A few weeks ago, Bishal Mainali called me. Bishal was a few years junior to me at high school in Kathmandu. We bonded in House Kanchenjunga—I was House Captain. Today, Bishal is an accomplished physician in Boston, arguably the medical capital of America. His brother—the Mainali Brothers—is a highly respected lawyer.
I recently pitched both of them to invest in my tech startup. An audio I recorded for Bishal also circulated among our Budhanilkantha School alumni circle. If you know BNKS, you know this: not most—but every top school, university, and company in the U.S. has alumni from there.
In the U.S., I didn’t take the traditional route. I didn’t climb the corporate ladder. I studied technology startups across every cycle, starting with the first dot-com boom. I worked at a startup building a South Asian online community—years before Facebook or MySpace.
One defining moment: I asked the Founder-CEO, “We don’t need revenue immediately, but eventually we will. What’s the plan?” I got a sharp reprimand. Investors cared about one thing then: eyeballs. Get eyeballs. Go IPO. That lesson stayed with me.
My path included detours. I was the only Nepali in the U.S. working full-time for Nepal’s democracy movement in 2005–06. I was Barack Obama’s first full-time volunteer in NYC. These weren’t distractions—they taught me the core truth: technology is about people, group dynamics, and motivation at scale.
Spiritual detours shaped me too. In 2016, I read the Bible cover to cover. In 2019, I met someone who revealed over two years: God is on Earth in human form. Jews, Christians, and Hindus have awaited this figure for 4,000, 2,000, and 5,000 years. He is here. This insight allowed me to write a definitive book on corporate culture, where ethics, scale, and meaning intersect.
In 2007, I raised round-one funding to build the Internet Computer, a vision later realized as Google’s Chromebook. After the 2008 crash, my co-founder and I returned the money—we knew round two would be impossible. Painful, but the right decision.
Now is the perfect time for a tech startup. AI is bigger than the Internet—like electricity or fire. Over ten Internet-scale technologies are evolving together, enabling new possibilities. Tools are neutral—they can uplift or destroy. That’s why spiritual grounding and ethics are foundational.
Jeff Bezos didn’t start Amazon because he loved books—he did the math. I did the same. Out of 100 AI startup ideas, I narrowed it to 10 most likely to hit a billion-dollar valuation, then asked: which could reach a trillion fastest? The answer: marketing.
It just so happens I have global recognition in digital marketing. At Social Media Week, held in 26 cities and reaching 800 million people, I was named Top Influencer—the marketing equivalent of an Oscar.
The vision is radical: turn marketing into electricity. Always on. Ubiquitous. Effortless. The technology doesn’t exist fully yet, but it will in five years. We’re building step by step. The full roadmap to a trillion-dollar valuation in 10 years is publicly available on my tech blog. I’m building in public.
I don’t want mansions or yachts. I’ve placed a hard ceiling on what I’ll take personally. This venture is about service. Lord Kalki launched a ride-sharing app in Nepal to fund clinics; I want to do the same—and more. Only with this commitment can I give my absolute best.
I pitched Bishal: invest $50,000 today, harvest $100 million in 10 years. Why round one? The first Google investor put in $100,000 and walked away with $1.5 billion. At IPO, that same $100k would have returned maybe $400k. Round one is informal—friends and family can join. After that, the door closes.
Many Nepalis in the U.S. feel a quiet guilt. What did I do for my country? This is an answer. You create extraordinary wealth while building a vehicle to serve Nepal—and countries like it.
This is worth doing. The opportunity is now.
Mar 14 20261 hr