Let's get metaphysical - learning from great books faster

If, like Startup 360 cohost Simon and Majella, you have a pile of non-fiction books beside the bed that you're trying to get around to reading, you'll love episode 52's guest. Shruta Satam left nearly 20 years as a corporate consultant for the likes of Deloitte and PwC to become a startup cofounder last year. Pustakh (the Sanskrit word for books), launched in Sydney in late 2025.The idea came from a pattern Shruta watched repeat during her consulting career. "The smartest, most well-read leaders I worked with would finish a book, feel inspired, cite it in the next meeting, and then change nothing. The gap between knowing and doing was everywhere, and no platform was built to fix it," she said. Pustakh is an AI-based applied learning platform for non-fiction books. It's not just a summary of 80,000 words handed to you in bite-sized pieces. It gets to know the reader to create personalised action steps, based on their specific goals, challenges, and career stage, so two people reading the same book get two entirely different action plans She's also building a habit tracker to close the loop by tracking whether Pustakh users are implementing what they read. The conversation roams from her favourite books to the metaphysical and beyond - and of course the impact of how AI is reshaping the ways we learn. Startup 360 is all about staying human and finding out what makes people tick. This show is a SmartCo. Media production, produced by Mikey Marren and edited by Matt Jackson. This episode is supported by Deel. Hire, manage and pay – anyone, anywhere. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and read StartupDaily.net for all the ANZ tech news for free!