The Long Hard Road to Anything Meaningful for #Entrepreneurs

3 years ago I was at the Unplugged conference in Bangalore to see about 10 startups presenting. There was one that stood out – Gazemetrix.

I wrote about them and also thought they were the only ones worth funding that day.

That said I also mentioned they were in for a long, tough slog.

I met Deobrat after that event and really liked him. I did not end up funding them though.

Pankaj Jain from 500 Startups did.

They moved to the accelerator program at 500 during the fall of 2012. I met Deobrat again, with the teams from InstaMojo, WalletKit and Tradebriefs. All super great folks.

Sampad from Instamojo was hustling, Sri from Trade Briefs was calm, Kevin from Walletkit was trying to find his groove, and Deobrat was trying to find his mojo but was really struggling.

I dont profess to know what Deobrat and his team went through the last few 3 years. I have an idea though. It would have been a tough, long, hard slog.

They did not get significant funding from the US investors, and they returned to India, to work at the Microsoft Ventures cohort.

They were just acquired by Sysomos.

I am sure the journey was bittersweet, but totally worth it. I am so happy for the team.

That’s the journey an entrepreneur goes through. Ups and downs, sideways and running in place. Some make it, some don’t, but, most would not trade their journey for any other thing.