By Jorge Mercado Thursday, February 13th, 2025

While attending UC Santa Barbara, Kavitta Ghai and her co-founder, Jordan Long, were annoyed with the education system.

With classrooms so large that getting the one-on-one necessary attention to learn the material is impossible, Ghai and Long wanted to change the system.

So the two thought “What if we are the ones who solve the problem?”

Seven years later, the two are on the right track, as their startup, Nectir AI has not only raised $6 million in funding, but they have also begun partnering with schools across the country — including the one where the journey started, UC Santa Barbara.

“For early entrepreneurs, or any entrepreneur, I really encourage you to figure out, not necessarily what you love doing most, but what is the thing that really pisses you off? What is the problem in the world that you cannot understand why it hasn’t been solved yet, that you feel like is a no-brainer to solve and go do that thing, because that’s where your domain expertise is,” Ghai, who was a speaker during an Alliance for Southern California Innovation on Feb. 3, said.

Ghai took the stage with Julie Henley, a partner at Santa Barbara venture capital firm Entrada Ventures.

Together, the two shared their insights and journey to help young entrepreneurs in the Santa Barbara area.

Nectir AI leverages artificial intelligence by allowing institutions and the people at the universities to create custom AI Assistants trained on their specific courses, policies, and institutional knowledge. 

This would allow professors to give students a more direct way to learn the material when they have specific questions, instead of waiting for instructions or emails.

“We’ve maintained our focus on building the classroom in the future and making sure that no student ever again has to experience the education system I did,” she said.

Ghai and Long started their journey by signing up for a pitch competition at UCSB just weeks after they came up with their initial concept.

With no actual product or data at their side yet, Ghai said the two “made fools of ourselves on stage.”

“But, the pitch was just good enough that Entrada’s founder at the time, Brian Correa, came up to us and told us to keep going. And if you get UCSB to buy it from you, I will invest in your company,” she said.

From there all bets were off and Ghai became fixated on building her company.

Ghai emphasized to young founders that relationships with VCs are more than just money.

She noted how before Entrada invested a dime, she would have partners look at her pitch and have them rip it shreds every time. 

“Those parameters that they set let us know what it takes to make a VC-fundable business,” Ghai said.

Henley, who has worked closely with Ghai and Nectir since investing, noted how they took all the criticisms to heart and were open to feedback, meeting people and moving forward.

“Early investors are going to be more honest, they are there to help,” Henley said.

Henley was also adamant that not every business needs VC funding and “that is okay.”

While many entrepreneurs want to be the next $100 million valuation during a Series A raise, Henley stressed that is not nearly as important as it is made out to be.

“It’s never a bad question to ask if you are VC-fundable. It should always be one of your first questions,” she said.

“And it’s not bad to be aspirational, but it’s important to be real. Listen to people, take input and if you’re thinking about doing a business, raising money, just be realistic about it.”

In that same vein, Ghai said taking the advice of people who just want to help is extremely valuable and if they believe that the business is destined to be that big, that does not mean it can’t be successful.

“Failure does not mean it’s the end of the road, but the amount that you will learn from building the plane while it’s falling out of the sky is worth it in itself,” she said.

“You do not need a check or a payout or an acquisition to give you that feeling of success. It is building your own company and being your own boss that will give you that feeling, and I recommend it to absolutely everyone.”

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