Gajus Kuizinas from Indy AI by Contra: Finding Hyper-Curated Leads for 1M+ Freelancers

👉🏼 Description:

Tune in as Gajus talks about creating AI products that are truly useful, how to approach Product Hunt launches to hit #1, learnings from a viral TikTok video, and more.

👉🏼 About the Guest:

Gajus is the co-founder and CTO of Contra. His open-source projects receive over 20 million downloads each week and are relied on by Fortune 500 companies, including Amazon, Microsoft, Oracle, and IBM. He has authored more than 200 libraries, earning 30,000+ GitHub stars.

Previously, Gajus founded Anuary, a movie advertising agency, and co-founded Applaudience, a data startup adopted by major movie studios. He also rebuilt MailOnline's advertising platform, serving 225 million monthly visitors and designed core infrastructure for the UK's largest public Wi-Fi network with Ericsson/Arqiva. 

Recognized on Forbes 30 Under 30, Gajus brings proven technical leadership in building and scaling systems used by millions.

👉🏼 About the Host:

Shriya Nevatia (50K+ followers on LI and X) has been building community for 12+ years for founders, investors, and builders around the world. She launched the On Deck Catalyst community for elite global young leaders, helped hundreds of women start angel investing at The Council Capital, and founded The Violet Society, a pre-accelerator for female & non-binary startup founders.

 

👉🏼 Timestamps:

• 00:00: Episode Highlight
• 00:17: Intro to Taste & Tactics
• 00:34: Intro to Gajus Kuizinas, co-founder and CTO at Contra and Indy AI, a professional network for independent workers
• 03:13: Why it's important to find community as a freelancer
• 04:03: How Indy AI by Contra is using AI to solve the hardest freelancer problems
• 08:15: How Indy AI helps both sides of the market: freelancers and employers
• 09:25: Positioning a new tool without losing sight of your existing brand
• 11:25: Building viral mechanisms into your product
• 12:52: Fighting AI slop when building a product that relies on authenticity
• 13:40: Strategies for launching on Product Hunt
• 17:33: Crafting the perfect automations for emails and DMs
• 22:40: What to do on the day of your Product Hunt launch
• 24:07: Why timing matters when sending emails and DMs
• 26:00: How to run a TikTok campaign for a B2B tool
• 32:48: Company-led videos vs employee-led TikToks vs user-generated content
• 35:48: How to measure success vs vanity metrics
• 38:45: The go-to-market strategies Gajus is continuing now
• 40:56: What Indy AI would do again when going to market...and what they'd steer clear of
• 43:53: When taste outweighs data
• 47:07: Learnings and takeaways from the episode
• 49:39: Outro

👉🏼 Where to find Gajus:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gajus 
• X: https://x.com/kuizinas 
• Product Hunt: https://www.producthunt.com/@kuizinas
• Indy AI: https://contra.com/indy
• Contra AI: https://contra.com/
• Contra X: https://x.com/contra
• Contra Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/contra/ 
• Contra TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@contrahq?lang=en 

👉🏼 Where to find Shriya:

• Twitter: https://x.com/shriyanevatia
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shriyanevatia/
• Taste & Tactics Twitter: https://x.com/tasteandtactics
• Taste & Tactics Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tasteandtactics/
• Taste & Tactics TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tasteandtactics
• Taste & Tactics LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/taste-and-tactics
• Taste & Tactics YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tasteandtactics 
• Taste & Tactics Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/72Xgo0svsNOKkCdWQnaggM
  
  

What is Taste & Tactics?

Taste & Tactics breaks down the real playbooks behind iconic products, told by the people who built them.

Each episode goes deep on one bold launch: what sparked the idea, how it reached the right audience, and the moves that made it stick.

Hosted by Shriya Nevatia, the show is made for founders, marketers, and brand builders who are sick of vague advice and want practical frameworks.