From Wildfires to AI: How Eshan Chordia Is Empowering Non-Technical Founders with Machine Learning

Eshan Chordia’s entrepreneurial path has been anything but linear—but it’s exactly that journey that shaped the founder he is today. From a failed startup to leading AI innovation for non-technical users, Eshan now builds tools that empower small businesses to harness machine learning without writing a single line of code. His story is featured in this edition of the Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur Spotlight, where he shares how a tough early pivot, deep mentorship, and an unwavering focus on customers continue to shape his evolution as a founder.

Hi, Eshan Chordia! Thanks for joining us today. Tell us about your business. Who do you serve, how do you serve them, and what's the impact that your business and work makes?

We're building an AI Machine Learning Engineer for non-technical SMEs. We make it easy for anyone to be able to build an AI model without having to code. 

Tell us about the moment you finally felt like you went from wantrepreneur to entrepreneur.

I sometime still feel like a wantapreneur :)

Describe the moment or period in your life/career that motivated you to make the entrepreneurial leap.

I've also wanted to be an entrepreneur. At least since I realized I couldn't be an athlete!

Describe a tool, service, or software that has been a game-changer for your business. How does it contribute to your success?

In general, AI has been a big game changer for us. We use it EVERYWHERE, including, to do analysis, help us write code, comment in Github, help us make our product better, improve the website, etc.

We know that success is very often a non-linear path. Tell us about a failure, pivot point, or lesson that changed your course or direction and helped to get you where you are today.

I started a consumer nutrition-tech company in 2017. I had to shut down the company in 2019 after 1.5 years of lots of mistakes. I then joined a startup called ZestyAI and spent 3 years, where we built the world's most advanced wildfire-risk model. Joining ZestyAI was one of the best decisions I ever made. I learned a lot from my experience, made a lot of friends, was challenged in ways that I never thought I would, and most importantly, had an amazing boss and mentor. It opened doors for the rest of my career. I always remember that time as an example of when one door closes, another door is ready to be opened.

What unconventional strategy did you employ that significantly impacted your business?

We only focus on one goal at a time as a team. One goal means we focus on executing and accomplishing one thing extremely well, which enables us to make our customers happy. Lots of times when we try to do multiple things at once, we just dilute the quality of the work we are doing. I try to force myself back to one goal if I feel I'm moving away from it from time to time. 

What’s something you wish you knew sooner that you’d give as advice for aspiring or newer entrepreneurs?

Always be talking to your customers! Always. You'll learn more from than anyone else in the world. This seems obvious, but always gets lost in the day-to-day with a million things going on. But it's the most important thing.

Want to dive deeper into Eshan's work? Check out the links below!

• Visit Impulse AI's website: impulselabs.ai
• Follow Impulse AI on X: @impulseai_
• Follow Impulse AI on LinkedIn: Impulse AI