There are names that despite being worthy of it, never are known by the wider audiences they deserve. At Inc42, we consider this one of our prime responsibilities to cover such entrepreneurs. Pulkit Madan is one such name that has inspired us tremendously.
Pulkit Madan is the founder of Backit.co and Coffee.io. We had previously featured an article on his second venture – Backit.co. With two ventures to his name, did you know he is only 18 years old. How many of us can claim to have achieved so much at such an age?
Read on to know more about Mr Madan and his fabulous journey so far.
Inc42: Tell us something about yourself, your story so far?
Pulkit: My name is Pulkit Madan and I am the Founder of Backit.co – One click website backup solution and Coffee.io – Real time collaboration tool for developers. It all started back when I was in the 8th Standard and joined a sort of class/competition after the school in which they teach you the basics of flash for 2 weeks. At the end of that course we needed to create a flash movie on the topic they assign us to and the best movie was to win the prize. I won, and started getting more interested in multimedia. I landed on photoshop’s tutorials and finally made a shift to coding.
Inc42: How did you get the idea for Coffee.io & Backit.co? What inspired or motivated you to get into coding?
Pulkit: So my first venture was a small hosting company. It soon started to attract people but as the more clients you get the more pressure you have on you to make sure their data and website is always up. And in case of a hardware failure , it really use to become a serious problem to restore each and every client’s data. So what i started that time as a concept was Backit.co ! It was known by a different name and soon i started to get some positive feedbacks regarding the concept. Soon after that i decided to make it a valuable product and started to make it alot better than it was before. As a result , Backit.co was born 🙂
Inc42: You started your first venture Coffee.io when you were only 18. In your opinion what are the pros and cons of starting up early?
Pulkit: Ok, there seems to be a little mistake in the question. Coffee.io was actually started in Sept 2012. My first venture was a small hosting company trying to make some bucks. To be true , there are a lot of benefits to start early but the major point is that:
# You have nothing to lose. This not only help’s you keep getting forward but lets you take risks and innovate.
In the cons :-
# It can actually divert you from your studies if a balance is not maintained.
Inc42: How is the traction/numbers so far for both startups?
Pulkit: We have got a prompt response for both the startups. I cannot tell you the exact numbers but yes they are not small 🙂
Inc42: What is an average workday like for you?
Pulkit: I general start work late because of working late at nights but everyday in morning i make a goal to sleep early tonight and wake up in morning and start early. Hopefully will complete that goal soon 😉
Inc42: What is your favourite book/movie of all time?
Pulikt: My favorite book so far is the “Start with Why” from Simon Sinek and the favorite movie is “Life of Pi”.
Inc42: Which inspiring personality past/present would you like to have a dinner conversation with? Why?
Pulkit: If i ever get a chance , i will definitely have dinner conversation with Jack Dorsey. He is an awesome entrepreneur with a passion to change things.
Inc42: Who are your mentors? What do you think are the most important things that you have learnt from your mentor?
Pulkit: To be true , my real mentor is my dad. I have seen him working really hard to get us the comfortable life we are living. The most important thing i have learnt from him is that there are no shortcuts in life. To make something successfully , you will need to take risk and work hard.
Inc42: Finally, what is your advice to other young entrepreneurs?
Pulkit: My advice to the other young entrepreneur is to work hard and believe in your product. The day you stop believing in the thing you are working on, it is dead.
Indeed death befalls a plan in whom its ideator loses faith.
Remember Steve Jobs when he said that one can never connect the dots looking forward, what you can however accomplish is to follow and succeed in your ideas, however inconsequential they may seem at that moment. Never back down.
