At the heart of MeMeraki’s technology vision is a simple but ambitious mission: to build India’s first and largest Culture-Tech marketplace.
A platform designed to:
- Bridge the gap between traditional artisans and digital-first global consumers
- Use technology and storytelling at scale to expand access and visibility for artisans
- Bring “a piece of India in every home” while preserving the authenticity of craft
This mission guides the technology and product efforts that I lead at MeMeraki, shaping how the organisation thinks about innovation, infrastructure, and long-term digital strategy. Our approach emphasises purposeful technology, tools that create access, enhance connection, and enrich customer experience without compromising cultural integrity.
Like many kids, I grew up idolising Silicon Valley and its disruptive mindset. But when I joined MeMeraki as the only tech person in a small, craft-focused team, I realised we needed a different definition of innovation.
I had to pause and ask myself: What does true technological innovation look like for us, in this unique context?
How does Technology fit into cultural enterprises?
For MeMeraki, tech innovation is anything that scales :
- Access – helping more people discover and buy artisan-made products
- Connection – deepening the relationship between artist, craft, and customer
- Experience – making every interaction smoother, clearer, and more intuitive
In the early stages of a 0 → 1 startup, you’re constrained by limited resources and a small team. You are often the organisation’s first and most expensive technology investment. At this stage, setting ego aside and prioritising high-impact, low-effort work becomes essential.
It doesn’t always mean writing code. It can also be:
- A well-timed automated follow-up message
- A well-placed ad online
- A small UX fix that reduces friction at checkout
- Purchasing a back-office SaaS that brings down operational overhead
The principle is simple: Not engineering for engineering’s sake but for impact, at scale.
Beyond Hype: Culture Doesn’t Operate on Trend Cycles
Tech goes through constant waves of hype. A few years ago, it was NFTs, then the Metaverse. Now it’s generative AI, and it’ll be something else.
Each wave creates pressure to keep up, rebrand, or bolt on the latest buzzword. But cultural enterprises don’t operate in hype cycles.
We operate in heritage. In responsibility. In a relationship.
We can’t afford to get swept up in every wave because we carry people and legacies with us.
We’ve always been open to tracking and experimenting with new technologies in the background. At the same time, we’re deliberate in our adoption. Avoiding anything that weakens our brand, strays from our vision, or undermines the trust of our community.
Why “Move Fast and Break Things” Doesn’t Work Here
“Move fast and break things” might work for a social network. It does not work for a craft ecosystem.
If we break things here, we break:
- Trust — with artisans and customers
- Culture — embedded in fragile art forms and traditions
- Livelihoods — of people who depend on this work every day
In cultural businesses, we’re not just building for scale; we’re stewarding centuries of tradition. We have to be agile, but not careless. We have to build thoughtfully, not reactively
This philosophy shapes every product decision at MeMeraki.
Traction Lives in the Basics
A good technology strategy starts with focusing on what actually drives results.
At MeMeraki, the first two years were devoted to fundamentals, not “big bang” features:
We focused on:
- Creating content-rich product listings
- UX and Mobile optimisation
- Page load speed optimisations
- SEO best practices at scale
- Gathering clean customer data and analytics
- Mapping out an end-to-end sales funnel
These are not glamorous projects, but they compound.
They’re how we’ve been able to:
- Grow while retaining 80% as organic.
- Achieve 117% average YoY revenue growth
- Build 18% international revenue into the business.
- Reach 200K+ social followers and 10M+ monthly social reach
Early traction often comes from “boring” optimisation. Getting the fundamentals right compounds over time, creating long-term leverage as you scale. Even now, a large share of our tech effort goes into reinforcing these foundations.
Don’t Build Everything. Connect Smarter, instead.
For engineers with builder DNA, the instinct is to build everything from scratch - our own CRM, our own LMS, our own e-commerce stack, and so on. This tendency is amplified in organisations that lean on external agencies for technical solutions, since those “advisors” can only bill for the hours they spend building.
But building is only half the story. You also have to:
- Maintain
- Debug
- Secure
- Scale
Even as an organisation that often has niche requirements, the truth is that for most use cases, existing tools can get you 80% of the way there at a fraction of the cost. At MeMeraki, we build only what we must, and we iterate relentlessly to get it into the best state possible.
We’re intentional about the software we choose. In the early stages of building and even as we scale, our goal is to stay flexible, efficient, and focused on what truly matters.
Open-source first
Default to open-source tools where possible. It keeps costs sustainable, benefits from vibrant community support, and evolves in the open. When open-source tools offer hosted cloud services, we choose to support them by hosting with the creators themselves.
Built for flexibility
We favour tools that offer multiple customisation paths. Even if we don’t need that flexibility today, having the option ensures we’re not constrained as our needs evolve.
Documentation is a requirement
Clear, current documentation is non-negotiable. It enables teams to move quickly, reduces dependency on external experts, and keeps implementation efficient.
APIs as a foundation
Strong API access is essential. It allows us to build functionality unique to our workflows and ensures that the tools we adopt can integrate seamlessly with what comes next.
What We Do Build: In-House Tech Talent
While we don’t want to rebuild every tool from scratch, there is one area we invest in heavily: in-house tech capability.
If you believe tech will be central to your organisation, my view is clear: Don’t outsource your core tech.
Our approach:
- We have always kept core tech in-house at MeMeraki
- When we work with external partners, it is on a long-term, collaborative basis, not one-off vendor engagements
- We invest time for the tech team to understand artisan communities, their stories, processes, constraints, and aspirations
Because:
- You can outsource development tasks
- You cannot outsource cultural nuance
We need people who:
- Understand code, infrastructure, and automation
- And can also sit with an artist, listen to their story, and translate that into product experiences
That intersection is where real Culture-Tech innovation happens.
Tech as an Accessibility Engine
For us, tech is not a vanity project. It is an accessibility engine.
We use technology to:
- Reduce friction in purchasing
- Tell stories at scale (through content, video, and product pages)
- Help artisans get paid faster
- Help global customers experience local products deeply and intuitively
A good example is our AR integration for wall art.
We built it because:
- Customers needed to visualise heritage art in modern homes
- Crafts needed to overcome the bias that traditional art doesn’t “fit” contemporary interiors
This is what we believe our tech should do: disappear behind the craft and make the artwork and the artist shine. That’s the benchmark we work towards every day.
H.E.A.R.T. - A Simple Framework for Tech Decisions
To decide which technologies to adopt, we use a simple internal filter: H.E.A.R.T.
H – Human Impact -Does this clearly help our customers, our artists, or our team?
E – Effort to Adopt - How hard will this be for our team and users to understand and use?
A – Accessibility - Does it make something easier to reach, navigate, or experience?
R – Return -Is there a clear, meaningful return on the time and money invested?
T – Trust - Will this deepen or erode trust in MeMeraki as a brand?
If a technology fails this test, we don’t adopt it, no matter how exciting it looks from the outside.
Never Forget the Customer
We spend a lot of time with our artist communities- Listening to their journeys, understanding their struggles and documenting their incredible techniques and craft.
Their stories are rich, emotional, and layered. It’s easy to get lost in them and build everything in service of the artist alone.
However, a functional tech strategy also keeps the customer at the forefront. What feature needs to be built can be rooted in your values. But the implementation has to always be rooted in a good user experience:
- Is the experience simple?
- Is it clear?
- Is it clickable? On mobile, on low bandwidth, across geographies?
If not, even the most beautiful story won’t convert into sustainable support for artisans.
Innovate with Integrity
Our guiding principle at MeMeraki is straightforward:
- We don’t have to be disruptive for the sake of it
- We aim to be deliberate, thoughtful, and responsible
- We don’t chase every wave of technology
The future of Culture-Tech isn’t about “moving fast and breaking things”. It’s about moving meaningfully and building things that last:
- Stronger artisan livelihoods
- Deeper customer connection
- A digital ecosystem where Indian craft is seen, valued, and preserved
That is the tech strategy we are committed to building.
A Technology Strategy Rooted in Purpose
A sustainable culture-tech ecosystem can’t be built on trends, shortcuts, or speed alone. It demands clarity, restraint, and a deep understanding of the people it is meant to serve. For us at MeMeraki, technology is a practical, disciplined tool that helps artisans access opportunity, helps customers experience craft more meaningfully, and helps us build a bridge between tradition and the modern world.
In the end, culture-tech is about moving with intention, preserving what is timeless while enabling what is possible. If we keep that balance, we can create a digital ecosystem where artisans thrive, customers engage deeply, and India’s cultural heritage finds a lasting, scalable place in the world.
