In 2016, I founded NextBillion in my second year of university to support people with disabilities and connect them with job opportunities in tech. I met my co-founder, Kartik, during my Microsoft internship, and we decided to leverage technology for social impact.
Our mission at NextBillion was to empower people with disabilities globally, starting with tech. Over three years, as a student founder, we supported 400+ people with disabilities, and many of them now have successful careers at large companies such as Microsoft, Spotify, Zapier, Amazon, and many more.
I spent all my time as a student on growing NextBillion, and it even became my thesis project for my final year of university. Some of my hard-earned lessons through this journey include:
- The value of having a strong mission, first and foremost
- The grit required to bring an idea to life
- Making all the common mistakes as a first-time founder
- Selling to enterprises (we provided a hiring solution)
- Doing things that don't scale
- The importance of working with the right people
Alongside my team, I won 30+ awards in technology and social impact — supported by the Founders of the Internet, Queen Elizabeth II, Roddenberry Foundation (from the creator of Star Trek), the Government of Canada and more. I was recognized as a Global 25 Under 25, BC's youngest Top 30 Under 30 awardee, and one of Canada's Top Student Entrepreneurs.
Eventually, we folded the company as we weren't able to find a sustainable way forward. I'm proud of my work on this, and the small but important impact we had on our community. I learned a ton of lessons as a first-time founder here, and it enabled me to have even more impact with my efforts on Memberstack.