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By: Pritam Khan
Tags: Cto, Startup Lessons, Founder Stories, Tech, Company Formation

Freedom can be defined in numerous ways. One of the best ways for me is not to. True freedom as one expects it to exist is a complete utopia. One can’t have it all- but one can have choices. The ability to choose is therefore as close to freedom as one can get to. However, let me start from the beginning.

No idea is born perfect. It takes a lot of polishing and honing to get it to the level of perfect execution. Quite similarly, the idea for forming and establishing Explorex was not something that came to me in the shape of a perfectly polished diamond. However, the idea was a good seed, something that with a lot of nurturing and patience could blossom into something generous and full of fruit. Recognising that idea and grabbing hold of it was probably the moment where it all started.

To leap in faith or not

It all started with cups of tea. I mean, literally cup after cup of tea was guzzled before we hit upon the idea. Being in one of the most prestigious institutions in the country, we were pretty aware that ideas that came very near to re-inventing the wheel were almost meant to be conceived here. Bhaski’s was one such place where ideas germinated, and were drunk away in cups of tea. Some blossomed for a brief moment in the light, others were hastily scribbled down and then discarded with a “That will never work!” at the end of the semester. The way of the talkative world has never been the one for me. Fewer words do the job quite efficiently enough. Hence, when Mainak Sarkar approached me for the first time with “an idea”, my response was, again quite simply, “No”. Not because the idea was not good, but because I was about to start my winter internship that would make me unavailable for quite some time.

That was December 2015.

While at my internship in Bangalore, I came into close contact with a senior of mine. Working with him led to a deep appreciation of his intellect. Therefore, when Mainak approached me again in 2016 with a recommendation from the said senior that maybe I should look into this, I finally consented. I should make it very clear that my interests in humans and superficial markers of outward appearance, pleasantries, and networking verge almost zero. The life of coding that I have chosen is not just because I am good at it, but simply because I feel a passionate zeal for it. To code and make it work is that one constant chase that my very being is involved in. Hence, when after reaching Bhaski’s I saw the person with a cup of tea and a smoke, and a burning passion in his eyes, something clicked in me. This person believed in me, in my ability to engineer a product from scratch that we would like to market to the world. Thus started our social media vertical- Eatable.

Building a product is anything but a cakewalk. It requires numerous failed attempts and a constant loop of trial and error. Needless to say, so did ours. In 2017, I joined LinkedIn. Work on our idea did not stop however. After my day job, I would be rushing back to our apartment where along with Soka (our freshly recruited front-end developer), the three of us would be working the whole night through. One interesting thing to note would be that throughout the evolution of our product through so many verticals, our client base never hit zero. As our product evolved, it became increasingly difficult to balance both the jobs equally. Life is easier if decisions are taken in binary. It was clear where I was needed- at my own creation. Currently in 2021, our company Explorex is a YC company. Our product is reaching great heights everyday and evolving. What started out as a three people group is now a healthy, fiercely close-knit team. As stated, I look at the universe through the visor of coded algorithms. So far, my universe (my product, my OS, my team) are running perfectly. The only way forward is to update and evolve.

Honestly? This algorithm is not one to trip- you have the absolute guarantee of the CTO.