Harsh Pokharna, a Bengaluru-based CEO, recently took to the social media platform Instagram to reflect on his entrepreneurial journey, emphasising that his company still has a long way to go.
Posting a series of images on Instagram on February 24, he recalled the time when he quit his job at Flipkart to start his own business and the challenges he faced before achieving stability in his entrepreneurial career.
“I quit Flipkart to build a startup because I wanted to make a lot of money very quickly. Founders were raising millions of dollars in funding all around me. It seemed easy,” Pokharna wrote.
After quitting his job, Pokharna spent two years experimenting with three different start-up ideas, all of which failed. These setbacks exhausted his savings, forcing him to take up freelancing to sustain himself.
It was only after these experiences that he Co-founded OkCredit, a business he has now been building for the past eight years.
Lessons to be learnt
Through his journey, Pokharna expressed in his post that he learned a crucial lesson that start-ups are not a shortcut to wealth. He shared, “It’s a long-term game, not a get-rich-quick scheme. Play it only if you truly want to solve a problem, or you’ll end up disappointed.”
His post resonated with many entrepreneurs and aspiring founders, sparking discussions on the challenges of building a business.
According to his LinkedIn bio, Pokharna worked as a graduate trainee at Flipkart for eight months before venturing into entrepreneurship. In 2017, he co-founded OkCredit, where he continues to serve as the CEO.
He holds a Bachelor of Technology (BTech) degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur.
