I’m writing this publicly because, one day we will sure successfully scale Record to heights that we always intended to do. Anyone who wants to start up or has already started up and is in the messy middle, will read this and say, “That idiot Tharun didn’t give up, then why should I?”
What Happened?
The last 3 months were hectic. Hectic is an understatement to what I’m going through. I’m not able to tolerate the amount of stress and uncertainties that come along with building the company.
- We got funding commitment from investors. But the money didn’t hit our bank accounts due to extensive paper work.
- StartupTN is delaying our 2nd tranche, stating petty reasons.
- The company ran out of cash. Did all monkey tricks to keep the company alive.
- Pivoted the business into an infrastructure play. Keeping the core product alive.
- Last month (January 2026) what a start to the new year, we delayed salaries since we didn’t have cash.
- Akshay and I took a personal loan to pay salaries. That is the last credit exposure that I had. It was kept for some family emergency. But we didn’t have a choice.
- Our cloud credits are over, our Zoho credits are over. Everything in the same month, what are the chances?
- An investor who made a solid commitment to transfer funds by November is delaying it now. No clue why?
Status Today
- Today is the 1st of February 2026, 11:45pm while I’m writing this.
- It’s been more than 2 weeks since I slept well.
- On the 19th, I emailed a few investors saying that without funds, we will cease to exist. They understood the situation and agreed to transfer by the end of the week.
- Record as a company owes a few lakhs to Adtitude since all the office opening expense was made from Adtitude’s account.
- I’m responsible for both the company’s finances.
- A week passed we didn’t get the money from investors. I didn’t know what to do. I followed up religiously.
- Meanwhile, some unavoidable family commitments came in the middle.
- Akshay and I decided to wait for one more week (the current one), nothing happned still the same.
- My anxiety levels are all peaking throughout the day.
- All my 6 credit cards are maxed out. Close to 3 lakhs in limit. 2 of my cards are in overdraft. Half of it is company expenses. Made for both Record and Adtitude.
- I have EMIs and rent worth of 50k to pay (including the 90k) personal loan we took last month to pay salaries.
- Akshay has some odd 50k to pay.
- Yesterday was the 31st. That was my cut-off time to lose hope and go somewhere and hide.
- So from the 1st to 5th of February I’m responsible for 5L of Record’s Salary, 5L of Adtitude Salary, 4L of personal expenses to be made, including credit card, EMI and Rent.
- I’m checking my bank account, you will not believe me. I have 4 bank accounts. ₹75, ₹180, ₹350 and ₹ 260. These are not some random snack bills, but my bank balances.
- I lost all hope of dealing with his situation. To forget everything, I went out to play cricket with my friends and team.