The First 1000 Days: Why I Write About Building
From a 3BHK in Noida to selling to 53 countries - seven years of startup lessons I wish someone had shared with me.
I started my first company in the final year of college. Seven years later, we exited to a US acquirer. Now I’m building an AI-native growth stack.
That journey taught me more than any MBA ever could. And most of what I learned, I learned the hard way.
Where it started
It was 2015, and I was at IIT Mandi when we first pitched at Startup Oasis. Last semester of college after being placed was going to be a vacation, or that’s what we naively thought. Crazy time validating the idea, talking to customers, pitching.
Four people crammed into a 3BHK in Noida shortly after, running on delusion. We had no idea what we were doing, but we had conviction that we could figure it out.
That naive optimism turned out to be our greatest asset. We weren’t sophisticated enough to know what was supposed to be impossible.
What I learned building
We sold to 53 countries while operating at 30% of Silicon Valley burn rates. Not because we were geniuses, but because we had no choice. Constraints breed creativity.
We stole market share from competitors with $200M+ in funding. That still makes me smile.
Here’s what seven years taught me:
Action trumps perfection. The founders who win aren’t the ones with the best ideas - they’re the ones who execute fastest. Ship early, learn fast, iterate constantly.
Talk to customers before you build anything. I can’t tell you how many months we wasted building features nobody wanted. The best product insights come from conversations, not spreadsheets.
The emotional rollercoaster is real. One day you’re closing your biggest deal, the next you’re wondering if you can make payroll. Nobody talks about this enough.
Team dynamics make or break you. The Tata Power story, the co-founder conversations at 2 AM, the people who stayed when things got hard - that’s what I remember most.
Why I’m writing this
Because I wish someone had been honest with me about what building a company actually looks like. Not the fundraising announcements and launch day tweets, but the messy middle. The doubt. The trade-offs. The moments when you have no idea if you’re making the right call.
I had some great advisors and mentors who moulded my journey, and without whom this could never have worked. Not everyone has access to such people, and this is my way of sharing a journey transparently.
What you’ll find here
In the Build pillar, I’ll share:
- How to Talk to Customers - The discovery process that actually works
- Building in India, Selling to the World - Arbitrage advantages and hidden challenges
- The Psychology of Exiting - What nobody tells you about selling your company
- Team and Co-founder Dynamics - The human side of startups
- Growth Lessons - What moved the needle and what was noise
This isn’t about having all the answers. It’s about sharing what I’ve learned so you can make different mistakes than I did.
Let’s build.