Holding degrees in computer science, the duo entered the high-paying tech industry right out of college — Saini in 2023 and Kulkarni in 2024. By 2025, their combined salaries had crossed ₹ 1.3 crore. When Pratyush Saini and Anirudha Kulkarni graduated from IIT Delhi, comfortable corporate trajectories lay ahead of them.
However, driven by the urge to solve larger problems, both founders chose to walk away from these lucrative corporate roles to get a taste of entrepreneurship. Saini, who grew up in Lucknow before moving to Kota for JEE prep, cleared the notoriously tough entrance exam on his first attempt to enter IIT Delhi’s competitive Computer Science department. It was in his first year that he met Anirudha, who was pursuing a five-year dual B.Tech + M.Tech degree in the same discipline. “We met in our first year—we lived in the same hostel and did all our assignments and group projects together. We had a really strong bond from the start, which eventually led us to team up and explore startup ideas,” he explained. Despite their lucrative packages, both Saini and Kulkarni wanted to build something of their own.
After scaling and selling one legal-tech startup, the IIT Delhi graduates are now working on ByteAsk, an AI coding agent backed by Y Combinator that has already raised $1 million in pre-seed. Pratyush Saini, 25, spoke to HT.com about his journey from Lucknow to IIT to the world stage. Saini graduated from IIT Delhi in 2023 and secured ₹ 50 LPA job at AI cybersecurity firm Simbian the following year. Kulkarni, who graduated IIT Delhi in 2024 with a dual BTech-MTech degree in 2024, landed a package of ₹ 88 lakh per annum (LPA) at Quantbox Research. In December 2025, they quit their jobs to launch LawSutra, an AI-powered legal research platform tailored for Indian lawyers.
Rather than slowing down after the acquisition, the two IITians spent May 2026 exploring new ideas before founding ByteAsk in June 2026. “Accuracy of current models in Python stands around 80-90%, but in C it is close to 10 to 15% on benchmarks. ByteAsk sets out to bridge this gap by developing specialized AI coding agents designed strictly for C and C++ environments. (Also read: ‘AI has changed what I loved’: Software engineer says AI is making coding less meaningful ) ByteAsk’s novel focus earned it a spot in Y Combinator, an accelerator program with a global acceptance rate below 1%. The acceptance also came with $1 million in pre-seed backing. “Every batch, more than 20,000 companies from all over the globe apply.
Because of the trust issues that they have with current large language models, asked how ByteAsk is different from coding agents developed by bigger companies like OpenAI and Anthropic , Saini explained: “If you ask a C developer, most of them are very anti-AI. Because people have been able to achieve great outcomes just by believing in their ideas, have confidence in yourself. This time, they turned their attention to a widespread issue in software engineering: AI models struggling with low-level coding languages. C++ is a systems-level language; it has full control of hardware, so you need to be really careful. Saini is currently in Bengaluru and hopes to join his co-founder in the US in November While Kulkarni—CEO of the startup—has already flown to the US. Operating out of Bangalore’s vibrant founder ecosystem while preparing to move operations to the US, Pratyush Saini offers straightforward advice for aspiring young founders: “The top advice is just believe in yourself. Having confidence in yourself is what should be the priority.”
“Y Combinator is a really competitive application process,” he explained.
I always had the intention of starting my own venture after getting industry experience, so it was a pivot to accelerate that.” (Also read: IITian founders offer ₹ 50,000/month to candidate who asked for ₹ 35,000 salary ) Drawing inspiration from Anirudha’s family background in law, the duo set out to solve the heavily manual legal research workflow with LawSutra. In mid-2026, their startup was acquired by Manupatra for an undisclosed sum. Pratyush Saini and Anirudha Kulkarni walked away from over ₹ 1.3 crore in combined annual salaries to chase entrepreneurship.
Because i wanted to focus on creating value on my own, “My direction shifted. “I had plans to pursue a Master’s degree, but I wanted to gain one or two years of industry experience first. However, I got so hooked on the latest AI developments that I decided to pursue it full-time,” Pratyush Saini explained. They both quit their jobs to focus full time on the startup. Asked if his parents were upset that he gave up a stable and high-paying job to build something of his own, Saini grinned and admitted that he did not tell them about quitting his job immediately. “I didn’t tell them initially when I first made the leap. “Parents are happy when they see progress and proof of concept. The quick success with LawSutra proved we could create tangible value, which reassured them. That gamble paid off, first with the acquisition of LawSutra and then with the success of their newest venture, ByteAsk.
But once we got traction, I explained it to them,” he said.
