Shakti Mani Tripathi, a tech entrepreneur from Bengaluru, has shared his challenging journey after leaving his ₹1 crore job at Amazon to pursue his startup dreams. In a viral post on social media, Tripathi detailed the setbacks he faced over the past year. Tripathi quit his high-paying position, where he had worked on the Amazon Pay Later application, driven by the desire to create something of his own.
In 2024, he launched his first startup, Hoobahoo AI, but it was rejected by over 30 venture capitalists and eventually shut down due to high customer acquisition costs and insufficient funding. Undeterred, Tripathi and his co-founder, Kunal Ranjan, pivoted to develop a B2B SaaS product to monitor engineering productivity metrics. However, they soon realized the complexities of measuring software engineers‘ productivity effectively and abandoned the idea.
Their next venture, Codermon AI, an AI tool for developers, was also scrapped due to market saturation.
Tripathi’s startup pivots and perseverance
The duo then explored opportunities in the supply chain sector, aiming to build an AI agent for procurement, but recognized their lack of experience in this area and shifted focus once again.
Tripathi’s perseverance led to the formation of Reflecc AI, where they developed a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) in just seven days. They engaged with over 50 potential clients and industry experts, securing three Letters of Intent (LOIs). Despite making it to the top 10% of Y Combinator applications, they were ultimately rejected.
Reflecting on their journey, Tripathi acknowledged the need for a more focused approach and decided to pivot towards developing an AI Digital Marketer. He expressed hope that 2025 will be kinder to his entrepreneurial aspirations. Tripathi’s candid post resonated with many, reaching over 77,000 users on social media, where numerous commenters shared their own experiences with failure and offered words of encouragement.
