The Naive Optimist: Why I Left Corporate Life to Build for the World from Karnal

In April 2022, I made a decision that looked terrible on paper. I quit a stable corporate career to move back to my hometown, Karnal.

I didn't have a product. I didn't have a customer. I just had a gut feeling that I needed to build something of my own. My plan was simple: "I'll give it six months. I'll build a product, sell it, and if it doesn't work, I'll go back to a job."

Looking back now, that was incredibly naive.

You cannot build a decade-long vision on a six-month timeline. But sometimes, you need a mentor who sees the long game when you are too focused on the short term.

The Return to Karnal

The catalyst for my move was a conversation with Shashank, founder of HCode Technologies. We had been discussing the tech landscape in Tier 3 India for months. His advice wasn't just "start a company." It was more grounded: "Come back to Karnal. Work with us at HCode. Learn how deep tech functions, understand the ecosystem, and build from here."

I was working with HCode, getting my hands dirty in the tech, but I couldn't shake the itch to build something of my own. My heart was set on it. To be honest, when I told Shashank I was ready to move on, he was a little annoyed—I was quitting earlier than we'd anticipated and leaving a gap in the team.

But that's the thing about true mentorship. He put that initial frustration aside and gave me his blessing to go and build. That support turned a difficult exit into the beginning of a partnership.

The Instagram Epiphany

By February 2023, I was ready to take the leap. But the idea for Leap10x didn't come from a boardroom; it came from a memory of my days running operations on a manufacturing floor in 2018.

I remembered the chaos. But mostly, I remembered the disconnect.

We were trying to teach our frontline workers—factory staff, retail teams, delivery fleets—using clunky, desktop-based Learning Management Systems (LMS). Engagement was abysmal.

Yet, one afternoon, I watched a worker edit a photo on his phone with professional-grade skill. I asked him how he learned to do that. He said, "I learned it from Instagram Reels."

It hit me like a ton of bricks. These workers didn't have a learning problem. We had a delivery problem.

They were mobile-first, sharp, and fast. But we were forcing them to use tools from 2010.

The "Valley of Death" and the First Check

Even with a great insight, the journey wasn't a straight line. Between March and August 2023, I went through months of "no-gos," pivots, and deep research. This is usually where solo founders burn out.

This is where the ecosystem in Karnal saved me.

When the vision finally crystalized—building a WhatsApp-first training platform that kills the "login" friction—I needed capital to plant the seed. Shashank stepped in again, not just as a mentor, but as our first investor.

On August 20, 2023, Leap10x was officially born.

Building for the Decade

The final piece of the puzzle was realizing I couldn't do this alone. If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.

I reconnected with Ankur, my batchmate from NITIE (IIM Mumbai). We've known each other for over seven years. He brought deep EdTech experience and the operational grit we needed.

Today, just over a year later, the "naive" six-month plan has evolved into a global mission.

We aren't just building a tool; we are changing how the workforce learns. We are working with Fortune 500 giants like HDFC Bank, Reliance, Tata Electronics, and Siemens. We are seeing engagement rates jump from the industry standard of 20% to over 75%.

We are proving that you don't need to be in Bangalore or Silicon Valley to solve global problems. You can build world-class SaaS from Karnal, provided you have the right insight, the right co-founder, and the right mentorship backing you up.

We are just getting started

Sometimes the most naive decisions lead to the biggest breakthroughs. The key is having people around you who believe in the long game—even when you're focused on surviving the next six months.

This is our story. And we're writing new chapters every day.