Divyansh Chauhan

Divyansh Chauhan

19, on a gap year, from bhagwanpur — a small town in uttarakhand. i build things and then go find people who'll pay for them.

right now that's datak: the cad and engineering simulation data that ai labs need to train models on physical design, and the benchmark i'm building to measure whether any of those models actually understand a part. before it i founded blip ai, took it past $200k in gross sales, and then watched a three-day attack refund a third of it. i was also the first hire at slashy (yc s25), at 18.

the cad benchmark what happened at blip early life

Right now i'm

Previously i

The first time i sat on a plane, someone else had paid for the ticket

i'd been shipping things from my room for a couple of years by then. i had never left the state for work.

then entrepreneurs first invited me to their bengaluru office and covered the flight. i was 18. i spent the entire descent with my face against the window. i'd like to say i played it cool. i did not.

View through an airport terminal window onto the tarmac: jet bridge stairs, service vehicles and baggage containers outside a glass terminal building.
Fig. 01 — the terminal, on the way out.
View from an aircraft window at altitude: deep blue sky above a flat white cloud layer, with the orange engine cowling visible below.
Fig. 02 — this is the window. i took a photograph of a cloud, like a person who had never seen one from above.

the actual shock came after landing. i walked into the room and worked out, fairly quickly, that i was the youngest person in it by a wide margin. everyone else had a company behind them, or a co-founder, or a career they'd quit to be there. i had a laptop and a list of things i'd shipped. the slide said "to make meaningful progress towards building a company."

A talk at the Entrepreneurs First office in Bengaluru. A slide reads 'To make meaningful progress towards building a company.' A white arrow points to Divyansh, seated at the far left of the room.
Fig. 03 — entrepreneurs first, bengaluru. the arrow is me, front left. first flight of my life, youngest person in the room, trying very hard to look like i belonged there.

what i expected to feel was fraudulent. what i actually felt was that the gap between me and that room was made of reps — not of some quality i'd been born without. everyone there had done the thing more times than i had. that was the whole difference. so i went home and did the thing more times.

Divyansh Chauhan taking a selfie in front of a glowing orange neon sign reading Entrepreneurs First, mounted on a purple panel above a purple sofa.
Fig. 04 — me, afterwards. eighteen, first time out of the state, standing under the sign because i wanted proof i'd been there.

eighteen months later, slush is flying me to helsinki. i'm aware of how that reads. i'm still slightly suspicious it's real.

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the cad benchmarkwhat it measures, and why nothing comparable exists nov 2026 what happened at blip$207k, a three-day attack, 307 refunds, a banned groq key may 2026 early lifebhagwanpur, iit roorkee next door, dps, and everything before it counted 2021 – 2024 slush 20u20, helsinkitwenty under twenty — coming soon nov 2026

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