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PRANJUL RATHOUR
PRANJUL RATHOUR

Posted on Originally published at pranjulrathour.scult.in

Building credibility as a speaker before you've ever given a college talk

#guestspeaker #gettingstarted #credibility

Nobody gets invited to speak from nowhere. A fest team booking an unproven speaker needs some public evidence of judgement and communication ability before taking that risk.

What builds that evidence, before a single invite

  • Writing publicly about what you're building or have learned — it's the cheapest, most durable evidence of clear thinking available to anyone.
  • Speaking at a smaller, lower-stakes venue first: your own club, a meetup, a smaller local event.
  • Being visibly active and helpful in a community — answering questions well, mentoring informally — before ever asking for a stage.

The first invite usually comes from someone who already saw this evidence

It rarely comes cold from a stranger scanning profiles — it comes from someone who already read a post, saw an answer you gave, or watched you help someone else. Build that trail first.

See why I write and publish.

About Pranjul Rathour

Pranjul Rathour speaking into a microphone on stage at a MeetKats event
Speaking at a MeetKats event

Pranjul Rathour holding a microphone while answering a question during a session
Taking questions during a session

Pranjul Rathour in a grey suit at Dr. Virendra Swarup Institute of Computer Studies (VSICS), Kanpur
At VSICS, Kanpur

Pranjul Rathour in front of an Integral Startup Foundation hackathon backdrop
At an Integral Startup Foundation hackathon

Pranjul Rathour in a checked shirt inside a packed college auditorium
In a packed college auditorium

Pranjul Rathour is a GenAI engineer from Kanpur, India, and CTO at SCULT INDIA, currently shipping production RAG,
fine-tuning and agentic AI systems, mentoring 200+ students through TechVerse Enclave, and judging and speaking at
student hackathons across India. Updated 2026-09-07.

Reach out if you want to talk GenAI, book a campus session, or invite him to judge:

Pranjul Rathour · GenAI engineer, 3x hackathon winner, campus mentor. Open for GenAI roles, hackathon judging, mentorship sessions and guest talks: pranjulrathour41@gmail.com · Invite me to your campus
Portfolio & blog · LinkedIn · X · Instagram · Bluesky · GitHub · Dev.to

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