I spotted him before he saw me at Ankit Oberoi’s wedding last year. He looked reserved; he didn’t mingle and socialise. But I saw this intensity in that young man that felt familiar. A few months later, when he introduced himself to me, I realised what I had seen in Dikshant Joshi all those months ago.
I saw a little bit of myself. The familiarity was with me. He was shy, but curious; networking and socialising took effort, and every little bit would drain his social battery. But he knew it had to be done, so when he came up to me and asked to volunteer at SaaSBoomi, my first question was, “What would you enjoy doing?”
“Solve problems,” he said, “any problems.”
“How about a hackathon? Mentor builders, help them think? How does it sound?” I asked.
He nodded and agreed.
I was puzzled. Typically, new volunteers want something that’s a better fit with their day job. It helps them ease into the spirit of volunteering. But not Dikshant. He wanted to be at our hackathon in Bengaluru in August, 2025.
At the hackathon, he surprised me once again. Typically, mentors are hands-off, expecting builders to come to them with specific challenges. Not this one. He went up to EACH team, discussed their project and devised a strategy.
I was blown away. People like that are hard to find.
A few weeks later, I spoke to Keerthi and looped Dikshant into our next event, Caravan ‘25. He was headed to the US for an OpenAI conference, and I invited him to join us. He said yes without hesitation. That was the beginning of his real volunteering journey with SaaSBoomi.
He stayed with us at the Airbnb, and he gradually started dropping his guard, and I finally met the boy from Shimla, soft-spoken and unhurried. The mountains stay in you. Away from the noise of a conference hall, I found his dry, gentle sense of humour endearing. He would gently rib you, and then look away, almost as though the joke had not come from him. A child-like quality that is absent in most leaders.
Over those few days, we gave him all kinds of tasks. Put up stickers. Arrange things. Coordinate. None of it was glamorous work, but he did every single one with a smile on his face and with complete devotion.
I learned much later, from a conversation with Ankit, that Dikshant had played a significant role at Adpushup. He had never said a word about it. He had not leveraged it, not dropped it into conversation, not used it to elevate his standing. That is a rare quality.
He reminded me of how Azim Premji, even when Wipro had grown into a global company, would pick up litter from the office floors himself. It wasn’t about the task. It was about the commitment to something larger.
Dikshant can see the larger mission. He meets the founders, observes their enthusiasm, and he loves problem-solving with them.
What sets him apart, beyond the work ethic, is how he thinks. He has not done much traditional coding, but he looks at problems conceptually. And when it comes to AI, he is something of an encyclopaedia. He can compare models, tell you which one to use for a specific output, and explain the trade-offs clearly. He understands AI not just as a tool but as a shifting landscape that needs to be mapped in real time.
I ask him sometimes, “Where can I help you?” He laughs and says nothing.
In six months, he has become the one person in our orbit who understands AI, SaaS, and the way we work, all at once. He is immersed in R&D mode now, searching for what excites him next.
A human being who knows how to direct AI will be among the most powerful people of this decade. I think Dikshant already knows this. He is not chasing it. He is becoming it. And we’re lucky that he is on this self-actualisation journey with us.
