Building a Venture Scale AI Company: Observe.AI CEO Swapnil Jain (Part 1)

Swapnil makes a very clear distinction between his goal of becoming a Centaur ($100M+ revenue company), not a Unicorn ($1B+ valuation). Read on to learn about his journey.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born and raised? What kind of background?

Swapnil Jain: I’m originally from a small town called Vidisha in Madhya Pradesh, which is in central India. It’s a typical tier four or tier five city.

Sramana Mitra: It’s a legendary city – Kalidas right?

Swapnil Jain: Not the Kalidas story. The better relevance is Ashoka. There’s this big Buddhist place right next to Vidisha. One of Ashoka’s wives was called Vidisha. The city is named after her. It has some historical and religious significance. From my perspective, the city was your typical tier four or tier five city. It’s a small town. There’s not a McDonald’s in my town even today. There’re zero brands. I grew up there.

I was focused on academics and no extra curriculars. It was basically go to school, study, and then come back. I did my education up until 10th class. For 11th and 12th, I went to Rajasthan for IIT preparation. My parents wanted me to go for IIT. I went to Delhi for four years to attend IIT. I then moved to San Francisco for my first job. Since then, I’ve been here.

Sramana Mitra: What year did you come to San Francisco?

Swapnil Jain: 2012.

Sramana Mitra: What kind of job did you take?

Swapnil Jain: I did Computer Science. I applied to Twitter in San Francisco. The interesting part was one of the persons leading the hiring was also an IIT alum. He reached out to one of the professors in IIT Delhi saying, “I’m looking for people. Can you recommend some people?” The professor recommended me. I went through eight rounds of interviews in India.

I joined as a software engineer in San Francisco. I stayed there for three years. That was a phenomenal one. Back in 2012, it was the epitome of the Silicon Valley vibe. My manager, at that time, was a 25-year-old who had built a company and sold it to Twitter. He was from Romania. I got to learn from people like those.

Sramana Mitra: That’s the magic of Silicon Valley.

Swapnil Jain: Exactly. You learn from so many smart people. Then the company went public in 2013. That was also a great experience. Then I left to start my own company.

Sramana Mitra: You left in 2015 to start your own company?

Swapnil Jain: Yes. I had done really well at Twitter. I grew really fast from a career perspective. The company went public. I made good money. The Silicon Valley corporate appeal was not exciting for me anymore.

What was happening on the other side was that a lot of friends from college were starting companies. I was sitting in San Francisco hearing about these people starting companies in India. I had a lot of FOMO. I had to do something. It was not driven by an idea. It was about doing it as well.

Sramana Mitra: That’s amazing self-awareness on your part.

Swapnil Jain: It is what it is. In 2015, I moved to India with Twitter first. Twitter was setting up its India office. I set that up for eight months. Then I left Twitter. I then spent two years in India and Manila trying to figure out ideas.

This segment is part 1 in the series : Building a Venture Scale AI Company: Observe.AI CEO Swapnil Jain
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