Paras Chopra
Paras Chopra is an Indian entrepreneur, software engineer, researcher, and investor best known as the founder of Wingify, the software company behind Visual Website Optimizer (VWO), one of the earliest globally successful A/B testing and conversion optimization platforms built from India.[1] He is widely regarded as one of the pioneers of India’s software-as-a-service (SaaS) ecosystem after building Wingify into a profitable, bootstrapped multinational software business serving customers across dozens of countries.[2]
Following his work in SaaS, Chopra shifted his focus toward artificial intelligence research and founded Lossfunk, an independent AI research lab focused on foundational questions in machine intelligence, cognition, reasoning, and scientific discovery.[3][4] Through his essays, research initiatives, and public commentary, Chopra has become known for advocating independent scientific inquiry, long-term AI research, and unconventional approaches to technological innovation.[5]
Early life and education
Paras Chopra studied biotechnology at Delhi College of Engineering, later renamed Delhi Technological University (DTU), in New Delhi.[6] During his university years, he developed an interest in software engineering, analytics, machine learning, and internet technologies despite formally studying biotechnology.[7]
Paras graduated with academic distinction and received a gold medal from the institution.[8] Before becoming an entrepreneur full time, he worked at Aspiring Minds, an Indian employability assessment and analytics company, where he was involved in research and development activities related to testing and analytics systems.[9]
Career
Founding of Wingify
In 2009, Paras founded Wingify, a software company focused on website optimization and experimentation tools.[10] The company’s flagship product, Visual Website Optimizer (VWO), allowed businesses to run A/B tests and optimize user experiences without requiring extensive engineering implementation.[11]
Wingify initially began as a side project while Paras was still employed full time.[12] According to Chopra, the product gained traction rapidly after launch, reaching approximately US$4,000 in monthly recurring revenue in its early phase.[13]
Wingify became one of India’s most recognized bootstrapped SaaS companies during the 2010s.[14] Unlike many technology startups of the period, the company scaled internationally without raising venture capital funding.[15] Wingify expanded its customer base globally and served thousands of businesses using VWO for experimentation and conversion optimization.[16]
Paras became associated with the broader rise of India’s SaaS industry, particularly among founders advocating sustainable growth, profitability, and product-led international expansion.[17]
Sale of Wingify
In January 2025, Paras announced the sale of Wingify to private equity firm Everstone Group.[18] Public reports subsequently described the transaction value as approximately US$200 million.[19]
The acquisition was widely discussed within India’s startup ecosystem because Wingify had been built largely without external institutional capital.[20]
Lossfunk and AI research
After stepping away from operational leadership at Wingify, Chopra increasingly focused on artificial intelligence research and founded Lossfunk, an AI research lab focused on foundational scientific questions.[21] Chopra described Lossfunk as “an AI lab for independent minds interested in foundational questions.”[22]
Lossfunk positioned itself as an alternative to both academia and commercial AI laboratories, emphasizing curiosity-driven research, independent thinking, and small research teams.[23] Paras publicly stated that the lab aimed to become “a cosy home for independent researchers” focused on long-term scientific inquiry rather than short-term commercial output.[24]
The organization launched the Lossfunk Residency program, which supported researchers and experimental AI projects across areas such as robotics, autonomous systems, reasoning models, scientific research automation, and low-resource language AI systems.[25]
Under Chopra’s leadership, Lossfunk researchers published work and participated in conferences including ICML, ICLR, ACL, and AAAI-related symposiums.[26][27]
Research and publications
Paras has contributed essays and papers on artificial intelligence, cognition, scientific discovery, and machine reasoning.[28] His writing often focuses on the philosophy of science, epistemology, incentives in technological systems, and long-term implications of artificial intelligence.[29]
In 2026, Chopra co-authored the paper Why LLMs Aren't Scientists Yet: Lessons from Four Autonomous Research Attempts, which examined the limitations of large language models in autonomous scientific workflows.[30]
Lossfunk also received attention for experiments involving low-resource language generation, including methods that enabled large language models to generate text in Tulu without explicit language training datasets.[31]
Views on artificial intelligence
Chopra has frequently commented on the state of India’s AI ecosystem and the need for foundational research investment.[32] He has argued that India should pursue original AI research rather than replicating existing Western AI products.[33]
At industry forums and in essays, Paras has advocated for smaller independent research groups, greater intellectual autonomy for researchers, and approaches to AI that prioritize scientific insight over rapid commercialization.[34]
He has also publicly criticized large corporations for prioritizing shareholder payouts over research and development spending in AI.[35]
Writing and intellectual interests
He maintains a personal publication platform titled Inverted Passion, where he writes essays on psychology, startups, economics, technology, philosophy, productivity, and decision-making.[36] Several of his essays on cognitive biases, money, freedom, leadership, and product design have circulated widely within entrepreneurial and technology communities.[37]
His work often combines themes from behavioral science, rationalist philosophy, systems thinking, and technological progress.[38]
Recognition
Paras was included in Forbes India's "30 Under 30" list in the technology category in 2014.[39]
He has been cited as part of discussions around India’s SaaS movement, bootstrapped entrepreneurship, and the emergence of independent AI research initiatives in India.[40]
Personal life
Paras has described himself as largely self-taught in software engineering, machine learning, and entrepreneurship.[41] He has stated publicly that he wrote his first neural network program roughly two decades before founding Lossfunk.[42]
He has expressed long-standing interests in scientific reasoning, philosophy of mind, cognition, and the social implications of advanced artificial intelligence systems.[43]
External links
References
- ↑ Paras Chopra – Founder and Chairman of VWO
- ↑ Paras Chopra on building Wingify into a global SaaS company
- ↑ Paras Chopra LinkedIn profile
- ↑ About Paras Chopra
- ↑ Manifesto for doing good science in AI
- ↑ Paras Chopra – Forbes India 30 Under 30
- ↑ Paras Chopra author profile at VWO
- ↑ Forbes India profile on Paras Chopra
- ↑ Paras Chopra on his early professional career
- ↑ Paras Chopra on founding Wingify
- ↑ Paras Chopra discussing the creation of VWO
- ↑ Paras Chopra on bootstrapping Wingify
- ↑ Paras Chopra on Wingify’s early growth
- ↑ Paras Chopra and India’s SaaS ecosystem
- ↑ Paras Chopra on building a bootstrapped SaaS business
- ↑ VWO and Wingify background
- ↑ Paras Chopra on bootstrapped entrepreneurship
- ↑ Paras Chopra announcing sale of Wingify
- ↑ Delhi Technological University statement on Wingify acquisition
- ↑ Paras Chopra on bootstrapping philosophy
- ↑ Paras Chopra on founding Lossfunk
- ↑ Paras Chopra LinkedIn biography
- ↑ Lossfunk manifesto on AI research
- ↑ What’s the point of doing research?
- ↑ Lossfunk Residency
- ↑ Paras Chopra on Lossfunk research output
- ↑ Can AI models be conscious?
- ↑ About Paras Chopra and his writings
- ↑ How to approach research in AI
- ↑ Why LLMs Aren't Scientists Yet: Lessons from Four Autonomous Research Attempts
- ↑ Paras Chopra's Lossfunk gets AI models to speak Tulu through prompts, not training
- ↑ Paras Chopra on India and frontier AI models
- ↑ Paras Chopra on AI research, challenges and India's future
- ↑ Manifesto for doing good science in AI
- ↑ Paras Chopra on AI research investment
- ↑ About Paras Chopra
- ↑ Essays by Paras Chopra
- ↑ What is research and how to do it?
- ↑ Forbes India 30 Under 30 – Paras Chopra
- ↑ Paras Chopra and the Indian SaaS ecosystem
- ↑ Paras Chopra on self-learning and software engineering
- ↑ Paras Chopra biography at Lossfunk Residency
- ↑ Can AI models be conscious?