‘I hope 2025 doesn't…’ Entrepreneur makes heartfelt request for new year after a tough 2024

Shakti Mani Tripathi, co-founder of artificial intelligence (AI) solutions start-up Reflecc, took to the social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter) at the end of the year (2024) to reflect on his career.

Sharing that he left a well-paying ₹1 crore job at Amazon to start his first AI company, which failed, Tripathi ended the post with a hope for 2025 to be a “kind” year.

A ‘Wild’ Year

“2024 has been a WILD year for me. Left my ₹1 crore job at Amazon without any backup, out of an urge to finally ‘start up’. Became International Master on Codeforces from my ex-girlfriend’s handle and founded my first startup Hoobahoo AI,” he narrated.

Tripathi further said that he applied for funding from YCombinator, but was rejected and while his company did see some early success, they failed to raise funds and had to shut down.

“Got rejected by YC. In just 3 weeks, Hoobahoo AI gained early traction of around 3k users. Pitched to over 30 VCs (including Elevation Capital and IQ) but failed to raise funds. Shut down Hoobahoo due to high CAC and lack of funds,” he said.

New Direction, Pivots & More…

Not all was downhill for Tripathi, post Hoobahoo, he met his co-founder via YCombinator and began building Reflecc AI, where the duo has seen a learning curve. He said: “Met my co-founder @iamrjkunal via YC co-founder matching. Started building B2B SaaS for engineering teams to monitor engineering productivity metrics. Pivoted after realising and verifying our thesis that “One cannot RIGHTFULLY measure the productivity of a software engineer,” as there is too much qualitative nuance.”

“Started building Codermon AI: an AI Agent for developers’ ad-hoc tasks. Pivoted due to an overcrowded market. Explored the supply chain industry to develop an AI agent for procurement. Pivoted yet again upon realising that prior work experience in this domain is essential, which we lacked,” he added.

Current Space & Learnings

Tripathi noted that the start-up he has founded with Kunal Ranjan — Reflecc AI is underway. “Started building Reflecc, an AI agent to automate business and operational workflows of organisations. Built the MVP in 7 days, interviewed over 50 prospects and thought leaders. Cracked 3 LOIs and worked with an agency. Finally made it into YC’s top 10% of applications, but still got rejected. Realised we were going too horizontal with Reflecc and decided to focus on automating a single domain. Now, building an AI Digital Marketer.”

He added at the end, “Tried a lot, failed a lot, but most importantly, learned a lot! I hope 2025 doesn’t force me to quit my entrepreneurial journey and return to being an employee...once again. 2025, please be kind…”