LIGHGHT
Out querying. A short, strange book about attention and grief. I'll link to it here when it has a home.
Rhea Karuturi
Bangalore · San Francisco · concept map
I build companies and write books. I co-founded Hoovu Fresh, a B2B puja flower supply chain across nine Indian cities, where I'm the CTO. My first novel, LIGHGHT, is out querying. I keep a reading list that began in 6th grade and has, somehow, reached 624 books.
I'm interested in trust infrastructure, religious practice, systems that hold a lot of small things together, and the seams where cultural inheritance meets modern technology. I'm a builder and a writer. I love teaching. I love learning.
Now
I've stepped back from day-to-day operations at Hoovu to work on the slower problems — the ones that need patience.
- An AI-powered internal operations layer for Hoovu: business memory, pricing intelligence, meeting‑to‑task automation, receivables matching.
- Planning a California subsidiary for incense and puja products.
- Figuring out greenhouse floriculture expansion.
- Writing my second novel, The Rose King.
- Querying agents for LIGHGHT (56,000 words, experimental literary fiction).
Hoovu Fresh
Hoovu is a tech-enabled supply chain for puja flowers — the garlands and loose blooms used in temples, weddings, and homes across India. We operate in nine cities and run at roughly ₹20 crore in revenue. My sister Yeshoda is the CEO. We were on Shark Tank India in Season 2.
I run engineering and strategy. Most of my work right now is building the internal AI layer that turns six years of operational knowledge into something the team can actually use.
Writing
The Rose King
My second novel. Set partly in the flower markets I grew up around.
Substack
Essays, mostly on books and building. Read here.
Reading life
I've kept a list of every book I've finished since I was eleven. It's at 624 and counting. I also host a small book club on YouTube.
Earlier bylines
Times of India, Deccan Herald, and the Stanford Daily, where opinion writing won me the William Woo Award. Selected pieces →
Building
Small, personal tools. Most of these live as private experiments I share with friends.
- Chapel A cross-medium personal library that tracks the emotional impact of art — everything that shapes you, in one place.
- Cahoots A two-person goal accountability app. For you and your person.
- The Brief News without the overwhelm. A reader for people who want to be informed, not flooded.
- The Brief — Personal OS A front page for your day.
- The Brief — Inbox Warm emails. Email that feels like a letter, not a queue.
- Aarti A Hindu puja companion. Coming soon.
- Vendetta Your reasons to leave the house. A ‘do disturb’ signal so friends can meet serendipitously without the planning.
- Pelli AI-driven wedding planning. In progress.
- ComPrice Commodity pricing built on Indian APMC government data. Don't compromise with your data.
- Give Five A small pitching app.
Background
I studied Science, Technology and Society at Stanford. My honors thesis was on Aadhaar (presentation) — trust infrastructure as a lens has stayed with me. Before Hoovu I wrote for newspapers, taught introductory CS, and spent time in art museums and craft villages trying to understand how things get made.
I split my time between Bangalore and San Francisco. I read mostly fiction and philosophy. I think about ritual a lot.
Elsewhere
The Million Page Project
Every book I've finished, since 6th grade.