“Trust compounds faster than hype. The world needs businesses that solve problems, not just pitch products. If your mission is honest, your community will find you and stand by you.”
Mansi Bajpai is the Co-founder of Ooumph, India’s first decentralised social credibility platform powered by AI and trust that is working towards a future in which reputation becomes currency and communities become the new economy. Trusted by UNICEF, Meta, and government bodies, Ooumph aims to give back ‘digital power back to people, where it belongs.’
An Unconventional Start
Mansi’s journey to becoming an entrepreneur has been quite unconventional, which led to her dropping out of her MBA at UCLA. Looking back at her journey, Mansi recalls,
“Back then, I observed how technology was stripping away human connection in favor of algorithms, and the more I saw it, the more I realised my path needed to be different. I believed in a world where authenticity, not influence, drives opportunity. We started small with just a belief, a framework, and a lot of courage. Today, that belief has grown into a platform used by communities, governments, and institutions to rebuild trust in the digital world.”
Mansi’s platform, Ooumph, was launched entirely on the passion and savings of the founders. In the earliest phase, Mansi and a small group of committed believers pooled personal capital to develop a minimum viable product that stayed true to their vision of a decentralised alternative to exploitative AI systems.
As the platform gained traction, Ooumph secured partnerships with organisations focused on Web3, digital governance, and impact investing. Mansi made sure that as these alliances accelerated development, she had to stay consistent with the core values.
The ‘Ooumph’ Factor
Today, what gives Ooumph an oomph factor is that they reward credibility over noise by replacing followers with ViveScore, a human-first trust metric that powers everything from job creation to community governance. Mansi explains,
“Our DAO-based system allows users to co-create opportunities rather than just consume content. In a world chasing engagement, we’re building an ecosystem based on ethical AI, decentralisation, and most importantly, human trust.”
Weaving Ethereum 2.0 directly into its fabric is what gives Ooumph an edge. Moreover, each and every DAO on the platform runs on smart contracts that govern community moderation and gate opportunities based on trust scores. Instead of speculative tokens, users earn ‘repo coins’ through verified community engagement and credibility. Their transparent, on-chain VibeScore records act as a decentralised ledger of trust, making reputation usable for hiring, vetting businesses and collaborations.
The Challenges
One of the major challenges Mansi faced along the way was the skepticism and raised eyebrows over concepts like ‘trust scoring’ and ‘decentralisation.’ As she further explains, people often associate the two concepts with surveillance and crypto volatility. What worked for them in such situations was staying transparent, building educational PR campaigns, and collaborating with institutions like the MP Police, EY, and UNICEF. She mentions,
“Our work with grassroots communities gave us the credibility to stand our ground.”
Another challenge Mansi had to go through was being a female founder in a domain that is dominated by tech jargon and venture capital playbooks. Instead of adopting their language, Mansi prioritised partnerships, careful execution, and tangible community impact.
A Rewarding Journey
Despite the challenges, the journey has been nothing short of rewarding. Mansi is filled with gratitude every time a community uses Ooumph to create jobs, or a user earns through trust, and every partner who adopts their mission. Mansi shares,
“Our first real traction came from freelancers, micropreneurs, and community organisers, individuals frustrated with centralised platforms and looking for trust-based ecosystems to find work, collaborators, or customers. This early win shaped our go-to-market by reinforcing the power of “Opportunity Communities.”
One of the milestones Mansi is truly proud of is getting chosen to lead a strategic digital transformation with the MP Police, being recognised in over 350 global media features, and partnering with UNICEF and Meta to create safer tech ecosystems. The major win, however, is building India’s first Trust DAO, which will power decentralised employment and shift the paradigm of how trust is built online, that too at a time when most platforms measure success by likes and clicks. With a simple shift in branding and focus, Mansi has been able to work with partners who cared about impact over impressions.
The Competitors
Even though Ooumph entered a space that is heavily crowded with legacy platforms, it has been able to carve out a niche for itself. Mansi asserts that even though LinkedIn is a platform that connects professionals through engagement and credentials, it lacks real-time reputation scoring and community-led governance. This is where Ooumph steps in to replace likes and endorsements with its VibeScore-powered trust metric, ensuring that credibility drives opportunities rather than sheer activity.
She further adds that while Facebook Groups host countless niche communities, they often have moderation challenges, fake identities, and little incentive for genuine participation. On the other hand, Ooumph provides AI-driven trust validation and smart contract-based community rules in every interaction, so each member knows they are dealing with verified peers.
Mansi explains that Instagram, too, has become synonymous with metrics like followers, filters, and carefully curated perfection. There is no space for meaningful reputation or decentralised discovery. Ooumph flips that model, allowing authentic vibes and genuine credibility to give opportunities, rather than pushing a system that is built on a polished façade.
Similarly, while Reddit still has a strong community focus with its karma points system, it remains centralised and subject to moderator bias. Its reputation points do not transfer across subreddits. Ooumph introduces cross-community reputation liquidity, giving users a chance to carry forward the trust earned in one corner of the network across the entire ecosystem.
Twitter, as well, falls prey to bots, misinformation, and algorithmic manipulation. Ooumph counters this by using agent-led moderation and authenticity-based amplification through VibeScore, ensuring that only credible voices are given a platform.
A Bright Future
A few years down the line, Mansi wants to see Ooumph as the backbone of Web 5.0. She is also looking forward to governance contracts that will enable on-chain voting and community-driven protocol updates, ensuring that every change reflects the collective voice. The plan is to also include features for localised regulatory compliance, keeping the platform both innovative and accountable to real-world standards.
Mansi has all hands on deck to expand the Trust DAO globally, encompassing over one million active communities. This expansion will integrate Ooumph into governance frameworks, marketplaces, and educational platforms, and launch VibeScore APIs to enable third parties to embed trust metrics into hiring processes, content creation, and commerce.
The Takeaways
A lesson Mansi has learned over the years is that one doesn’t need to be loud in order to lead. All one needs is to be real and not chase spotlights. Lastly, she says,
“Build systems that empower people, not just extract from them.”
