FOUNDER
Who is Bahushruth Chandrashekar?

Bahushruth Chandrashekar is a technical founder and repeat Entrepreneurs First (EF) participant, currently building in the commercial lending space after prior experience at fast‑growing AI and research organizations.

Background, origin story, path to entrepreneurship

This is his second time going through EF (first in 2021), and he previously joined an EF‑backed company as a founding engineer after his first cohort didn’t get funded. Before that, he worked at QuillBot on paraphrasing and grammar‑checking products and at IBM Research. Over time, he moved from being an early technical hire to repeatedly exploring new ideas as a founder within EF.

Key experiences that shaped his path

• Building and shipping AI‑driven products at QuillBot.

• Deep technical exposure at IBM Research. Joining an EF startup as a founding engineer, then returning to EF as a founder himself.

• Iterating through multiple ideas (legal tech, dev tools/memory, risk co‑pilots) before landing on vertical AI for commercial lending.

Where did Bahushruth meet his co-founder?

He met his co‑founder, Tushar Nandy, in the EF cohort itself. They were both in the program, teamed up there, and started working together on what eventually became Cassian.

COMPANY
What is Cassian?

Cassian is an AI document intake and pre‑qualification layer for commercial loans, with an initial focus on SBA loans.

What problem does Cassian solve?

In SBA/commercial lending, there is heavy friction and back‑and‑forth between borrowers, brokers, and lenders around which documents are needed, when, and in what form. Missing or late documents cause borrower drop‑offs, long cycles, and lost deals—especially hurting lenders’ ability to close loans and sell them in the secondary market.

Core insight behind the idea

The biggest leakage is at the front line: document collection and loan packaging.

Brokers and lenders lose not just servicing revenue, but also large secondary market gains from loans that never close.

There’s an opportunity to build vertical AI directly into these workflows instead of generic “memory/dev tools,” and to start with ops‑heavy workflows where impact is obvious.

What makes it different from existing solutions?

Existing systems (CRMs/LOS) at banks partially support workflows but don’t:

• Handhold borrowers through exactly what to provide and where to find it.

• Automatically analyze documents to surface risk, context, and industry benchmarks (e.g., HVAC growth in a given region). Cassian is positioned as an AI‑driven intake + intelligence layer, not just a static workflow or CRM.

Early Validation

He and Tushar pivoted away from ideas where teams didn’t feel the problem acutely (e.g., risk co‑pilots where no one tracked losses) toward SBA/commercial workflows where ops pain is obvious and constant.

They see strong potential in ops‑heavy SBA/BDO workflows and believe brokers’ pain points validate starting there.

PROBLEM & SOLUTION

Specific problem identified:

Brokers and lenders repeatedly chase borrowers for missing documents.

Requirements change as underwriting progresses (“we missed this one thing”), causing last‑minute asks and borrower drop‑offs.

Many teams don’t even quantify how much money they lose due to poor workflows and “stupid decisions,” so the problem is under‑tracked but large.

How Cassian uniquely addresses this:

• For borrowers: Cassian “holds their hand,” telling them exactly which documents are needed and where to find them, reducing confusion and friction.

• For lenders/brokers: Cassian ingests the full package and returns structured views of documents, risk, and industry context, helping them underwrite faster and more confidently.

IDEAL CUSTOMER PROFILE (ICP)

Who is Cassian for?

• Initially: SBA and commercial loan brokers who: 1) Aggregate documents from buyers and sellers. 2) Package those into loan files. 3) Route deals to lenders.

• Later: Lenders (banks and other commercial lenders) who will join as network partners once broker‑side standardization exists.

Who benefits most?

• Brokers handling complex acquisition or expansion deals (e.g., HVAC roll‑ups) who need to collect and organize many documents from multiple counterparties.

• Lenders looking for better‑packaged, higher‑quality loan files with clearer risk and industry context.

WHERE DO YOU SEE CASSIAN IN ONE YEAR?

One-year view: 

In a year, Bahushruth wants Cassian to have closed as many brokers as possible and onboarded a meaningful set of lenders, positioning Cassian as a platform connecting both sides.

Long-term direction:

Expand from SBA into broader commercial loans (CRE, C&I, equipment finance). Become the standard platform for how brokers and lenders package, evaluate, and route commercial loans, with Cassian as the default AI layer powering intake, risk understanding, and decision support.

TL;DR

Bahushruth is the founder of Cassian, a startup building an AI‑powered document intake and pre‑qualification layer that helps brokers and lenders close more commercial loans by guiding borrowers through what to submit and turning messy loan packages into clear files capable of being underwritten.

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