No courses. No jargon. Just someone to ask, anytime: “is this real?”, “how do I do this?”, or “what does this mean?” Starting in India. Built for the moment a parent calls confused, and you're not there to help.
The problem
Most older adults in India own a smartphone but use it with constant uncertainty. Unfamiliar interfaces, scam messages they cannot verify, apps that update and rearrange themselves without warning. The default response is to call a child. That works until it does not.
There is no one to ask at 10pm when a suspicious message arrives. There is no one to explain why the screen suddenly looks different. The gap between what a phone can do and what feels safe to attempt is wide, and it is not closing on its own.
What I'm doing now
I am conducting customer discovery interviews with families across India: adult children who manage their parents' phones from a distance, and parents who navigate these devices alone. I want to understand what specific moments cause the most friction, what workarounds people have built, and what a genuinely useful solution would actually need to do.
I am looking for a technical co-founder. If you are building in AI and care about this problem, I would like to talk.
Who is behind it
I am Saloni Suchdev, an INSEAD MBA alumna with six years working in AI at the intersection of technology and consumer behaviour. I have spent that time watching what happens when the people a product is meant to serve are not the people who designed it.
Saathi is my attempt to fix one version of that problem.
Stay in touch
If you have a parent who struggles with their phone, or you want to follow what I am building, leave your details below.