Shakti Mani Tripathi, a Bengaluru-based techie and co-founder of Reflecc, an AI-powered workflow automation platform, has shared his struggles in transitioning from a high-paying job at Amazon to becoming an entrepreneur. In a candid and now-viral X post, Tripathi opened up about the setbacks he faced on his journey, offering a glimpse into the challenges of turning an innovative idea into a successful business.
Looking back on his eventful year on X, Shakti Mani Tripathi revealed that he made the bold decision to leave his lucrative ₹1 crore package job at Amazon to pursue his entrepreneurial dreams. Prior to taking the leap, Tripathi worked as a software engineer at Amazon, where he played a key role in developing the Amazon Pay Later application, as highlighted on his LinkedIn profile.
Tripathi candidly shared that 2024 has been a transformative year, marked by his bold decision to leave his ₹1 crore job at Amazon without a safety net, driven solely by his passion to launch his own startup.
Undeterred by the uncertainty of leaving his job, Tripathi promptly founded Hoobahoo AI in 2024, his first foray into entrepreneurship. However, his initial startup idea faced significant setbacks, including rejection from Y Combinator and unsuccessful pitches to over 30 venture capitalists, resulting in a failure to secure funding. Ultimately, the high costs of acquiring customers and insufficient funds led Tripathi to make the difficult decision to shut down Hoobahoo AI.
Tripathi and his co-founder Kunal Ranjan then shifted their focus to developing a B2B SaaS platform designed to help engineering teams track productivity metrics. However, as they delved deeper into the project, they came to a realisation that measuring the productivity of software engineers is a complex task, as it involves a high degree of qualitative nuance that cannot be easily quantified, leading them to ultimately abandon the idea.
Tripathi’s next endeavor was Codermon AI, an AI-powered agent designed to assist developers with miscellaneous tasks. However, he was forced to pivot due to the realization that the market was already saturated with similar solutions.
Despite the string of setbacks, Tripathi and his co-founder persevered, shifting their focus to the supply chain industry with the aim of developing an AI-powered procurement agent. However, this new direction ultimately proved to be another misstep, as the duo came to realize that their lack of prior work experience in this domain made it difficult for them to make meaningful inroads.
Undeterred by his previous setbacks, Tripathi then turned his attention to Reflecc AI, rapidly developing a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) in an impressive span of just seven days. To validate the idea, he conducted an extensive series of interviews with over 50 potential customers and industry thought leaders, gathering valuable feedback to inform and refine his vision.
The hard work put into Reflecc AI began to yield some promising results, as Tripathi and his team successfully secured three Letters of Intent (LOIs) from potential clients, demonstrating a genuine interest in their product. Furthermore, they achieved a notable milestone by making it to the top 10% of applications for Y Combinator, although ultimately, they fell short of securing a spot in the coveted program.
Through further introspection, Tripathi and his co-founder came to a crucial realization that Reflecc AI’s broad, horizontal approach was attempting to tackle too many problems simultaneously, diluting its impact. Acknowledging the need for a more focused strategy, they made the deliberate decision to pivot once more, this time concentrating their efforts on developing an AI-powered Digital Marketer, a more targeted and specialized solution.
The Bengaluru techie’s post offered a candid look at his entrepreneurial journey, marked by numerous setbacks, but also valuable lessons learned along the way. “I hope 2025 doesn’t force me to quit my entrepreneurial journey and return to being an employee…once again,” he concluded. His post struck a chord with over 40,000 people on X, prompting many to share their own stories of overcoming failure and offering words of encouragement in the comments section.
