Two days in Auroville to improve your AI-first product, connect with other founders and VCs, and have fun creating podcasts, photos and video content for your product across Auroville and Pondicherry. Held periodically — see what past editions covered below, and let us know if you want in on the next one.
17–18 October
2026
Auroville
Tamil Nadu, India
Small cohort
Curated group
HCD methods
Not lectures
Why come
01
Structured, facilitated sessions that sharpen your product, your experience, and your positioning — with honest feedback from people who build.
02
A small curated cohort of AI-first founders and investors. Real conversations, shared thinking, and relationships that outlast the weekend.
03
Record podcasts and produce photo and video content for your product across Auroville and Pondicherry — set up and ready to publish.
Your Facilitators
Product & UX leader who has shaped products at scale — from N26, a $9B digital bank with 7 million customers across 25 countries, to Paysafe, a publicly listed payments platform processing $98B in volume with 15 million active users, to M-KOPA, an African fintech that has deployed over $2 billion in credit to more than 7 million customers.
Across these companies she led teams of 300+ product managers, designers, and directors — including through an IPO.
Founder of The UX Team. Co-founder of WEDOAI.
She believes building something real starts with seeing what actually matters — and having the courage to follow that.
Co-founder, WEDOAI
Industrial designer and maker with 15+ years turning ideas into tangible, functional products — from first sketch to small-batch production. The kind of practitioner who knows what it actually takes to ship something real.
Founder of LiGHT-FiSH, an Auroville studio working across CAD, CNC, laser cutting, and 3D printing. Former product design professor in Shanghai and Mumbai. 7 years as a senior designer in the USA. BA in Industrial Design, Boston.
At WEDOAI, he explores how AI reshapes the design process — as creative collaborator and workflow accelerator — helping founders, designers, and makers prototype faster and bridge the digital and physical.
When you are present
life turns the volume up.
Testimonials
Paula, as a participant of the first edition, who showed up with my half-baked MVP in an Auroville cafeteria that weekend, I felt every word of this. We came chasing speed. Instead, we slowed down, let strangers poke holes in our ugly prototypes, and discovered the real magic: those quiet moments when someone leaned in and said, “This actually feels made for me.” You created space for us to build for humans while using AI as a leverage, we didn’t lose connection while chasing for speed, just made real connection and direction to move forward. The community you built is the true MVP. Can’t wait for the next one!
Madan
Participant, First Edition
I came in with a messy doc and three half-formed hypotheses. By Sunday afternoon I had a pitch I could actually say out loud without flinching, and a two-week plan that didn’t collapse the moment I got back to my laptop. The honesty in the room is what made it work — nobody let me hide behind buzzwords.
Anya Krishnan
Founder, AI Product Studio
Facilitating Discovery Weekend is a reminder of why we started this. You watch founders walk in carrying the weight of a hundred half-decisions, and leave with one clear thing they believe in. My job is mostly to ask the question that’s been sitting quietly under everything else — and then get out of the way.
Samvit Blass
Facilitator
You'll stay in one of the most traditional Auroville guesthouses, with breakfast included.
Simple, clean, and surrounded by nature — designed for rest, focus, and a slower rhythm.
Why Auroville
There's something about stepping out of the city that lets you actually think. No office, no Slack, no context-switching. Just your idea, the process, and the people.
Auroville is an hour from Pondicherry — a genuine change of context. The kind of place where ideas settle into clarity.
Small curated group. Everyone is building something. The cross-pollination between ideas is as valuable as the structured sessions.
Led by Paula Mariani Mazzoni and Samvit Blass — designers and strategists who build AI-native products themselves.
Join the next edition
Auroville, Tamil Nadu — tell us you're interested and we'll reach out when the next edition is confirmed.
Questions? Email hi@wedoai.studio
Two days in Auroville to improve your AI-first product, connect with other founders and VCs, and have fun creating podcasts, photos and video content for your product across Auroville and Pondicherry. Held periodically — see what past editions covered below, and let us know if you want in on the next one.
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Why come
01
Structured, facilitated sessions that sharpen your product, your experience, and your positioning — with honest feedback from people who build.
02
A small curated cohort of AI-first founders and investors. Real conversations, shared thinking, and relationships that outlast the weekend.
03
Record podcasts and produce photo and video content for your product across Auroville and Pondicherry — set up and ready to publish.
Your Facilitators
Product & UX leader who has shaped products at scale — from N26, a $9B digital bank with 7 million customers across 25 countries, to Paysafe, a publicly listed payments platform processing $98B in volume with 15 million active users, to M-KOPA, an African fintech that has deployed over $2 billion in credit to more than 7 million customers.
Across these companies she led teams of 300+ product managers, designers, and directors — including through an IPO.
Founder of The UX Team. Co-founder of WEDOAI.
She believes building something real starts with seeing what actually matters — and having the courage to follow that.
Co-founder, WEDOAI
Industrial designer and maker with 15+ years turning ideas into tangible, functional products — from first sketch to small-batch production. The kind of practitioner who knows what it actually takes to ship something real.
Founder of LiGHT-FiSH, an Auroville studio working across CAD, CNC, laser cutting, and 3D printing. Former product design professor in Shanghai and Mumbai. 7 years as a senior designer in the USA. BA in Industrial Design, Boston.
At WEDOAI, he explores how AI reshapes the design process — as creative collaborator and workflow accelerator — helping founders, designers, and makers prototype faster and bridge the digital and physical.
When you are present
life turns the volume up.
Testimonials
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You'll stay in one of the most traditional Auroville guesthouses, with breakfast included.
Simple, clean, and surrounded by nature — designed for rest, focus, and a slower rhythm.
Why Auroville
There's something about stepping out of the city that lets you actually think. No office, no Slack, no context-switching. Just your idea, the process, and the people.
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Join the next edition
Auroville, Tamil Nadu — tell us you're interested and we'll reach out when the next edition is confirmed.
Questions? Email hi@wedoai.studio
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