Episode Details

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Varun Mayya built his first company, Jobspire, as a college student and sold it to a US firm three years later. He went on to write the Bloomsbury bestseller Pyjama Profit, run Avalon and Scenes, and grow a YouTube channel past a million subscribers explaining AI to India. He now runs Aeos, a 600-person content and AI company, and is spending his own money on Unleash the Avatar, a soulslike he calls India’s shot at a world-class console game.

In this episode, Vinamre and Varun discuss:

- AI and jobs: the Mona Lisa printer test, Husain's ₹40 crore original vs ₹500 print, utility vs preference work

- Building Unleash the Avatar: scanning Chanderi at dawn, Johnny Yong Bosch as Vikram, a hand-coded combat system

- Designing an Indian hell: Bali's split gates, Yamraj's kinkaras, and hell as a government office with token numbers

- The ship captain theory of building a company: recruiting misfits, surviving mutiny, managing belief over risk

- Why you shouldn't build an AI company: game studios vs nuts-and-bolts businesses, AI research as "reverse Robin Hood"

- Ideas as mind viruses: SCP's anti-memes, the wrong freelancing dream, how your city and circle rewrite ambition

- Why storytelling beats technology: WWE, Mark Antony, branded water, daily writing, and the "zip file" problem.

Follow Varun Mayya on:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thevarunmayya

X: https://x.com/VarunMayya

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@varunmayya

Timestamps:

00:00:00 – Coming Up

00:00:39 – Nikita Bier's Personalised Games Idea

00:04:57 – Mona Lisa Test For AI Jobs

00:08:26 – Scanning Chanderi For Photogrammetry

00:11:12 – Subscribe to The Last Library Newsletter

00:12:39 – Millet Potions Instead Of Elf Potions

00:13:33 – Unleash The Avatar Trailer Backlash

00:17:11 – Why Indian Games Should Compete On Drama

00:19:50 – Gaming Is Going The YouTube Way

00:21:54 – How Rockstar Beat Everyone

00:25:35 – Why Varun Won't Reveal The Budget

00:27:48 – Why Varun Is Building A Game

00:30:33 – Game Dev vs Web Dev

00:33:35 – Breaking The Hero's Journey

00:39:24 – Johnny Yong Bosch Voices Vikram

00:41:16 – Bali's Gates To Naraka

00:47:23 – Hell As A Government Office

00:48:31 – Why Storytelling Runs Tech

00:54:13 – How To Find Your North Star

00:56:21 – Ship Captain Theory Of Startups

01:09:41 – SCP Anti-Memes And Mind Viruses

01:11:08 – The Freelancing Trap

01:19:31 – The Writing Habit That Compounds

01:26:18 – AI-Proof Advice For Every Generation

01:28:09 – Nuts And Bolts Beat Game Studios

01:31:20 – AI Research Is Reverse Robin Hood

01:36:26 – Why Varun Lost 30 IQ Points

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Vinamre Kasanaa is a writer at heart, podcaster and entrepreneur by craft.

He spends a significant part of his time reading and researching.

With over 500 podcasts under his belt, he’s interviewed everyone—from HNIs and industry leaders to everyday superheroes.

Follow Vinamre: