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Figuring Out with Raj Shamani

Host Raj Shamani talks with Ayush Jaiswal, co-founder of Pesto, which trains Indian software developers for global remote jobs. Ayush describes learning to code in school competitions, building an ERP to mark his own attendance and selling it to Miranda House at 18, and the San Francisco trip that showed him developers like him earning $100,000 or more - the arbitrage that built India's tech consulting industry and became Pesto's opportunity. He explains why investors first thought remote-job training sounded like a scam, how the company bootstrapped by training already-decent developers in the professional skills (time management, email, project management) nobody teaches, and why he believes hustle becomes a founder's enemy once the team grows: delegation and direction-setting beat doing. He offers his 20-year-old self's playbook - treat money as a resource, work in tech because every undisrupted industry will be disrupted, use no-code tools if you cannot code, and apply Kunal Shah's delta-4 theory to spot behavior-changing problems. He also discusses his three most-recommended books, his case for Bitcoin and DAOs as redistributions of power, and why the virtual-native habits of the gaming generation signal where consumer behavior is heading. Claims and opinions in these notes are attributed to the speakers and reflect their views, not advice. No sponsor was stated in this episode; the guest discusses his own company, which is disclosed here. FULL COVERAGE: these notes are based on the complete publisher audio edition of this episode (about 44 minutes), transcribed and reviewed end to end; no segment was skipped.