How to Keep Moving Forward When You Have the Entrepreneurial Bug with Ankit Jain
When you have the “Entrepreneurial Bug”, sometimes your career path can get a little bumpy and it can be the source of conflict with friends and family. Whether you are born with the entrepreneurial bug or whether you cultivated it by exposing yourself to the wonderful adventures of entrepreneurs you have known, the resulting wanderlust can sometimes make us difficult employees. Today’s guest managed to navigate successfully in the world of the employee and the start up founder. He’s here today to tell us his story and how to keep moving forward when you are bitten by the entrepreneurial bug! Ankit Jain got his entrepreneurial start early on in India, by starting an unofficial business when he was only 19. He eventually landed a job at Google and a little while later he quit and started something else. Ankit had a successful run at several large corporations that are very prestigious to work for, but he never let himself get comfortable, so he always kept moving on to bigger and better things.
Ankit also shares in this episode:
His first venture into freelancing
How he got excited about technology
The gaming app that was his first freelance job
The websites he used to get freelancing work
How he broke into freelancing, and what it took to get clients
How he posted open code snippets out into the communities, which added value
The logistics of converting foreign payments from freelance jobs
His experience with MyNumo (now PlayScreen) and his work on their project
How he used one project to build a relationship to get more projects
Why he feels like companies outsource rather than building things in-house
Egyptian Casino Company and how it led to one of the highest paychecks he received
How he set his targets on Google and experienced an entirely different lifestyle
How he got a job at Adobe through LinkedIn
Why he left comfortable, lucrative corporate jobs to strike out on his own
How he dealt with his doubts as he was transitioning
Why he took a job at Homejoy
How timing has played an important role in his career path
How Unshackled can help certain listeners**
RentEscape - his 2nd project, but the one he worked on the longest
How he made the decision to shut down the project
What his plans are for the www.sporple.com website that he co-founded
Ankit's advice for people thinking about jumping into the entrepreneurial world:
Make sure your idea is economically viable
Know how many people would potentially use your product
Find a co-founder whose strengths are your weaknesses
Links and Resources: Ankit's website: https://www.sporple.com/ Ankit's Email: ankit[at]sporple[dot]com Find him on Twitter:@outnaway **For more info on Unshackled, you can check out my interview with one of the Founding partners, NitinPachisia here.