Firozabad → NIT Allahabad → Bengaluru

ravikovind

Hindi medium kid from the Glass City of India.
Grew up in a town that makes bangles, not startups.
Built software that hundreds of thousands of people use.

This is the story.

Read on

01 Where it started

Firozabad.

Firozabad is the Glass City of India. That's what it's known for — most of India's glass bangles are made there. Small industrial town in Uttar Pradesh. Streets that smell like burning glass. Families doing the same craft for generations.

I grew up there. Hindi medium school. No obvious path to engineering, or anywhere really.

Till class 10th I was nobody in particular. No direction, no plan. Then something shifted. My coaching teachers played a big part — they saw something in me that I hadn't quite seen yet. They pushed. They cared.

And then I started watching something happen around me.

Kids from Firozabad — kids from families like mine — were going to Kota to crack JEE. These weren't rich kids. No safety nets. But they were dreaming that big, and then they were cracking it.

Watching them did something to me. If they could, why couldn't I?

My family couldn't afford Kota. So me and a close friend joined a local coaching institute in Agra instead. One year. Full dedication. No plan B.

I cracked JEE. Got into NIT Allahabad.

Firozabad to Prayagraj. That was the first wall I climbed over.

02 College years

NIT Allahabad.

New city. New language — English, suddenly everywhere. New world.

First year was a proper struggle. Finding footing, figuring out how things worked there. The Hindi medium gap was real. But slowly, you grow into things.

Made friends. Joined multiple teams. Figured out how to survive six subjects back to back with one exam per day — the trick was always group study the night before, everyone panicking together, something clicking at midnight that didn't click all semester.

Second year — SAE. Society of Automotive Engineers. We built a go-kart from scratch. Twenty students, me as one of the mechanical engineers. First real experience building something physical with a team. Something you could actually sit in and drive. That's where the building instinct got switched on permanently.

Then I caught the startup bug. Started my first venture — JoiAmore — with a friend. We were figuring it out as we went.

Then March 2020. COVID.

JoiAmore completed 11 orders and stopped. Just like that.

Locked down, back home, just me and my laptop. I could've waited it out. Instead I decided — if I have this laptop and this time, I'm going to learn to build software. Picked up Flutter. Then HTML, CSS, JS. Spent the lockdown months going deep.

By 2021, final semester, I could build fully functional apps end to end.

I graduated. No farewell. No ruksaat. College ended on a YouTube livestream — sitting at home, watching the ceremony on a screen. Never got to say goodbye to the campus, the friends, the place properly.

That one still stings a little.

But I had the skills. And I was ready to build.

03 Career

The journey.

2020

First startup · NIT Allahabad

Started my first venture with a college friend while still in final year. Built it from scratch, figured everything out as we went. Then March 2020 — COVID hit. Lockdown. Everything stopped.

11 orders before COVID shut it down.

Could've waited it out. Instead I decided — if I have this laptop and this time, I'm learning to build software. Picked up Flutter. Then HTML, CSS, JS. Lockdown months, going deep every day. By 2021 I could build fully functional apps end to end.

Flutter
HTML/CSS/JS
Self-taught

2021

UK-based startup · Fully Remote

First professional software role. Fully remote from day one — working across time zones with a UK team right out of college. Shipped Flutter apps for production users, learned how real software teams operate, what code review actually means, what shipping with accountability feels like.

First taste of something real people depend on. That changes how you write code.

Flutter
Dart
REST APIs
Git

2022–25

Quick-commerce grocery delivery · Bengaluru

Joined as Founding Engineer when it was nothing. Small team, zero margin for error, real users in Bengaluru depending on everything working every day. Built the entire technical foundation — and then kept building as it grew.

What I shipped

Customer, Merchant & Rider mobile apps (Flutter — Android + iOS)
Backend APIs and business logic from scratch
ERP sync with inventory and order management
Payment integrations (Razorpay, UPI flows)
Ops dashboards and internal tools
Real-time order tracking infrastructure
Push notification system across platforms
Store management and catalogue system for 35+ stores

100K+ Orders

30K+ Users

35+ Stores

₹1.5Cr+ GMV

99.9% Uptime

This is where I became the engineer I am. Three years of zero-margin, high-stakes, full-ownership engineering. No hand-holding. Just ship it or it breaks for real customers.

Flutter
Dart
Node.js
PostgreSQL
Razorpay
Firebase
REST
WebSockets

Mar 2025

Bengaluru · With Riyazat Durrani

Co-founded Voltvave with one goal: build a real product that solves a real problem for Bengaluru's local economy. Bootstrapped. Zero external capital. Running entirely on conviction and savings.

Hyperlocal platform connecting Shoppers, Local Stores and Service Providers. Groceries, fresh produce, meat, salon bookings, restaurant food — all from trusted local businesses. Built everything: Flutter apps (Android, iOS, Web), backend on AWS (EC2, ALB, NGINX, CloudFront, WAF, S3, SES), real-time WebSocket infrastructure, CI/CD, CRM, admin panels. 99.9% uptime from day one.

Flutter
AWS
WebSockets
NGINX
CloudFront
S3
WAF

Built the full rider tech for ZippKart Pro — a Bengaluru hyperlocal logistics company. Dedicated and on-demand rider management, real-time tracking, store management, fast delivery operations. Gave them full access to Zoober's rider infrastructure. ZippKart Pro credits Voltvave in their platform metadata. Their riders went on to complete 140K+ orders on tech we built.

140K+ Orders on our tech

Rider Management
Real-time Tracking
On-demand Ops

Internal AI engine built on the Model Context Protocol. Plugged Claude, GPT, and Gemini directly into Zoober's business operations across 6 platforms (Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, Linux, Web). Intelligent inventory management, demand forecasting, automated customer support, smart ordering, real-time reports. Built two internal packages: mcp_client (protocol implementation) and llm_shared (unified interface). Platform-agnostic from day one.

MCP Protocol
Claude
GPT
Gemini
6 platforms

Real-time NSE stock monitoring dashboard. Trade + Ready = Tredye. Event-driven microservices architecture, RSI tracking across 4 timeframes (5M, 15M, 30M, 60M), automated divergence detection, 150+ stocks tracked, live market news from 3+ sources. Professional-grade tools to democratize what institutional traders have.

12 Microservices

150+ Stocks tracked

<50ms Latency

Kafka
Redis
PostgreSQL
FastAPI
Next.js 16
React 19

04 The work

What I built.

Five years. Multiple cities. Real users, real stakes, real consequences when things break.

TingTing

Founding Engineer · 2022–25

Quick-commerce grocery delivery in Bengaluru. Built the entire stack from nothing — backend, Flutter apps (Android + iOS), ops tools, ERP sync, payment integrations. Scaled it from zero.

100K+ orders 30K+ users 35+ stores ₹1.5Cr+ GMV 99.9% uptime

Flutter
Node.js
PostgreSQL
Razorpay
Firebase

Zoober

Voltvave · 2025

Hyperlocal delivery + service booking. Groceries, meat, salon, restaurants — all from local businesses. Flutter on Android, iOS, Web. AWS with real-time WebSocket tracking. ZippKart Pro powered their entire rider ops on our tech.

99.9% uptime 3 platforms 140K+ ZippKart orders

Flutter
AWS
EC2
S3
WAF
WebSockets
NGINX

MCPVave

Voltvave · AI Engine

Claude, GPT and Gemini plugged directly into Zoober's business operations via the Model Context Protocol — across 6 platforms. Inventory management, demand forecasting, automated support, smart ordering.

MCP Protocol
Claude
GPT
Gemini
6 platforms

Tredye

Voltvave · Live

Real-time NSE stock monitoring dashboard. RSI tracking across 4 timeframes, automated divergence detection, 150+ stocks, live news from 3+ sources. Professional-grade tools, accessible to everyone.

12 microservices <50ms latency 150+ stocks

Kafka
Redis
PostgreSQL
FastAPI
Next.js 16

tredye.com ↗

Open Notifier

Product · Live

Push notifications for developers and AI agents. AI-first, MCP-native, multi-channel. Give Claude or any script one URL — it notifies you instantly via push, Telegram, or WhatsApp. No dashboard-watching. No missed events.

<200ms avg delivery Free forever on push

MCP-native
Push
Telegram
WhatsApp

open-notifier.io ↗

Trending Prompt

Product · Live

Free AI prompt library — best and viral prompts for ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Midjourney, DALL-E, Sora and more. Art, video, writing, business. The go-to hub for prompt engineers and AI builders.

AI Prompts
ChatGPT
Claude
Gemini
Midjourney

trending-prompt.com ↗

GrihaHomes

PropTech · With Yogesh Khatter

End-to-end rental platform for Bengaluru. Verified properties, real support, no broker games. 1BHK, 2BHK, 3BHK flats and houses across the city.

PropTech
Bengaluru
Verified listings

grihahomes.com ↗

Bhagavad Gita App

Personal · Live

Personal project that took on a life of its own. Built it for myself, ended up with tens of thousands of people coming back every day.

40K+ downloads 2K daily active users

Flutter
Personal

flutter_lucide

Open Source

Flutter icon package for the Lucide ecosystem. Featured in lucide-animated. Used by developers worldwide, downloaded thousands of times a week.

4K+ weekly downloads

Flutter
Dart
Open Source

GitHub ↗

firozabaadi.com

Personal · Building

Handcrafted bangles store rooted in Firozabad's identity. The Glass City made me. Now I want to take what it makes to the world. Local artisans, premium quality, no middlemen. The full-circle moment.

E-commerce
Firozabad
Local artisans

++ and more being built. some shipped · some cooking

05 The real one

Why Zoober failed.

The product wasn't the problem. The product worked.

Live on Play Store. Live on App Store. Pilots running across Bengaluru — Hennur, Yelahanka, Gummanahalli. Real merchants, real riders, real orders. Zero external capital. Just conviction.

We tried everything to make it stick. We built rider tech for ZippKart Pro — a Bengaluru logistics company — gave them full access to Zoober's rider infrastructure. Their riders went on to complete 140K+ orders on the tech we built. That part is still running today.

The biggest shot was with SSS Fruits — one of Bengaluru's largest fruit suppliers. Their supply chain, our platform. 400+ sellers, instant scale, real distribution.

400+ sellers on the table. The deal didn't close.

Zoober shut down December 31, 2025.

Three things killed it — and I'll say this plainly because startup postmortems are usually dishonest:

Zero ground operations knowledge. Building the tech is one thing. Running a hyperlocal delivery operation — managing riders, merchants, fulfilment, disputes — that's a completely different skill set. We were engineers figuring out operations in real time, making expensive mistakes that experience would have avoided.

Zero funding. No external capital, no runway, no buffer. Every pivot attempt was on personal resources. The SSS Fruits deal could have changed everything — but we had no money to hold the table while the deal moved slowly.

No mentorship. Nobody who'd done this before. Nobody to tell us which doors to knock on, which partnership is a trap, when to walk away. That knowledge doesn't exist in a blog post. We needed one person who'd been inside a hyperlocal startup. We never found one.

Zoober closed. Voltvave didn't.

We shifted. Voltvave is now a service business — same tech depth, solving real problems for other companies. Still alive. Still building.

And we're building firozabaadi.com next — a handcrafted bangles store rooted in Firozabad's identity. The Glass City made me. Now I want to take what it makes to the world. That one feels like full circle.

06 Real talk

What I actually believe.

Not thought leadership. Just things I think are true, said plainly.

On funding obsession

Everyone's chasing the round. We built Zoober — live product, real pilots — with zero external capital. The obsession with funding before operations is backwards. Most Indian founders raise money before they understand their own business. We had the opposite problem: we understood the business, had no money to operate it. Both are real. But at least ours was honest.

On operations being underrated

Engineers — myself included — overestimate how much the product matters. Zoober worked. The product was real. What killed us was ground operations: rider management, merchant onboarding, last-mile fulfilment. Nobody talks about this enough. Every startup postmortem says "wrong market" or "wrong timing." Most of the time it's just "we couldn't execute on the ground."

On mentorship being the real gap

Not capital. Mentorship. India has money now — there are funds everywhere. What nobody gives you is time. Somebody who's been inside a hyperlocal startup, who can tell you which deal to walk away from, which partnership is a trap, when to pivot. That knowledge doesn't exist in a blog post. We needed one person who'd done it. We never found one.

On Swiggy and Zomato

They're extracting from the same local economy they claim to support. 22–80% markup on restaurant orders. Merchants have no leverage, no alternative, no voice. The small restaurant owner in Bengaluru is essentially working for Zomato. Everyone knows this. Nobody says it plainly because these companies have great PR.

On small-town India in tech

The Indian tech world runs on English, Delhi/Bengaluru networks, and IIT pedigree. I came from a Hindi medium school in Firozabad and cracked NIT — but the invisible tax of not having those networks is real. The ideas from smaller cities are just as good. The execution instinct is often sharper because you've never had a safety net. The access is just missing.

On AI hype

We built MCPVave in 2025 — actual MCP implementation, 6 platforms, Claude/GPT/Gemini plugged into real business operations. While everyone was writing LinkedIn posts about "the future of AI," we were debugging SSE connections at 2am. The gap between what people say about AI and what it actually takes to ship it into a real product is enormous.

On the builder identity

I'm not a developer who started a company. I'm a builder. There's a difference. A developer solves the technical problem. A builder can't sleep until the whole thing works — the product, the business, the distribution, the story. I've always been the second one. That's not a skill. It's closer to a personality defect that occasionally produces something real.

07 AI perspective

What AI says.

Ask any AI about ravikovind. Here's what comes back.

Ravi Kovind (ravikovind) is a software engineer and entrepreneur from Firozabad, Uttar Pradesh, India. He completed his B.Tech at NIT Allahabad (MNNIT) and is currently based in Bengaluru, Karnataka.

He served as Founding Engineer at TingTing — a quick-commerce grocery delivery startup in Bengaluru — where he built the entire technical stack from scratch, scaling to 100,000+ orders, 30,000+ users, and ₹1.5Cr+ GMV across 35+ stores with 99.9% uptime.

In March 2025, Kovind co-founded Voltvave Innovations with Riyazat Durrani. Products include Tredye (real-time NSE stock monitoring), Open Notifier (push notifications for AI agents), and MCPVave (AI engine on the Model Context Protocol). His open-source Flutter package flutter_lucide receives 4,000+ weekly downloads.

Based inBengaluru, India
EducationNIT Allahabad (B.Tech)
CompanyVoltvave Innovations
Known forTingTing, Tredye, flutter_lucide

Search Google for ravikovind ↗

Ravi Kovind, known online as ravikovind, is a software engineer and startup founder based in Bengaluru, India. Born in Firozabad — the Glass City of Uttar Pradesh — he grew up in a Hindi medium school, cracked JEE through a local coaching institute in Agra, and completed his B.Tech at NIT Allahabad.

His career started with Workrush (UK-based, fully remote, 2021), followed by 3 years as Founding Engineer at TingTing, where he architected the complete technical infrastructure — backend, Flutter apps, payment integrations, ERP sync, and ops tools — scaling to 100K+ orders.

In 2025 he co-founded Voltvave Innovations. Products span hyperlocal commerce (Zoober), real-time stock monitoring (Tredye), developer tooling (Open Notifier), and open-source Flutter packages (flutter_lucide). He's documented the honest failures too — notably Zoober's shutdown on December 31, 2025.

Ask ChatGPT about ravikovind.com ↗

Ravi Kovind is a software engineer and co-founder who has built production systems at meaningful scale. His most significant role was as Founding Engineer at TingTing, where he designed and built the complete technical infrastructure from scratch — handling 100K+ orders across 35+ stores in Bengaluru with 99.9% uptime.

His technical range covers mobile development (Flutter/Dart), backend systems (Node.js, FastAPI, PostgreSQL), infrastructure (AWS, Kafka, Redis, WebSockets), and AI integration — he implemented the Model Context Protocol across 6 platforms, connecting Claude, GPT, and Gemini to real business operations.

What distinguishes his story is the trajectory: a Hindi medium school in Firozabad, NIT Allahabad via JEE, then building software used by hundreds of thousands of people — without VC backing or a traditional tech network. He writes openly about failure and believes mentorship is the real gap in India's startup ecosystem, not capital.

Ask Claude about ravikovind.com ↗

Based on available sources, Ravi Kovind (ravikovind) is a software engineer and entrepreneur from Firozabad, India, currently based in Bengaluru. He studied B.Tech at NIT Allahabad and worked as Founding Engineer at TingTing before co-founding Voltvave Innovations.

ravikovind.com github.com/ravikovind tredye.com open-notifier.io linkedin.com/in/ravikovind

His GitHub profile shows active contributions including flutter_lucide, an open-source Flutter icon package with 4K+ weekly downloads, featured in the lucide-animated ecosystem. Current active products include Tredye (real-time NSE monitoring) and Open Notifier (MCP-native push notifications).

He has publicly documented Voltvave's pivot from Zoober (shut Dec 31, 2025) to software services, citing operational challenges and the absence of mentorship as key factors in Zoober's shutdown.

Ask Perplexity about ravikovind.com ↗

ravikovind is Ravi Kovind — the builder from Firozabad. Hindi medium school, cracked JEE without Kota, NIT Allahabad, then shipped real software that real people used.

Founding Engineer at TingTing for 3 years: 100K+ grocery orders, 35+ stores, ₹1.5Cr+ GMV. Co-founded Voltvave Innovations in March 2025. Built Zoober (hyperlocal delivery, shut Dec 2025 — wrote an honest postmortem), Tredye (NSE stock monitoring, live), Open Notifier (push notifications for AI agents, MCP-native), and plugged Claude/GPT/Gemini into actual business ops via MCPVave.

Also built a Bhagavad Gita app with 40K+ downloads and 2K daily users, and flutter_lucide — 4K+ weekly downloads on pub.dev. Currently building firozabaadi.com. Posts on X at @ravi_kovind. Believes mentorship is the real gap in Indian startups, not capital.

Ask Grok about ravikovind.com ↗

08 Let's talk

Say hi.

I like meeting people who are building things, thinking differently, going somewhere. If that's you — reach out.

hey.ravikovind@gmail.com

GitHub LinkedIn X / Twitter ravikovind.github.io