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Pulkit Singhal

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Pulkit Singhal

Chief Technology Officer

Fermyon

Brief description

I work at Fermyon Inc. I'm the Chief Technology Officer (CTO).
I have roughly 8 years of industry experience since I graduated with my MS in Comp.Sci.Everyone is an equity owner in our startup and we are a tightly knit group of less than 10 people.
I don't really manage anyone as I don't want to be the limit on other people's potential.Plus, I avoid bringing in folks that need to be managed, it leaves less time to put into the startup

Challenge in job

Finding and attracting talented people is the biggest challenge I face. Going through the recruitment process is helping me build better connections, maintain them long-term and keep in touch with folks for the present & the future. This is something that used to happen naturally when I was an employee in the past and I simply had to work with the folks in my office to know who the top-guns were. Now, as an owner, it takes a lot of effort to onboard only super stars.

Job made easy

Keeping track of how I spend my time, task by task, in units as small as half an hour ... helps me stay honest with myself in terms of what I've actually accomplished and what I can hope to do eventually. This makes my job easier because reflecting on myself helps me to not push unrealistic delivery timelines onto others.

Upcoming trend

Someone is clearly going to capitalize on the mobile self-serve and self-checkout market but it remains to be seen who it will be.

My point of view

It is an individual's personal responsibility to simply say, "I'm going to do it," and start walking the path of product development. It takes unguarded and illogical optimism to be a founder of a startup or to make a product. Since everyone around will say no off the bat in the earliest stages when it matters most, one needs to simply believe in oneself to the point of forsaking all reasoning. Ofcourse once you are over the hump called "traction" then everyone will jump onboard. Also, please correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't LinguaNext (http://www.linguanext.net) a great example of tech products made in India that are out to dominate the world markets?

My goals

Make my current startup a success for everyone involved and then move on to the next big idea. I hope to become a serial entrepreneur.

Family background

My dad's a Pediatrician, he moved our family to the US for the sake of my education. Its wasn't a picnic for him and both my parents sacrificed a lot. He's back in India now and enjoying his well deserved retirement.

Advice to professionals

Don't stay with a big company for more than 2 years, its an enjoyable rampup curve initially but it levels out after that. Never stay with any company where you don't feel like there's intellectual growth. It is OK to jump companies, the rumor of a job-hopper getting a bad reputation is just a rumor. There is no such thing as company-employee loyalty anymore, I doubt there ever was. So always make self-growth your #1 criteria and joining startups will help you in that respect.

Advice to students

I would advice the students of "NYU Poly" in Brooklyn, NY to try their best to enroll with professors that actively work with their respective industry as a consultant. They are rare but they do exist. Also I would advise them to always try out their hand at pet projects or enroll with any startup to gain some real experience. Startups don't tend to turn free interns away unlike some of the other high-brow businesses.