Nitish Poddar

Allow me to introduce you to the phenomenon that is Nitish Poddar. This guy’s the real deal in the startup world right now. He’s a YC S24 guy, but what’s wild is his process – it’s all about jumping into hard problems and crushing it.

So, he started out at UIUC, where he met his co-founder Rishi Choudhary. That’s where the magic kicked off. And you can tell Nitish’s always been a tech guy – he got his BS in Computer Science from UIUC, which is no joke. But more than that, he’s got that entrepreneurial fire. He’s not just coding for fun, he’s building stuff that actually changes how industries work.

Before Kastle, Nitish was a tech lead at Verkada. That’s a big name – they do security cameras and stuff. And Nitish was leading some serious projects there. He built a patented motion search system, which is no small feat, and he set up the backend infrastructure for inference – basically, making AI smarter and faster. He also handled firmware for fleet management and led engineering on their Incident Management product line. So, the dude’s been deep in the trenches, building expandable, modern tech.

Fast forward, and he co-founds Kastle with Rishi, and boom – they’re solving a real pain in the mortgage world. Kastle’s AI voice and SMS agents aren’t just some shiny tech-they actually help mortgage servicers collect payments, verify borrowers, and qualify inquiries over the phone. It’s about making a boring, tedious process way more fast with AI. And that’s the thing about Nitish – he’s always been about making tech that actually makes a difference, not just for the sake of it.

He’s based in California, living the startup life, but his moves show he’s all about solving real problems with deep tech. His process screams motivation – he jumped from big security tech to startup land, always looking for the future trend that can shake up industries. Kastle’s just the latest example of him pushing the boundaries.

Bottom line? Nitish is someone who’s always been super technical but also totally driven by impact. He’s not here to make noise – he’s here to build stuff that matters. The guy’s got a killer combo of hardcore engineering smarts and startup hustle. Watch out for him – Kastle’s just getting started, and honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s one of the next big names in AI and fintech.