The founder from Bengaluru will tell you he is a bit broke at the moment, but walking away from Rs 75 LPA was no hardship. His no-nonsense view on giving up security for a life of your own making has set off a debate on risk, burnout, and what you are really after when you work.
You see this kind of thing in India’s tech hubs and it hits a nerve. Sure, there are the well-compensated positions with all the trappings of stability, but you have more and more engineers trying their hand at being a founder, cash flow be damned. It isn’t only about the numbers; it is about having a say in how you work and where you are going.
What the founder chose and why
In a note that has been making the rounds, Aksht Jain, the AI entrepreneur, laid out his case for leaving a top-tier job to put together his own. He made it plain: he put down the 75LPA in BLR a year back, and while he is “kinda broke,” he has no regrets.
For him, it was a way out of the zero-sum game of office politics and into something with more substance. He’ll be the first to admit the bank account may not be as healthy, but every day is a new problem to put to rights.
The trade-offs he highlights
Jain puts it in plain English. The early days are lean, but the work is real and you are on your toes, unlike the put-on nature of some of the teams he has been part of. He is also minding his expenses with a little help from friends in the city.
Here is what he has to say on the matter:
– You don’t get the same kind of learning you would from an early salary
– There is less in the till, but you have your freedom and the work means something
– The rest of the corporate world can be a lot of posturing
– Being frugal with some buddies in Bengaluru is a good way to keep going
How the internet reacted
Opinions are mixed, but the response has been strong. Some think it takes guts to do what he did and that young founders have time on their side. A common refrain is that we tend to look back and wish we had taken the chance rather than sat on our hands.
Then you have the ones who point to the need for a plan and a bit of privilege. They’ll say you want some savings and a skill set in demand so you can go back to the market if you have to. But there are those who say India could use more of us making things and jobs, not just running after a pay slip.
One person put it like this: the corporate route is a nice pen, but being a founder is the open field. It makes you hardier and more patient, if you can handle it.
Lower barriers for non-tech founders
Jain is of the mind that you don’t have to be a techie to put a product together these days. He has in mind tools like Emergent, Lovable or Replit to get a working model up and running. But he is quick to add that an AI coding agent is not a replacement for a human to keep it in line.
It is a fair point for anyone looking to give it a try. The tools are there to speed things up, but they won’t do the thinking for you or replace some good old-fashioned domain knowledge.
Background and what to watch
If you check his LinkedIn, you’ll find a B.Tech from Delhi College of Engineering and a stint at Holy Family Convent School. He has been an intern, a dev, and as of 2025, the man behind Ekly.ai.
His profile describes Ekly.ai as a video studio run by AI, where a brand can type in a prompt and have an ad to show for it. He is in a space that is moving fast and getting crowded, with creative automation at the heart of it.
Now it is a matter of putting it to work. “There might be less money” to start with, he concedes, but you make up for it in skills and having a piece of the action. We will have to see if any of the well-heeled in the industry decide to come along for the ride once the venture shows some legs.
In the end, his is a story of a change in mood in Bengaluru. Control and the ability to build are worth more than a figure on a contract. As someone put it: you can always get a salary back, but the opportunity to make something is a one-time thing.
