Dr. Tathagata Neogi CEO & Co-Founder, Immersive Trails, connecting travellers with authentic, expert-led experiences across India.

Travel isn't just about places, it's about the stories and the people behind them. In this episode of the Indian Startup Show, I sit down with Dr. Tathagata Neogi, Co-Founder and CEO of Immersive Trails. Armed with a PhD in archaeology, he returned to Kolkata to build a dynamic, tech-enabled marketplace that connects conscious travelers with expert curators. We dive into the realities of bootstrapping a startup, the challenge of educating investors on a niche business model, and how Immersive Trails is organizing India's fragmented local guide market. Tathagata also shares powerful insights on building a high-trust team culture, leveraging AI to speed up market entry, and navigating the startup ecosystem while managing Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) We also talk about working with his wife, 19th-century true crime and cemeteries in Kolkata. Finding toilets, and everything in between. So please enjoy the show.