Made in Fire (Paperback)

Every successful company begins not with a plan, but with a fire.

The real challenge isn’t starting; it’s keeping that fire alive while everything around you tries to put it out. Competitors. Doubt. Scale. Sometimes even your own success.

Made in Fire is the story of how the team behind one of India’s leading travel platforms did exactly that, building not just a company, but an ecosystem of technology ventures along the way.

Part origin story, part builder’s playbook, the book captures the lessons that only emerge in the trenches of real entrepreneurship: how culture becomes a company’s invisible engine, how teams of believers outperform lone heroes and how founders must constantly reinvent their companies before the world forces them to.

This isn’t theory dressed up as experience. It’s what building actually looks like, the bets, the near misses, the decisions that change everything.

For founders, builders and future entrepreneurs, Made in Fire is a candid look at how enduring companies are truly forged.

Rajnish Kumar is the co-founder and group co CEO of ixigo, India’s leading AI-based travel platform. Since co-founding the company in 2007, he has played a pivotal role in shaping its vision across new product development, technological innovation, growth marketing, research, AI initiatives and the building of global talent.

An alumnus of IIT Kanpur, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in computer science and engineering, Rajnish began his career as a software development engineer at Amadeus before returning to India to build ixigo. Under his leadership, ixigo went on to develop category defining travel products, including the ixigo Trains app, which ranked among the most downloaded travel and navigation apps globally in 2022, according to data.ai.

He was honoured with the 2023 Distinguished Alumnus Award by IIT Kanpur. Today, he continues to build and scale AI-driven innovations at ixigo, which has grown into a leading OTA for the next billion users, serving over 540 million annual active users in FY25.