Produced by W2D1 Media. Work with us →
Jeevika Makani

Jeevika Makani

Co-Founder & CEO at Top Road

Founder

Jeevika Makani is co-founder and CEO of Top Road, a Sydney-based startup building no-code payments and analytics tools for creators selling custom GPTs in OpenAI's GPT Store. Backed by Y Combinator and Loyal VC, Top Road was founded in 2024 with co-founder Sam Erkiner. Before Top Road, Makani worked at early-stage startups including Fat Llama, a Y Combinator-backed rental marketplace, and Lendable, an emerging-markets fintech lender. She studied economics at the University of Melbourne and holds an MBA from INSEAD. On Day One's In The Blink Of AI, she discussed democratising generative AI and building Top Road.

Watch the episode Jump to key moments LinkedIn ↗

In their own words

From Democratising Generative AI: Jeevika Makani on Building TopRoad · In The Blink Of AI
If you don't want to learn how to use these tools and you want to be deeply inefficient, we'll come in and we'll outcompete.
▶ Democratising Generative AI: Jeevika Makani on Building TopRoad

Career

  1. Now Co-Founder & CEO · Top Road
  2. Earlier · Startup Early employee · Fat Llama
  3. Earlier · Startup Early employee · Lendable

Sources: medium.com

Key moments

Jump straight to the part of Democratising Generative AI: Jeevika Makani on Building TopRoad you want.

  1. 0:00 AI’s transformative impact: “We’re living through a knowledge revolution.”
  2. 1:47 Origin of TopRoad: Pivoting in Jamaica, discovering the GPT store, and first GPT build.
  3. 3:32 Early product insights: Niche GPTs, monetisation gaps, and the developer experience.
  4. 5:14 The GPT store’s potential: Encouraging developers to build premium AI apps.
  5. 6:24 Y Combinator experience: Why authenticity and scrappiness matter for founders.
  6. 9:07 YC insights: Founders' resilience, pitching tips, and networking advantages.
  7. 11:45 Exploring TopRoad’s technical approach: Custom GPT actions and real-world examples.
  8. 18:07 Developer incentives: Monetisation models, compute costs, and app distribution challenges.
  9. 24:26 Democratising AI adoption: Personalised apps, vertical use cases, and user-friendly design.
  10. 29:03 Jeevika’s background: Building fintech in Nairobi and lessons for diverse founders.

Heard on

▶
In The Blink Of AI · 24 January 2025 Democratising Generative AI: Jeevika Makani on Building TopRoad

Top Road on Day One

Top Road We help you design, build & deploy custom GPTs. Do you build your own custom GPTs? Check out GPT Builder Tools, a third party action compatible with the Open AI Store to… 1 person · 1 episode →

Connections

Spot something wrong? Suggest a correction Updated 25 September 2026

Produced by W2D1 Media

Want a show of your own?

W2D1 Media — the team behind the Day One Network, which helped build Blackbird Ventures' Wild Hearts — builds and produces podcasts for funds, founders and operators. If you want a show built around your brand, let's talk.

Start a show →
—