Jesse Pujji had been an entrepreneur as long as he can remember.
Growing up in St. Louis, he had his own snow shoveling business in middle school and created a deejaying company in high school.
“We joked, but it was honest: We cornered the Indian market for weddings and anything related to Indian music,” said Pujji, whose parents immigrated to the U.S. from India.
Pujji operated a t-shirt company while a student at the University of Pennsylvania. After graduation in 2006, he started his career in roles at management consultancy McKinsey & Co. and investment banking firm Goldman Sachs, but soon found his way back to entrepreneurship.
Pujji in 2010 became co-founder and CEO of digital marketing agency Ampush, which helps e-commerce and subscription brands optimize their social media marketing initiatives. He served as CEO of Ampush from 2010 to 2020 and its chairman from 2020 to 2023. Ampush, with operations in New York and San Francisco, in January sold to New York-based marketing firm Tinuiti. Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but Pujji has said it was an “eight figure exit.”
Today, Pujji is back in St. Louis after relocating to his hometown from San Francisco with his family in 2020. He has since built a portfolio of companies through a venture studio he launched in 2021 and that’s based in the Cortex innovation district. The venture studio, Gateway X, focuses on starting and operating companies from the ground-up and so far has publicly launched three companies, placing a focus on startups involved in direct-to-consumer products, digital marketing and e-commerce.
Why a venture studio model appeals to Pujji
Pujji, a graduate of Parkway North High School School, said he and his wife decided to relocate to St. Louis as they thought about where they wanted to raise their children. During visits back to St. Louis, Pujji connected local startup leaders, including serial technology entrepreneur David Karandish, and those meetings introduced him to the St. Louis entrepreneurial community. Pujji said the Bay Area startup scene has developed a corporate feel to its startup community “in that there was a pecking order and there’s a way things are done.” St. Louis, by contrast, is growing and allows for creativity, he said.
In creating Gateway X, Pujji adopted a "venture studio approach," which involves developing companies in-house. It's a business model that he said allows him to tap into his love of ideation and his passion for building teams to execute on business ideas.
“I love helping other people learn and grow and be the best version of themselves. I also love entrepreneurship and business,” he said.
Companies launched so far by Gateway X include GrowthAssitant, Unco and Kahani.
How Gateway X has built its portfolio
GrowthAssistant is designed to help companies source offshore digital marketing talent.
“It’s essentially a talent marketplace between brands and agencies to get them really high-quality off-shore marketing talent,” Pujji said. “20 to 30 years ago, you could offshore engineering and maybe 10 years ago, you could offshore customer service. We think digital marketing and the way it is growing is the next big trend.”
Unco is a supplement brand whose first product is Unbloat, a supplement focused on gut health and combating bloating.
Software firm Kahani has created a “storytelling platform” designed to help e-commerce brands modernize their online shopping outlets to make them more interactive and immersive for customers, Pujji said. Brands that have used the software include Nicki’s Diapers, Fragrant Jewels and AudioRange.
Gateway X plans to launch additional companies, with a fourth company, Aux Insights, to formally launch next month.
Pujji said the startups in Gateway X’s portfolio are “capital light” businesses that largely can be bootstrapped. Kahani has collected the most outside investment capital, raising $3.5 million from Sugar Capital and Nextview Partners. Unco has brought on about 300,000 in debt financing, while Growth Assistant has been entirely bootstrapped, Pujji said.
Each company operates with its own team. Pujji is CEO of Kahani and chairman of Growth Assistant and Unco. Kahani operates with about 10 employees, including contractors. GrowthAssistant has about 30 employees, including contractors, and Unco has a team of about five people. The companies operate with remote teams, but Pujji said he has a desire to expand their headcounts in St. Louis.
“My goal is to have a third or half here in St. Louis,” he said. “For me, a lot of the purpose is around helping other people learn and grow, so I want to create almost a learning center here.”
