Bengaluru Techie's AI Startup Failure Story After Quitting Rs 1 Crore Job At Amazon - Viral Post

A Bengaluru tech entrepreneur, Shakti Mani Tripathi, has shared his challenging journey of transitioning from a lucrative job at Amazon to founding AI startups, only to face multiple failures.

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'
- Became International Master on Codeforces from my ex-girlfriend’s handle
- Founded my first startup @hoobahoo_ai
- Got rejected by YC
- In just 3…

— Shakti Mani Tripathi (@shaktimtripathi) December 30, 2024 

In a post on social media platform X, Tripathi, who is now the co-founder and CTO of Reflecc, an AI-driven business automation platform, opened up about the struggles he encountered after leaving his high-paying Amazon job. He had previously worked as a software engineer at Amazon and contributed as a developer in Amazon Pay Later.

Reflecting on his 2024 journey, Tripathi admitted to quitting his Rs 1 crore-a-year job with no backup plan, driven by his passion to build something of his own. His first venture, Hoobahoo AI, aimed at leveraging artificial intelligence, was rejected by Y Combinator. Despite pitching to over 30 investors, he couldn't secure funding. Faced with mounting customer acquisition costs and dwindling resources, he decided to shut down the startup.

Undeterred, Tripathi and his co-founder, Kunal Ranjan, tried pivoting to a B2B SaaS solution focused on monitoring engineering productivity. However, they soon abandoned the project, realising the challenge of quantifying the productivity of software engineers due to the subjective nature of their work.

The duo then turned their attention to Codermon AI, designed to assist developers with ad-hoc tasks. However, the market proved too competitive, prompting another pivot. The next idea targeted the supply chain sector, with a focus on AI for procurement. Unfortunately, the lack of experience in the field led to another dead end.

Despite these challenges, Tripathi and his team pressed on and launched Reflecc AI. Within just seven days, they built a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and conducted over 50 interviews with potential customers and industry experts. Their persistence paid off with three Letters of Intent (LOIs) from prospects and a spot in Y Combinator’s top 10%. However, the startup was ultimately rejected by the accelerator.

Tripathi admitted that his journey had been riddled with failures, but he also gained invaluable lessons along the way. “I hope 2025 is kinder to me,” he wrote, expressing hope that his entrepreneurial spirit wouldn’t be crushed by more failure.

Tripathi’s post has garnered attention on social media, with many people sharing their own stories of failure and encouraging him to keep going.