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The Hardest Lesson from Building an AI School (Without VC Funding)

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About this episode

From selling smoothies on the street to building a bootstrapped AI school — this is not a startup fairy tale.

In this episode of Chaos to Clarity, I sit down with Aniruddha Kalbande, Founder & CEO of Fireblaze AI School, to unpack a raw, honest journey of building an education business from Nagpur — with no VC funding, no safety net, and multiple pivots along the way.

We talked about: - Learning AI before it was popular - Rejections, visa failures, and unpaid internships - Teaching from home and early chaos - COVID, shutdowns, and starting again - What AI really is (explained simply) - Whether AI will take jobs — and what actually changes - Why creating jobs matters more than chasing titles

If you’re a founder, educator, student, or someone figuring life out — this episode will resonate.

Chapters:

🎧 New episodes every Thursday, 7 PM IST You’re listening to Chaos to Clarity with Piyush Thacker.

Chapters

  1. 00:58From Nagpur to AI: the early struggle
  2. 03:30Learning AI before it was mainstream
  3. 06:10Rejections, visas, and remote internships
  4. 09:05First talks, accidental teaching, first students
  5. 12:45From side gigs to Fireblaze AI School
  6. 16:40Chaos of year one: teaching from home
  7. 20:30Systems, taxes, and building a real company
  8. 24:40Corporate trainings & seeing the bigger EdTech world
  9. 28:50COVID, pivots, and starting again
  10. 33:10What AI really is (simple explanation)
  11. 37:05Will AI take jobs? The honest answer
  12. 41:40Dark side of AI, deepfakes & cybersecurity
  13. 47:00Student stories that changed everything
  14. 53:20Advice to young founders & job creators
  15. 56:10What clarity means today