Join us for an inspiring conversation with Gayathri Thyagarajan, CEO of Kynhood Technologies. In this exclusive interview, Gayathri opens up about her entrepreneurial journey, the leadership lessons that shaped her career, and her vision to create meaningful impact through innovation and technology.
00:00Hello everyone, I am very excited to introduce our guest today, Gayatri Tyagarajan.
00:25She is a visionary founder of Kinhood Technologies, a hyper-local platform that connects like-minded people with experiences.
00:35We will talk about Gayatri's journey so far, her story and what inspires her and her vision for Kinhood.
00:43Welcome Gayatri.
00:43Know Your Neighborhood, the hyper-local community-driven app.
00:47What led to the birth of Kin?
00:50Quite a few things that are there. So I was born and brought up in Chennai and I studied here.
00:56And then after I finished my study, I started working outside India.
00:59So I've been outside India for the last 25 years.
01:02So I've been in major cities that are there, Singapore, London, New York and Switzerland.
01:05And each time when I actually went there, I was a newbie going into a new city.
01:11So I was for a long part, you know, like you try to actually make new friends, create new adopted cousins and adopted families because you want to feel that you belong to some place.
01:22So every time I went somewhere else, you know, like it is always a fresh start because I had to get to know the city.
01:27I had to get to know the people. I had to know the culture.
01:30I had to know, you know, like what's happening around me so I could be part of it.
01:33I've always, you know, like struggle to actually see, you know, like how I can get access to local information and so on.
01:40In London, New York and so on, you have timeout magazines that used to be there or, you know, even the apps that were actually available.
01:48Now, when you actually fast forward all of that into the current space that we actually live in in 2025 here, Asia particularly has expanded completely.
01:58So what used to be Chennai is not longer the same Chennai.
02:01So it's cities have expanded. You have lots of suburbs that have actually come across.
02:05Everyone is actually looking to do something different.
02:08You know, like everyone is very aspirational. They want to actually have a very different lifestyle.
02:12They want to connect with people. They want to do something very unique, chilled and so on.
02:17So in this space that you actually have, you have small micro markets that are actually created.
02:22So you have suburban micro markets in, you know, like in Indranagar, you have in Bangalore, you have many pockets that are there.
02:29In Chennai also you have pockets of ECR and other things that are there.
02:33So people have moved. Entertainment experiences have moved. Shops have actually moved. Experiences have also moved to the suburbs.
02:42It's no longer only city centric or, you know, like main concentrated only on your Brigade Road and your Commercial Street.
02:49Everything is actually gone, dispersed in multiple places.
02:52When it's actually happening, it is all the more important for people to actually discover things about what is actually there, feel part of that community and also be able to interact and so on.
03:03So Kin is actually about creating those micro markets or digitizing those micro markets so that people can actually stay there.
03:11So the residents, the service providers, everyone should be able to connect together.
03:16And we wanted to actually create that self-sustaining micro markets in growing urban cities so that younger generations, particularly, you know, like 18 to 25 or 30 year olds can meet like-minded people through experiences.
03:29The Gen Zs.
03:30Yeah, the Gen Zs that you can actually say.
03:32The other aspect is that, you know, like entertainment and experiences have been changing.
03:38So I would have been going to movie theaters and actually watching, you know, like so that's how I get entertained or, you know, I used to go to the beach and, you know, like some coffee shops and so on.
03:47These days, experience industry is booming in India, like in any other countries.
03:53You have a lot of people trying to, concerts are actually becoming big.
03:58Those are not the only things that are there.
03:59So there are small micro nano, you know, like events that are happening.
04:03People who are hosting dinners, they're having gatherings where they have their own sing-along groups.
04:11They have reading communities.
04:13You have socializing aspects of different varying experiences that you have.
04:18You just go meet strangers with like-minded people and try and actually do some new experience and so on.
04:23So these micro macro experiences that are there are elements that actually connect people and bring them together, right?
04:31So if you're part of a book reading club or if you're part of a nightclub, you know, like pub hopping sort of group that's actually there, you want to meet people like that so that you can actually share experiences and do only those things with them.
04:45And so with your work colleagues, you have something different, you create your own bunch of networks that are there.
04:50So we want to be able to actually create communities that are there, which allow like-minded people to come together and share different experiences.
05:00So Kin will actually be providing all of these facilities so that people can know each other and connect with each other and enjoy experiences.
05:08At the same time, support local commerce as well.
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