The Yoga Engineer: Popular Health Coach Saurabh Bothra Shares His Blueprint For Wellness At Scale

When you think of someone from IIT-BHU, you picture a whiz cracking code, trading stocks, or building the next big AI algorithm. What you don’t imagine is someone getting so concerned about his mother’s knee pain that he ends up starting a global wellness movement in response. But then, Saurabh Bothra doesn’t fit neatly into boxes.

On June 21, 2025, Bothra's platform Habuild broke its own previous world record for the largest online yoga class ever. A staggering 7.5 lakh participants from 169 countries tuned in for a synchronized 45-minute session. It was streamed live from Nagpur, the same city where his journey had begun a decade earlier. And though it looked like a tech-led victory, the seed of it all was very, very personal.

“My mom had knee pain. She was still working as a Chartered Accountant and struggling through it,” Bothra recalls in a telephonic conversation with ETV Bharat. “That’s when I started to focus on helping her. I wasn’t thinking of millions of people. Just one.”

When Mom Becomes Your First User

Before Habuild, Saurabh was on the typical IIT alumnus path. He'd been teaching engineering students yoga on the side for six years. He believed in pranayama, in structure, and in the thrill of helping others breathe better. But it wasn't until his own mother began suffering that something clicked. “She gave the most honest feedback,” he says. “She’d tell me: 'This asana hurts, that one works.' And since she had different fitness goals from the engineering students, the approach had to be sustainable. That's when it struck me; consistency mattered more than intensity.” It was an insight that would reshape everything.

From Coding To Cobra Pose

Back in 2020, as the world plunged into a pandemic, Saurabh started wondering why people struggled to stick with yoga. He stumbled upon James Clear’s Atomic Habits and found a mirror to his own challenges. “I had a hard time reading books,” he admits. “But this one had real-life examples. It spoke to me. And then I realized the first shloka in the Yoga Shastra is about habit formation.” That’s how the 21-Day Challenge began: short, guided routines that weren’t intimidating. The only rule? No Zero Days. If you can't do a full session, do one stretch. One breath. Just don’t break the chain.

“People need accessibility more than motivation,” he says. “Especially mothers, who are always putting themselves last.”

The WhatsApp Gurukul

Today, his platform serves over 1 crore users. They don’t rely on flashy ads. In fact, they spend next to nothing on marketing. Instead, they send thoughtful messages on WhatsApp, use behavioural nudges, and track attendance like a school teacher who actually cares.

“We used our engineering knowledge to build seamless systems. When you’re sending a message to 35 lakh people at once, it can’t just be 'Hi, join class.' It has to feel personal.”

Their most recent success—the world record-breaking yoga session on International Yoga Day—wasn’t a fluke. It was the result of a month's planning, a 30-member tech team, and the kind of logistics that rarely get listed on pitch decks. “Every single person had a role. Every scenario was accounted for. And even then, there were surprises,” he chuckles.

Why Moms Still Matter More

Even as Habuild expands into Gen-Z territory, with over 20% of their base now under 25, Saurabh still centres moms. “It’s because they’re the silent change agents. If a mother starts doing yoga, she influences the household. Kids notice. Husbands join. She becomes the wellness anchor.” His own mother still works full-time, but still gives feedback on routines, and still keeps him grounded. “She’ll call me out if an asana doesn’t feel right. That kind of user insight is priceless.”

Despite their scale, Habuild remains bootstrapped. Saurabh isn’t ruling out investment, but he’s cautious. “When people trust you with their health, you owe them honesty. Funding adds pressure. We want to grow at our community’s pace, not a VC's.”

That community, by the way, is now guiding Habuild’s next steps. Programmes for diabetes, PCOD, journaling, and even juice cleanses are conducted free for members. “We don’t measure impact in calories or clicks,” he says. “We measure it in effort. If someone showed up, even once, that matters.”

The Shirodhara Side of Self-Care

When asked about how he personally deals with stress, Saurabh doesn’t give a startup founder answer. No ice baths or 4 am hustle routines. “I go to sleep early,” he laughs. “And I try alternative therapies like Shirodhara. I tend to be a perfectionist, so that helps."

If there’s one takeaway from Saurabh Bothra’s journey, it’s this: meaningful change doesn’t start with scaling or strategies. It starts with care. With seeing your mother in pain and wanting to do something about it. With turning a habit into a revolution; one asana, one message, one 'No Zero Day' at a time.

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