Building where the system is complex
Public transport is the kind of problem that looks simple only from a distance. A commuter wants to know when the bus will arrive and whether the journey will be reliable. Behind that expectation sit operators, conductors, routes, ticketing systems, local governments and infrastructure that varies from city to city. Priya Singh chose to build inside that complexity.
As Co-founder, Director and Chief Business Officer at Chalo, she has helped scale a commuter-first mobility platform across more than 100 cities. Her background across government, global institutions and startups gives her fluency in worlds that often misunderstand one another, and the patience to translate between them.
Start with the city in front of you
Chalo's early work in Bhopal offered a practical classroom. A public-sector startup cannot design only for a digital ideal; it must account for how transport currently operates, who controls each decision and what commuters will actually adopt. The product has to survive peak-hour pressure, patchy processes and the expectations of people for whom a delayed bus is not a minor inconvenience.
In her FoundHers episode, Priya challenges one-size-fits-all thinking about Indian consumers. Behaviour in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities cannot be inferred from a metro-city product meeting. Founders have to observe how people pay, whom they trust, what language makes sense and which benefit is strong enough to change a habit.
Partnership is a product capability
Working with government is often described as a sales challenge. Priya's story shows it is also a product and relationship capability. Public systems require alignment across multiple stakeholders, long timelines and evidence that the solution can operate responsibly at scale. The work is less about a dramatic pitch and more about credibility built over repeated delivery.
That endurance changes the meaning of founder resilience. It is not simply tolerating rejection. It is learning how the system makes decisions, keeping the team motivated through slow cycles and protecting commercial discipline while pursuing public impact.
Profitability and purpose can share a route
Chalo's public-market business contributes a substantial share of the company's revenue and reaches tens of thousands of buses. That matters because impact without a durable model remains fragile. Priya speaks to the need for profitability in public-sector work, not as a retreat from mission, but as the condition that allows the mission to keep operating.
Her journey expands the image of technology entrepreneurship. Innovation is not only a new app for people with abundant choices. It can be a better daily experience for a commuter navigating an essential public service. By building close to that reality, Priya shows how patient execution, institutional empathy and a clear business model can move an enormous system one route at a time.
She also demonstrates a form of leadership that is easy to undervalue: translation. A product team, a transport operator, a government official and a commuter may all describe the same problem differently. Progress depends on someone who can hear the intention underneath each vocabulary and create a workable next step. Women are often expected to perform this connective labour without recognition. In Priya's story, it becomes visible as strategic expertise, the capability that lets technology travel from a slide deck into the rhythms of a city.
