This is going to be a raw view and takes on everything I have learnt.
A little over two years ago, I made what felt like the biggest career risk of my life.
Instead of joining an MNC, I chose to become a founding engineer at an early-stage startup.
Looking back, I can confidently say it was one of the best decisions I've made.
The startup didn't make it. But despite that, I don't consider those two years a failure. They compressed years of learning into a much shorter period of time. I got to build products from scratch, talk to customers, ship features, scrap ideas, and witness firsthand what it takes — and what it doesn't — to build a company.
Here are a few lessons that will stay with me for a long time.
1. Solving a problem isn't enough. The market has to be willing to pay.
One of the biggest lessons was understanding the difference between having a problem and having a business.
Especially in B2B, the real question isn't whether customers have a problem. It's whether they're willing — and able — to spend money solving it.
A painful problem doesn't automatically become a profitable business.
2. Businesses pay for necessities, not conveniences.
One pattern I repeatedly noticed, particularly in the Indian market, was that businesses rarely pay for convenience alone.
They happily pay for products that are essential to running their business or directly affect revenue, compliance, or operations.
But if your product simply makes life easier without creating measurable business value, convincing customers becomes significantly harder.
That's an important distinction I wish I had understood earlier.
3. Marketing is as important as engineering.
As engineers, it's easy to believe that building the product is the hardest part.
It isn't.
Figuring out how customers discover your product, why they trust you, and how you consistently fill your sales pipeline is equally — if not more — important.
For us, customer acquisition wasn't a one-call process.
Every serious customer trial lasted around two to three months before they finally decided whether to buy.
Building was fast.
Earning trust was slow.
4. Don't over-engineer.
This might be the lesson I think about the most.
We spent countless hours building features that eventually got removed.
Some features were technically impressive but solved problems customers didn't care enough about.
Looking back, I would always choose shipping a raw, usable version over building a polished, feature-rich solution.
Customers are far better at telling you what to build than your assumptions are.
5. Small businesses will pay — if you help them grow.
Another assumption that changed for me was around small businesses.
People often say Indian businesses don't like paying for software.
That wasn't entirely true.
Many small businesses were willing to pay when our product directly helped them amplify their brand, attract customers, or increase revenue.
They weren't buying software.
They were buying growth.
6. We asked the wrong question.
Perhaps the biggest mistake we made came during customer conversations.
We often asked:
"Will you use this?"
Most people said yes.
But "yes" is free.
The better question would have been:
"Will you pay for it?"
Those two questions sound similar, but they produce completely different answers.
Interest doesn't build companies.
Revenue does.
Looking back
Would I choose the same path again?
Absolutely.
Working at an early-stage startup (unfunded) taught me more than I could have learned by following a safer path. I learned how products are built, how customers think, how businesses operate, and how difficult it is to create something people truly value.
The startup may have failed.
But the lessons certainly didn't.
And I am confident that I could build a product from ground up ASAP, handle engineering, marketing, even customer calls.
And if there's one thing these two years taught me, it's this:
Building a product is hard. Building something people will consistently pay for is the real challenge.
Carrying forward the learnings for life.
Cheers!