01/05/2025
if there’s a degree beyond 360 that a startup can pivot, we at Clara have hit it.
It all started in Jan end 2025 when I was in Mumbai for my first startup competition of my life, clueless on how to pitch, what to say, what not to say, but I knew that I just wanted clarity. Now nothing was working out and I had to take a major decision, or else Clara.ai would have to shut down.
But what happened? Right when we were eagerly waiting for our presentation,The backend server that we were using went under maintenance without any prior notice, and Clara was down in front of the judges. We were standing there, looking into the judges’ eyes with a blank screen on the phone: hopeless and clueless. Right after the pitch I just wanted to go back to my hotel. I never even wanted to wait for the result; I was like “f**k this,” but my friends and team held me to wait and, guess what? Even after the bugged pitch we still made it to the last round. That was like winning a race of life while never even participating in one.
But what happened in the last round was even worse compared to the second round—some might even say it was the most embarrassing moment of my life, so much that I can write a full post on it. Which I will. Stay tuned for the story of the most embarrassing moment of my life that gave me the gift of a new direction—one that’s keeping Clara.ai not just alive but helping us flourish.
