Why Record?

Now that you know I’m building Record, a Tech startup that ultimately solves for skill-based hiring. I often stumble upon a common question, “Why Record?”

I think it is a valid thing to ask.

But before I can answer this simple yet defining question, I think I should answer “Why Technology?” in the first place.

Why Technology?

I grew up trying to do stupid things. Like stuff any normal child will not do. For example, when we were in the 6th grade, our school opened a library for the first time ever. A fully functional, furnished and aesthetically pleasing place. To cultivate the joy of reading books, every week we had at least one 45-minute session in the library. All of us will be lined up and taken to the library.

Everyone will have their own preference for reading something. But at that age, at that exposure, all of them flocked to just 3 categories, Cricket, Comics and Fiction. All magazines were also part of this.

As far as I can remember, those sections were always crowded, and people were fighting to get hold of their favourite books/magazines. But for me, I had an easy pick. As the boring person I am always, I choose something different.

I was found in the Biographies section. I don’t know why. I was naturally inclined towards it. The first biography I ever read was from that library. It was of Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata. The man who transformed India’s Industrial revolution. It was a small 50-page book written for kids. I was fascinated by reading it. I think I re-read it at least 3 times (I’m not sure.)

While my friends were fighting over the cricket rule book and comics, I was quietly reading biographies in a corner. But that doesn’t classify me as a nerd or something. I equally did all the nonsense in school.

So yes, I have always been fascinated by people bringing change to the world. As the endlessly curious person I was, I started reading a lot of other biographies, movies, series and articles.

I, to some extent, understood that Technology was one of the huge levers to bring change. It moved humanity forward. Whatever we are today is because someone was unhappy about the current existing practice, so they used technology to change things around them.

So one common denominator in all the stories was innovation. If Technology were air, Innovation was like breathing it. It kept us alive through all these years.

To justify right from a young age, I was fascinated by Technology, consumed a lot of content that tricked my brain saying Technology is a way I can use to make this world 1. as I like 2. a better place.

The paradox

But again, I went on to do Mechanical Engineering. As much as I loved Technology and the impact it created and I wanted to be part of it. Coding was a nightmare for me. It didn’t come naturally to me. I tried to force it, but I understood I’m not going to get good at it.

So, Mechanical engineering was the only path that I loved, and I was also naturally good at it. I understood concepts easily than I could with programming.

I did Mechanical Engineering, but again tried to explore a lot of Technology ideas. Because the people I read about, the stories I consumed, and the world that was changing around me were all guided by Tech. Elon and Steve were just one of them. I also read about James Dyson, Jeff Bezos and a lot of other people even before they became mainstream inspirations.

So a curious kid, who liked technology but didn’t know how to code, with an entrepreneurial spirit, wanted to make this world a better place or to the likes of mine. That sums it all up.

Why Record?

Now that I have set the context for this topic. I also have one more thing to clarify.

Record was not the first idea I worked on. Record was actually the last boring idea that I had to work on, but I never really paid attention to it.

You can read about that here.

The problem that we are solving through Record is a personal problem that I had for myself. It was a very selfish decision to do the startup. I wanted to solve a very unique problem for me in the first place.

Just when I finished college and was experimenting with a lot of things, I was also trying to apply for jobs on the side. A very common thing to do for a 22-year-old lost kid. Here is when I was furious. Not that I didn’t get any job, but before that, I didn’t know what jobs I should apply for.

Yes, I really didn’t know that. Also, I didn’t want to take any job someone gave me. I wanted to apply for a job that I think I’m good at and get it. To do that, I should have some skills. But I didn’t know what skills I had in the first place to apply for a damn job.

You get my problem right?

I DIDN’T KNOW WHAT SKILLS I HAD.

But then one day, I gathered my thoughts and reverse-engineered something. I collected all my reading resources, the courses I took, the YouTube videos I watched, the projects I did, the workshops I attended, the people I followed, and the internships I went for.

I did all the above because no one told me to do so. I did it just because I loved doing it. So, tracking all this stuff, I found out. I had a natural affinity towards writing, marketing and product.

Subconsciously, I have been repeatedly consuming content around these 3 topics only. Then it led me to the fact that I’m naturally curious about these things, and I can do better work than others if I pursue a career in that.

So, a small backtracking to all my experiences and activities and listing down the skills associated with them, I found out what my genuine intellectual curiosity was.

This is on one side. There is also another side to this story.

In my entire life, I have been only formally employed twice. One as an associate product manager and two as a startup narrative strategist.

I found both these jobs online, applied for them on my own and cracked them without much effort. Unconventional job roles, but still, I had the skills for them.

So I built my career just by following my curiosity, consuming knowledge from the internet, and using that information to build a portfolio and land a job on my own.

This was like an AHA moment for me.

Every young adult goes through this journey. There is something out there they wish to explore or are already exploring, and there is always a job awaiting them if they can get themselves out there.

That is what Record essentially does.

We collect all the experiences, activities, projects and interests of individuals and assign digital verified skill badges to them. So recruiters can easily find them based on skills.

Tomorrow, if anyone asks, “What skills do you have?” They need not worry about it and simply show their Record profile.

Record helps an individual build their “Ultimate Skill Repository.” So Recruiters can find them based on skills with Zero Friction.

So I didn’t build a Record for the world, I built it for me. Then I found out the world needed a product like this. A 22-year-old Tharun, straight out of college,e would have been the biggest beneficiary of the Record.

Nevertheless, my user research tells me there are 1000s and 1000s of Tharuns out there. They are all going to benefit widely from the Technology we have built.

Adding Cherry to the top. My Co-Founder, Akshay, has a similar DNA. He dropped out, self-taught himself design, marketing and some programming. So both he and I built our careers being self-taught learners.

If idiots like us can crack jobs, convince clients of freelance projects and make money. Imagine what a much more skilful 25-year-old can do.

Other Reasons

The personal story is just one of the reasons. Obviously, there are other reasons too. If I say there isn’t anything, I’m lying to your face.

I was frustrated. I’ll tell you why.

People go to colleges and get degrees. But degrees don’t equate to skills. A top student from a top university can be skill-less and just have a degree. But a student in a tier 4 college in South Tamil Nadu will be a 100x programmer than him.

But recruiters would obviously prefer the former. Because the latter hasn’t had the chance to show his skills effectively. In a skill contest, the latter would always end up better than the former.

So, degrees are lagging indicators for employment, and skills are the leading indicators. India is also slowly moving towards a Skill-Based economy where recruiters care more about your skills than vanity metrics like CGPA, College Brand or Attendance.

If you have the desired skills, come work with us is going to be the norm. Anyone without skills will struggle to get a job, even worse, in this AI era, skills are the new currency.

One of the people and companies I look up to. Vivek Ravishankar from Hackerrank famously put “Skills >> Pedigree”

I too strongly believe in that, and that is why we are single-handedly accelerating India’s skill-based hiring initiatives. Skills are here to stay.

Record will be the biggest enabler of Skill-Based Hiring in India. Our proprietary skill badging mechanism will be the biggest infrastructure for Upskilling and Recruiting Companies.