TeliportMe 📸 🟢

There aren't too many pure souls left in startups now. Folks who just want to F'ing build something cool. And not worry too much about TAM, PMF, GTM, and other acronyms or care for presentations over product and VCs over users. But, it is the way it is - as the ecosystem matured, startup building became more sophisticated with some good, some bad. The good - startups have become more mainstream, there's more money, landlords and father in laws are more understanding. The bad - we've lost the tinkerers, the hackers, the pirates, the romantics.. the pure souls who just want to F'ing build something. All things said, it's still an awesome place to be right now. There are still meaty problems to solve and build something of value. But, when I do meet a pure soul these days, I feel indescribable joy. __________ It was around 2012 when I first read about @TeliportMe and @VineetDevaiah in @TechCrunch. It wasn't usual for Indian founders to make it to TC at the time. Certainly not for a breakthrough app. And most certainly not for rejecting an acquisition offer from Google. This was 2012, ~4 yrs after Android launched. TeliportMe was the next big thing! They were regularly featured on the Google Play Store home screen and had millions of users from across the world. For good reason, too. TeliportMe had built a panaroma app at a time when cameras were abjectly bad. Selfies had only recently become a thing. Imagine the technical challenges of delivering a consistent experience with scores of different devices averaging 2Mbps speed, 1gb RAM, 8gb storage. It was made possible by an awesome engineering team that included the likes of @varun_u_nayak (COO), and @a85, who later founded @getpostman. __________ In the 12 years that followed, TeliportMe has been through quite the evolution. As is expected; the world has changed. But, TeliportMe is still the #1 panorama app and has over 20M downloads. They've dabbled in VR, pivoted to SaaS, and from a peak of >$10M ARR, they now do a couple of million dollars a year. Not bad for a 2 person company. You could say they have some TAM, PMF, GTM and whatever else is important. __________ I spoke to Vineet earlier this week on the @OperatorStartup podcast and felt that indescribable joy. The kinds I get when I meet pure souls. He's still the same - tinkerer, hacker, pirate, romantic.. pure soul. Still at it even after 14 years. He doesn't speak in bullet points, but whole paragraphs that dart off in a hundred different directions. He doesn't have sophisticated answers, only honest ones. He did say rejecting the Google offer was hubris on his part. Sometimes when I tried too hard, he'd give an impish grin that kinda meant - dude, just build something cool! I haven't laughed as much in any other 2 hour conversation about startups. Because, the dissonance was real. The startling contrast I felt in comparison with the average founder today. Ah, okay. That's all I'll say about it for now. I can't wait for you guys to listen in. Hopefully, you'll enjoy it as much as I did. :) Out soon on @OperatorStartup. __________ PS: All this aside - I am glad to see another Kodava in startups; no less the Coorg Person of the Year - 2012.