Companies

CASA

I started this to help international students find housing in the Bay Area. This generated revenue: $10 in my Venmo and actually solved the problem for few people. The Problem: When students looked for housing on Craigslist, they didn't get any responses, and Craigslist was the only place where affordable housing (under $1000) could be found. Other sites had listings, but nobody bothered to update availability and changes; ads remained until they expired. I didn't think creating another website was the right solution. The problem was sending emails and not getting response back. I solved the problem in the most direct and manual way possible—sending bunches of emails and responding to them. Students did not want to deal with having to send lots of emails to get one respond. I created Gmail accounts and told users that I had AI software that it would send and respond to emails (simple enough to trust and complex enough to avoid further technical questions). I shared these Gmail accounts with them, allowing them to see the messages sent and responses made. This was before ChatGPT (I made it up), and one user paid me for it. Sorry for lying to you, Maya (first paying customer). It wasn't actually software; it was actually me sending these emails all night long and responding. Eventually, I lost motivation to keep this running by myself. But I did help some people find the right place to live, got a customer who later on went to be great friend whose startup I later joined (Feliciti), and even ended up interviewing over 200 students, both in person and virtually. I almost went to court due to a problematic tenant.
I started this by just helping people find housing.

One good memory is helping a guy move into his new apartment: We were moving in during a hailstorm. When I say "during the hailstorm," I mean we were carrying furniture while it was literally pouring. I did this all for no charge, just to understand the problems they faced. I interviewed the tenant, the tenant's mother, the tenant's step-dad, the landlord, and all the roommates. I had to find the problem to solve, so I did whatever it took at the time—total brute force.

I literally walked around San Francisco State University, the University of San Francisco, UC Berkeley, and sometimes Stanford; this was my daily routine. I have track or audio playback of around 200 interviews; untracked, I probably interviewed over 500 people—walking on the street or on the bus, just starting conversations and asking questions. I had to talk to as many people as I could so I would just go through the craigslist at the night ( this was my night routine )and be the first one to take over anything under $1000 and schedule a tour I would basically just tour the house so that I could talk to landlords. I toured over 100 houses around main campuses in the Bay Area also setup some fake ads on Craigslist ( this was the one that worked most effectively) I got so good at creating Craigslist ads that almost all Top ads under $1000 was mine and this made me get calls from my old friends as well as they were looking for housing as well. I had an extreme sense of urgency; I felt a hole in my chest, a brutal pain, as if I couldn't swallow anything. I had a cheap phone that barely worked; I couldn't take notes on it. I actually came to the United States without a phone, thinking Google Maps was a stupid game. Back home in Nepal, it didn't work or I'd say it wasn't that helpful. I really didn't know it was a real map.

I walked around these campuses with a piece of paper with a list of questions, saying, "Hey, I'm working on this project, can I ask you a couple of questions?" The first few rejections were brutal. I felt like a scammer, that annoying salesperson walking around campuses with a piece of paper. Later, I got more confident talking to complete strangers. This was a time when I clearly felt what it's like to work on something that is absolutely not what you're meant to do. It doesn't feel like it at the start, but after a couple of months, it gets even harder to wake up; you sleep with the fear of tomorrow. I didn't stop working on it because it was hard or the probability of success was low. Coming to the United States at 16 alone without being sure where I'd live or survive as first International travel was way harder. I stopped working on this because I felt I was doing the wrong thing.

Feliciti (Internship)

Joined on the second day of founding the company as an Operational Intern. I worked with the CEO, marking my first time working with an official startup team. This was a co-living marketplace startup with over 100+ properties across the Bay Area, including Hacker Houses, Astronaut Houses, AI Founder Houses, Labs, and Mansions we started with 1 room. I was responsible for procuring the houses, bringing in over 100+ (definitely making errors and receiving constant guidance from the founders). This is when I practically knew that startup means work , there is that hard part , the brutally painful part, but joining this startup I learnt that there is also the going through boredom part, there is this part where you just have to keep on going without seeing something new everyday.

Before I joined this startup, I was working on my own startups but hard parts were relatively new, And that even new problems and pains are I must say are exciting ( I use to think Startup was like this jungle where you constantly fight monsters attacking you, but working here I learnt that it could also be walk-in in endless desert.)

I left after feeling an internal calling again, desiring to work on my own thing, something related to cars. That's when I moved on to build an RC self-driving car.

Sam Car Cleans

This one probably required the most physical hustle(walked all around San Francisco City, door to door knocking) . The main plan was to provide a full car cleaning service and potentially make it available through an app. The reason to this was quite different I wanted to work on different idea “SUNIR SOLAR” with latest solar technology “Perovskite Cells”. At this point, I had a couple of printers from previous electronics flipping business. I printed 518 paper flyers stating, "I am 17 years old. I will wash your car for $30, full interior for $50, no accessories needed. I am doing this to start an Energy Company to Provide Clean Energy for America” I distributed all 518 flyers in one day. I started at 7:00 am in the Bernal Heights area, sticking flyers on car windshields and going door-to-door, distributing them. Once, I even encountered a man with a baseball bat because I disturbed him during action.

TNPL (Founded)

I started this back home in Nepal. TNPL stands for "Travel Now Pay Later”. I was solving the problem : “Gen Z wanted to travel but they could not because they did not have enough money”. Solution: “You could borrow money from TNPL and travel and pay back in monthly basis” The idea came from talking to users: I was reading books watching heck lots of videos from Y Combinator, Scratching through anything Peter Theil, I use to religiously follow this youtube channel called Valuetainment. So , I had to talk to users and I wanted international users ( Thinking Small was Just not in my veins, this was a Problem: could not start small) resulting in : I talked to lots of people on Omegle (was really not a good idea). I simply went out on my bicycle and talked to people. At this time I had my spots in my city ( Kathmandu , where I found peace, sometimes I would just even walk-in to 5 star hotels, ask for water , hang around for a while and leave, I liked cycling around in my city and walking around. And I did this always alone with no set time, this allowed room to be original. Doing it with friends would be more fun, and I definitely was not an introvert, but again you would not be original and lean towards doing more stupid things.)

So, Omegle was not really working, most of the people would just ask me the first question in chat” Male or Female ? ”, later I learn that if I say that I am Male they would immediately leave. So my Digital ID became : “Sofia from Arizona, 22 years old, Researching in a project”. I knew that most users I was pairing with were Indians (College Aged Males) and I thought Indians might love white girls ( saw it in movies,) this worked. The first question I got was Male or Female / m or f ? And then age. Then the questions began then I would slowly direct them to me asking questions.

I chatted with people from India and Vietnam mostly. And got result that Gen Z , wanted to travel but they could not because gen z are usually in high school or college and they did not have enough money to travel. But traveling was what they wanted to do. Then as I could not completely rely on just people from Omegle I decided that I would go and talk to people in Person in the streets, So as I wanted to talk to international users, only thing that came up on my head was Tourist. So I went to one of my spot in the city , and went to Thamel, the touristy part of Kathmandu, and I decided to talk to two women tourist walking on street. ( I had never in my 15 years life interviewed someone like this) , I was on my bicycle and I was so scared that I could just not move, and then I lost them, that made me feel like a loser and then I thought”First step is always the hardest” and decided that I would talk to two white male tourist going in the store. As they came out , I asked” Excuse me sir, can I have a minute please ?”, I had no plans on what to ask, just made it up on bike. I’m am not the type of guy who like’s to spend time on planning , I think once and just do !

One guy told me “No”, with a hand gesture and walked away. “For a 15 year old boy this was enough to break the shells. “, This is probably my first taste of Real World out of Fakeness that school programs you in. That brought tears to my eyes, I was not crying but just could not stop the tears, went to a corner small store and wiped my tears ( shopkeeper saw me ,but as he saw me in tears , he said nothing., this was one of the low points in my life, after the death of my grand mother. I was completely still for few minutes. And I walked out and I had this swing of emotion : “When you hit the base, very bottom at the short amount of time , you will equally bounce back. I had this weird energy, It felt like sense of revenge, or will prove you wrong type of feeling. You might feel like it is weak to cry on such a small thing, but when you are doing something with complete dedication, sincerity and total life force there is nothing like ‘not taking it personal, everything is personal ‘ I was my business and my business was me ” And same day I talked to three more people , almost non were helpful for answering questions ,but I did it until it was too dark and had to return home.

This company , if not anything introduced me to reality, broke the shell, and made me a little bit mature.

COPANY

The name for this company came from my spelling error while visualizing "Company." I was spending lots of time talking to people on Omegle and random people on the street, dedicated to writing about ideas and contemplating them. One night, I could barely sleep, thinking about ideas, and the next morning, I woke up at 4:00 am to rain. I was about to write something when I thought, "What if umbrellas were as easy to use and as compact as pens?" The pen I used was a Pilot v2 0.5 Black—not a luxury pen but very sleek and clean. So, I drew it out, contemplated it, and discussed it with my uncle. I started drawing it out to get a clearer picture. It might seem like a mere umbrella, but it was a significant engineering challenge. I was so naive; I didn't even believe that at first. I started looking for mechanical engineers to talk to. One day, I ended up behind the Tribhuvan University while riding my bicycle. I saw an old board mentioning the National Innovation Center. As I went in that direction, it was really quiet, but I kept going and saw other boards mentioning startups. I had only heard words like "startup" and "entrepreneurship" in YouTube videos and books, not in real life.

So, I went to the innovation center, saw a bunch of half-constructed tools and toys, and even something that looked like a Mars Rover.There I went in and met bunch of engineers who were working on rocket. Not big ones, just the small ones ( hand held ), then some of the engineers helped me get clearer version of what I wanted. I explained them mechanics based on my internal understanding of physics and movements. And they helped me draw out the sketch of product.

Then I started to talk with umbrella fabric providers in China via Alibaba. Then I was looking for mechanical engineers as well.

I actually came to United States with this Idea. And I even pitched for this in my class of Business English Class.

SUNIR SOLAR

The idea: Setup Highly Efficient Solar Panels( Perovskite Cells) in Homes for free, providing home-owner with free regular electricity and other benefits of solar ( having own source of energy) and we would take excess energy , and sell it to the large supplier like PG & E.

I researched about different solar cells, decided on Perovskite Cells because they were the most efficient at the time. Had calls with California ISO , PG & E. Did this until found California government itself had and was in process of launching similar programs.

These were some businesses I started as I just arrived in the US and was very low on cash. Most options were simply not available, such as simple gateways or payment systems—basically, foundational elements necessary for growing a business were inaccessible if you were not legally allowed to work in the United States. Even to conduct transactions, your only option was direct cash; major marketplaces like eBay and payment systems like PayPal and Venmo were not available. And one major downside I had was not being able to build to software.

Electronics flipping

I acquired free electronics that people wanted to get rid of and sold them on Craigslist. It resulted in 100% profit but had a few turnovers.

Couch flipping

I attempted to start with the couches I had, but the main barrier was the need for a truck for delivery.

Phone flipping

I got banned from the main marketplace (Facebook Marketplace) for over-sending messages.

Lawn mowing

I began on social media platforms, joined various groups, messaged people about what I was doing, and made posts. I also posted about couch flipping on NextDoor, leading some people to label me as a scammer or a fraud who changed businesses every two weeks.

Restaurant supply

The simple idea was to buy directly from the manufacturer and distribute to restaurants. However, I found that the crucial factor was the cost, and restaurant owners preferred going themselves for a cheaper price. Essentially, I was competing with COSTCO and Restaurant Depot.

Sneaker flipping

This was something I had no knowledge about, but I spent a couple of weeks researching and understanding the business. Nonetheless, all these small endeavors not working out directed me to truly figure out and find what to work on.