How I saw my friends building a multi million dollar startup and what it taught me

Like most freshman of engineering colleges in India, I knew nothing about how the world worked. But unlike a lot of them, I was a self-proclaimed ignorant. Maturity was the beautiful cat and I was the skunk, it just wasn’t meant to be. So as the first day of college was coming to a grinding halt, in came tropes of college teams to recruit. Half awake, I was busy watching the rain pour down out my window.

“Hello Guys! Give me your attention for ten minutes” said a booming voice, in came four guys so sure of themselves that they easily grasped control of the class. That was my first contact with The Testament.
“Come join us and get a chance to grow along with our bootstrapped startup”, said the voice, and the skunk in me smelled an opportunity to finally grab the cat. As a freshman, I had become used to seniors pitching their cause with repetitive cries of superiority, I wasn’t buying any of it. But the guys from The Testament seemed different. For one, they weren’t attached to any organization but the one they were building themselves. Secondly, their introduction explained the desperate situation of the college grads and how their venture could cure it. Everyone in my class was hooked, so was I. They introduced their newspaper, passed around a few samples and a beacon of excitement grew when they let us know about their recruitment plans. As swiftly they had entered, they left the room electrified.
I knew nothing about how the world worked, but I had a feverish habit of browsing newspapers and books. So I was the only one to give answers to the technical questions put forward in the session. The interview was a breeze and I became a part of what was arguably the most dynamic team from my college. It was so exciting connecting with these multi-faceted people, and to take a small step in the maturity climb. The Testament organized a business psychology workshop in which my team and I fetched revenues of close to Rs. 1, 40, 000. The company scaled a step and created a name for itself by this effort across students in NCR. That was an achievement, but I learned something — I sucked at sustaining relationships.
At the center of our startup were four uber cool people (in my eyes), coming up with a plethora of ideas and growing them as they could. I enjoyed working them every bit and was learning by the clock! From designing strategies to actual implementation; I even acted in a short movie and made marketing collaborations with the top colleges in Delhi. Sadly, I flunked in studies because of which I had to disconnect from my beloved startup. This halted everything, but I tried to never forget the people at The Testament.
Sounds clichéd, but it is true. College ended and I called Nishant immediately, I was back at the temple of innovation.
The Testament has since then become a company with two offices, million dollars in revenues, presence in 40 cities and mentor-ship of industry leaders like Kashyap Deorah, Karan Bajwa, Rajat Mittal among others. But all this is just a start, we envision to become the biggest creator of work opportunities in the world. I, on the other hand have been humbled, and the thought to revolutionize the world has seeped in and is percolating, ready to pounce and leave a mark.
Reality is different to me now. I am maturing slowly and the world seems interesting rather than scary. The work is surely challenging and the workload ballistic, but I feel blessed to be here. Let’s see how story of my beloved startup and I unfolds.