An Indian startup founder, who was fired from his remote US job in March, for “focusing too much” on his venture, has now successfully achieved $50,000 revenue and $10,000 monthky recurring revenue from the business.
Harshil Tomar, co-Founder of a startup called Dreamlaunch narrated his journey from devastation to success, in a detailed post on social media platform X (formerly Twitter).
Was told ‘we have to part ways. I was devastated’
According to Tomar, he was fired from a remote job with a US company “exactly six months ago”. He joined the morning meeting at 7 am on March 13 and gave updates on his work. “I observed my TL was a bit down. I asked him in the end what's the reason and there it was “we have to part ways”,” Tomar recounted.
Reason simply being I was focusing too much on my startup as per them. I begged them to give me another chance if possible so that I could do better work and at a faster pace but alas the decision was made
“I was devastated. I told my friend @ilavanyajain that I got fired and he was like “are you joking” for like 4-5 times. Then I told my co-founder @WasimShips of the same,” he added.
At that point dreamlaunch was doing $1000/mo roughly and the money wasn't enough to give me the confidence to go all in
For the next 10-15 days, I was in a confused state of choosing my dream or looking for a safety net again. I asked all my friends for referrals and thankfully there were few that could be arranged
I was scared. I had like 9 Months of total Runway if I lived Super cheaply. I sat down and went to play out all scenarios possible, the best and the worst and the okay one as well
Finally I took the call. I will live cheaply, I will try to figure this out. Every day I spend more looking for safety, my life would push me towards not taking risk. 1 year more, I will need to pay rents, 1 year more, I will need to think about buying house, 1 year more, I will need to think about marriage
So I took my call. Let's go all in ! In the worst case, I will find some freelance gigs and make $1000/mo from them so life could always keep running
We started on this journey, I started with a small salary from going full-time. My co-founder ( @WasimShips ) suggested this and he did not withdraw any finance to help ensure I stay afloat
To this date, my parents still think I am doing my main job as well. I tell them I spend 2-3 hours coding each day and just resolve the tickets they give me
Families can be pretty scary to deal with in such situations so I finalised keeping the decision reserved to myself
In these 6 months, I have seen all highs and lows. From months with 0 clients to working with biggest brands. The Journey has made me more thick skinned than anything I have ever experienced in life
But with showing up daily, things happened. I got sponsors, I got retainers, I got things happening
Today,
- we completed $50k revenue.
- Finally about to hire our 1 -> 10 team.
- Have had months w/ $10k MRR.
- Got sponsors on X
- Got selected in Residency
- Building my own SAAS
Tbh this bet could have played out bad. I would have had to shut things down. I would have to look for job. But I took the scary jump and the universe rewarded me I guess
The little kid inside me who at once saw the dream of being a enterprenuer watching Sharktank USA finally launched his own dream, helping others build their own
If you are reading till here; This is your sign, to keep going, keep showing up daily and keep hustling !
Lock in, work hard. Figure out what you want. Ignore the opinions of others. And do so much volume that it would be unreasonable that you’d be unsuccessful.