Spoke to a room packed with enthusiastic students about starting up, the usual buzz that surrounds this phenomenon and how reality is different - well, a bitch.

1. Hello, VIT.
It’s good to be here. Thanks for the invite.

2. I’m Gokul.
Time for a lil’ bit of bragging.

3. From Neyveli, Tamil Nadu, India.

4. Student of BITS, Pilani — Hyderabad.

5. Founder of Likewyss.

6. Coffee addict.

7. Apple fanboy.

8. Minimalist.

9. Why am I here?
And, why I’m gonna take about 45 minutes of your time.

10. Three Thoughts
No, no, I’m not copying Steve Jobs’ Stanford address style.
!
Who am I kidding? Of course, I am.

11. Cutting the Crap
About taking the leap, starting up and the CEO life.

12. Over-romanticized
This whole startup thingy.

13. To B-School or not to B-school
The million buck question.

14. Trending = Cool.
Damn you, Twitter.

15. Happens like in The Social Network
Or any other Aaron Sorkin movie for that sake.

16. I need $500K for building a prototype.
Are you building a Nest thermostat? Or Google Glass?

17. I’m CEO, bitch.
You’re not CEO. You’re a founder. A plumber. An electrician. A salesman. A
designer. A developer. Do all this right, and maybe … one day you’ll be CEO.

18. I’ve a $1B idea. I’m Zuck.
Load of bull. Billion dollar ideas don’t exist. Billion dollar companies do.

19. You thief, sign an NDA.
Nobody is gonna steal your idea. Chill.

20. At Ground Zero
My journey with Likewyss

21. March 2011
Idea conceived. How?

22. March 2011 — May 2012
A wasted year. Or maybe, not so much.

23. May 2012 — June 2012
We say we wrote code. Most of the time, we were cafe hopping across
Chennai.

24. June, 18, 2012
Featured as new generation entrepreneurs in The Hindu.

25. June 24, 2012
Powered on the servers for Inu, a crappy ancestor of Likewyss.

26. June 26, 2012
Site down. Over-traffic? Hehe, you wish.

27. Hacked.
And we realized we were technology noobs and complete idiots.

28. June — August, 2012
Times of India. The Indian Express. Deccan Chronicle. And a couple of more
versions of Inu.

29. September 2012
No new users. Startup dead?

30. October 2012
Spike in traffic. Huge, huge spike. How the hell?

31. Got featured in Inc.
With the co-founder of Facebook. That’s right.

32. November ’12 — February ‘13
Rejuvenated by the traffic, we wrote another version. This time, we got the
tech right?

33. February, 9th, 2013
Shipped Inu V3.0

34. Make it or break it.
Physically, mentally and intellectually exhausted.

35. 45,000 visits
In 3 days.

36. February, 13, 2013
We would like to invest in you.

37. Since then.
How Inu became Likewyss.

38. Sensibly Starting Up
A stack of do’s and don’ts based on my experience

39. #1. Avoid buzzwords

40. #2. No networking events

41. #3. Learn basic programming.

42. #4. Have a co-founder. Or two.

43. #6. Pay attention to details.

44. #7. Solve a real problem.

45. #8. Don’t get emotionally attached.

46. #9. Give it your best.

47. #10. Start today.

48. Would love to catch up.
@_gokulsridhar on Twitter
(no “Hey! See what this girl is doing http://stupid.url”)
!
Gokul Nath Sridhar on Facebook
(duh! But no Candy Crush invites. I’ll crush you)
!
gs [at] likewyss [dot] com
(unless you’re a Nigerian prince with a billion dollars)
!
+91 — 99430 90073
(unless you’re a credit card agent)