How She Built A Tech Company In Bhutan | Leki Choden

2026-03-10

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In this episode Navneet Kaur, Founding Partner at TechThrive Ventures and Founder of FemTech India sits down with Leki Choden, Founder and CEO of Dragon Coders, a Bhutan-based software and digital solutions company working at the intersection of emerging technologies, skills development, and local innovation ecosystems.Leki is one of the most compelling voices in South Asian tech building a private technology company in a market where trust in private innovation is still being established, mentoring the next generation of...

Leki is one of the most compelling voices in South Asian tech building a private technology company in a market where trust in private innovation is still being established, mentoring the next generation of Bhutanese technologists, and bringing a distinctly Bhutanese perspective to global conversations on AI ethics, including the India AI Impact Summit 2026.

In this conversation, we cover:

- Founding Dragon Coders: the problem Leki set out to solve.

- Building trust in private tech in Bhutan's evolving ecosystem.

- What Bhutan's startup ecosystem looks like today.

- Bhutan's perspective at the India AI Impact Summit 2026.

- Women in tech: who applies and who holds back.

- Where real change begins for women in technology.

- Funding Dragon Coders: how financial systems fail tech businesses.

- Why locally grounded AI matters more than global generic models.

- Government-led AI in Bhutan: moving from policy to impact.

- What meaningful progress for women in Bhutan's tech ecosystem looks like in 10 years.

- Rapid fire round.

This episode is brought to you in partnership with UNESCO Women for Ethical AI South Asian Chapter.

If you are building in emerging markets, working at the intersection of AI and culture, or simply want to hear what ethical innovation sounds like when it is rooted in lived reality this conversation is for you.

Newsletter - https://techthrivenewsletter.beehiiv.com/
UNESCO ethical AI recommendations - ⁠https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000381137⁠

Leki Choden - https://www.linkedin.com/in/leki-choden-605ab829/

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