Travel Buddy’s Founder Saurav Chakraborty speaks on the National Stage at Bharat DtoC Meetup: Why Every D2C Brand Builder in India Should Pay attention

The Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) ecosystem in India is changing rapidly. There are thousands of brands competing against each other and acquiring is spending crores but losing these customers within weeks. How to get more customers is not the question every founder, marketer, and growth leader of D2C companies is asking in 2026.

Saurav Chakraborty Founder and CEO of Travel Buddy, the fastest growing travel community D2C brand in India, having more than 3.5 million users. Saurav Chakraborty will be the D2C Story Stage at the esteemed Bharat DtoC Meetup, held by SMB Connect, at Hotel Kohinoor Continental, Mumbai at 10:00 AM on April 8, 2026. His session is titled as “Retention Re-Imagined: Making Customers Hero of Your Brand” and it promises to be one of the most powerful, practical, and thought-provoking session of the entire event. The session that you simply cannot afford to miss is one of the D2C brand founders, product leaders, marketers, or anyone who builds a consumer brand in India. Reserve your place at the Bharat DtoC Meetup 2026.

Who Is Saurav Chakraborty-The Visionary Behind Travel Buddy

Saurav Chakraborty is not just another startup founder. He is the visionary of one of the most exciting and fast-growing consumer communities in India today.

As the Founder and CEO of Travel Buddy available at www.beatravelbuddy.com,Saurav has built a platform that goes far beyond the conventional definition of a travel app. Under his leadership, Travel Buddy has grown into a thriving social travel ecosystem trusted by over 3.5 million travelers across India and the world, offering buddy matching, curated group trips, flight and hotel bookings, and a genuinely connected community of explorers who believe that group travel is always the best option.

The remarkable journey by Saurav Chakraborty in the explosive growth of Travel Buddy has not been driven by huge advertisement budgets but focus on customer experience as well as a profoundly genuine insight facts believed by Indian travellers.

Travel buddy is a brand that has a 3.5 million strong consumer base, an Instagram following of 38,000+, a Google Play app that has been downloaded by lakhs of travellers and is regarded as the most preferred travel community platform in India.

Saurav’s approach to retention, community building, and customer-first brand building is what he will be sharing on the D2C Story Stage and the insights he brings are hard-won, battle-tested, and directly applicable to any D2C brand operating in India today.

The Session: Retention Re-Imagined Making Customers Hero of Your Brand

Retention is the most crucial for sustainable growth of D2C in India in an age where customer acquisition is going to be difficult because customer preferences are changing day by day and brand loyalty is becoming scarce. But most brands continue to think of retention as a side effect a set of discount emails, loyalty points and re-targeting advertisements that do little to establish any real, sustained relationship with their consumers.

Saurav Chakraborty’s session at the Bharat DtoC Meetup challenges this thinking entirely. “Retention Re-Imagined: Making Customers Hero of Your Brand” is not about tactics, it is a radical change in philosophy. The Travel Buddy has breathed since it was founded on its initial day. Its essence is painfully simple and incredibly strong, as by turning your customer into the hero of your brand narrative, not the product, not the founder, not the technology, you foster a sense of loyalty, recommendation and community that not even the most intense advertising campaign can achieve.

During this session, the participants will be able to discuss:

• • Why traditional retention strategies are failing D2C brands in India and what to do instead.
  • How Travel Buddy built a self-sustaining community of 3.5 million travellers without relying on paid acquisition alone.
  • The philosophy of making customers the hero and how to apply it to any D2C category practical, concrete plans of how to turn one-time buyers into lifelong brand ambassadors.
  • There was a discussion on how community, storytelling and real-life experience have contributed to creating unbreakable customer loyalty.
  • Lessons from Travel Buddy’s growth journey that every D2C brand builder in India can apply immediately.

  This is not theory. This is a masterclass drawn from the lived experience of building one of India’s most community-driven consumer brands from the ground up. Do not miss this session.

  Register for the Bharat DtoC Meetup 2026 today

  Event Details

  Detail	Information
  Event	Bharat DtoC Meetup
  Organised By	SMB Connect
  Speaker	Saurav Chakraborty, Founder and CEO, Travel Buddy
  Session Title	Retention Re-Imagined: Making Customers Hero of Your Brand
  Stage	D2C Story Stage
  Date	08 April 2026
  Time	10:00 AM
  Venue	Hotel Kohinoor Continental, Mumbai

   

  Why the Bharat D2C Meetup Is the Most Important Event for D2C Brand Builders in India Right Now

  Bharat DtoC Meetup by SMB Connect is an Indian event that is among the best in bringing together Direct-to-Consumer brand builders, founders, investors, and growth professionals. The event is an exclusive opportunity to share real stories and real strategies and real insights, not polished corporate talks, but straight, experience-based discussions of what it really takes to create a great consumer brand in India. As a speaker on the D2C Story Stage, Saurav Chakraborty, along with other prominent figures in the D2C world of India, the Bharat DtoC Meetup is shaping up and an event to miss by anyone looking to build a sustainable, customer-first brand in India.

  Early-stage founders who want to keep their initial thousand customers, and scaling brands who want to create community and decrease churn – this event will equip you with the frameworks, inspiration, and connections to take your brand to the next level.

  Registrations are open and you can be part of the debate that is defining the future of D2C in India

  What You Can Learn from Travel Buddy’s Customer-First Growth Story

  Travel Buddy’s success is a living, breathing proof of concept for everything Saurav will discuss on stage. Here is a glimpse of the principles that have driven Travel Buddy’s remarkable growth and that Saurav will be expanding on at the Bharat DtoC Meetup. While most travel brands spend heavily on performance marketing, Travel Buddy invested in building a genuine community.

  The result is 3.5 million travellers who come back not because of a discount, but because they belong. Every Travel Buddy trip, every buddy match, every group experience is designed to be memorable not just functional. When customers have an experience worth talking about, they become your most powerful marketing channel.

  Travel Buddy is not only a flight ticket and group trip seller. It markets the emotion of not travelling alone, discovering your tribe, being a buddy when you arrive, a friend when you leave. The community of Travel Buddy is an active contributor to the brand, and they influence the brand by the stories, their reviews, their photos and trips, as well as their word-of-mouth recommendations

  The customer is not just the audience. The customer is the hero. These are not just Travel Buddy’s principles. They are the future of D2C brand building in India and Saurav Chakraborty is bringing them to the Bharat DtoC Meetup stage on April 8, 2026.

  How to Attend, Register Before Slots Fill Up

  Seats at the Bharat DtoC Meetup are limited and are filling up fast. This is your opportunity to

  • Hear Saurav Chakraborty speak live on retention, community, and customer-first brand building.
  • Network with hundreds of India’s top D2C founders, marketers, and investors.
  • Walk away with actionable insights, real frameworks, and new connections that will directly impact your brand’s growth.
  • Be part of one of India’s most important conversations about the future of direct-to-consumer commerce.

  Date: 08 April 2026 Time: 10:00 AM Venue: Hotel Kohinoor Continental, Mumbai

  Register now before it is too late, limited seats are available

  About Travel Buddy, India’s Fastest Growing Travel Community

  Travel Buddy (www.beatravelbuddy.com) is the fastest growing social travel company in India with over 3.5 million like-minded travellers that find trip companions, book group experiences as well as explore the world together. Travel Buddy is founded on the principle of the philosophy of #NeverFeelAlone, buddy matching, group trips curated by destination and expertly guided, domestic and international flights and hotel bookings with hassle-free EMI, and a vibrant social travel community. Beat Travel Buddy is a daily travel inspiration, group trip updates, and community stories on Instagram at @beatravelbuddy. Website: www.beatravelbuddy.com, Support: support@beatravelbuddy.com, App: Can be found in Google Play Store

  About SMB Connect and the Bharat D2C Meetup

  SMB Connect is among the most popular platforms in India to empower and connect small and medium businesses and Direct-to-Consumer brands. Its main event series is the Bharat D2C Meetup that takes the founders of the D2C ecosystem in India, investors, marketers and brand builders to have real conversations, actionable insights and meaningful connections that help them grow.

  Don’t miss on April 8, 2026, the historic meeting of Saurav Chakraborty. Be there in the room where the D2C future of India is being crafted – at Hotel Kohinoor Continental, Mumbai, at 10:00 AM.