I feel the best part about not being academically top-notch during undergrad is that a lot of doors automatically close for you. No top US college admits for MS, unlikely to pursue a PhD, very few chances of HFT or Quant jobs, so the options left are either work at a mid-tier corporate for life or take the risk to join a small team or start building something on your own.
The competition here after college is never really with the top brilliant minds of India because most of them are already making 80 LPA+ in India or have moved to the US earning $220k+ at a very young age. That’s such a huge number that most of them wouldn’t want to take the bold risk of leaving that comfort (not easy, of course HFT/Quant firms and big deep-tech companies need an insane level of thinking, but still, after a while, it can feel monotonous). Very few of those top brains ever choose the startup path. Honestly, if I were in their shoes, I might have done the same.
Again, why most top college students won’t choose this path is because the first 1000 days for founders are the toughest, and everyone is well aware of that. There’s absolute darkness, pure raw hustle, months of work can get scrapped in a week, and the grind is just like those JEE days, intense and relentless.I’m not talking about quickly successful, fancy consumer companies like Zepto, Cursor, or CRED that managed to crack the market early. Most startups tackle B2B problems, and that takes time. And of course, the top students always have a safe, comfortable option, so only a very few actually take the startup leap.
The ones you compete with in the startup world are the religious, top-notch hustlers—people willing to go into debt, work harder than anyone else, and believe more in hard work than just smart work. Here, your past education or tag won’t help you (maybe only in the very beginning for a small fundraise), but in the long run, it doesn’t matter. From what I’ve seen over the past year, ever since I started getting closer to the startup world, folks from local colleges in Mumbai pitching hardware devices in San Francisco, or college alums building medical equipment and selling in the US, they all prove the same thing: formal education or tags stop mattering after a point. If you can do things religiously, without shortcuts, with pure hard work, the field is yours, the customers are yours, the deals are yours, and that big check from a top VC can be yours too.
But one thing we have to realize before jumping in is that now your competition is no longer with the academic prodigies who were used to working smart, but with people who are religiously hardworking in real life those ready to put in 9 to 9, six or seven days a week. And think about this, they live and breathe their work. Whether they’re at a bar or playing a sport, subconsciously they’re still thinking about that one solution. It’s not the same anymore; you have to understand these people are obsessed. they’re built different.. If you think you’re ready to dive in and aren’t too comfortable with a fat paycheck, I can assure you one thing: the time will come sooner or later. You might not see any movement for the first 1000 days, but after that, things become much clearer. The amount of expertise you’ll gain in that domain or industry will allow you to make exponential progress after that.
So, I’m truly grateful to God for closing so many doors for me early on, it helped me find some clarity much sooner (ofc not too clear but still some). From here, I see just one path ahead: to create something meaningful and build something of my own. I know I’m not there yet, but I’m getting a little closer every single day. And through it all, I just want to stay patient and enjoy the journey.