The CTO Dinner: Inc42 & Snowflake Bring Together 50+ Leading Tech Minds In Delhi & Bengaluru

To foster knowledge-sharing and forge meaningful connections within the tech community, Inc42 and Snowflake collaborated to organise an exclusive two-part CTO Dinner series in Bengaluru and Delhi, India’s most vibrant startup hubs. The first leg unfolded in Bengaluru in January, and the second edition in Delhi on May 10, 2024. 

Together, the CTO Dinner drew over 50 leading tech minds from the startup ecosystem. It brought together CTOs, tech founders and decision-makers from growth-stage startups across diverse sectors such as fintech, SaaS, healthtech, and ecommerce for an evening dedicated to conversations around emerging technologies and their role in fuelling India’s startup growth story. 

Moreover, it provided a one-of-a-kind opportunity for networking and showcased the technological frontiers shaping the industry.

GenAI, a ubiquitous topic within the tech community, took the spotlight during the maiden edition held in Bengaluru. The event saw industry leaders like Karthikeyan Krishnaswamy, cofounder and CTO of KreditBee; Subhash Chaudhary, cofounder and CTO of Dukaan; and Arpit Garg, product head at LensKart, share their perspectives on GenAI’s implications for business growth. Vijayant Rai, MD India (sales) at cloud computing platform Snowflake, shed light on its innovative solutions and strategic vision for the Indian market.

Following the success of the Bengaluru edition, the CTO Dinner series made its way to the national capital, further amplifying the need for collaboration and knowledge-sharing. 

The Delhi edition witnessed a fireside chat between Vaibhav Vardhan, cofounder and CEO of Inc42 and Rahul Sharma,  head enterprise business – North at Snowflake India.

The duo delved into real-world AI applications and use cases and discussed the challenges and opportunities surrounding GenAI adoption among enterprises. 

The CTO Dinner in Delhi was attended by notable tech figures like Abhishek Gupta, VP of product at HomeLane; Amit Kumar, CTO of 91Squarefeet; Recur Club’s CTO Anirudh Bhardwaj; Gaurav Bagga, SVP of product & engineering at Pristyn Care; Of Business cofounder and CBO Nitin Jain; Rahul Prasad, cofounder and CTO at bobble.ai et al.

GenAI Conversations Dominated The Dinner Table

During both editions, attendees engaged in elaborate discussions on the transformative impact of GenAI on business agility. 

“When we entered the market, we worked with unicorns and late-stage startups like Swiggy, Cars24, and Urban Company. On the other end of the spectrum, companies were leveraging clunky open-source solutions, but that does not ensure scalability, and once businesses realised this, they came to us,” Sharma said during the Delhi edition. 

He recommended enterprises first to determine a data strategy because the data itself is lying in silos. “I think there’s another six months to go before real-world use cases beyond customer experience will come up,” he said.

Chiming in, Jain of OfBusiness said,” I think businesses are still struggling with GenAI applications. Large companies need to spend a lot of time doing research to understand what is possible. The more I study AI, the more use cases I find, the more experimentation I can do.”

He advised companies to allocate some budget for experimentation and research of open-source tools before deep diving into more complex solutions. Jain emphasised the need to start small to make a real difference. 

Meanwhile, Krishnaswamy from KreditBee underscored GenAI’s impact on organisational productivity. “GenAI will make a key impact in terms of enhancing the productivity of the overall organisation and is something to watch out for,” he said.

According to Inc42’s report titled ‘India’s Generative AI Startup Landscape’, the country’s GenAI market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 48% from $1.1 Bn in 2023 to $17 Bn by 2030

The growth prospects for GenAI look promising, especially among deep-pocketed enterprises and high-growth startups as they will have the opportunity to explore the full potential of GenAI in the coming years.

Amid the current scheme of things, Inc42 is committed to fostering collaborative environments in the world’s third-largest startup ecosystem.