talk at vit: unsexifying entrepreneurship

Hello, VIT.It’s good to be here. Thanks for the invite.

I’m Gokul.Time for a lil’ bit of bragging.

From Neyveli, Tamil Nadu, India.

Student of BITS, Pilani — Hyderabad.

Founder of Likewyss.

Coffee addict.

Apple fanboy.

Minimalist.

Why am I here?And, why I’m gonna take about 45 minutes of your time.

Three ThoughtsNo, no, I’m not copying Steve Jobs’ Stanford address style.

!Who am I kidding? Of course, I am.

Cutting the CrapAbout taking the leap, starting up and the CEO life.

Over-romanticizedThis whole startup thingy.

To B-School or not to B-schoolThe million buck question.

Trending = Cool.Damn you, Twitter.

Happens like in The Social NetworkOr any other Aaron Sorkin movie for that sake.

I need $500K for building a prototype.Are you building a Nest thermostat? Or Google Glass?

I’m CEO, bitch.You’re not CEO. You’re a founder. A plumber. An electrician. A salesman. A

designer. A developer. Do all this right, and maybe … one day you’ll be CEO.

I’ve a $1B idea. I’m Zuck.Load of bull. Billion dollar ideas don’t exist. Billion dollar companies do.

You thief, sign an NDA.Nobody is gonna steal your idea. Chill.

At Ground ZeroMy journey with Likewyss

March 2011Idea conceived. How?

March 2011 — May 2012A wasted year. Or maybe, not so much.

May 2012 — June 2012We say we wrote code. Most of the time, we were cafe hopping across

Chennai.

June, 18, 2012Featured as new generation entrepreneurs in The Hindu.

June 24, 2012Powered on the servers for Inu, a crappy ancestor of Likewyss.

June 26, 2012Site down. Over-traffic? Hehe, you wish.

Hacked.And we realized we were technology noobs and complete idiots.

June — August, 2012Times of India. The Indian Express. Deccan Chronicle. And a couple of more

versions of Inu.

September 2012No new users. Startup dead?

October 2012Spike in traffic. Huge, huge spike. How the hell?

Got featured in Inc.With the co-founder of Facebook. That’s right.

November ’12 — February ‘13Rejuvenated by the traffic, we wrote another version. This time, we got the

tech right?

February, 9th, 2013Shipped Inu V3.0

Make it or break it.Physically, mentally and intellectually exhausted.

45,000 visitsIn 3 days.

February, 13, 2013We would like to invest in you.

Since then.How Inu became Likewyss.

Sensibly Starting UpA stack of do’s and don’ts based on my experience

#1. Avoid buzzwords

#2. No networking events

#3. Learn basic programming.

#4. Have a co-founder. Or two.

#6. Pay attention to details.

#7. Solve a real problem.

#8. Don’t get emotionally attached.

#9. Give it your best.

#10. Start today.

Would love to catch up.@_gokulsridhar on Twitter

(no “Hey! See what this girl is doing http://stupid.url”) !

Gokul Nath Sridhar on Facebook (duh! But no Candy Crush invites. I’ll crush you)

!gs [at] likewyss [dot] com

(unless you’re a Nigerian prince with a billion dollars) !

+91 — 99430 90073 (unless you’re a credit card agent)