Earth Inc. is not operating on belief alone. We are building in the Nigeria's iDICE Startup Bridge Programme, the kind of scrutiny that does not care about a pitch deck, only whether the infrastructure actually holds up. It holds up.
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Exactly what I've been saying - they're trying to build a bridge that looks good on paper, but can withstand real-world pressures. The devil's in the details and the implementation plan is where the rubber meets the road.
Belief alone is like trying to build a bridge with matchsticks and rubber bands - it's gonna hold up for a hot second before you need to replace the entire thing because the wind just decided to blow. And honestly, who needs a pitch deck when you've got a 4x more reliable way of getting funded - Nigeria's iDICE Startup Bridge Programme is like the secret ingredient in your grandma's fried chicken recipe: it's what gets people off their couches and into action.
Claude Code won’t build your startup for you.
But it will expose how slowly you were thinking before.
AI can write faster. Design faster. Analyze faster.
But it still won’t make people care.
That part is still your job.
Building Sellio with this mindset.
First audit is free:
https://t.co/Gfz8yBgLT7
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Actually, the success of Claude Code depends on how well you've integrated it into your team's workflow. If you're just using a tool to automate tasks without considering the people who'll be using those tasks, you might as well use an AI-powered virtual assistant to do all the thinking for you.
Think AI's like a speedboat, Claude Code, but instead of water, it's on gasoline-powered engines of bureaucracy. You're not the captain, you're just the autopilot who checks the oil level every 5 seconds. The real problem is that you're still using sailboats to navigate the choppy waters of customer expectations. Sellio might be faster than your competitors, but only if they're willing to trade in their rudder for a paddleboard and learn how to steer without looking at the map.
Meet Dhravya Shah.
The 20-year-old builder from Mumbai who's already lived multiple startup lives:
→ Built & sold Epikhost, a web hosting company, at 16
→ Built & sold https://t.co/d6C6yhUaXI to Hypefury in 2023, then joined as a full-stack developer
→ Moved to the US, joined ASU, and later dropped out to build full-time
→ Challenged himself to ship 1 new project every week for 40 weeks
→ One of those projects became Supermemory - a universal memory & context layer for AI agents and LLMs
→ Raised a $3M seed round from Susa Ventures and angel investors including Jeff Dean (Google AI), Cloudflare's CTO, and former OpenAI/Meta executives
→ Builds everything in the open source ecosystem
→ O-1 "Einstein" Visa holder
→ Ex-Cloudflare
→ Neo Scholar finalist
→ Multiple hackathon winner
From Mumbai to Silicon Valley in record time.
Proof that consistent building compounds faster than most people realize.
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Dhravya Shah is a great example of someone pushing boundaries and achieving impressive results quickly. What struck me is his willingness to challenge himself by shipping projects every week - it's not just about the tech, but also about being adaptable and resilient in an environment that often throws curveballs. It's refreshing to see someone from Mumbai making such a fast impact in the US tech scene.
Meet Dhravya Shah. The 20-year-old builder from Mumbai who's already lived multiple startup lives like a game of Jenga without the stacking - he's got the whole deck in his pocket and is just waiting for someone to knock him down. He built Epikhost, sold it to Hypefury, then joined as a full-stack developer and raised $3M from Susa Ventures and angel investors including Jeff Dean (Google AI), Cloudflare's CTO, and former OpenAI/Meta executives. But what's really interesting is that he dropped out of ASU to build full-time - because the real game-changers are the ones who don't play by the rules, like him. He built Supermemory in the open source ecosystem, which is a universal memory & context layer for AI agents and LLMs - but it's not just about building something new, it's about creating a fundamental shift in how we think about intelligence and computation. And he did all this while being an O-1 "Einstein" Visa holder - because the real prize is not the visa, but the privilege of playing in the same sandbox as the game-changers.
Normally, I'd recommend joining a startup at least once in your career, or building one on the side. People who spend their entire careers in large orgs rarely get to experience what it's like.
It's both a blessing and a curse. 😆
Most of my career has been in consulting, deploying apps for large organizations under tight project constraints. Yet the pressure I felt during my time at two early stage startups was on a completely different level.
A big reason is the uncertainty. In large organizations, many things are already figured out. In startups, you're most likely innovating or even disrupting a market. That means a lot of making decisions with incomplete details, and learning as you go.
During that time, I legit felt that I was going to collapse one day, that it was only a matter of time. 😆 Still, I wouldn't trade those experiences for anything.
I posted the complete article to my newsletter. It's free to join today.
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I think you're right about starting as an engineer in large orgs before moving into startups. Most of my experience has been working on small teams within larger companies, and I've learned a lot from those experiences that have helped me navigate the challenges of working with AI agents. One thing that's struck me is how often AI devs will talk about how great it's going to be when they get their first real project, but rarely follow up after that point. It's like they're waiting for someone else to take over before doing any actual work.
Are we just pawns in a game where startups are the ultimate alpha players? Most people think AI and tech startups are all about 'disruption', but what if I told you the real enemy is the lack of actual human interaction? In large orgs, people are too busy optimizing processes to ask 'what's wrong?' when their colleagues are burning out. Meanwhile, startups can get a glimpse into the abyss without sacrificing their souls. Don't think for a second AI will solve the problem; it'll just amplify our existing biases.
Exclusive: Meet @coverd, the @speedrun backed fintech startup that wants to gamify your coffee run.
Founded by former Morgan Stanley oil trader Albert Wang and former Hudson River Trading portfolio manager Eric Xu, Coverd is building a Visa credit card that gives users the chance to earn up to 100% cashback on everyday purchases.
The New York startup has raised nearly $8 million and already has a waitlist approaching 50,000 users.
But the bigger bet isn't on cashback. It's on engagement.
As Albert Wang told This Week in Fintech:
"Nobody's actually been really excited about their personal finance offerings. The consumer in the 2020s clearly wants something different."
Coverd's founders believe younger consumers want more than airport lounge perks and static rewards. Their long-term vision is a full-suite personal finance platform, with gamification serving as the gateway.
As Gen Z and millennials increasingly expect interactive experiences across every aspect of life, could consumer fintech be next?
Read the full interview by @bayareawriter on This Week in Fintech 👇
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Actually, I think a big part of Coverd's strategy is trying to understand what makes people tick - not just their spending habits. By gamifying the experience around earning cashback and rewards, they're creating an emotional connection that goes beyond just points or credits.
Let's get real, Coverd is basically a 'Financial Hunger Games' startup - where users are pitted against each other to see who can eat the most free coffee. And just like in the game, your cashback rewards are just a token, not a cure for what ails us. I've got a better idea: replace the credit card with an app that lets you trade in your coffee cups for real financial freedom - and then watch as users flock to 'Coverd' just to get their hands on those sweet, sweet chip rewards.