E215 - The Truth About Building Hardware in India Suraj Aiar, QWR on DeepTech, Grit & Growth

What if India leads the next computing revolution?Suraj Aiar, founder of QWR, is betting on it—by building XR headsets from the ground up. No VCs. No shortcuts. Just a relentless pursuit of redefining how India builds hardware. In this episode, we sit down with Suraj Aiar, Founder & CEO of QWR—one of India’s only companies building XR (Extended Reality) hardware from scratch. He walks us through the 7-year grind: from cracking precision manufacturing and disrupting supply chains, to scaling a profitable enterprise XR business—all without chasing the D2C hype.A blueprint for what it actually takes to build deeptech in India.⏱️ Timestamps0:00 – Introduction1:58 – What is Extended Reality, and where are we today?6:48 – What can’t mobile devices do yet, that headsets can?10:28 – Where does Suraj fit in the XR ecosystem?15:07 – What does Suraj’s ideal customer look like?19:21 – Does Suraj own the software they build?20:14 – How does Suraj approach the hardware challenge?26:05 – Suraj’s advice for newcomers in the field.28:28 – Is the stereotype true that India lacks deep tech companies?30:48 – What’s Suraj doing to ensure timely delivery?35:40 – What’s proprietary in Suraj’s manufacturing chain?38:09 – A breakdown of the company’s journey so far.41:18 – Are tech skills and creativity mutually exclusive?45:22 – What skills does Suraj value when hiring?53:38 – Why did Suraj choose to bootstrap?59:26 – What does the next 5 years look like?1:02:28 – What might Jivraj do with a headset in 2030?1:05:53 – How would Suraj’s friends describe him?1:07:21 – How did becoming a father change Suraj?1:09:01 – Key lessons Suraj learned from life and business.1:12:53 – Is Suraj guided by any philosophy or principle?1:14:37 – What would Suraj do in an alternate world?1:15:38 – Advice Suraj would give his younger self.1:19:37 – Outro🔗 Support the PodcastIf you found this episode valuable, share it with a founder, leave a comment, and

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E215 - The Truth About Building Hardware in India Suraj Aiar, QWR on DeepTech, Grit & Growth is an episode from Indian Silicon Valley by Jivraj Singh Sachar.

This episode is 01:20:09 long.

This episode was published on May 4, 2025.

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