To start off, my original idea was to build a cheap navigation device for India. So, I actually quit Yahoo with my colleague. And then, after about five years, I got some awards, this, that, and then, so at that point in time I was like, hey, it's about time we tried something. And then mostly they'll, if they're nice people, they'll just say, okay, let's catch up later and then move, if they are direct people, they'll mostly say it's a stupid idea but that just kept on repeating in my life for a very long time. And then every quarter I'll have a new idea and then I'll pull somebody over and then I'll pitch the idea to them. So, when I was at Yahoo, I used to read these blogs and articles and books. But that was really how it all got started. Maybe I just wanted to find it out on my own. Maybe I just wanted to prove to myself whether I am right or wrong. And then something kept telling me that I should pursue, I should continue on with my thought. And somehow, I wasn't able to take back for an answer. Shivakumar: See, I think it was mostly that I had a number of things to say and I had a point of view about the world and when I used to go and talk to people, they used to mostly shoot it down, if you will. So, tell me about that journey into entrepreneurship, like from Yahoo. It does look like after about two years of working, somehow, I just knew that I was gonna start. And I think that's really how I got started with my entrepreneurial journey. Of course, Steve Jobs was still alive at that point in time, so he was a great yeah. The technology world, the ability that a bunch of people can come together and write some code and change the world. Follow the fight between Google and Yahoo on search. At that time when starting up was not a thing when most people wouldn't even know what startups are because of my experience at Yahoo I used to listen to podcasts from the Valley, read the blogs like Techunsion, and I think in those days there was GigaOm and then whatnot. I think the exposure that I got at Yahoo was also incredible. And I thought, what's the worst that can happen? And I wasn't really interested in doing GRE and GMAT and I had lots of points of view on how products need to be built. I had, I don't know, two years of runway at that point in time. Shivakumar: No, actually this was after I joined Yahoo and after about a couple of years of working there, which is my first job so Yahoo also paid me more than what I thought I needed. Akshay: This was while you were at BITS, Pilani probably when you were like graduating? I think I quite like the idea of working in a place and building something and trying to take it to the market and things like that. And something blocked me from doing that. So many of my friends wrote GRE and GMAT and I did not. Looking backwards, it does look like I was destined to become an entrepreneur. I'm the co-founder and CEO at Exotel India's largest customer engagement platform. Shivakumar: Hi you all listeners of Founder Thesis.
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