[Weekday Ep.] | S4 E3 | Powering India’s Sovereign AI: The E2E Blueprint | Destiny Avenged | Podcast

They began with a ₹30,000 cheque and a bold idea: build India’s contractless compute cloud. In 2009, while hyperscalers dominated, Tarun Dua and Srishti Baweja grewE2E Networks through customer obsession, frugality, and relentless uptime —laying early foundations for an India‑first approach to AI and data sovereignty.

From word‑of‑mouth wins to an SME IPO oversubscribed 70x, and from designing servers in‑house to an early GPU pivot, this Weekday episode traces the near‑misses, the breakthroughs, and the discipline behind E2E’s rise.

Married cofounders, public‑market pressures, and a builder’s mindset — this is the real story behind India’s original cloud underdogs and their role in a future where critical AI infrastructure is built at home.

Highlights

- The ₹30,000 first customer and the contractless compute play

- How startup referrals (CarDekho → Flipkart, etc.) created a flywheel 

- Why the IPO wasn’t an exit but an accountability milestone

- Betting on GPUs before the AI wave and what that changed

- Building culture: frugality, reliability, and clear roles as cofounders

Chapters:

00:00 – Intro

01:29 – Tarun’s Silicon Valley moment: seeing “Flickr of videos” become YouTube

05:52 – CarDekho becomes a pivotal customer, leading to Flipkart

07:30 – From SME IPO to main board: the shift in pressure

14:44 – COVID, GPUs & stock surge: how ESOPs created millionaires

🔔Don’t miss more stories of grit and destiny in Season 4: Destiny Avenged.

Sponsors: IDFC FIRST Bank and Ultrahuman

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