Hyderabad entrepreneur launches India's first dating-app style platform for professionals to swipe & find co-founders, mentors and employees

 What if finding the right co-founder, collaborator, or mentor was as quick and interesting as finding a match on a dating app?

Hyderabad-based Shreya Nair has spent over a decade in content writing, instructional design, and social media management. A mass communication and journalism post-graduate, she lives in the storytelling circles of the internet every single day.

One day, a simple Instagram post caught her eye. It said:

“We have dating apps for singles. Why don’t we have swipe apps for professionals?”

Most people scroll past such posts. Shreya Nair didn’t.

Professionals need a platform that is faster, lighter, simpler, and more immediate, something that doesn't require waiting for requests to be accepted or drowning in messages.

“People swipe and meet partners in seconds, but when a founder wants to meet another founder, it takes forever. I wanted to change that,” she said in her conversation with Startup Pedia.

That thought became the earliest seed of ZSpawn, an app where professionals don’t need to wait weeks to find the right connection. One swipe could change everything.

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Introducing ZSpawn, A Fresh, Made-in-India Way for Professionals to Meet

ZSpawn’s swipe-left, swipe-right interface is intentional. It streamlines how you discover the right professionals, connect instantly, and move to meaningful interactions without unnecessary delays.

Profiles appear. You check the essential details. You swipe. If both sides swipe right, the chat opens instantly.

No waiting for connection requests or premium filters blocking your messages.

“It’s quick and easy. That’s the whole point. If I’m sitting in a café and I suddenly want to brainstorm something, I should be able to find someone on the spot,” shares the founder of ZSpawn in her interview with Startup Pedia.

ZSpawn is currently available on both Android and iOS. The app launched first on Android and was released on Apple a week later. In just a short span of two and a half weeks, the professional networking app has seen users not only from India but also from Ireland, Canada, and Singapore.

The app is designed for anyone aged 17 and above, from students building their first idea to entrepreneurs in their 50s looking for innovation partners. ZSpawn also allows users to list or find professional events, both online and offline, adding another layer to community building.

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Building the App: A Nine-Month Journey Filled with Patience and Learning

Shreya Nair had the idea, but turning it into a full-fledged app required technical expertise. She first approached another development team, but the process seemed complicated, expensive, and unclear. 

That’s when a close family acquaintance introduced her to Rajesh Watkar, an experienced software developer and the founder of Spinoff Digital India and Orangebits Digital Solutions. He is a seasoned technology leader with over a decade of experience in building scalable and impactful digital solutions.

“When he heard my idea, he took two days, did his research and said, ‘Let’s do it.’ That changed everything,” the founder of ZSpawn said in the Startup Pedia interview.

Rajesh Watkar not only believed in the idea, he built the entire app with his team, invested in the development, and backed Shreya Nair throughout the journey.

The app took almost nine to ten months to complete. There were countless prototypes, tests, bug fixes, rebuilds, and refinements. Shreya Nair, who had never experienced app development before, was introduced to a world of funnels, technical layers, and processes.

ZSpawn’s Early Traction and Growing Momentum

Even though the professional networking app is new, the traction is encouraging. The analytics show users coming in daily, with India holding the majority share. The app is currently in its earliest public phase, focusing on awareness and adoption.

The goal is ambitious, 1 lakh global users within the next three to six months.

As ZSpawn grows and gathers insights, the team plans to explore a revenue model that will be minimal and user-friendly, but only after understanding user behaviour in depth. For now, the app remains completely free.

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The Story Behind the Founder: A Decade of Writing, Creativity & Reinvention

Behind the idea of ZSpawn is a story of personal resilience, transition, and reinvention.

Shreya Nair was born in Hyderabad and built her professional foundation through a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Mass Communication and Journalism. Writing, content creation, and communication became her natural strengths.

She worked as an instructional designer for over seven years, and her overall experience in the content field spans more than twelve years. Eventually, she moved into full-time freelancing, writing, creating content, handling social media, and managing projects for various brands.

She also runs a storytelling page called Raw Stories (Humans of Kovai) in Coimbatore, where she interviews people and creates narrative-driven content. The platform sharpened her understanding of human behaviour, ambitions, and the power of storytelling.

Life shifted when Shreya Nair lost her father. After the loss, her family moved, and today she lives in Coimbatore with her mother, her husband, and her two-year-old daughter.

“That experience changes you. It makes you stronger. It makes you see life differently,” says Shreya Nair, the founder of ZSpawn.

Despite her responsibilities, Shreya Nair never stopped working or learning. She continued freelancing, building content portfolios, managing clients, and raising her daughter, all while nurturing the idea of ZSpawn.

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The Vision Ahead: Taking India’s Swipe-Based Professional Networking App to the World

For Shreya Nair, ZSpawn is not just an app, it is an invitation for professionals to stop waiting endlessly for replies and start connecting instantly.

She believes the professional networking app can become the world’s first simplified swipe-based professional networking tool, built on the principles of speed, clarity, and ease.

“This is just Phase One. There’s so much more we can build. Events, partnerships, global communities, everything is possible as long as we keep the experience simple,” the Hyderabad-based founder said in the Startup Pedia interview.

The long-term vision includes expanding ZSpawn across cities, building a global user base, partnering with colleges, and integrating with MNCs that want quick ways to connect talent with opportunities.

“And the most important part is keeping the platform genuinely Indian, a product built in India, by Indian teams, with global aspirations,” said the founder of ZSpawn, Shreya Nair, while concluding the Startup Pedia interview.

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