Duke University · Graduating May 2027

Avihan Jain

I study mechanical engineering with a concentration in product design at Duke.

I've built affordable soccer shoes, co-founded a copperware business, and started Bern, a language-learning toy company. More recently, I've been building software that helps people research, remember, and get things done.

Outside work: soccer, guitar, travel, and bringing people together over food.

Avihan smiling in front of Duke's stone arches
At Duke, 2025.

Things I've built

Bern

Founder & CEO
2024–2026

I started Bern with a question: could a toy engage children without another screen? We built a talking stuffed animal and brought it from an idea to a beta with 1,000+ testers.

The interesting part was what parents told us. Children enjoyed the bear, but parents were uncomfortable with a toy that could talk about anything. Those conversations, alongside in-person testing with kids, led us toward language learning: stories organized into weekly seasons and daily episodes.

I led work across product, hardware, design, and marketing. I introduced “non-technical technical documents” so everyone could understand and question technical decisions. After I explained our audio pipeline to the design team, our designer suggested splitting the audio into smaller pieces. I recruited a scientist working at OpenAI to advise us personally and work with our engineers. In testing, the team reduced the bear's response time from four seconds to two.

In hindsight, I would have outsourced an early build we took on in-house. We needed a reliable product in people's hands quickly so we could learn whether they wanted it.

Bern's website showing its teddy bear and the headline Your child. Off the screen.
From the Bern website.

Sole Purpose

Founder · New Delhi
2021–2023

In high school, I saw talented soccer players who couldn't afford the shoes to play in. I started Sole Purpose to design affordable, multi-utility soccer shoes.

I crowdfunded $5,000 and took the project through design and manufacturing. It reached 450+ players through 20+ NGOs and schools.

The design started with frugality and utility. But I learned that people still want something they like the look of. Making a product affordable doesn't make appearance unimportant.

Tambav

Co-founder · India
2020–2023

I co-founded a copperware and artisanal décor business. A factory closure gave us access to less expensive inventory just as lockdown was shifting spending toward decorating people's homes.

We sold to businesses and individual customers across India, the UK, and the US, growing the business to $300,000+ in revenue. I led a team of 10+ people producing more than 16,000 pieces.

A lot of our sales happened through WhatsApp chats and communities. We had a catalog, but customers could also just talk to us. Tambav taught me how much timing and direct customer relationships can matter to a business.

A green floral Tambav copper pitcher and two tumblers beside a lamp and flowers

Work with teams

Rely Health

GTM & Product Intern
June–August 2026

Rely was moving beyond warm introductions to find new customers. After talking to vendors selling comparable tools, I chose to build a prospecting platform in-house.

I worked with account executives to understand how they researched and qualified companies, then built a conversational tool that combined company context and web research, with findings saved in HubSpot. The platform researched 10,000+ accounts and surfaced 1,510+ high-fit leads.

I also evaluated 100 healthcare companies across four segments and built buyer maps, sales materials, and voice demos. Together, this work contributed to seven sales opportunities with $363,000 in recorded pipeline value. Those were potential deals, not closed revenue.

Rely GTM Control Plane pipeline interface
The pipeline screen from my HTML design prototype.

Zamp

Founder's Office Intern
June–July 2025

I interviewed more than 10 stakeholders to understand where information was getting lost. I designed an internal AI tool to bring together context from Notion, Slack, and Linear, and used the interviews to shape recommendations on positioning, branding, and reaching customers.

Universal Toys

Manufacturing Intern
Summer 2022

Work on the practical side of a product business: choosing products, pricing, logistics, factory audits, and warehouse operations.

Fellow student founders

I've also helped teams at Jeani, Students Who Sit, and Swoop Tutors.

Smaller builds & experiments

A mix of personal tools, prototypes, and engineering projects.

Personal OS

Personal tool

A system connecting AI agents and everyday tools to context I can read and correct: priorities, decisions, meeting notes, relationships, and open tasks.

The important choice is what it remembers. Corrections should replace old assumptions. A draft shouldn't become a completed action. Saving nothing can be better than saving a guess.

Personal OS document structure linking priorities, decisions, context, and review
The structure behind Personal OS.

FindTime

iMessage prototype

Find a free 30-, 60-, or 90-minute slot in your calendar and turn it into a message draft without leaving iMessage. I built it with options for in-person or virtual meetings and buffers between them.

Tryb

Campus marketplace prototype

A smaller, curated way to resell clothes at Duke. Students apply to join, submit pieces, and browse approved clothing drops. I built the membership and submission flows while exploring what a campus-specific resale experience could look like.

Tryb campus clothing marketplace signup interface
The membership screen from my Tryb prototype.

FounderVoice

Writing prototype

Start with three spoken answers about something that actually happened, then turn those stories into LinkedIn post drafts. The prototype records and transcribes answers, generates drafts, and lets someone review and copy them.

BenchScout

Research prototype
BenchScout market intelligence interface

Offer Lab

Personal tool

A dashboard for interview preparation: a six-week course, daily practice, a practice log, and a weekly review. It keeps a record of completed practice and notes across behavioral, product, strategy, and technical questions.

Murky Outreach

Past collaboration · Prototype

Shared tools for customer-discovery outreach: finding duplicate contacts, preparing research and drafts, tracking follow-ups, and keeping a record of what happened. Built and tested offline.

Battery monitoring

IIT Delhi research internship
Summer 2024

Under Prof. Amit Gupta, I worked on monitoring lithium-ion batteries with overheating in hot climates in mind. I designed temperature-sensing hardware, tested it across battery charge states, and built a real-time calibration feedback loop.

Delivery drone

Real World Design Challenge
2021–2022

I co-led Team India's commercial delivery-drone proposal, taking responsibility for its business plan, warehouse operations, and logistics. Our team placed first nationally and internationally, and I received a $50,000 scholarship.

C-25 Sigma UAV designed by Team Indus-Luft Dynamics
Our C-25 “Sigma” design. Team and project write-up ↗

Community & giving back

Fifteen

Food, friends, conversation

Small gatherings of roughly 10–15 people from different fields, with phones put away. MacCoy and I co-host them around informal food and conversation, with a mix of familiar faces and new people.

Founder dinners

Duke & beyond

I've been growing a community of 70+ founders and 10+ investors by hosting dinners with people working in AI, biotech, manufacturing, and other fields.

Duke I&E

Student Assistant & Ambassador

I helped develop ways to reach more students on campus and supported 20+ events serving 2,000+ students, contributing to 50% year-over-year engagement growth. I was also selected as one of 12 student founders for the year-long Melissa & Doug Entrepreneurs program.

FIRST Robotics · Team Athena

Team 8868 · India · 2022

I led a team of eight representing India at the Midwest Regionals in Chicago, where we won the Rookie All Star Award. We built the robot at IIIT Delhi with mentors, and I worked on construction and fundraising.

Alongside the competition, I helped teach STEM to underserved students and worked with NGOs to encourage women in STEM.

Photographs from Team Athena’s 2022 Rookie All Star Award write-up
From the school’s 2022 competition report.

Outside work

I play recreational and intramural soccer, play guitar, and enjoy traveling. I grew up in a joint family, and spending time with people is still a big part of my life.

Soccer and the people I play with.
A place and a memory.
Friends, music, or an ordinary day.

Say hello.

I'd like to hear what you're working on.