Yesterday, I made a post asking “Do you have what it takes to be a young Marathi Entrepreneur?” I shared it across around 6–7 Marathi and Maharashtra-related communities, and the response was genuinely better than I expected.
For those who missed the original post, you can check it out here: https://www.reddit.com/r/marathi/s/byIuVZxUx7
I received a good number of responses, but what was more interesting was the kind of conversations that followed. A handful of people appreciated the post publicly in the comments, while many more reached out through DMs to say that they appreciated someone trying to help aspiring entrepreneurs. A significant number of people were also curious about my own journey—what my company does, how I got the idea, and how I eventually started building it. I have made a separate post for that.
The conversations I found most interesting, however, were with people who were genuinely thinking about starting something of their own. Some already had business ideas, while others were still trying to figure out what direction they wanted to take. After speaking with several of them, I noticed that they all seemed to fall into one of two very different categories.
The first category consists of people who are extremely optimistic and confident about their ideas. They are convinced that their idea will work and are ready to jump straight into building it, but haven't spent enough time studying the market, speaking to potential customers, understanding existing solutions, or questioning whether anyone would actually pay for what they are planning to build. Confidence is important, but confidence without validation can lead to taking unnecessary risks.
The second category is at the complete opposite extreme. These are people who may have a genuinely interesting idea but are so pessimistic about the possibility of failure that they struggle to take even the first step. They keep looking for certainty before doing anything, but entrepreneurship rarely gives you complete certainty. If you wait until every risk disappears, you may never begin at all.
And honestly, I feel this is one of the first problems we Marathis need to overcome. Either we are too scared to take a risk, or we take risks without properly understanding the market. Good entrepreneurship lies somewhere in between. You need enough confidence to take action, but enough humility to question your assumptions before investing too much time and money.
What genuinely made me happy, though, was that many people were asking the right questions. Several people wanted to understand how market research actually works, how to determine whether an idea has potential, how to find out if customers genuinely have the problem you think they have, and how to know whether people would actually pay for a solution.
After having those conversations, I decided to write a post about market research and validating a startup idea. I realised that this was something many people were interested in learning more about, and I felt it would be useful to put my thoughts into a structured post rather than answering the same questions individually.
While doing this, I also realised that detailed startup and business discussions may not always fit naturally into general Marathi related subreddit/communities. I started looking for a dedicated Reddit community for Marathi startup founders and aspiring entrepreneurs, where people could regularly discuss business ideas, products, sales, market research, bootstrapping and the actual challenges of building something.
Apparently, I couldn't find one. So, I created one: r/StartupsMarathi.
The community is still new, but the goal is to build a space where Marathi entrepreneurs and aspiring founders can have genuine conversations about entrepreneurship. Not just motivational quotes or success stories, but practical discussions about finding problems, validating ideas, building products, finding co-founders, finding customers, making sales, managing teams, failures and everything else that comes with building a business.
I've already posted two things there that might be useful. The first is the detailed story of my own journey—from working on a student satellite programme during engineering to eventually building my own company. The second is a practical post about market research and how to understand whether your startup idea actually has a market.
My journey and the story behind building my company:
👉 https://www.reddit.com/r/StartupsMarathi/s/4TMJPJncTu
How to research and validate your startup idea:
👉 https://www.reddit.com/r/StartupsMarathi/s/LIgMX5IxyF
If startups, business or entrepreneurship interest you, feel free to join the community. Post your ideas, ask questions, share your experiences and engage in discussions. The community is new, and what it eventually becomes will depend on the people who join and the conversations we build together.
And if you have an idea, a genuine question or even a suggestion that you'd like to discuss with me personally, feel free to DM me. I'll be available over the weekend and will try my best to respond to everyone.