When Smriti Krishna Singh began speaking with hospitality operators across cities, from Bengaluru to New York, she noticed a pattern. Despite the dynamic nature of the industry, all operators were still relying on manual inventory tracking, fragmented systems, and guesswork in their day-to-day operations. For staff and managers alike, this often translated into long hours, data blind spots, and operational inefficiencies.
These conversations confirmed what Smriti had long suspected: the tools available to hospitality businesses hadn’t evolved to meet the pace or complexity of the industry. That gap led her to start kristalball, a platform that uses AI, machine learning, and sensor-based technologies to deliver real-time visibility and decision-making support across inventory, supply chain and daily operations.
“Every time I encountered a job or a process that was painful or inefficient, I felt compelled not just to question it, but to reimagine it,” Smriti says.
kristalball was among the top 11 startups selected for Season 2 of the Dell Entrepreneur Challenge, a nationwide initiative by Dell Technologies and YourStory to spotlight emerging ventures tackling real-world problems. Within this group, kristalball was named the runner-up in the women-led track and awarded Rs 8 lakh worth of Dell Technologies’ solutions.
Translating industry insight into a product
Smriti's experience in leadership roles across global organizations helped shape a practical approach to problem-solving. Inspired by the ancient crystal ball that could predict the future, Smriti envisioned a new-age ‘kristalball’—a smart system built to deliver predictive, data-driven insights. But not just any data—her conviction was clear: it had to be good data. That meant eliminating human error at the source and using scientific, tech-enabled methods to collect information. Thus, kristalball emerged out of extensive R&D and the search to find the most optimal, accurate yet intuitive solution.
With a reputation for simplifying complex systems—Smriti created patent-pending technology that’s not just powerful, but in her words “humane” i.e. tech that is built with compassion for its users’ problems. In other words, it is extremely user-friendly and intuitive and also accurate.
With a vision to ‘Simplify Life!’, she incorporated kristalball even before the product was built and spent months gathering direct insights from bar owners, hotel managers, and supply chain teams across the world.
With no comparable product in the market, she put together an initial team that created a working prototype and shared it with potential users. “Instead of explaining a vision, I chose to show, not tell,” Smriti shares.
At its core, kristalball puts people at the center of technology design. The simplicity of kristalball empowers hospitality teams with clarity, speed, and control.
One bar and one hotel in Bengaluru agreed to pilot the system, providing valuable operational insights that helped shape future versions.
Rather than scaling rapidly at an unsustainable pace for a bootstrapped startup, kristalball focused on delivering exponential value to early customers and these initial deployments became reference points for others, helping the company expand steadily. Currently, kristalball is on its way to demonstrate its value in India and global markets equally.
A platform designed for frontline teams
kristalball’s platform enables users to predict inventory needs with 99.98% accuracy, improve productivity by over 85%, receive real-time alerts, and streamline operational workflows. What distinguishes it from traditional systems is its ease of use, adaptability across venue sizes, and seamless integration into day-to-day operations.
“We build for the unsung heroes of hospitality – the servers, bar staff, stockroom teams, ops managers, and finance staff who work long hours behind the scenes,” she says.
The platform allows managers to monitor venue performance remotely, while enabling frictionless operations on the ground and accurate inventory tracking. This gives enormous visibility to improve productivity, profitability and compliance without adding administrative overhead.
Other value-added features empower frontline staff to improve guest experience. One feature, for example, gives bartenders access to curated content about thousands of liquor brands, helping them upsell and engage better with customers.
Today, kristalball is live in five markets, including one international location.
Early challenges and turning points
Like many hardware-plus-software startups, kristalball faced challenges in establishing a reliable supply chain. Component suppliers were initially hesitant to commit to low-volume custom requests. Building credibility required creative terms of engagement and persistence in convincing large suppliers the win-win opportunity they had if they partnered with kristalball. Detailed planning, and consistent follow-ups, eventually secured long-term stable relationships with reputed suppliers that could provide the necessary scale when required.
On the customer side, not every pilot turned into a commercial contract. Smriti recalls an early prospect telling her that a bartender could do more than the tech. as they could be deployed into multiple jobs. Instead of walking away, the team leveraged that feedback to demonstrate measurable ROI and incredible insights through their platform to improve business outcomes. The same venue signed on as a customer and even offered to invest in the company a year later.
Recruiting was another area of learning. Experienced hires often came with rigid playbooks that didn’t align with the company’s pace and culture. kristalball shifted to hiring high-potential graduates and invested in a strong training program to build an agile, mission-driven team.
Reflections on the Dell Entrepreneur Challenge
Participating in the Dell Entrepreneur Challenge helped kristalball gain visibility and perspective. For a bootstrapped team, it was also a rare opportunity to present their work to a broader ecosystem.
“It reminded us that we weren’t solving a niche operational problem; we were building something with broader global relevance,” Smriti says.
One memorable moment for the team was presenting at a venue that happened to be a kristalball customer. Their customers showed up in support and even offered to give a live testimonial on stage. “The gesture meant a lot,” she adds. “It showed us the kind of trust and relationship we’d built.”
What’s next
Looking ahead, kristalball is expanding its product capabilities and plans to deepen its presence in both Indian and international markets. New modules around inventory and supply chain use cases are in development. With innovation in their DNA, the kristalball team aims to further simplify the platform’s user experience while extending its powerful decision-support tools across the hospitality industry and into adjacent sectors.
“Our vision over the next 3–5 years is to build kristalball into the standard for intelligent, agile inventory and supply chain operations in hospitality as well as adjacent sectors,” Smriti says. “We’re focused on building technology that respects the people who keep businesses running by improving clarity, improving decision-making and saving time.”
Original Article
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