Best Place To Build

Prajwal, Co-Founder, Clueso | "Being a dev is like being a wizard who can solve a problem” | Ep. 14

Step into the world of Prajwal, the 24-year-old CTO of Clueso, whose journey from IIT Madras to Y Combinator showcases the incredible possibilities in India's startup ecosystem. This episode is packed with candid stories, hilarious moments, and invaluable insights for aspiring entrepreneurs. 🚀 THE JOURNEY: From exploring quantum computing research to founding a SaaS startup that's transforming how companies create product content, Prajwal's story is a testament to the power of exploration and adaptability. Learn how three friends turned their college startup experiments into a YC-backed company, and why sometimes "not knowing better" can be your biggest advantage. 🎯 UNFORGETTABLE MOMENTS: - The legendary 2:30 AM YC interview from an IIT office space - The "we'll build something else" answer that actually worked - How their first startup "Kitaab" had to be renamed after discovering copyright laws exist - The Pink Panther-inspired detective branding that makes Clueso unique - Bad movie nights and startup work-life balance 💡 KEY INSIGHTS: - Why entrepreneurship at IIT Madras is actually a "safe bet" - The power of finding co-founders who complement your skills - How to pivot successfully and find product-market fit - Building with AI before it became mainstream - Creating a distinctive brand in the SaaS space - The importance of customer obsession Chapters: 00:00:00 Introduction and Background 00:01:19 What is Clueso? 00:02:36 SaaS Product Marketing and Customer Education Use Cases 00:05:08 Prajwal's IIT Madras Journey 00:07:17 Quantum Computing Research at IIT Madras 00:12:30 COVID-19 Impact on Campus and Remote Learning Transition 00:13:56 PDF Study Tools Startup: Desklamp Origin Story 00:16:52 Growing Desklamp at IIT Madras and Beyond it 00:19:37 Career Decision Point 00:21:18 Choosing Entrepreneurship Over Traditional Paths 00:22:09 Co-Founder Dynamics: Complementary Skills in SaaS Building 00:26:24 Y Combinator Application Strategy 00:32:15 Student SaaS Monetization Challenges: Why EdTech Startups Pivot 00:36:14 Finding Product-Market Fit During Startup Pivot 00:38:05 SaaS Documentation Pain Points: How Internal Challenges Created Clueso 00:40:21 B2B SaaS Branding Strategy & Logo Design Process 00:42:10 Feature Adoption Challenges in SaaS Products 00:43:53 YC Funding and Multilingual SaaS Solutions 00:44:37 Global SaaS Expansion Challenges and Opportunities 00:47:10 AI Implementation in Product Education Tools 00:48:23 AI-Powered Translation and Speech Technologies 00:48:50 From IITM Research to 13x SaaS Growth 00:50:19 Customer-First SaaS Development Strategy 00:51:41 Future of Automated Product Marketing 00:52:56 Building a Successful Startup Team at IIT Madras 00:54:48 Startup Work-Life Balance and Office Culture 00:57:52 Founder Relaxation and Personal Interests 00:59:41 Building a Distinctive SaaS Brand Identity 01:02:01 IIT Madras Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Benefits 01:04:14 Nirman Pre-incubation Program and Startup Support 01:07:20 Co-founder Dynamics References: Clueso- https://www.clueso.io/ CFI- https://cfi.iitm.ac.in/ Y-Combinator- https://www.ycombinator.com/ YRF (Young Research Fellow)- https://yrf.iitm.ac.in/about/index.html Nirmaan- https://nirmaan.iitm.ac.in/ To know more about what makes IIT Madras- the Best Place to Build- hit https://www.bestplacetobuild.com/

Feb 21, 2025·1h 9m·Watch on YouTube ↗

📖 CHAPTERS

1. 1

   Meet Prajwal (PJ): IITM alum and 24-year-old YC-backed founder

   The host introduces the podcast’s premise—why IIT Madras is a great place to build—and welcomes Prajwal, one of the youngest guests. Prajwal sets the stage for a journey spanning IITM, research, a student startup, and eventually Clueso.

2. 2

   What Clueso does: turning raw inputs into polished product videos + docs

   Prajwal explains Clueso’s core value: help SaaS teams create high-quality videos and documentation from rough inputs like screen recordings or decks. The product automates professional editing, branding, and especially audio—replacing original narration with AI-generated voice that stays in sync even as scripts change.

3. 3

   Where Clueso fits in SaaS: customer education, product marketing, and feature adoption

   The conversation maps Clueso to real SaaS needs—onboarding, support, and marketing—especially for companies where engineering leads early and marketing teams come later. The host and Prajwal discuss how feature adoption is a persistent problem and how content is a lever to drive usage.

4. 4

   IIT Madras mindset: exploring opportunities beyond classes

   Prajwal describes entering IITM with few fixed expectations and instead optimizing for exploration. He highlights the institute’s orientation culture—research, startups, clubs, and competitions—as a set of ‘100 possible paths’ to sample.

5. 5

   How to start research at IITM + Prajwal’s quantum computing path

   Prajwal breaks down how a student can enter research: identify labs online, approach professors, and start early even without deep expertise. He recounts cold-emailing Prof. Anil Prasad and working on theoretical quantum computing as a CS student in a multidisciplinary field.

6. 6

   Quantum computing explained (in plain language) + theoretical vs physical contract

   The host asks for a simple explanation of quantum computing, prompting Prajwal’s intuition-driven framing: harnessing nature’s computation, like soap-bubble optimization. He clarifies the division of labor between building physical qubits and designing algorithms that assume an n-qubit system.

7. 7

   Young Research Fellow (YRF): making research creditable and teachable

   Prajwal explains IITM’s YRF program introduced in his batch to push students into research. It converts research projects into credits and trains students in paper reading, writing, publishing, and presenting—making research more accessible amid competing demands.

8. 8

   COVID hits campus: abrupt shutdown, remote learning, and new startup bandwidth

   Prajwal recounts the sudden campus closure (around quiz time) and the rapid transition to remote classes and tools like Teams. With students home and routines disrupted, he found more time and energy to build products seriously.

9. 9

   Desklamp origin: recreating the library collaboration experience online

   The first startup wasn’t Clueso—it was Desklamp, built by friends during the pandemic to study together productively. They targeted a relatable pain: PDFs are terrible as textbooks, especially when you need cross-references, diagrams, and shared notes.

10. 10

    Distribution at IITM and beyond: professors, feedback loops, and early growth

    Desklamp grew through tight feedback loops with friends and supportive professors who gave detailed critiques. It began spreading within IITM and then to other IITs via academic secretaries’ emails—benefiting from remote students checking mail frequently.

11. 11

    Fourth-year decision: choosing entrepreneurship over jobs/research paths

    With thousands of users and momentum, Prajwal faced the classic fourth-year fork: placements, grad school, research, or startup. Despite a strong academic profile and an Adobe internship with a return offer, complementary co-founder strengths and “flow” made the startup path feel uniquely compelling.

12. 12

    Y Combinator application: clarity via the form + the 10-minute interview

    Prajwal details a late decision to apply to YC in 2022 while still based out of IITM/Nirmaan. The application form forced strategic clarity, and the intense, rapid-fire 10-minute interview culminated in a key question about what they’d do if the idea failed.

13. 13

    Monetization reality check: why student SaaS often pivots (and pivot hell begins)

    Post-YC acceptance, the team confronted the core issue: consumer/student tools are hard to monetize, even with large user counts. They ran a US student pricing experiment that failed, accepted the need to aim bigger, and entered a common YC phase—pivoting among ideas to find a scalable wedge.

14. 14

    Clueso emerges from internal pain: documentation + launch videos were breaking the team

    Clueso was born from Desklamp’s support and education burden: users needed guidance, but documentation became outdated quickly as the product changed. Launch videos were high-ROI but painfully slow to produce—revealing a broader B2B SaaS need across customer success and marketing teams.

15. 15

    Branding, positioning, and adoption: from ‘Gigauser’ to Clueso’s detective identity

    Early naming (“Gigauser”) felt too dev-tool-like and intimidating for marketing/customer teams, so the team rebranded to Clueso with a playful detective theme. They discuss how brand personality can coexist with enterprise credibility and how Clueso supports feature launches through consistent customer comms.

16. 16

    Funding, global SaaS realities, and AI-first evolution (translation, speech, automation)

    YC opened fundraising doors, including follow-on support and a focus on multilingual content for global SaaS. Prajwal explains that Clueso didn’t start as “AI-first,” but adopted AI deeply after seeing customers struggle with scripting/storyboarding, expanding into speech-to-text, LLM rewriting, text-to-speech, vision, and better translation.

17. 17

    What’s next: ‘autopilot’ product marketing + IITM/Nirmaan as the best place to build

    Prajwal outlines Clueso’s long-term vision: eliminate manual content creation by integrating directly with products so launches generate videos/docs automatically, pending approval. He closes by crediting IITM and Nirmaan for making entrepreneurship feel safe—through peer groups, space, credits, AWS support, and a culture that rewards building.