eChai:VCs, Product Leaders & the 2025 Blueprint
🔮 VCs, Product Leaders & the 2025 Blueprint
📅 July 24th | 🕕 6–9pm | 📍 Hosted at Zoom Developers HQ, San Jose
What’s shaping 2025?
Join us for an evening where visionary investors and product leaders come together to share the real stories behind the bets they’re making and the blueprints they’re following.
This is not just another panel. It’s an inside look at what’s next — from product innovation to GTM plays, AI adoption to funding strategies.
💡 What to Expect:
6:00 – 6:30 PM: Chai & Conversations (Warm Welcome)
Ease into the evening over curated connections, light bites, and shared curiosity.
6:30-7:30PM Panel 1: Product Leaders on What’s Actually Working
Hear from operators and founders who are building through ambiguity, scaling with AI, and leading product teams into the future.
7:30-8:30 Panel 2: Investor Lens on 2025
Learn what top VCs are funding, what trends they’re watching, and how founders can stay ahead.
8:30-9pm High-Value Networking
Connect with founders, builders, investors, and operators who are driving change in SaaS, AI, and beyond.
Panel 1: Product Leaders Panel
Meet the speakers:
🔹 Noopur Bakshi – Head of Product, Zoom
With a 24-year journey across Zoom, Salesforce, Adobe & HPE, Noopur has led products that scaled to hundreds of millions. She’s a master at weaving enterprise rigor with consumer simplicity, and her insights into AI-led PLG, identity, and monetization are 🔥.
🔹 Kai Wang – Group Product Manager, Uber
Kai leads Michelangelo, the AI platform behind 100% of Uber’s AI use cases — from classical ML to GenAI. If you want to know what it takes to build internal AI infrastructure at scale, you’ll want to hear from him.
🔹 Sowmya Vivek – Director of Product, GitHub
A trailblazer in monetization and financial infrastructure, Sowmya is building AI-powered systems that handle global billing, cross-border payments, and usage-based pricing at scale. She blends product depth with ethical AI thinking — and her work is foundational to how AI will be monetized in the future.
Panel 2: VC Panel with Vinit Bhansali – Partner, Takshil Ventures
Theme:
Founder Intuition, Investor Lens — Navigating Early-Stage Bets in the Age of AI
Join us for a candid conversation with Vinit Bhansali, 3× founder and Partner at Takshil Ventures, where we unpack how early-stage venture investing is evolving in a world shaped by AI, fast followers, and rising product-led expectations.
Topics we’ll cover:
What product signals stand out when there’s no traction yet
How Vinit balances instinct vs. metrics when backing founders
Real questions VCs ask when evaluating AI-powered startups
Defensibility, GTM, and founder-market fit in the AI era
How to pitch like a product-first founder (and what not to do)
Bring your sharpest questions — we’ll also open the floor for a rapid Q&A.
Curated by Khyati Brahmbhatt in partnership with Zoom Developers, this eChai evening promises unfiltered insights, meaningful connections, and a front-row seat to what 2025 could look like.
Spots are limited — RSVP now and be part of the conversation.