus on more complex issues.

Q: What Rubik's Cube world record does Keshav hold?

Keshav broke the Guinness world record in 2015 for solving the most Rubik's Cubes in one hour. His official result was 290 cubes, and the record was still standing at the time of the interview.

Q: How did Keshav learn to solve a Rubik's Cube?

Keshav picked up the puzzle when he was about 11 after watching a friend solve it. It took him a couple of weeks to learn, and he then practiced for four or five hours a day over roughly seven years.

Q: How did Rubik's Cube competitions introduce Keshav to technology?

At his first competition, Keshav encountered CEOs, engineers, musicians, artists, adults, and young children competing together. Seeing that community made him realize he could pursue other possibilities and gave him an early view of the technology world.

Q: How is solving Rubik's Cubes similar to running a business?

Keshav says both involve spending hours searching for the most efficient path to a solution. With a company, he applies that same way of thinking to problems inside large organizations.

Q: When did Keshav move to the United States?

Keshav said he came to the United States on April 24, 2019. The page describes him as arriving with zero dollars before building his career in Silicon Valley.

Q: What recognition has Keshav received in Silicon Valley?

Keshav is described as a Thiel Fellow, a Y Combinator graduate, and a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree. He also holds a Guinness world record for solving Rubik's Cubes.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• Keshav's journey from a struggling student to a successful entrepreneur.

• How his passion for solving Rubik's Cubes led him to discover the world of tech.

• The founding and growth of Luminai, a company focused on making customer service more efficient and effective.