Aryan Honawar, Nabeel Nensey and Eshu Koli are building Adzzat, a San Francisco-based AI company focused on a problem becoming increasingly important as businesses deploy more AI models: how to determine which model is actually right for a particular task.
The founders did not set out to build another AI model.
Their journey began closer to human data and AI-related work before they shifted their focus toward a broader challenge understanding whether AI systems perform reliably outside standard benchmarks.
Moving beyond AI benchmarks
As AI adoption expands, companies are increasingly using a mix of expensive frontier models, lower-cost models and specialised systems.
Each can have different strengths, making it inefficient to simply send every request to the most powerful model.
Adzzat is building around an approach that evaluates the task first, determines what level of AI capability is required and then selects the appropriate model.
Making AI more reliable and cheaper
The company’s broader system involves evaluating tasks, identifying which models work best, selecting the right model, monitoring results and continuously improving the system.
The objective is not simply to make AI smarter. Instead, Adzzat wants to help companies make AI systems more reliable while potentially reducing the cost of operating them.
A journey shaped by changing problems
According to the story shared by the founders, there was no fixed roadmap for reaching this point.
Honawar says the team spent years building, making mistakes, learning quickly and following problems as they became more important in the AI market.
That evolution took Adzzat from its early work around human data toward AI evaluations, safety, expert feedback and model routing.
Building the layer between companies and AI models
The founders’ bet is that the next phase of AI infrastructure may not only be about creating increasingly powerful models.
It could also be about building the systems that determine when, where and how those models should be used.
By evaluating the task before selecting a model, Adzzat aims to create a more efficient AI stack one where companies can use the right level of intelligence for each request rather than automatically relying on the most powerful and expensive option.
When Liberalisation Threatened Indian Business, Dhirubhai Ambani Chose to Compete With the World.
India’s 1991 economic reforms changed the rules of the game for Indian businesses.
As the country lowered trade barriers and opened more sectors to foreign investment, established companies suddenly faced competition from multinational corporations with deeper pockets and greater access to global capital.
For many industrialists, the prospect was unsettling. Some sought protection and a level playing field before taking on global competitors.
Dhirubhai Ambani took a different approach.
The Rise of the “Bombay Club”
In November 1993, a group of prominent Indian industrialists met at the Belvedere Club inside Mumbai’s Oberoi hotel.
Among those associated with the group were Rahul Bajaj, Jamshed Godrej and Hari Shankar Singhania.
The group came to be known in the media as the “Bombay Club”.
Its members were not necessarily opposed to liberalisation but argued that Indian companies needed a more level playing field before being exposed fully to global competition.
Reliance, however, chose a different path.
Dhirubhai Looked Beyond India
Rather than asking the world to slow down, Dhirubhai Ambani looked for ways to make Reliance stronger in the new environment.
In May 1993, Reliance raised $150 million through a European Global Depositary Receipt (GDR) issue, giving international investors exposure to the company.
The move reflected a broader strategy: if competition was becoming global, Reliance would seek global capital and build at a scale capable of competing internationally.
From Capital to Scale
That strategy soon translated into massive industrial expansion.
In July 1999, Reliance commissioned its first Jamnagar refinery in Gujarat. The project was built on an enormous scale and integrated refining with petrochemicals, power and port infrastructure.
Over time, the Jamnagar complex grew into what the post describes as the world’s largest refining complex at a single location, becoming a defining example of Reliance’s scale driven approach.
The Bigger Business Lesson
The contrast between the Bombay Club and Reliance captured two very different responses to liberalisation.
One approach was to seek protection from the shock of a rapidly opening economy.
The other was to adapt quickly, raise capital and build enough scale to compete with global players.
Dhirubhai Ambani chose the second.
The reforms that threatened India’s old business model also created an opportunity for companies willing to change with them.
Sometimes, the biggest competitive advantage isn’t stopping change. It’s becoming faster than everyone else.
