‘You came here as a beggar’: AI startup founder recalls humiliation and a stranger’s kind move

“You came here as a beggar.” Those were the humiliating words a bank manager in Nagpur allegedly hurled at a desperate father, nearly crushing his son's dreams before they ever had a chance to begin. 

But what followed is one of the most extraordinary rags-to-riches stories emerging from the Indian tech landscape today. 

In a LinkedIn post that has now gone viral, Saurabh Khatri, the founder of AI startup Vokido, laid bare his family’s sudden descent into absolute financial ruin. His father’s stable transport business vanished overnight when all three of their trucks were destroyed in accidents within just two years. The family was left with nothing. Khatri describes a childhood of stark survival, studying outside the house in Nagpur’s blistering summer heat because his family could not afford to use electricity during the day. 

Yet, against all odds, he cracked the highly competitive AIEEE, earning a coveted spot at NIT Kurukshetra. But that elite engineering seat meant nothing without 1.16 lakh rupees to cover the tuition and hostel fees. 

When friends and relatives turned away, Khatri and his father faced their ultimate humiliation at that local bank. With zero savings, zero collateral, and no guarantor, the manager refused the loan with that biting insult. Defeated, Khatri walked away convinced he was bound for a life working as a local mechanic. 

Then came a stunning twist of fate that launched his meteoric rise. 

A petrol pump owner—a near-stranger who only knew Khatri’s father from refueling—caught wind of the story. Holding an account at the very same bank, the businessman placed a single, powerful phone call to the manager: “Give this man the loan. His son wants to study.” 

That single intervention unlocked an incredible transformation. 

Khatri got his engineering degree, moved to the United States to earn an MBA from Duke University, and scaled the heights of the tech world. He went on to build AI products used by tens of millions of people at global giants like Amazon, Careem, and Deliveroo. 

Reflecting on his journey from poverty to tech elite, Khatri noted: “The entire difference between where I am and being a mechanic in Nagpur was one stranger who owed us nothing.” 

Now, having fully conquered the climb from the brink of ruin to major corporate success, the entrepreneur reveals he is building a new platform specifically designed to give children from struggling families the same life-changing opportunities he was almost denied.