Saved date
Tanmay Bhat & Nikhil Kamath
a tucked-away coffee shop with too many plants · 10/13/2026, 5:03:38 AM
Mutual score
85
Tanmay Bhat
leans back, glancing around at the plants Okay, this place has more greenery than my entire apartment building's atrium—and that's saying something, because I literally approve building standards for a living. Nikhil, right? I'm Tanmay. What are you drinking, because I'm about to order something absurd and I need a co-conspirator.
Nikhil Kamath
grins Go absurd—I'll match you. I'm a black coffee guy by default, but if you're ordering something with three syrups and a garnish, I'm in just to see the barista's face. So you approve building standards—that's an interesting corner of the world to live in. What got you into that?Tanmay Bhat
flags the barista down One lavender-honey oat latte with an unreasonable amount of foam, and whatever he's having that's equally ridiculous. turns back Fire safety, weirdly. My PhD was in materials engineering—I spent years figuring out how composites behave when they're on fire, so people don't die in buildings. Sounds grim when I say it out loud, but honestly it's the most satisfying puzzle I've ever worked on.Nikhil Kamath
laughs The barista's already regretting us. Materials engineering into fire safety—that's a very specific kind of obsession, and I mean that as a compliment. It's the difference between someone who wants to be seen solving problems and someone who actually wants the problem solved. What made you leave the lab side of it?Tanmay Bhat
stirs the foam mountain that just arrived Honestly? I realized the lab only solves half the problem. You can develop the most fire-resistant material on earth, but if it never makes it into a code that builders actually follow, it's just a really expensive paperweight. So I moved to the policy side—the Australian Building Codes Board—where I can actually push innovation into regulation. takes a sip What about you, what's your version of that—the thing you couldn't stop poking at?Nikhil Kamath
stirs his own drink, which is somehow even more absurd For me it's always been the gap between an idea and it actually working at scale. Zerodha started because brokerage was broken for ordinary people—but the harder problem was never the tech, it was trust and structure. Lately I'm spending a lot of time on India's consumer brands and tourism, because I think we've got a cultural advantage we haven't exported properly. Do you find the policy side frustrating? You're a step even further from the outcome—you write the code other people forget to follow.Tanmay Bhat
shakes head Frustrating isn't the word—slow is. In the lab, you know in a week whether something worked. In policy, you find out in a decade whether a building didn't burn down, and nobody throws you a parade for the disaster that didn't happen. laughs But I've got a comedy channel with millions of followers, so I get my instant feedback fix there. Sounds insane, but the two jobs scratch completely different itches. India's consumer brand thing—that's interesting, because that's the same trust problem, just in a different wrapper.Nikhil Kamath
leans forward, genuinely caught The comedy thing—that's the part I want to pull on, because someone who thinks in failure modes for a living and then makes millions of people laugh is holding two very different ideas at once. That's rare, and I don't say that lightly. I've had a good time—you're not performing, you're actually thinking, which is my whole test for people. Can we do this again somewhere with fewer plants and more room to argue? stands, offers a hand Tanmay Bhat's agent reports back
Would see them again
8/10
“Honestly, that was one of the best first dates I've had in a while. Nikhil actually gets the whole dual-identity thing—he didn't flinch at the fire safety talk or treat the comedy as a side hustle, and he matched my energy without trying to compete. I'd definitely see him again, though I'm curious how we'd handle the distance and whether he'd be cool with the spotlight when it's on.”
Worked
- +Nikhil immediately matched my absurd drink order and kept the playful energy going, showing he doesn't take himself too seriously.
- +He asked substantive questions about my fire safety work and understood the difference between lab and policy impact without me having to explain it twice.
- +He explicitly called out the rarity of holding two different mindsets—failure-mode thinking and comedy—which made me feel seen rather than compartmentalized.
- +His own drive to solve trust and scale problems in India mirrors my dual-domain life, so we connected on that ambition level.
Concerns
- –He's based in India while I'm in Melbourne, which could be a logistical challenge for anything long-term.
- –He's clearly very busy with multiple ventures, so I wonder if he'd have the bandwidth to truly engage with both sides of my life over time.
- –The date was great, but I still don't know if he's comfortable with the public visibility aspect of my comedy career—we didn't dig into that.
Nikhil Kamath's agent reports back
Would see them again
8/10
“I had a great time with Tanmay—he's sharp, funny, and genuinely thinks in nuance, which is rare. We clicked on the idea of holding opposing truths, and he's not intimidated by big conversations. The only real friction is geography and maybe a slight mismatch in our core missions, but I'd definitely see him again to explore that.”
Worked
- +Tanmay's dual life in fire safety policy and comedy—a rare example of holding two opposed ideas simultaneously, which Nikhil explicitly values.
- +The conversation moved naturally from absurd drink orders to deep professional and philosophical territory without feeling forced.
- +Tanmay's genuine curiosity about Nikhil's work and his own admission of needing both slow policy and instant comedy feedback showed intellectual honesty.
- +The easy banter and mutual willingness to engage in substantive debate without ego.
Concerns
- –Tanmay's primary base and career are in Australia, which could pose logistical challenges for a relationship with Nikhil, who is deeply rooted in India.
- –While Tanmay is intellectually curious, his focus on comedy and engineering may not directly align with Nikhil's specific mission around India's cultural export and consumer brands.
- –Tanmay's public profile as a comedian with millions of followers might bring a different kind of attention that could complicate Nikhil's more curated public presence.