Growth @Rifa AI | Making AI work like your most reliable teammate | Previously @ Topmate | 30u30 IQ

AI isn’t replacing people. It’s replacing processes that slow them down.

At Rifa AI, we’re building intelligent agents that automate back-office conversations across chat, voice, email, and support without breaking ops.

The goal isn’t to sound human.
The goal is to get work done, with AI that can reason, act, and complete entire workflows across tools.

Our best users don’t even realize they’re talking to a bot.
That’s the point.

Before this, I led growth at Topmate and picked up a few hard truths:
 → Shiny doesn’t scale
 → Funnels lie
 → Speed breaks things, but it also builds them

Rifa is a tougher game. The stakes are higher.
You’re shipping into systems where mistakes cost trust, not just clicks.

That’s why I care about:
 → AI that’s functional, not performative
 → Growth that’s compound, not chaotic
 → Shipping like it’s a reflex, not an event

If you’re building at the intersection of AI, ops, and velocity, let’s chat.

Shubham Khoker

I just saw Ankit's post about Topmate hitting profitability, and I couldn’t scroll past without smiling.

To the world, "profitability" is a financial metric. To me, having been in the trenches with Ankit and Dinesh, I know it’s a badge of pure grit.

I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again: My time as Head of Growth at topmate.io was my real MBA.

It was the most intense classroom I’ve ever stepped into. Working with both of you gave me my earliest instincts for product, growth, and just... how to operate in absolute chaos without losing clarity.

A lot of the DNA I carry today as a founder comes straight from those months. The pace, the difficult decisions, and the relentless execution.

You don’t forget teams like that.

Seeing them hit profitability is a reminder of what consistent execution looks like when most people would have given up.

Huge congratulations to Ankit, Dinesh, and the entire team.

This win is well-earned. So proud to have been a small part of this journey.

Everyone’s busy calling themselves “AI-first.”
But your customers don’t care about it. 

When we first started pitching to healthcare clients, I thought leading with “AI-powered” would make their eyes light up. Instead, it usually made them lean back in their chairs, because for most healthcare stakeholders, AI-first sounds risky.

They’re not thinking about the model you used.
They’re thinking: what happens if it fails? Will it violate compliance? Leak data? Or give the wrong answer to a patient?

So now, I start those conversations differently.
About what we’ve done to make sure AI actually works when it’s supposed to.

Every voice agent we build passes through a simple checklist before going live:
→ Does it log every interaction for audit trails?
→ Does it know when to stop and escalate to a human?
→ Does it meet every compliance protocol, even if no one’s watching?

Once that foundation is clear, then the conversation about automation begins.

AI might get you in the door, but risk management keeps you in the room.
That’s what actually builds long-term trust.

I predict AI will vanish by 2030.
And I say that as someone who spends every single day building with it.

Not literally, but in how we talk about it. 
Five years ago, AI was a buzzword.
Today, it’s a feature.
Five years from now, it’ll just be invisible infrastructure.

No one will brag about “AI-first” anymore, just like no one says “internet-first” today. Because the best technology always disappears behind the experience.

When we deploy voice agents in hospitals, no patient ever says, “Wow, this AI bot is amazing.”

They just say,
“Finally… someone actually picked up.”
That’s the direction we’re headed. AI won’t live in headlines or product launches.

It’ll live inside workflows, quietly fixing things that humans don’t have the time or patience to.

So, here’s what I’m betting on:
𝟭/ 𝗔𝗜 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗽 𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝗺𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝗯𝗲𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗱𝗲𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲.
We’ve hit peak hype, and the next winners won’t be the flashiest demos; they’ll be the ones that never break in production. 

𝟮/ 𝗥𝗲𝗴𝘂𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗮 𝗺𝗼𝗮𝘁.
In healthcare, reliability is the foundation. The companies that bake guardrails in from day one will outlast the ones chasing speed.

𝟯/ 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗮𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗿.
Typing, clicking, searching; all of it will fade into natural conversations. Your voice will become the universal remote for how you access systems.

And maybe that’s the irony:
AI will be everywhere, precisely because it will feel like it’s nowhere.
By 2030, the best AI won’t feel like AI at all, it’ll just feel human.

If that happens, what’s one part of your workflow you hope disappears first?

Building should feel hard.
But it shouldn’t feel blurry.

Most people assume burnout happens when you work too much.
In my experience, it’s when you don’t know what you’re working towards anymore.

The chaos creeps in quietly: 
→ Too many priorities
→ Too many opinions
→ Too many half-baked “let’s just test it” plans

Suddenly your calendar’s full, your brain’s fried, and you're still not moving.
And the worst part?
You start confusing activity with progress.

I’m not anti-hustle.
I’m anti-chaos.

The only thing that’s ever pulled me out of a spiral wasn’t rest—it was clarity.
Clarity of: 
→ What problem actually needs solving
→ What to drop (even if it’s shiny)
→ What not to chase this quarter

Because burnout isn’t just about energy.
It’s about direction.

And sometimes the most productive thing you can do is… stop and think.
That’s not a “growth hack.”
That’s survival.

Tag a founder who needs to hear this.

The first time I had to let someone go, I didn’t sleep that night.

I kept replaying the conversation in my head; the silence after I said their name, the way they nodded slowly, the awkward gratitude at the end.

Nothing prepares you for that moment.
When we hired our first person at Rifa AI, it felt like validation, like someone believed in what we were building.

But when it doesn’t work out, it hits differently.
You start asking yourself if you could’ve coached better, communicated sooner, or just seen it coming.

That’s when I learned something that never makes it into startup books:
Company culture isn’t defined by how you celebrate wins. It’s defined by how you handle endings.

Hiring is about hope.
Firing, when done right, is about honesty.
Both take a piece of you.

And both, in their own way, make you a better builder — and maybe, a better human.

When you’re a non-technical founder building a technical product, impostor syndrome moves in next door, rent-free.


There have been times when the team was deep in conversation about inference speeds and vector databases, and I’d be there, nodding, jotting notes, then Googling half the terms later, only to realize I still didn’t get all of it.

However, I’ve learned that it’s part of the job.
I’m lucky to have a co-founder who lives and breathes the tech side (that’s Sameer). My role has always been to connect what we’re building to what the customer actually feels.

So I stopped pretending to understand everything and started asking the simplest questions again.

Every time I asked a “dumb” question, the conversation got clearer for everyone in the room. We stopped over-explaining to each other and started building something users could actually use.

Over time, it has become my strength. I stopped trying to sound technical and focused on what I can understand and build with.

Yeah, impostor syndrome still drops by sometimes, but I’ve learned to make peace with it.

If you’re a non-technical founder quietly sitting through a technical meeting, feeling like an outsider, you’re not behind.

You’re just seeing the problem through a different lens.
And sometimes, that’s exactly what your team needs.

Everyone says “talk to your customers.”
I’m taking that advice one notch higher, and I’ll pay you for your time.
No clickbait. Stay with me till the end.

As we explore the healthcare vertical at Rifa AI, I’ve realised something important:
You can’t automate an industry you don’t understand.
You can’t sit behind dashboards and guess how frontline workflows operate.

So before we ship anything in healthcare, I want to learn from the people who actually hold the system together. The ones who deal with chaos, patient load, insurance calls, and operational bottlenecks every single day.

That’s why I want to speak with:
→ Front desk staff at hospitals/clinics
→ Patient coordinators
→ Medical receptionists
→ Nurses who work closely with ops/patient flow

I’m not looking for confidential data. I’m looking for operational reality. I want to know where the friction is, what the "unwritten rules" of your workflow are, and what tools drive you crazy.

And yes, I’m happy to compensate for your time.
It could be a paid virtual meeting or a conversation over a coffee.

If you work in US healthcare operations and are open to a 30-minute paid chat (or know someone who fits), drop me a DM, tag them below, or share this post.

If you’re planning to build a startup, here’s the part that no MBA or mentor ever tells you.

Last week, when Anisha Jain and the HIVE team at the University of Chicago asked me to speak to their students, I said yes instantly.

Because I remembered what it felt like to be in their shoes.
Hungry to build something, unsure where to start, and confused by all the startup terms around “AI,” “product-market fit,” “fundraising,” and “the right time.”

Back then, I thought progress would be about finding the perfect idea or learning the right framework. But, once you get past the excitement and the theory, you hit the part where nothing looks linear, certainty disappears, and you have to build even when your confidence doesn’t show up with you.

That’s the phase that actually teaches you what matters, and here’s what I learned during that phase:
1. Start with a problem that keeps bothering you.
You don’t need to know how to code on Day 1. What you really need is a problem you can’t ignore... something you’re willing to think about even when no one’s watching.

2. A co-founder is someone who believes in the same future you see.
Skills can be hired, but what you can’t hire is someone who shows up on hard days with the same energy as you do.

3. Investors look for clarity more than big pitches.
If you can explain what you're building, who it helps, and why now is the right moment, the conversation changes instantly.

4. Your early job will teach you more about building a company than any “startup guide.”
For me, most of my instincts came from Topmate, the messy days, the mistakes, the adrenaline, the long nights. That’s where I learned how startups actually work.

None of this shows up in the pitch decks or the headline interviews. But it’s exactly what determines whether you ship something real or just talk about it.

So, if you’re at that stage: excited, overwhelmed, curious, questioning everything, that’s exactly where most real journeys begin.

P.S. What’s one lesson your founder journey has taught you?

I thought I knew what leadership was.
Then I became a founder.

Turns out, leading one branch of the company and leading a company are two completely different things.

When I was working as a Growth Head, it was about ownership within a structure.
We had a clear direction, a set goal, and a team to rally.

Someone had already built the walls of the house; my job was to optimize the rooms, fix the wiring, and ensure growth. There was stability, even in chaos.

At Rifa, I quickly realized leadership from the ground up is a whole different game.

There is no existing structure. You are literally building the walls while simultaneously deciding what kind of house you even want to live in.

The shift is profound, and honestly, sometimes scary.
You stop being a functional head and become the emotional backbone of the entire operation. Every product pivot, every client bet, every tough hiring call has effects that you simply cannot delegate away.
 
They need someone who can admit, "Yes, this is fog," and still be the first one to take a step forward.

That's the real leadership muscle I had to build, and that’s the part most leadership books skip:

The silence that comes with being responsible for everything, and the humility it takes to show up every day, even when you don’t have all the answers.

If you've made the jump from employee to founder, what surprised you most about leadership?

People keep asking me, "When will your AI be smart enough to replace a nurse?"

I tell them that's the wrong question.

The right question is, "How can our AI be reliable enough to handle the 5 hours of administrative work that burns a nurse out every single day?"

The goal isn't to replace our heroes, it's to give them room to be human. Isn’t it?

You don’t need a dev team or a $50K budget to build a voice agent anymore.
Hard to believe, but that’s where we are now.

I’ve seen companies spend months wiring together APIs, vendors, and compliance checks just to make a phone line “talk.” By the time it goes live, the use case has already changed.

That’s the gap we’re closing with Rifa.
Building automation shouldn’t feel like building another product; it should feel like setting one up.

With our platform, you can design, test, and deploy a compliant AI voice agent in minutes. 
You don’t need to know coding. 
You can simply drag, drop, and go live on any phone number.

And it doesn’t stop when the call ends.

→ Your CRM updates automatically.
→ Follow-ups get scheduled.
→ Issues get flagged without anyone touching a dashboard.

Because real automation shouldn’t add another layer of complexity, it should remove it. That’s what we’re betting on at Rifa: making AI powerful and practical for the people who actually use it.

If building automation were this simple, what’s the first workflow you’d hand off?

We are building an AI Voice Agent to automate phone calls. But to get our first 10 customers, I had to make hundreds of phone calls myself.

That’s the irony of building in AI today. 
Everyone wants to automate everything, including product development and GTM.

But here’s the reality I’ve seen time and again, from leading growth to now building Rifa…
AI can automate workflows, but can’t automate trust.

And when you are selling into industries where a single mistake has consequences— healthcare, finance, compliance-heavy ops—that difference matters.

These buyers aren't looking for a "cool AI tool." 
They're worried because the risk surface has expanded:

_ "What if the response is wrong?"
– “Who is liable for the model’s error?”
– “How do I explain this to an auditor?”
– “What does this break in my existing workflow?”
– “What happens if the model behaves unpredictably?”

These aren’t objections you solve with a funnel, or a case study, or an automated sequence.
These are objections that need context, interpretation, and reassurance. 

And this is where old-school GTM suddenly becomes a superpower again because it helps buyers process risk at a human pace.

That’s why the AI companies that are winning right now have strong trust-building mechanisms:
• High-context conversations
• Non-scalable onboarding
• Long-form demos
• Domain fluency
• Founder-led selling in v1
• Field intelligence from real calls

Because GTM in AI is about risk translation before efficiency or growth. 

If your product is AI-first, your early GTM must be risk-first. 
And right now, risk is still interpreted by humans, not workflows.

See, AI will eventually sell AI.
We’ll get there.

But we're in the messy middle, where technology has leapfrogged, but buyer psychology hasn’t caught up.

The biggest mistake you’re making as a founder is trying to make your GTM move as fast as your tech. While in reality, it should match the pace of your buyer’s fear.

Don't let the hype trick you into hiding behind your screen.

P.S. Are you also seeing traditional channels outperform the automated ones right now?

Gehna Batra

Freelance Content Writer 

Gehna Batra Ventures

Worked with 200+ Founders, CEOs, and Coaches globally. 
Given 1:1 Consultation to 500+ professionals. 
Optimized 400+ LinkedIn Profiles. 

It’s just the begin! 🔥

Founder & CEO

Self Employed

•  As a LinkedIn Organic Growth Expert & Personal Branding Specialist I love building brands & growing LinkedIn profiles. 

•  I help Founders, CEOs, Coaches, and other professionals build their personal brand on LinkedIn in the most effective way possible.

•  I have managed 100+ LinkedIn Profiles till now across different industries internationally & and optimized 467 LinkedIn profiles to date.

•  Customized content & growth strategies are prepared by me for clients that help them achieve their unique goals, including increasing followers, likes, comments, search appearances, and views.

• I guarantee growth within 30 days as I know my strategies will work on every work no matter what’s the industry & goals. 

• In addition to Linkedin Profile optimization, I help clients with lead generation on LinkedIn, resulting in new business opportunities and connections.

• My clients consistently achieve viral posts, transforming their profiles from an average of 2-3 likes and few followers to substantial followings and engagement.

•  One of my recent clients, a founder with a dead profile and multiple companies in diverse industries, received 2 viral posts back to back with an average of 200-300 likes within 30 days of working with me. 

•  Another client, a Director, received 2000+ likes on his 5th post, compared to his previous average of only 3-4 likes.

•  There are so many success stories like this. I also helped a client in getting 6000+ followers within 30 days. 

•  I'm committed to helping my clients achieve their personal branding goals through LinkedIn optimization and growth strategies and am always excited to take on new challenges.

LinkedIn Growth Expert

topmate.io

Consulted 500+ Professional 1:1 till now.

Coach & Consultant

Freelance (Self employed)

Freelance Copywriter

• As a highly skilled and experienced Professional Resume Writer, I have created over 1500 professional resumes for clients across the globe in almost all fields.

• I follow all the latest Trends and Rules of making a professional resume and ensure that each resume I create is ATS-friendly and stands out to employers.

• With my keen attention to detail, I carefully select and incorporate specific keywords to make each resume more effective and impactful.

• As a language expert, I meticulously check the fluency and grammar of each resume, ensuring that it is written in a highly professional and polished way.

• I'm passionate about creating resumes that are tailored to my clients' unique goals and backgrounds, and that showcase their skills and achievements in the best possible light.

• With a high success rate, my clients have consistently received interview calls within a short duration of submitting their resumes, and have gone on to secure their Dream jobs.

• Whether you're an entry-level candidate or a seasoned professional, I have the expertise and skills to create a resume that will help you stand out from the competition and achieve your career goals.

• So if you're looking to enhance your resume and increase your chances of landing your dream job, I'm here to help. Contact me today to take advantage of my professional resume writing services.

Freelance Resume Writer

LinkedIn Growth Expert | Professional Resume Writer | I’ll help you build a 𝟏𝟎𝐱 more influential personal brand on LinkedIn

Struggling to find qualified Leads? The leads who are actually going to work with you and pay you? 

Struggling to Stand out on LinkedIn?

Struggling to create high-quality content and stay consistent on LinkedIn? 

I can understand your frustration and pain. 

I have been through that myself and my clients have experienced it as well. 

It’s not easy to manage so many things together by yourself. You have to focus on your business. Not on learning how to be a great marketer & understand algorithms. That’s not your job. 

Reaching 1,50,000+ followers was not easy for me. It took a lot of time, effort, consistency, smart work, and hard work. 

I started from zero 2.5 years back and now I have built a strong community, get inbound leads every single day, and have a strong personal brand. 

I can do the same for you. 

You must be wondering, ‘How?’

- I have already worked with 200+ Founders, CEOs, and Coaches globally. 
(LinkedIn Profile Management Service) 

- I have consulted 500+ professionals worldwide, 1:1 regarding LinkedIn growth. 

No matter what your industry is… I can help you because I have worked with every kind of industry leader. 

No matter what your LinkedIn problem is, I can help you with it. And this confidence didn’t come overnight. 
I have worked with so many professionals that I am now confident enough that I can help anyone and solve their LinkedIn problems. 

Just Imagine:

→  You will get more time for yourself. You can utilise that time to grow your business.
→  You will be able to build a BRAND that people TRUST.
→  You will be able to stand out in your industry, and people will see you as an industry expert.
→  People will see you as a thought leader, they will value your opinion. 
→  You will have an optimized profile with all the keywords and awesome content. 
→  You will be able to generate both inbound and outbound leads. 

This is what you will get after working with me. 

Still confused, if I am the right choice? I get it.
There are so many fake profiles all over LinkedIn, so it’s obvious to get confused.

You can try working with someone else who is not an industry expert or hire a low-budget freelancer. If you get disappointed then you can reach out to me.

OR

We can directly start working now without wasting your time and money. 

→ First, you can DM me to get my Portfolio, which I cannot share publicly due to privacy reasons. 

→ Second, you can book a 1:1 call with me for 15 minutes. The link is in the featured section.

→ Third, you can DM me directly on my WhatsApp number For better communication. +91 7988891092


Freelance Content Writer

This story is going to shift your entire perspective about LinkedIn: 

Back in school, I had this friend who used to copy every single thing I did.

If I bought a new bag, she bought the same.

If I joined a sports team, she joined too.

If I started talking a certain way, she started mimicking me.

At first, it was funny. Then it got weird.

Because no matter what she did, people never saw her.

📌 They only saw “the copy.”

And here’s the thing, she wasn’t even bad.

She was smart, funny, and had her own style.

But nobody noticed it… because she was too busy trying to be someone else.

That’s what I see on LinkedIn every day.

📌 People trying to write like each other.
Following what every influencer says.

Copying hooks, formats, tones.

And deep inside? They forget the whole point.

It’s your story.
Your reality.
Your scars.
Your wins.

How can that ever look like everyone else’s?

I get it, you’re afraid of making mistakes, so you play safe.

You copy. 
You follow. 
You blend in.

📌 Remember: blending in will never make you stand out.

You’ll only create impact when you show up real, raw, imperfect, and unapologetically you.

That’s what people connect with.
That’s what makes them trust you.
That’s what makes you unforgettable.

So yeah, my school friend story is not real just like your current writing style. 

Maybe it’s time you stopped copying what others do and give yourself the opportunity to stand out on LinkedIn.




📌 P.S. 𝙄𝙛 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙖 𝟳-𝟴 𝙛𝙞𝙜𝙪𝙧𝙚 𝙁𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙧 𝙗𝙖𝙨𝙚𝙙 𝙞𝙣 𝙐𝙎𝘼, 𝘾𝙖𝙣𝙖𝙙𝙖, 𝘿𝙪𝙗𝙖𝙞, 𝙤𝙧 𝙄𝙣𝙙𝙞𝙖, 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙤 𝙘𝙡𝙤𝙨𝙚 𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙘𝙡𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙨 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙗𝙪𝙞𝙡𝙙 𝙖 𝙥𝙧𝙚𝙢𝙞𝙪𝙢 𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙤𝙣𝙖𝙡 𝙗𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙣𝙚𝙭𝙩 3 𝙢𝙤𝙣𝙩𝙝𝙨, 𝘿𝙈 𝙢𝙚 "𝙏𝙍𝘼𝙉𝙎𝙁𝙊𝙍𝙈", 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙄'𝙡𝙡 𝙨𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙚𝙭𝙖𝙘𝙩 𝙣𝙚𝙭𝙩 𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙥𝙨.


#leadgeneration #personalbranding #business #founders #linkedinmanagement

Helping Founders Attract High-Quality Leads and build a Personal Brand in 60 days || Ghostwriter || Lead Generation & Personal Branding Specialist || LinkedIn Doctor || Connect With Me for LinkedIn Profile Management

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The Battle

Shubham Khoker

Gehna Batra

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The Battle

Shubham Khoker

Gehna Batra

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Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Shubham Khoker's LinkedIn Performance

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Performance ScoreShubham Khoker's LinkedIn Performance