How to pull off the ‘zoom-in pivot,’ and other lessons in early-stage building with Luminai’s Kesava Kirupa Dinakaran

Todd Jackson is back on the mic to guest host another product-focused episode. This time, he chats with Kesava Kirupa Dinakaran, co-founder and CEO of Luminai, a B2B software tool that helps automate any manual process down to just one click. 

Dinakaran’s personal and professional story is one that you do not want to miss. A former Rubik’s Cube champion and back-to-back Hackathon winner, Dinakaran’s foray into the world of building software products is anything but conventional. The founders stumbled on the idea for its automated “one-click” product started on accident, at a corporate hackathon. 

But it’s exactly this unique worldview and introspective strategies that make Dinakaran’s advice on the path to finding product-market fit for Luminai so fascinating. Formerly called Digital Brain, Luminai is a Series A startup that’s raised nearly $20 million since its launch out of Y Combinator in 2020. 

In this episode, we explore the psychology behind the sales process, why sales leaders should consider pitching straight to the CEO and Dinakaran’s decision to scrap hundreds of lines of written code to focus on building out their most beloved customer feature. 

On the surface, Luminai may seem like just another B2B SaaS startup, but with nearly half the team comprising of former founders (seven of which are ex-YC founders), Luminai is a true example of how the co-founders can really make their mark on shaping their company on the path to product-market fit.