Golpo: The Stanford Brothers Changing Storytelling
Meet Shreyas and Shraman Kar, a Stanford junior and freshman, building AI for personalized audio experiences
Among the college startup landscape, true originality is hard to find. But Golpo—founded by brothers Shreyas and Shraman Kar—presents an ambitious exception. Their mission? To solve storytelling’s oldest limitations—personalization at scale—by generating AI-audio experiences unique for each listener.
Shreyas, now a junior at Stanford, recalls the inspiration behind Golpo: “We wanted to build something that feels like it's speaking directly to you.”
This drive for connection is rooted in the brothers’ early experiences. When Shreyas was in 8th grade, he got really into building apps. He first created RightCharity, an app connecting charities and families impacted by Hurricane Harvey.
His brother Shraman, now a freshman at Stanford, is no different. Two years younger, Shraman started by tinkering with Arduino kits he got as a birthday present in 6th grade. But after watching RightCharity in action, he saw the impact of software development. “Software is easier to scale,” he explained, which led him to launch Foodle, an app that matched surplus food from restaurants and households with those in need.
The spark for Golpo came during the past summer. While Shreyas interned at NVIDIA and Shraman prepared to represent Team USA for the inaugural AI Olympiad, they maintained their commitment to teaching AI to students across 50 countries—something they had done the past four summers. But they wanted to build something greater.
For many of their peers, listening to NPR or New York Times podcasts had become a routine. But these podcasts were general. Shreyas thought “What if I wanted to learn more about yesterday’s cricket game, and that wasn’t covered in the podcast?” With podcast listenership continuing to increase—over 150 million monthly listeners in the U.S. alone, the formats of traditional podcasts have remained largely unchanged.
Enter Shreyas’s pitch to his brother: a platform where users could input their interests through a simple form, and in return, receive personalized podcasts uploaded to Spotify. It seemed a promising alternative to the generic content flooding their Spotify every morning. But during testing, they hit a wall: the content felt lifeless. “We listened to entire [50 minute] sessions,” Shreyas explained, “We even tried out a podcast on Llama 3. It just wasn’t engaging.”
The breakthrough came unexpectedly. A user from Germany had used their app every day for a week—for true crime stories. “Back then, without spending money on GPUs, it’s hard to build a good voice model that is very human with emotions. But with true crime, despite a monotone voice, the natural story, eeriness, and sound effects makes it interesting,” Shreyas recalled.
That marked the beginning of Golpo (named after the Bengali word for “story”). With Golpo, users post prompts like “Tell me about the Idaho College Murders” or “Create a story around a high school swatting incident.” What follows is an AI-crafted, unique audio experience, complete with a lifelike voice and sound effects—creaking doors, footsteps, and distant screams—that brings each story to life.
For their next release, Shraman says, “We want to put creators at the front. We see the future, not AI replacing creators, but creators using it to make their jobs easier.” For example, a fitness podcaster could input tailored advice for different listener goals—muscle gain or wellness—and Golpo would generate a customized podcast based on the user’s health data or preferences.
And with the popularity of short-form content, the brothers are looking to help content creators make soundbites perfect for Instagram Reels or 15-second TikToks. Versions are also underway to expand to multiple languages, like Spanish or Bengali, to make personalized storytelling accessible to broader global audiences.
Now, Shreyas and Shraman have gained backing from Afore Capital and are working towards Golpo’s next release, while being full-time students. Shreyas serves as co-president of Stanford's AI Club, a community he founded last spring. Meanwhile, Shraman is acclimating to his freshman year studies, high in machine learning coursework.
The Kar brothers see Golpo as a way to revolutionize storytelling through podcasts. Their vision places listeners at the heart of personalized, immersive experiences that feel uniquely crafted for each person. Rather than using AI to generate generic content, they want to empower creators to easily connect with their audiences in more intimate, personalized ways.
Shreyas and Shraman first connected with us over dinner! If you're interested in joining future dinners, reach out to rebecca@afore.vc
Download Golpo: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/golpo-true-crime-podcast/id6587557258
For those curious, Golpo means story in Bengali. Great name!