I turn 27, and…

Ever since I turned 24, I have decided to document my life on my birthday. 3 pieces in total, you can read them here, here and here.

Note #1: Everyone has problems, and everyone has won. Mine is neither bigger nor lesser than yours. They are just mine.

Note #2: Don’t read ahead. This is just me rambling about my life, no value add for you.

1. Professional Life

Record:

After toiling hard for 2.5 years, we realised whatever we were doing at Record wasn’t working out. This realisation comes after speaking with enough customers, users and other stakeholders. Not because we weren’t able to generate revenues, but because the world is changing faster than we had imagined. Yes, we had access to capital and validation from customers, but the question of whether we can build a sizeable business out of it was always there. So, after enough thought, we decided to shut down the operations of Record around March.

We had already received the 1st tranche of funds from StartupTN. After multiple reviews, the board offered us the 2nd tranche, but due to the ongoing situations, I politely declined the 2nd tranche and called it quits.

But did it end there? No. How will anyone without accomplishing their mission ever rest. Earlier, when we were pitching our product to one of the enterprise clients, they mentioned, “Tharun we can’t buy your product, but we love the skill verification mechanism you guys have built within. Can you fork it and give it to us?”

This sparked a new idea, the customer was very clear on their pain point, skill verification is their biggest challenge in 2026, unable to verify skills of candidates across white, blue and grey collar work. Our solution was a great fit to their problem. They saw the innovation, we saw the opportunity. Without delaying anything, we immediately assembled the team back and built a skill verification API infrastructure for enterprises in hiring and staffing.

A tough problem to be solved for India at a population scale. Within a couple of months of building this, I was able to talk to another 2 listed companies who validated the idea and agreed to a pilot. Things moved fast; we were breaking and fixing things faster than ever.

Now, the team is back with stronger energy, a bigger mission and more confidence and conviction than ever in the direction of the business. I’ve no doubt we will solve this challenge for India.

We have some of the smartest people from the country backing us in terms of capital, conviction and network. The future looks bright.

Now we are part of Caret Capital’s accelerator program and also got into Razorpay rize program.

Adtitude:

To focus fully on Record, I’ve stepped down from Adtitude Labs completely, and I’m no longer part of the company at any capacity. My friends, who are also the founding partners, take good care of the company. We were able to raise some small capital from friends who believe in the business as much as everyone else.

Update:

Within just one year of moving into our 1st office space, both the companies grew faster than we imagined, so we had to move to a bigger space.

We rented out a 4 BHK villa in the heart of the city and converted it into an office space. Bigger, better and more spacious for innovative and creative teams. Watch the inaugural video here.

Realization

1. Be stubborn on the problem statement, not on the idea or the company. Ideas fail, companies fail, but founders don’t.
2. Choosing between 2 equal things, choose the one with short-term pain and long-term payoff.

Physical and Mental Health

This year, I decided to restore my physical and mental health. I took it very seriously.

I enrolled myself on the Peakst8 fitness event and participated in a mini hyrox and a couple of more events. I consistently trained for more than 3 months, cut sugar and junk and got into decent shape.

I was able to pull myself out of the rut of suffering and come back to a normal ideal state. But again, in the recent past (30 days), my family has been going through a hard financial crisis to the extent that we have had to liquidate the last penny of assets to repay debts. This has taken a strong toll on my mental health again.

I’m not able to think and speak clearly, which I always thought was my superpower. I’ve realised the journey didn’t get easy, but I grew stronger to handle anything that comes my way.

I’m out of shape, but my muscle memory and strength are intact. I participated in 2x 5k Marathons and completed under 30 minutes. A decent finish given my body condition and running experience.

The guilt of not being able to financially contribute to the home is eating me alive. For anyone who doesn’t know, I don’t come from a financially stable family. I’m saying all this not to expect your sympathy but to understand what happens in the back end. Because from outside, it all may feel fancy to tell that you are a tech entrepreneur, but reality is far from fiction.

Maybe one day I’ll be in the right mental health to be vocal about all the financial strain in the family. TBH, I’m going through a lot right now. The uncertainty at work and the instability in the family are something beyond my comprehension. This is too much stress to handle at the same time. I wish not even my worst enemy to go through such a situation. I’ve barely slept well in the last 4 weeks. My whoop has given up on me. I don’t know when I will get back to my best self.

I look miserable in the mirror, almost homeless. I know Hope is not a strategy. I and only I can bring me out of this situation. I’ll fight until I can and have enough energy.

Realizations:

1. Someone from a background like mine shouldn’t try to do a startup. Because startups are uncertain, high stress and high-probability-of-failure pursuits. To succeed here, your other facet of life should support you or at least be stable. You can’t save 2 horses at the same time. Either you can run or train. Not do both. It only leads to high mental turmoil.
2. All of the misery in life happens because I skip the gym and mess up the routine, which includes food, diet, workouts, deep work hours and leisure.

Financial Life

Until further recovery, I decided not to comment on my financial life. Talking about it is not going to get any better. But one thing, it has only gotten worse over the last year. Nothing much to say.

Final Thoughts

1. As always, grateful for my parents, sister, and brother-in-law, friends, co-founder (Akshay), teammates and everyone else who are standing by my side, no matter what. There are also other well-wishers, mentors, and advisors who always help us no matter what without expecting anything in return. All they think is that one day we will find a way and make it in life.
2. Your network opens a lot of doors that you can’t knock. If you don’t ask they answer is no.
3. Startups don’t die when they run out of money; they die when the founders run out of energy. I’m afraid I’m on the verge of losing my last point of energy. I’m tired already. I need some rest from everything in life.
4. I and I alone are responsible for whatever happens in my life, the good thing is that I can control it.

I’ve tried to assemble and surround myself with the smartest people. We are all here for one common vision. I trust the people around me, the process, and the philosophies that have led me here. The hustle never stops. The learning never stops. I’ve let the outcome to the mercy of the hard work we do. 

There is still work to be done. I’ve just tried to accomplish 0.01% of my overall goals. There is a long, long way to go. Let’s see what awaits in the future. 

One last note

“It is not the number of times, you fall down that counts, but the courage to wake up every single time and fight back.”

To all good souls who made it till here

With Love

Tharun 💚