Bootstrapping Using Services from Pune: Mindbowser CEO Ayush Jain (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: I can resonate with the time that you’re talking about. In the last ten years, I would say things have really progressed. But at that time, it was still a bit early, especially for these kind of ideas. EdTech is notoriously hard to sell. And schools are notoriously hard to sell to.

Ayush Jain: Right.

Sramana Mitra: I understand that. How long did you do it for? For about two years, that one?

Ayush Jain: For about a year. I was working on different ideas, sometimes working in parallel. Eventually, I landed on what we built today—MindBowser. One of the most significant outcomes from that time was finding my co-founder, Pravin, who is still with me. We are now like a happily married couple in terms of running the company. He’s the CTO, and I handle the business side as the CEO.

The previous two ideas I mentioned were with different co-founders. While those ventures didn’t work out, it was more about the timing and life circumstances for everyone involved than about the people. I also experienced that common startup scenario where one founder leaves their job while the other is still on the fence about resigning from the job, and then eventually decides to stick with the job. That happened to me with one of the co-founders.

Luckily, I found Pravin, and we started MindBowser. Mindbowser initially entered the IT consulting world because, at the time, we needed money, and consulting offered a way to fund ourselves. We found there was interest in our services even without asking, and the upfront money allowed us to build the business. In that sense, we were smart enough to take advantage of the opportunity.

Sramana Mitra: No, definitely. Again, in One Million by One Million, we have institutionalized that track, which is Bootstrapping Using Services. You can build significant companies with no outside money if you’re bootstrapping a product using services. That track is very much a tried and true path. At the moment, actually, it’s going through a particularly interesting renaissance because a lot of the AI startups are using services first as their market strategy. So, this is a very unique time for Bootstrapping Using Services.

Ayush Jain: You are right. Since we’re closely working in the services business, I can go deeper into those trends.

Sramana Mitra: Are you still doing services?

Ayush Jain: Yes. We operate with a product-enabled services model. Today, our focus is primarily on healthcare, where our products form the foundation of our services. Instead of just offering people-based engagements, we provide solution-based engagements. We have foundational products for various healthcare use cases—ranging from integrations and data harmonization to creating data pipelines—that help us deliver faster solutions. By leveraging these products, we give our customers a competitive advantage and help them bring their solutions to market more quickly.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s go back to when you started. Did you go specifically after healthcare clients?

Ayush Jain: No, that’s still one life away.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s look at the different strategic inflection points of MindBowser’s journey. So, you first started with regular input. You basically did whatever product engineering work you could get. How were you getting those projects?

Ayush Jain: Pretty much from freelancing websites, like Upwork and Elance. Elance does not exist now; it’s part of Upwork. We’d created our profiles, and we used to bid for projects and get awarded.

Sramana Mitra: Again, it’s a well-charted path.

Ayush Jain: Yes.

Sramana Mitra: How long did that chapter last?

Ayush Jain: I think at least six to seven years. We still, in fact, have our company on Upwork. So, it still is a stream for business. I think for an agency business, it’s a good track.

This segment is part 3 in the series : Bootstrapping Using Services from Pune: Mindbowser CEO Ayush Jain
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