The Auto Ethnographer with John Stech

EP 20: Adi Bathla: AI Start-up, Revv, success rooted in deep cultural values


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This week’s guest on The Auto Ethnographer Podcast is Adi Bathla, CEO and Co-Founder of Revv, a company that merges car repair with artificial intelligence. Together with host John Stech they trace Adi’s origin story from humble beginnings in India to the current success of an entrepreneur recognized on the Forbes 30 under 30 list.

Born and raised in Northern India Adi excelled in school and harbored an intense curiosity that led him to learn at a speed outpacing other students his age. He eventually participated in an American NASA space tech competition, which he and his team ended up winning.

The NASA competition victory connected Adi to Brown University which offered him a spot in its student body. Young, straight off the plane from India with a one-way ticket, Adi plugged into the university community and beyond. He created and built software solutions for various organizations while simultaneously studying for his degree.

On graduating, Adi worked in a series of high-growth start-ups putting him in close proximity to visionary CEOs and other leaders. We one foot rooted in his humble origins and the other planted in raw ambition, Adi soaked in all the learnings he could, both from successes and failures.

But it was only when he visited his extended family’s automotive workshop business that inspiration truly struck. What he found was a business built on paper and workflows that contained a lot of walking around with that paper. The lightbulb ignited and Adi had a vision for digitizing an old-school business, bringing it up to the most modern standard. He visited many other workshops to understand the pain points and problems then set off developing the basis of what would become Revv.

Revv offers an AI product which allows independent workshops, those that often fix many different brands, to repair even the most complex new vehicles, bristling with sensors and cameras, in an effective and safe way. Revv developed a system that served up repair information, calibration settings, and manufacturer instructions for hundreds of car models. What used to take days, weeks, or even months, or was simply overlooked, was now at the fingertips of small workshops. Even the smallest shop could now repair and recalibrate the Automated Driver Assistance System (ADAS) sensors that are found on 94% of vehicles on American roads.

Throughout this journey, Adi kept his cultural heritage derived from his parental upbringing “on the passenger seat”. He never let go of the cultural guidance instilled in him and leverages the wise words his parents said to him while working with the diverse Revv team.

This episode traces that story and uncovers the culture that made Adi Bathla, how he leveraged it while pursuing his passions, and where it will continue to take him.

If you are interested in learning more about Revv and its AI products, please visit https://www.revvhq.com

To learn more about The Auto Ethnographer Podcast, please visit the homepage at https://www.auto-ethnographer.com

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The Auto Ethnographer with John StechBy John Stech