Even a Golgappa Cart Counts: Priyanka Chalani Now Mentors 1,000+ Startups

In some Indian households, becoming an entrepreneur is a brave decision. In Sindhi households, it is barely a decision at all.

"Look, I am coming from a Sindhi background community, so among us, it is ingrained that even if you set up a small golgappa cart, you're not doing a 'job,'" Priyanka Chalani remembers.

She grew up inside that belief. It didn't just push her towards starting a business. It shaped the kind of business she would eventually build: one meant for everyone else in India who was trying to do the same thing and running out of road.

The problem she kept seeing

Before Expertbells, Priyanka had already lived the startup grind from the inside, working with company after company. The same walls kept appearing, no matter whose office she walked into. Scaling. Fundraising. The maze of regulations. Everyone was tripping on the same stones, in the same places.

She describes the ride in the one way anyone who has lived it would recognise.

"The journey is like a roller coaster. You start, then it's time to scale, then it's time to grow. At every turn, there are hurdles, from raising funds to connecting with investors."

The hurdles were real. The guidance to clear them was not, at least not in any one place. Someone had to put the whole thing together.

A co-founder who was already family

Priyanka didn't build the answer alone. Her co-founder is her husband, Rahul Israni, a chartered accountant whose financial expertise filled in exactly what the vision needed. Together they launched Expertbells, and the first chapter was narrower than what it is today.

"We started with legal and compliance services for startups," Priyanka explains. "But after helping over 1000 startups, we realized they were getting stuck in multiple problems."

So they widened the net. Expertbells today is not just one service. It is legal and compliance support, business registration, tax optimisation, fundraising assistance, and a mentorship programme that sits at the centre of all of it.

Mentors chosen with care

If a mentorship platform is only as good as its mentors, Expertbells takes the first part seriously. Priyanka and the team don't open the doors to just anyone with a title.

"We identify gaps in the Indian startup ecosystem and the specific categories where problems arise," she says. The mentors they bring in have deep expertise, yes, but also a genuine appetite for helping startups succeed. People matched to problems, not names matched to directories.

"We believe the Indian startup ecosystem can become the most powerful... There's no lack of talent in India."

That is the whole philosophy behind the matching. "We connect people with startups based on their needs, and carefully match them with mentors who can best help them."

And they made it as easy to use as any consumer app. "You simply click on the category, find the list of mentors, choose your mentor, and see their availability," Priyanka explains. "It's as easy as booking a movie ticket." No scheduling calls, no email threads that die on the vine. One tap, and a founder gets the person they need.

The honest truth about building something

Priyanka doesn't romanticise what she is building. The founder's life, by her own description, is a roller coaster of fresh problems every single day.

"Every day brings new hurdles, from scaling to team building to launching new products."

What she adds is the thing most founders eventually learn and few people say out loud.

"That's the real fun of entrepreneurship. Learning from mistakes and rising after falling."

The 8-8-8 rule

Here is the part of the story that people, especially women entrepreneurs, keep asking her about. How do you build a company and raise a family and not disappear into one or the other?

Priyanka's answer is a simple rule: eight hours of sleep, eight hours of work, eight hours of family. The 8-8-8 rule.

She is quick to clarify that it isn't a cage.

"The 8-8-8 rule isn't rigid. It's about finding a rhythm that works for you. Sometimes, I wake up early or sleep later to accommodate my work commitments. The key is to ensure that my work never compromises the time I spend with my family."

Her message to other women is bigger than time management. "Being financially independent is crucial. It's not about neglecting your family; it's about finding a balance that empowers you."

What comes next

Expertbells isn't standing still. A new e-commerce mastery programme is on the way, designed to help traditional, offline businesses move online. "We're launching a program for businesses that are currently offline," Priyanka explains. "This program will equip them with the tools and knowledge to create websites, launch online stores, and leverage digital marketing."

The company is also widening its map. Alongside its existing presence in North East and South India, Expertbells is now setting its sights on the UAE and Singapore.

And the parting advice she gives aspiring founders is the same one she has lived by: focus on the three Ps. Patience. Persistence. Perseverance. Backed up by consistent content, real networking, and the willingness to collaborate instead of compete.

Why the story matters

Priyanka Chalani built the company she wished had existed when she was watching startups quietly fail for want of the right person at the right moment.

The Sindhi girl who grew up in a household where any work counts as work has turned that belief into a company that treats every founder's dream the same way: not as a long shot, but as something worth helping across the line.

Expertbells is the bell those founders ring on the way up. And a thousand of them have rung it already.