Kanupriya Poddar, CEO of MagickWorld on building India’s first travel platform for kids.

Reinventing Kids Hospitality in India. Today my guest is Kanupriya Poddar, CEO of MagickWorld. She is building a platform to help parents discover kid-friendly stays, experiences, shops, and enrichment services across cities. In this episode, she shares how she launched MagickWorld alongside her 8-year-old daughter (a mini-entrepreneur, Shark Tank fan, business mindset!), onboarded 100+ local businesses within two months of soft launch, and cracking the distribution model. She reflects on lessons from her McKinsey background, explains why she prefers top-down strategy over bottom-up execution, and talks about bootstrapping, investor interest, the pressure of startup life , and staying grounded with advice from her father. And finally she shares must visit Jaipur recommendations, including places to see, do, and eat, along with advice for anyone considering leaving a corporate career to build a startup and much more!

In this episode we talk about:

🚀 Building MagickWorld

Creating the world’s first kids-focused lifestyle & travel ecosystem

The problem MagickWorld is solving for parents & families

Launching with a free directory model

Onboarding 100+ local businesses in 2 months

Cracking distribution and early customer acquisition

Managing supply & demand in a two-sided marketplace

👩‍💼 Founder Journey

Going from McKinsey to startup life

Lessons learned from McKinsey: simplifying complexity

Tackling “elephants in the room” in business

Bootstrapping vs investor interest

Managing early-stage pressure

Getting advice from her father

Building a startup while raising an 8-year-old daughter

Her daughter as a mini-entrepreneur (Shark Tank fan, business mindset)

🧠 Strategy & Product Thinking

Top-down vs bottom-up strategy — and why she prefers top-down

Developing the product roadmap

Pricing & discovery challenges for small businesses

Pay-to-play discovery vs affordable visibility

Solving real customer problem statements

🤖 AI, Tech & Future Vision

Being optimistic about AI

Building an AI recommendation bot

The future of kids hospitality & family travel

What hospitality in India looks like in 2026

🌏 Geography, Culture & Hospitality

Running hospitality businesses in Singapore & India

Why Indians are great at hospitality globally

Why Jaipur is the hospitality capital of India

Staying in Jaipur instead of moving to Bangalore

Jaipur’s rise in tech talent & innovation

Predictions for Jaipur in the next 5–10 years

🍽️ Jaipur Recommendations

Best things to see, do, and experience

Weekend itinerary ideas

Food & restaurant recommendations

Why she’s obsessed with Jaipur’s culture and energy

💡 Advice & Takeaways

Advice for people thinking of quitting corporate jobs to start a company

Hiring strategy: young talent & unconventional thinkers

Staying resilient as a founder

Links

https://magickworld.in/

YouTube: https://youtube.com/@magickworldindia

 

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

 

Facebook: https://www.Facebook.com/magickworld

 

LinkedIn: @magickworld

The Indian Startup Show is hosted and produced by Neil Patel

Connect with me: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neilpatel2/

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https://open.spotify.com/artist/7kdduxAVaFnbHJyNxl7FWV