Kulfi Collective’s business across branded content and owned IP

An editorial interpretation of the conversation, distinguishing the guest’s arguments from verified business outcomes.

Longer relationships, more predictable capacity

Advait Gupt describes Kulfi Collective as a creative studio helping brands build cultural relevance through content, communities and experiences. His route into advertising began after investment banking and venture capital, when he joined his brother Akshat in making a short film and then building a content business. Brand work initially paid the bills. Kulfi deliberately stayed bootstrapped, he says, but now seeks institutional scale; he credits chairperson Divya Karani with helping the company understand the foundations required for that ambition.

From viral requests to business problems

The commercial model has evolved from individual production projects towards deeper relationships with fewer brands. Gupt says project work offered attractive margins but limited revenue visibility, with each year effectively starting again. Retainers now sit alongside projects and a smaller revenue-share component intended to align incentives around outcomes. He prefers a defined business problem to a request for a viral campaign. Work that demonstrates value can help procurement conversations, although educating clients remains necessary. For Spotify, he describes a strategy of bringing artists closer to fans and building communities around genre-based properties; he distinguishes engagement results from business outcomes the work hopes to support.

Culture and the artist–fan relationship

Gupt argues that brands need to participate where conversations happen, even when every interaction cannot be tracked. Connecting offline experiences with online discussion is part of that approach. He sees integrated service and specialist collectives as compatible: one partner can coordinate a wider offer without employing every specialist. Cultural nuance also shapes Kulfi’s client appeal, particularly for global technology brands adapting to India’s varied audiences. On quick commerce, his view is that budgets follow attention rather than simply disappear, so studios must identify where their capabilities can remain useful.

Specialists, creators and the challenge of IP

Owned IP has been difficult for a bootstrapped services business, Gupt acknowledges. Kulfi is exploring co-building and co-ownership, especially with younger founder-led and individual brands, rather than claiming an established success model. He defines creators broadly to include designers, animators, directors and writers, and treats collaborators’ independent ventures as potential added capability. Retention depends on shared goals and delivering on them, which he says is harder in practice. Measurement remains a challenge: linking cultural relevance to business value is a goal, not a solved attribution system. His optimism about AI rests on continuing human emotion and changing behaviours, with brands finding new ways to play meaningful roles.