I started building really early back in school and then through college and that early start helped me learn fast and adapt quickly. Along the way, I built several products that failed, and I couldn’t make any money from them, but each one gave me valuable experience. As they say, not everything happens for good some things happen for growth. I’ve pitched to countless investors; if you’re active in the space, there’s a good chance my email is in your inbox. Every time I built something, I’d send it out to people who might actually use it investors, tech founders, and early adopters.
I was a big fan of Peter Thiel and Founders Fund, and I even reached out to people there including John Coogan and got a reply. He liked a piece of software I had built entirely on my own and said it was impressive. I ended up selling 7 copies of that software, and John later offered me a position at his new AI company. But I chose to keep building and learning on my own. Eventually, I built an AI-powered social platform that learned what users wanted and generated personalized posts for them. I grew it to over 3,000 users and 150+ daily active users, but since it relied on third-party data, I had to shut it down.
I learned a few important lessons startups aren’t really about investment or equity; they’re about providing value. If you can deliver real value, the money will follow. You don’t need investors if no one is willing to pay you in the first place chasing funding without demand just adds to the pain. That realization pushed me to build something people actually needed, and since I didn’t have the money for hosting or fancy tech stacks, I made the decision to sell the product before fully building it. I scraped data of relevant companies and cold-emailed them about what I was offering. Here’s the fun part: I sent five emails, got four replies, and two of them converted bringing in a surprising amount of money right off the bat.
I learned the value of selling, in startup.
I then build the full tech stack for the companies.
Here’s what I built: I realized that at any given moment, there are tons of valuable conversations happening online especially on Reddit where people are actively discussing problems and looking for solutions. But most companies are busy showcasing their products to passive scrollers, not to the people actually asking for help. So I built an AI Agent that scans Reddit in real time, surfaces relevant conversations, and tells companies, “Here’s what you’re missing these are the leads you lost today.” Since most teams don’t have time to manually jump into every thread, I built a second agent that replies on their behalf—introducing their product directly into the conversation. Due to NDAs, I can’t name the companies using it, but I’ve worked with several $50M+ startups who now rely on this system to stay part of the right conversations, at the right time.
I’m making some good money now, but I’m still figuring out the whole startup game. I love connecting with other founders, staying on top of new tech trends, and honestly, I’m just super curious about how everything works. There’s always something new to learn, and that’s what keeps me going. I’ve always wanted to be a part of the startup ecosystem.