Startup and Me

Well guys, you would have come across this question "Why should one join a startup???" I guess this question has been asked for quite sometime now. This question seems to be moving around quickly lately because the number of startups are exponentially increasing in India and particularly in Bangalore. There could be a lot of answers to this. Some of the most famous answers are "you will get to learn a lot in a short span of time", "your career growth will be faster", "everyone in the company will know u and u will know everyone and hence it will be a very friendly place to work", etc. Similarly there could be reasons for not joining a startup too.
A few common reasons given are "man, your startup might fail and u could become jobless", "dude, are u ready to work for 14-16 hours???", "there wont be any facilities for employees da... no free lunch, no free transportation", etc. Frankly, both sides of this argument are reasonable. It's up to the individual to decide whether to join a Startup and Slog or join an MNC and Marry.:)

I willingly joined a startup after my M. Tech through campus recruitment. I have already gone through both sides of the coin in 3 months. Some days, I have worked for 16 hours a day. Some days I have skipped dinner to complete my work. But I learnt a lot of interesting things. And I know everyone and everyone knows me:) I will share with you guys the one reason, apart from all the answers and reasons discussed (or not discussed) above, as to why I am very happy for having joined this particular startup. Here goes...

I joined in August 2008. The entire August was spent time-passing. Go to office, surf, have lunch, take a small powernap, surf, go for a tea break, surf, go home and sleep. Life was good. Then they told that you have to come to Chennai for training for 15 days. In Chennai I actually had a trailer of what a startup is. From day one (day four to be precise), I started slogging. Everyday my guide used to tell me to learn this and then do a sample project on what u have learnt. First of all, learning that thing was difficult. Second, I had to implement a sample project too. Those 15 days were quite hectic. Then they sent me back to Bangalore and life was good again. Before sending me, they told me that next time u will have to stay in Chennai for a month. "Ok no problemo" was my reaction as I was eager to get back to "home sweet home". Then came the moment of truth when I landed in Chennai for the one-month stay. I was put in their search module(on my request actually!!!) and they wanted me to implement Search v2.0 because one of them had already implemented Search v1.0 earlier. The difficulty was Search v2.0 had nothing in common with Search v1.0 at all. I had to start my module from scratch. Scratch as in scratch. I was the first person to put a semicolon in Search v2.0:) I feel honoured!!!. I had little time to complete the whole stuff as my company had plans to go for an alpha release. "Search v2.0 has to go into the alpha release" is what I was told. So I started slogging from day one. Slogging, slogging and more slogging. During my previous stay in Chennai, it was trailer. Now it was the whole movie and its sequel. That one-month was hectic. I worked on Saturdays and Sundays too. Everyday was a work day. Everyday I worked for 12 hours minimum. It was bad. Luckily, I was able to complete what was assigned. Now, coming back to that one reason why I am very happy is that my module is already integrated into the alpha release and my module is online on the internet and my module is being used by tens(if not hundreds or thousands) of people already. All of this happened in 30-40 days. 30-40 days!!! Scratch to internet. Can u believe it??? It feels damn good when I see my module on the internet and people using it and giving feedback (positive or otherwise). Its an incredible feeling. Seeing my module on the internet in just 30-40 days. Wow!!!

"I was at the right place at the right time" is all that I can say.