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How to Actually Get Hired
Who reads applications, which channel gets a reply, and what they screen for.
Don't make these mistakes
Generic enthusiasm about the metaverse or spatial computing. Vinay has been pitching this thesis for three years and has fielded every version of that conversation. He responds to specifics. Bring a use case, a number, or a contact. Not a vision statement.
What gets their attention
The press release is explicit on three fronts: accelerate R&D, advance product innovation, and establish on-ground sales operations in the US and UAE. Three separate mandates, each with its own hiring profile. Inflection Point Ventures has invested over INR 900 crore across 280+ startups and backed 16 companies in Q1 2026 alone. Their CEO Vinay Bansal named the technical differentiator specifically in his investment quote: the patented 3D engine enabling 4K/8K/16K rendering in-browser with fast load times. IPV backs companies for commercial scale, not just product development. When IPV leads, the expectation is aggressive GTM alongside continued technical R&D. That is two parallel hiring tracks. Avinya Ventures co-led, and their managing partner Gaurav Singhvi gave the most precise investor quote: "Every once in a while, a category emerges where infrastructure has to be built before applications can scale, and 3D is that category today. What drew us to Ctruh is that they've spent three years building the hard, foundational layer most companies are unwilling to build." That framing signals confidence in the underlying tech moat and aggressive support for the vertical application buildout on top of it. More verticals (real estate, automotive are named as next) means more product and engineering hires per vertical. The two angels are equally deliberate. Shivakumar Ganesan (Exotel) is Vinay's former employer: a bet from someone who has seen him operate at close range, building customer success and partnerships from the inside. Vivek Sinha (ex-Unacademy, now Emversity) is the same pattern: former employer turned investor. These are not cold financial bets. They are operator endorsements that also unlock the Exotel and Unacademy commercial and BD networks for Ctruh. 19 roles are live at ctruh.com/about/careers/openings.
Why applying the normal way doesn't work
Ctruh is <50 people. No recruiter, no HR. Your application goes to a founder juggling everything. Cold outreach is how you actually get seen.
Who to contact at Ctruh
Founding team
Vinay Agastya holds a B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from GITAM Deemed University, an MIT Fellowship in Industrial and Product Design, and a Master's in Technology in Data Science from INSEAD. That combination is not typical for a spatial computing founder: mechanical engineering gives him physical-world intuition for how objects exist in three dimensions, industrial design from MIT gives him the product aesthetics layer, and INSEAD data science gives him the commercial and quantitative frame. He started his career at Swiggy and Food Mingo before joining Scapic as Head of Sales and Marketing, a Bengaluru-based AR startup that was subsequently acquired by Flipkart. That acquisition gave him his first view of what it looks like when an XR product reaches Flipkart scale, and it appears to have been the inflection point: he saw the technology work at scale, saw the infrastructure gap that made it expensive, and decided to build the infrastructure. He then moved to Exotel as AGM Customer Success (he is now an angel investor in his former employee's company, which is the clearest possible signal about how he operated there) and then to Unacademy as Associate Director of Partner Channels before founding Ctruh. The name is pronounced "See-Through." On Shark Tank India Season 5, Episode 13, the Sharks paused, smiled, and stumbled on the pronunciation before receiving a live demonstration of the product: Aman Gupta virtually tried on a product on national television in front of millions of viewers. Anupam Mittal and Vineeta Singh made an offer of ₹1 crore for 2.4% equity. Vinay has written publicly about the name: "It clicked. Not just as a name. But as a meaning. As a feeling. As a lens. When I started Ctruh, 'See Through' didn't feel like just a brand name. It felt like an idea." He is an XR evangelist in the most literal sense: someone who had the vision for the technology's potential, saw the infrastructure gap, and spent three years building the foundation before anyone was paying attention. Ctruh has won the ELEVATE 2025 Award from the Government of Karnataka, the Aegis Graham Bell Award 2025 for Innovation in Immersive Experience, been featured in Forbes Select 200, on JioHotstar's Brands of Tomorrow, and shortlisted for the Wharton India Startup Challenge and LinkedIn Talent Awards. The IIM Bangalore NSRCEL and LeapFWD accelerator programme affiliations give him access to the deepest institutional network in Indian deep tech. Vinay posts on LinkedIn with high specificity about XR commerce, the spatial internet thesis, and the Ctruh product. His posts are product-first and market-data-first: he leads with the Shopify conversion numbers, the Gartner projections, the hardware arrival curve. He does not write vague founder inspiration content. He writes conversion arguments. Outreach that mirrors that precision, market data, specific deployment scenario, specific ROI argument, will get a response.
What to show them
Ctruh is explicitly establishing on-ground US operations. The buyer for Commverse Studio is a VP of E-commerce, VP of Digital, or CMO at a retail, D2C, or luxury brand. That sales cycle requires someone in the market, with existing relationships, who can convert the Shopify conversion data and Gartner stats into a paid pilot in 30 days. This is the most time-sensitive hire they will make. Core skills: Enterprise SaaS sales, retail or e-commerce vertical knowledge, AR/XR or 3D commerce familiarity, pipeline management, US market relationships with brand or retailer decision-makers, ability to run technical demos. Proof of work: Identify three US D2C or retail brands that have publicly committed to AR or immersive commerce initiatives in 2025 or 2026. For each, name the economic buyer, the current AR implementation (if any) and its gap, and the specific Ctruh pitch that closes that gap. One page. Show the market knowledge.
A cold email that works at Ctruh
What Ctruh screens for
The press release is explicit on three fronts: accelerate R&D, advance product innovation, and establish on-ground sales operations in the US and UAE. Three separate mandates, each with its own hiring profile. Inflection Point Ventures has invested over INR 900 crore across 280+ startups and backed 16 companies in Q1 2026 alone. Their CEO Vinay Bansal named the technical differentiator specifically in his investment quote: the patented 3D engine enabling 4K/8K/16K rendering in-browser with fast load times. IPV backs companies for commercial scale, not just product development. When IPV leads, the expectation is aggressive GTM alongside continued technical R&D. That is two parallel hiring tracks. Avinya Ventures co-led, and their managing partner Gaurav Singhvi gave the most precise investor quote: "Every once in a while, a category emerges where infrastructure has to be built before applications can scale, and 3D is that category today. What drew us to Ctruh is that they've spent three years building the hard, foundational layer most companies are unwilling to build." That framing signals confidence in the underlying tech moat and aggressive support for the vertical application buildout on top of it. More verticals (real estate, automotive are named as next) means more product and engineering hires per vertical. The two angels are equally deliberate. Shivakumar Ganesan (Exotel) is Vinay's former employer: a bet from someone who has seen him operate at close range, building customer success and partnerships from the inside. Vivek Sinha (ex-Unacademy, now Emversity) is the same pattern: former employer turned investor. These are not cold financial bets. They are operator endorsements that also unlock the Exotel and Unacademy commercial and BD networks for Ctruh. 19 roles are live at ctruh.com/about/careers/openings.
A tailored CV beats a generic one. Use Ctruh's job description language to clear filters.
Mistakes that kill applications
A recycled CV gets rejected fast at Ctruh (<50 people). They notice.
Don't open with what you want. Open with what Ctruh is dealing with right now — For a decade, building 3D and XR experiences required a specialist team, a large budget, bulky hardware, and an SDK integration that broke every time the game engine updated, and what you'd do about it.
The wait-and-hope strategy fails. Follow up on day five — response rates roughly double.
Frequently asked questions
How do I apply to Ctruh?
Through the roles on our Ctruh jobs page, or directly to a founder or department head if you can reach them. At <50 people, direct outreach outperforms the form.
Does Ctruh respond to cold emails?
Response rate data for Ctruh not yet confirmed.
Who is the hiring manager at Ctruh?
At this size, hiring is usually run by a founder or department head.
How competitive is it to get hired at Ctruh?
Expect 50-100 applicants in the first two weeks for AI roles at this size. Apply within 72 hours for best odds.
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