Mango Bites 🥭

NY TECH WEEK IS HERE!! 🗽🚀🤯

Author

Shaunak Kulkarni
May 23, 2025

If you’re new here, welcome to Mango Bites - a newsletter featuring the best South Asian professional events happening in NYC. Reply and say hi!

Lots of links below - but worth a click(s) if you're hyped for Tech Week 😉

If you’ve been with Mango for a while, you know how significant Tech Week is to us.

Tech Week 2023 was our first event.
In Tech Week 2024, we formally unveiled Mango NYC.
This year’s our third time - and it’s going to be bigger and better than ever.

Outside of what you should’ve come to expect by now (great music, great drinks, the best company), we’ve got:

  • A free drink of your choice from Hidden Grounds Chai for Mango Bites subscribers who attend

  • A ton of Mango Bites (did you expect anything less?)

  • A new community group to help folks chat about Tech Week moves, figure out where the best events are happening, and connect/plan to meet up beforehand

On that last one - I’m especially excited. A bunch of you have shared how you want better ways to stay in touch and connect with people in the community beyond events. The new Mango NYC WhatsApp community is our answer to that. Join using the link here, check out the subgroups, and feel free to send feedback.

Link to our Tech Week event here (250 signups before launch is crazy) — sign up before we hit capacity!

Big shoutout to CorridorX for partnering with us this year 🙌

Upcoming Mango Events 🎇

Register at the links below! 

The Scene 🪔

Other South Asian events I’m keeping an eye on in NYC

Date

Event

Link

5/24

Samosas and Soulmates

Here

5/31

The Grain Awakening - Chutneyverse

Here

6/24 - 6/29

Mahabharata

Here

6/26

Jazba Collective NYC Meetup

Here

7/26

Masala Mixtape (use code “mangofam” for a discount!)

Here

Cool Desis Doing Cool Things 🐘

Highlighting people in our community making strides in diverse fields!

Chirag is the CEO of Taco.co, where he leads AI-assisted organic search strategies for high-performance companies in industries like fintech, healthcare, and AI SaaS. With a deep understanding of how content, search, and business goals intersect, he’s built Taco into a go-to partner for brands that want to drive revenue through AI search. He is also a certified meditation instructor, and was our instructor at our Mango Pause event!

Why do you do what you do?
I got exposure to the online marketing / SEO world from a young age. When I was a CMO of a health-tech business I saw first hand the impact search has on driving profitable growth. But was frustrated by the agencies that were focused on driving traffic, not revenue. I wanted to build a business that was search first, especially in the AI era. I love working with a broad diverse set of entrepreneurs at the cutting edge of testing and learning tactical things in AI and Search. 

What does your Desi identity mean to you, and how has it influenced your journey?
Being desi has been extremely foundational. Several attributes like family values and respecting elders are some of the attributes that I try to imbibe and demonstrate on a daily basis. 

What advice do you have for those entering your field?
Start thinking from your customer's seat. What matters to them? How can you show proven methods that will drive outcomes for their business? Then reverse engineer how searches are performed and what gets surfaced. 

Chirag’s favs 🌟 
🎬 Bollywood Movie: Badla
🍛 Desi Eats: Tikka
🌶️ NYC Restaurant: Juliana’s

Meme Bazaar 👳🏽‍♀️

Random Stuff 💃

  • Mango Resume Drop - if you’re looking to make a career switch!

  • Love what Mango is doing? 🥭 Buy us a coffee - any support would go a long way and let us keep hosting events!

  • Want to sponsor an event or host something with me? Get in touch!

  • Have a friend who’d want to be on this newsletter? Sign up for Mango Bites here!