Jobaaj Stories
A Bengaluru-based tech entrepreneur, Shakti Mani Tripathi, has shared the difficulties he faced after quitting a high-paying job at Amazon to follow his entrepreneurial dream. Tripathi, who is now the co-founder and CTO of Reflecc, a startup aimed at automating business and operational workflows, recently took to social media to reflect on his tough journey. His post, which has gone viral, discusses the challenges he encountered after leaving behind a ₹1 crore salary.
The Bold Decision to Start Up
Tripathi, who previously worked as a software engineer at Amazon, had helped develop the popular Amazon Pay Later app. Driven by a desire to start his own venture, he left his job in 2024 without a backup plan. “2024 has been a wild year for me. Left my ₹1 crore job at Amazon without any backup, out of an urge to finally 'start up',” he shared in his post.
His first attempt at entrepreneurship was a startup called Hoobahoo AI, which focused on using AI for various business applications. However, the idea was rejected by Y Combinator, and after pitching it to over 30 venture capitalists with no success, he was forced to shut it down due to high costs and lack of funding.
A String of Setbacks
Not giving up, Tripathi and his co-founder, Kunal Ranjan, shifted to another idea—a B2B SaaS platform aimed at improving engineering team productivity metrics. Unfortunately, they quickly realized that measuring the productivity of software engineers was far too complex and qualitative to be effectively quantified.
Their next attempt was Codermon AI, an AI solution designed to assist developers with ad-hoc tasks. However, the market was already overcrowded, and the duo decided to pivot again.
Continuing their quest, Tripathi and his team next tried to explore the supply chain industry by creating an AI agent for procurement. However, they lacked the necessary experience in the field, leading to yet another failure.
2024 has been a WILD year for me 😵💫
— Shakti Mani Tripathi (@shaktimtripathi) December 30, 2024
- Left my ₹1 crore job at Amazon without any backup, out of an urge to finally 'start up'
- Became International Master on Codeforces from my ex-girlfriend’s handle
- Founded my first startup @hoobahoo_ai
- Got rejected by YC
- In just 3…
The Hopeful Future with Reflecc AI
Undeterred by his previous setbacks, Tripathi focused on his new project, Reflecc AI. He and his team developed a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) in just seven days and reached out to over 50 potential clients for feedback. Their persistence paid off with three Letters of Intent from clients, showing genuine interest in the product.
Despite making it into the top 10% of Y Combinator’s applications, Reflecc AI was ultimately rejected. Reflecting on the experience, Tripathi realized the company had been trying to solve too many problems at once and decided to focus more narrowly. Currently, they are developing an AI-based digital marketing tool, with hopes for a fresh start in 2025.
In his post, Tripathi admitted that while he had failed several times, he had learned valuable lessons along the way. He ended his message by saying, “I hope 2025 doesn’t force me to quit my entrepreneurial journey and return to being an employee... once again.”
His candid post has reached over 40,000 people on X, where many have shared their own experiences with failure and offered words of encouragement.
