India’s Top Entrepreneurs Battled It Out In The Ultimate Mind Sport—Who Took The Title?
PokerBaaziWhat do you get when you lock India’s top entrepreneurs in a room— not for a funding round or a fireside chat, but for a high-stakes mind game?
You get Founder Poker Series, where pitch decks were replaced by poker chips, and the only thing on the table was strategy, guts, and a whole lot of brainpower.
Co-hosted by PokerBaazi, India’s biggest Poker platform, and Offline, an invite-only network for scaled-up founders across India and the UAE, this Poker Founder Series is India’s first-ever mind sport event for entrepreneurs that was as intense as you’d imagine.
And do you know who emerged as the ultimate winner? None other than Matt Chitharanjan, the co-founder and CEO of Blue Tokai Coffee Roasters (the brand powering your coffee routine). So, let’s look at all the details:
Industry trailblazers going all in:
Over 120 founders, CXOs, and industry leaders across fintech, healthtech, legal-tech, AI, sports, coffee (of course), and more came together not only to network, but to win. Forget LinkedIn posts and pitch-perfect keynotes, this was all about reading the room, playing your cards right, and calling bluffs like a boss.
The final 18 players were a power-packed mix of names you’ve likely seen on Forbes lists or Shark Tank panels- The final 18 who battled it out at the grand finale included marquee names such as Matt Citharanjan (Blue Tokai), Ashish Shah (Pepperfry), Ankit Maheshwari (Innovaccer), Aakarsh Nayyar (Aliste), Revant Bhate (Mosaic Wellness), Pranav Ahuja (Xeno), Saurav Suman (Proho), Rohan Desai (Medflix), Shivam Singla (Leegality), Sudeep Singh (Feather & Spun), Vaibhav Jain (Hubilo), Varun Ganjoo (Baazi Games) Utsav Somani (Offline), Vinit Kore (BigHit Sportz), Anirudh Bhardwaj (Recur Club), Sumit Lakhani (Awfis), Ravi Mittal (Socioboxx), and Karn Nagpal (Rosmerta Technologies & My Raasta). If there was ever a crossover episode between startup culture and mind sports, this was it.
Matt Chitharanjan Played His Hand, and Played It Right:
The Blue Tokai founder isn’t new to calculated risks after all, building India’s specialty coffee scene from the ground up wasn’t exactly a shot in the dark. But here, the stakes were different.
“Founders are always making calculated steps on people, on ideas, on timing,” said Matt Chitharanjan. “Poker felt like a natural extension of that world. It’s about reading situations, managing risks, and trusting your instincts. That’s not just a game, that’s a Tuesday at a startup.”
I mean, what can we say, we love a humble flex!
An Ultimate Masterclass:
The real win here wasn’t just about the final hand—it was the event itself. The ‘Founder Poker Series’ proved that there’s more to founder life than pitch fatigue and back-to-back calls. It gave India’s startup icons a space to unwind, flex their mental muscle, and find common ground outside of term sheets.
There were no slide decks. No awkward elevator pitches. Just focused minds, a bit of banter between hands, and a reminder that whether it’s scaling a company or calling someone’s bluff, it’s all about timing.