From ₹10K intern to founder – sharing every salary figure (rare in India)

[Aravind]

Fresh out of college in 2018, I joined a Bangalore startup as an intern for ₹10,000 a month.

I had a ₹25k offer from a services company but turned it down. Everyone thought I was being foolish.

My logic was simple – I wanted to write real code from day one, not spend six months in training.

Here's how it actually went:

2018 – ₹10,000/mo (intern, Bangalore startup) – shared a 2‑BHK with three flat‑mates in Koramangala, survived on Maggi, learned React and Node by debugging production crashes at 2 am.

2019 – ₹25,000/mo – first full‑time role at the same startup, started building features end‑to‑end.

2020 – ₹35,000/mo – full‑stack, began making architectural decisions.

2021 – ₹45,000/mo → then jumped to ₹80,000/mo – spent 4‑5 months learning blockchain at night while still employed (CryptoZombies, Patrick Collins' YouTube bootcamp, two side projects on GitHub). Applied to 15 companies, got offers from two, and nearly doubled my salary overnight.

2022 – ₹3,50,000/mo – a French blockchain startup found me on LinkedIn, three interview rounds, offered ₹3.5 L per month – four times my previous pay. I took it.

Worked remotely for 1.5 years and used that time to quietly build my own company on the side.

2024 – left the ₹3.5 L salary – went full‑time at Teckas Technologies. We're now a team of nine, with clients in India, Europe and the US, and have seen six months of consecutive revenue growth.

A few things I'd do differently:

* Specialized six months too late – I was comfortable when I should have been uncomfortable.
* Didn't build in public at all – wish I'd started documenting from year 1.
* Underestimated how much financial stuff matters – taxes, contracts, invoicing. Learned the hard way.

The one decision that mattered most was taking the ₹10K internship over the ₹25K services job. Everything else flowed from that. Happy to answer any questions.

[Sonal]

Respect for the hustle. By the way, could you share how to showcase your work and potential online, apart from upskilling? For example, how did the foreign company notice you? That could help others land better opportunities. Thanks.

[Shivendra]

Yep, most crypto jobs pay extremely well.

It's a bear market right now, though.

[Radhika]

Hey, I want to document my journey too. I'm currently in my second year of BTech...

Any format you'd suggest?

[Ramesh]

If you don't mind, could you share approximate revenue numbers for your current company? Are you earning more than you did in your last salaried role?

[Ayaan]

Congrats, OP! Wish you all the riches in life.

[Ishita]

Is there a way for French companies to hire you, or can you start a business there as a cloud data engineer? My goal is to spend some time in France.

[Seema]

What suggestions would you give to someone graduating in two months, with no offer or tech internship, and coming from a lower‑middle‑class background?

[Ehsan]

Thanks a lot. Very few people speak so openly.

What does your startup do, by the way?

[Ashwin]

Where do you find clients?

[Pratik]

You rode the blockchain wave during COVID, and when it started declining you opened a service‑based company?