allround, the first startup that I attempted was a calculated decision.
I loved my job at Goldman Sachs, and was working with one of the best teams in low latency algorithms and brilliant people. My only qualm was a career trajectory which was a conventional growth path and it wasn’t fast enough for me.
I’m a big believer of taking the path not taken where the expected value of success is far higher due to reduced competition. Or, compete in tail ends of the gaussian curve and find unorthodox ways to win.
Why? If your objective is fame/money/power/success/ambition, it’s far better to not compete at all. And after having competed in JEE, I did not look forward to rising up ranks through conventional competition.
I will acknowledge my privilege here, a CS degree from IITK gives you some latitude of freedom to explore if you’re actually good at tech. Combining this with an acquired extroversion made a potent combination, which I believed would allow me to fulfil the Indian Tech Bro’s dreaming of raising funds to build something of their own (sic).
In the whirlwind of the pandemic, allround was born and buried. Amidst the perfect storm, we saw the varied highs and lows of building a startup. Raising funds, scaling, hockeystick growth, churn, international expansion, pivots, lay offs, vagaries of the consumer and market, firing close friends, laying off a huge chunk of the team (and finding them jobs), and eventually closing down the company.
allround remains a labour of love, and the experience taught me a lot about life, friends and hard work.
At the end of it all, I wasn’t even sure that I wanted to get my hands dirty starting up again and that’s why I spent most of 2022 blowing steam after a burn out and having fun.
Fuze was built with a different mindset and we’ll come to that very soon.