Building a Fairer Future

My story begins in Tandur, a small town in Telangana, India. Born into what you might call a lower middle-class family, our financial situation was complex - a testament to how fortunes can change across generations. My grandparents were once millionaires, owning one of only two cars in our entire district in the 1960s. However, by the time my father turned 20, our family's circumstances had dramatically changed.

My father, born with a silver spoon, found himself supporting our family by giving tuitions. He became so well-known as a teacher that people started calling him 'Venkanna Panthulu' - Panthulu meaning teacher. Even after securing a government teaching position, we lived on the edge financially, often in debt. I still remember standing outside my classroom in 5th grade because we couldn't pay the ₹50 fee.

Despite these challenges, my parents worked incredibly hard to put me in the best private schools they could afford. Coming from a Telugu medium background, I faced my own set of hurdles. I didn't even know about IIT-JEE until the middle of 10th grade, and in 2013, I graduated from a tier-3 college in a field I had no passion for.

My journey took an interesting turn when I left my job at Cognizant in 2015 to pursue my dream of becoming an IAS officer - I wanted to create meaningful impact. The conventional preparation methods never suited me; I always questioned why millions had to follow the same path. Though I wrote the mains twice and didn't make it, this journey helped me discover my strengths, weaknesses, and most importantly, my confidence.

Rather than settling for another government job, I chose to return to IT where I believed I could create larger impact. I ventured into entrepreneurship with Academia360 and TforTime. While these ventures didn't take off, they taught me valuable lessons about what I needed to learn. From 2019 to 2023, I immersed myself in mastering everything needed to build enterprise-scale products.

A personal setback in 2023 led me to leave my job at the peak of my career. This unexpected break gave me time to fully explore GPT-4 and envision how AI could help bridge the gaps I've experienced throughout my life - gaps created by circumstances of birth, location, and opportunity.

This is how AIQuity Life was born. What started as a personal project to create equal opportunities for myself has evolved into a mission to help anyone facing similar barriers. We're building tools that level the playing field, starting with our first product that aims to make legal knowledge and justice more accessible to all.

The journey from Tandur to building AI solutions for global equity isn't just my story - it's a testament to what's possible when we combine technology with a mission to create meaningful change. If you share this vision of using AI to bridge societal gaps, I invite you to join us on this journey.

- Sai Teja Gangapuram
Founder, AIQuity Life