Indian YouTube sensation Dhruv Rathee has finally addressed the explosive controversy surrounding his transition from educator to tech entrepreneur. Speaking at the 1 Billion Summit in Dubai, the 30 million subscriber powerhouse opened up about the moment his first startup, AI Fiesta, was branded a scam by the very internet that built his career.
Rathee did not hold back, describing the period as a nightmare that ten years of content creation could never have prepared him for.
The drama began just four months ago when Rathee launched AI Fiesta, an app designed to bundle premium models like ChatGPT and Claude for a fraction of the cost. However, the launch was instantly met with a wave of vitriol.
Rathee admitted to the crowd that the internet was flooded with videos calling the project a cash grab and a misleading scam.
He explained that a massive surge in traffic caused the payment systems to crash, leaving thousands of customers having paid for a service they couldn’t access.
Insiders and social media critics were quick to pounce, with many claiming the influencer was simply trying to exploit his massive following for a quick payday.
Rathee noted that when you reach a certain level of fame, people no longer give you the benefit of the doubt.
They assumed the technical glitches within AI Fiesta were his intent rather than a startup growing pain. The situation grew even more dire when industry giant ChatGPT slashed its prices in India to just five dollars only two days after the launch, essentially attempting to price him out of the market.
To save his reputation and the business, Rathee took drastic measures by hiring a temporary team of fifteen people to manually handle five thousand support emails over a single weekend. He revealed that he now takes weekly calls with twenty random customers to stay grounded.
The hustle seems to have paid off, as he stunned the audience by announcing that AI Fiesta has already generated 2.5 million dollars in revenue and amassed over seventy thousand paid subscribers despite the rocky start.
Dhruv Rathee emphasized that trust is a creator’s most valuable asset. He admitted that while he and his co-founder had a triple-checked checklist, something would always go wrong on day one.
Now looking to take the company global, the influencer turned CEO is offering lifetime commissions to partners as he attempts to pivot from being just a face on a screen to a legitimate tech mogul with AI Fiesta.
