When I first heard about him, I was curious. The stories on the grapevine described him as a founder with a manic spark and a company on a rocketship. That rocketship was on track to achieve the fastest ARRs in the country.
So, in 2023, I asked Pallav Nadhani to introduce me to Sanket Shah.
Within a few minutes, I knew why he was being spoken about so highly on the grapevine. There are very few great product thinkers in our country. These are people who live to build products. Varun Shoor, Paras Chopra, and Girish are some of the best I’ve met in my time in the ecosystem. And Sanket is part of this unique club. But Sanket is unique in his own respect.
He never minces his words. He’s direct and unfiltered.
I picked up on it within a few minutes of our first meeting, so when I pitched the idea to Sanket to host a roundtable to walk founders through his strategy, I expected a few select words, but, to my surprise, he agreed.
Not only did he deliver the roundtable, but it was an unqualified success. He didn’t hide anything; he opened up the inner workings of his mind. That’s when our journey truly began.
As soon as the roundtable ended, I jokingly asked him, “How about a boot camp next?” He saw that I was speaking in jest, but the roundtable and the founders’ questions had energised him. It had lit a spark. And again, without hesitation, he agreed.
I was, however, a little concerned. AI-first founders burn the candle from both ends. Twelve-hour workdays. Six days a week. Sanket is one of those founders whose lines between work and life blur. And on a Saturday afternoon, after a full workday, Sanket took on the boot camp with no signs of tiredness.
One attendee stood up and asked how InVideo made a sale to a customer. Sanket was straightforward: “You need to do it yourself. I can tell you how to think, but not what to do.”
No speaker would say something like that. But he didn’t care. Later, he explained that he wanted to help people self-start, inspire them and not spoon-feed them. “Teach a man to fish, and he’ll never go hungry,” he told me that day.
The incident left a mark on me. I remember talking to an investor friend about Sanket’s reply to the attendee, and my friend laughed.
In response, he told me a story about Steve Jobs. The legendary founder of Apple used to walk barefoot through Apple’s corridors at 2 AM, unable to sleep, sketching interface designs. That restlessness, that inability to switch off, is what separated him from others.
Sanket Shah has that same DNA.
Over time, our friendship has grown. Whenever I come to Mumbai, I check in with him. We discuss how to build an AI-first community, and Sanket always pushes me to take risks.
He told me two things that transformed my thinking: Do a live coding piece with real tools, and take Shreyas Doshi’s product course. Both insights changed how I approach building our community and how I speak to AI-first founders.
His uncompromising manner means his solutions to problems are the most comprehensive. He insists on maintaining the same standards for me as he does for himself. “Don’t settle, don’t create just another company or community. Be the best,” he tells me. He’s a true changemaker. A typical Mumbaikar with a big heart, a vocal presence, and someone who never gives up.
He’s an ecosystem in himself, but he uses his interactions with the ecosystem to motivate and inspire himself. He uses our SaaSBoomi meetings to generate new ideas and to push his thinking further. He has done talks at the Annual and won awards, yet he remains hungry.
I have never seen him switch off. Whenever I try to talk about his personal life, he can’t focus; he keeps getting dragged back into work. He jokingly claims that he hasn’t taken a break in eighteen months. Every three months, he wants to relax, but his work energises him. His body sometimes wants a break, but not his mind or spirit.
Like Jobs in those Apple corridors, Sanket’s restlessness isn’t a burden; it’s his fuel. He feels like he can win and come back to share even more of his journey. He is always moving the goalposts for himself; his milestones have evolved. That restlessness, that hunger, is what makes him extraordinary.
From the Author:
SaaSBoomi began in 2015 as a small gathering of ~50 founders, and today, with over 500 events across three countries and countless lives touched, we’ve only just scratched the surface.
None of this would have been possible without the unrelenting passion of our 125+ volunteers — the lifeblood of SaaSBoomi.
Their contributions go beyond effort; they’ve built a community bound by camaraderie, empathy, and a shared vision for a Product Nation.
Pay it FWD is my tribute to every pay-it-forward champion I’ve encountered on this incredible journey.
Their contributions to SaaSBoomi and the broader ecosystem have been immeasurable, yet there remains a story left to be told — one that echoes the impact they continue to create.
