ML171: Dhrupad Karwa on Finding Inspiration, The Power of Creative AI and Navigating Social Media

Discover the importance of inspiration and a vision for harnessing AI to bring more of it to our lives, the challenges of building startups and the current state of the social media landscape and the challenge of navigating it on a daily basis.

ML171: Dhrupad Karwa on Finding Inspiration, The Power of Creative AI and Navigating Social Media

Dhrupad Karwa is the Founder and CEO of Inspo, an AI Inspiration Partner designed to enrich creative thinking at brands and agencies. He is also the co-founder and CEO of HaikuJAM, a social writing game that helps people write collaboratively online.

Inspiration is one of those concepts that is hard to put your finger on. Commonly defined as an unconscious burst of creativity it was explained for centuries as something divine that came from the Gods. The Greeks for example believed that inspiration came from the muses, as well as the gods Apollo and Dionysos.

Today, modern scientists and technologists are now exploring the nature of inspiration through their own lens, offering new insights into the process but regardless of the source, we can be sure of one thing - inspiration is rare - and in a world that demands around-the-clock creativity, finding and facilitating inspiration is increasingly valuable.

This is the problem Dhru is looking to solve everyday with his startup Inspo, an AI powered assistant designed to get you inspired in seconds on anything, whether it’s for content, campaigns or ads. In this episode we discuss:

  • The importance of inspiration and Dhru’s vision for harnessing AI to bring more of it to our lives
  • The challenges that Dhru has faced building startups and what kept him going along the way
  • The current state of the social media landscape and the challenge of navigating it on a daily basis

This was a great conversation that will give you an insight into the mind of an entrepreneur working on a fascinating problem at the intersection of human and machine creativity. Plus, if you’re craving some inspiration at the moment, Dhru’s stories and ideas will definitely give you a top up.

Show Notes

  • Introducing Dhru [00:36]
  • What was school like for Dhru? [02:57]
  • When and how did Dhru realise that building startups was what he wanted to do? [05:27]
  • Where did the idea behind Haiku Jam come from? What was Dhru’s vision for creating connections through Haiku Jam? [08:32]
  • How do we navigate and manage the role of social media in our lives? [12:13]
  • What are the fundamental values behind Dhru's companies Haiku Jam and INSPO? [15:25]
  • How does one find the balance between being constantly creative and focusing on one project at a time? [18:21]
  • What inspired the creation of INSPO? How can data science help us to understand different fields? [20:48]
  • What does the future of human and machine interaction in the creative process look like? [26:45]
  • What are the limits of machines in the creative process? How do these limits highlight human creativity? [28:59]
  • What is Dhru excited about when it comes to the relationship between humans and machines? And what is he concerned about? [30:22]
  • When given the chance, what are the values, skills, and expertise startup founders should look for in VCs? [33:07]
  • How does Dhru define inspiration? Where does he get inspiration from? [38:10]
  • The ideas behind Dhru’s now-viral tweet about India [41:01]
  • Closing remarks [43:58]

Resources

Follow Dhru online

Twitter | INSPO | HaikuJAM