What it takes to build a Unicorn in your 20’s - The Rafeh Qazi Story

In this week’s episode, Deepak sits down with Qazi, better known online as Rafeh Qazi: a programmer, YouTuber with over 1.3M subscribers, and the co-founder of Poppy AI, one of the fastest-growing AI tools in the creator economy.

Before building a company valued in the tens of millions, Qazi spent years struggling to find product-market fit, burning cash, and trying to solve his own problems as a content creator. In this conversation, he opens up about the journey from making $553 in a month to crossing $500K per month through affiliates, obsession, and relentless experimentation.

Deep and Qazi talk about the origin story of Poppy AI, the moment one TikTok changed everything, the role of founder-market fit, why incomplete teams are better than mediocre hires, and how to build a billion-dollar company from the ground up. They also dive into what makes a great founding partnership, how to navigate conflict, and why trust and long-term thinking matter more than any short-term win.

This episode goes deep into entrepreneurship, team building, sales, scaling software, creator psychology, and the emotional chaos behind building a rocket ship in real time. Whether you’re a founder, creator, operator, or someone obsessed with building cool things, this one will hit home.

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