Failed Class 12 math by one mark, did B.Com, ran a tuition class on weekends. Discovered selling before I discovered building.

No technical foundation. Friends in engineering felt like the "serious" track.

Sales is a craft, not a personality trait. You can learn it, badly first, then well.

Accounting basics, business communication, marketing fundamentals, side hustles

Joined Freshworks as employee 47. Got thrown into outbound sales with a list and a target.

First three months felt like rejection on tap. Quotas were ambitious; pipeline was sparse.

Persistence beats talent in sales until the cycle 30. After that, judgement beats persistence.

Built a small enterprise pipeline that paid back salary 10x in year one.

Cold outreach, CRM, demos, objection handling, building rapport

Father had a stroke. Took an unplanned eight-month break. Drew down savings, learned what runway feels like at a personal level.

Felt the career clock loudly. Watching peers post promotions while I was at hospitals.

A pause is not a failure. The year off was the year I clarified what kind of company I wanted to build.

Patience, financial planning, time with parents, listening to people who were not customers

Started with a college friend and ₹6 lakh in personal savings. Built a vertical SaaS for D2C brands managing inventory across marketplaces.

First eight months: no revenue, daily doubts, a co-founder argument we still laugh about. Almost closed when a single customer paid annually upfront.

Distribution is the bottleneck for 90% of B2B SaaS. "Build it and they will come" is a lie. Your first 20 customers are interviews, not just revenue.

Reached ₹1.2 crore ARR. 11 customers, all profitable. Hired the first three teammates.

If you cannot sell it cold to a stranger, do not raise money to scale a thing nobody wants.

No-code prototyping, product pricing, hiring, fundraising basics, customer interviews

Raised a small seed round to extend distribution into Southeast Asia. Team of 14 now; ARR crossed ₹6 crore.

Becoming the person the team needs rather than the engineer-salesperson-everything I was at start.

Founders graduate roles every 18 months. Comfort means you stopped growing.

Default-alive for three quarters running. First international customer signed last quarter.

Team leadership, board management, cash flow, hiring senior leaders