Let me try and catch you up! Well, we got our office painted and done up, lost someone really close to me, went live with a few more brands, beefed up our event management practice and the tech around it, hired our social media team, launched a hackathon, I travelled to Kashmir, saw our first intern team leave and graduate, bought so many more lamps to put around office (adulting), took Fanpit to a NRAI summit, applied to YC and got rejected twice, applied to WTFund’s new cohort, landed in the top 7% and so much more.

Hello! Hi! Hey! If you are new here, don’t worry, you missed nothing! I’m Tejas and I’m building Fanpit - a place where people can find things they love!

I use this place to tell you about the things I do, Fanpit and otherwise! So read on and follow my journey!

Advice - Starting up is not easy. At all!

No matter how rosy things may seem, it is brutal. Everything about this ride is both exhausting and exhilarating at the same time.

As a founder, the problems that you have to deal with are the worst kind, because that’s what gets to you! Riding through the good times is easy. You just have to be there. But the bad times, that’s where things really make or break you. When we first started, everything we believed of our market, was tested! We had to rethink the way our expansions worked, the way we sold to clients, the way we positioned ourselves. Everything.

So if you are someone who doesn’t like change and can’t stand it, this life isn’t for you!

But here is the fun part! The connections you make, to see the shots you took - land something wonderful, the way a tiny figment of your imagination turns out to become something tangible! Everything makes all the “hustling” worth it!

I visited Pahalgam last month

The journey to Srinagar felt endless—six hours that stretched like a full day. The moment I settled into the cab, I asked Imtaz bhai if the tourist season was in full swing.

He turned to me, and I could hear the weight in his voice: “Nahi sir, April 22 ke baad tourist log bahot kam hai.”

Kashmir runs on tourism and handicrafts. When safety concerns keep visitors away, the impact cascades—less income, quieter markets, and a military presence that grows to fill the silence.

As I write this a month later, I can still picture it: an army officer stationed every ten meters. This was our own military—people meant to protect us—and yet the heaviness was undeniable. If this felt off to me as a visitor in my own country, I can only begin to imagine what it’s like for people living under foreign military presence. To wake up every day to armed forces on your streets, regardless of whose flag they wear.

But here’s what stayed with me: hope doesn’t leave. Shops still open every morning. Goods are still arranged on display. People still show up, day after day, keeping their world turning even when the crowds don’t come.

That resilience—quiet, unglamorous, stubborn—is what I’ll remember most about Kashmir. And the uncomfortable recognition that security, even when it’s meant to protect, can feel like occupation when it’s everywhere you look.

I started freewriting today

Freewriting is literally just setting a timer (usually 10-15 minutes) and writing whatever comes to mind without stopping, editing, or judging. No backspacing, no “does this make sense?”, no worrying about grammar or structure. The pen/keyboard keeps moving the entire time. It’s a brain dump that bypasses your inner critic.

Get started here!

OutWorld by Fanpit is LIVEE!!!

Last month we went live with V2 of OutWorld, an events/experiences platform built to make it super easy for any community, brand, or event organizer to manage all the tech needed to make events happen.

Since then: 2K+ tickets sold and some cozy new communities have found their home on the platform!

Excited to see where this goes! Check it out here !

I don’t like speaking to investors

I know that sounds bad. But hear me out.

Every investor conversation is painful. They dissect your idea, test your convictions, poke holes in the vision you’ve been living and breathing. It’s uncomfortable watching someone take apart something you’ve built, piece by piece, and ask you to justify why each piece matters.

But here’s the thing: I do it anyway. Not because I love pitching. Not because I’m chasing a check. But because those conversations force me to think big. Really big.

When an investor asks “why not 10x this?” or “what happens when you have a million users?”—I have to zoom out. I have to see Fanpit not as the scrappy thing we’re building today, but as the thing it could become. They make me justify why we exist at all, and every time I answer that question, I get a little clearer on what we’re actually building.

We’ve been rejected by YC twice. We’ve had calls where investors clearly checked out halfway through. We’ve pitched ideas that got torn apart. And every single time, it hurt.

But it also sharpened me. Made me think harder. Made me defend the vision until it became clearer in my own head.

So no, I don’t like speaking to investors. But I do it because growth happens in discomfort. Because having your convictions tested is how you figure out which ones are real and which ones are just noise. Because building something big requires you to think bigger than you’re comfortable with.

That’s part of the journey. The painful, necessary, clarifying part.

I’m getting into my content creator era

Look, I know how this sounds. But content is how you sell and scale in 2025.

In the US, deals are happening because someone went viral on TikTok. Brands are being built on Instagram reels. Communities are forming around content, not products. The best distribution channel isn’t ads or cold emails anymore. It’s showing up consistently and building an audience that actually cares.

So yeah, I’m leaning into content. Not because I want to be an influencer, but because I want Fanpit to reach people who would love what we’re building but don’t know we exist yet.

Content is the new moat. It’s how you build trust at scale. It’s how you turn strangers into customers without ever having to pitch them.

Plus, if I’m being honest, it’s kind of fun. Forcing myself to distill what we’re doing into short, punchy pieces makes me understand it better. Every post is a test: does this idea resonate? Does this story land? Can I explain what we do in a way that makes someone care?

So follow along. Watch me figure this out in real time. It’ll either work brilliantly or be hilariously messy. Either way, you’ll get a front-row seat.

What’s next?

More freewriting. More building. More content. More figuring out what Fanpit becomes when we stop trying to fit into boxes and just build what feels right.

If you want to follow along, subscribe below. Or don’t. Either way, I’ll be here—writing, building, and probably overthinking everything.

Cheers!
TPS

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To sum up - we got a new client (Soft Serve Co.), opened up a new office (we are calling it the Coffee House by Fanpit), had a first batch of wonderful people join us and so much more!

Oh! We got our entity name approval from MCA! Soon, we will be Fanpit Technologies Private Limited! Fun times ahead!

Read on and I’ll tell you!

Advice - A founder must sell!

If you are ever caught between having to get a sales lead, and having to sell your product yourself, pick the latter and get your hands dirty.

Customers love to see the obsession (read passion) you bring to the table and your pitch would be far more effective than any sales guy / marketing guru! I have seen this personally and this is super time tested!

Take Stripe - for example. Today, Stripe is the behemoth / identity layer for finance and payments but way back when it started, giants like Paypal already had a name. The founders apparently sat beside merchants and did the demo themselves to show them how incredibly easy it was to go live with payments!

Selling and being close to the ground is also the best way to get direct feedback on how your product can be better! We went live with Soft Serve 26th Feb and I spent all my evenings out here talking to people and getting direct feedback on my product and I was able to make some very enabling changes to my UI/UX that eases acceptance!

So my friend, go out and make the sale! If you need a sounding board to get clarity, I’m here for you! You would probably me able to catch me at Soft Serve from 6 PM to 12 AM on all days (except Monday :p)

A founder’s journey can be lonely

And especially if you are a solo-founder, it could make things a lot more difficult! Which is why building a team is very important and it could literally make or break a startup!

That being said, hello Sahithi! Welcome to Fanpit!

Sahithi joint us to be part of the Founder’s Office as an Associate and we couldn’t be happier! She would eventually move on to leading sales and operations!

We also put together a stellar tech team that has been working at ripping apart everything that I have done over the last couple of months to “refactor” my code base. Themozhi and Swetha - fresh from SSN join us as interns. My task now is to find ways to raise money and fund their salaries, because they seem to be too good to let go off!

My tech head, whom I cannot name here is my proudest convert! I have been pitching ideas to him for about five years now and I finally managed to get him excited about Fanpit! I did not know how big of a shot he was until I was informed so by our intern pool! Kudos to me I guess!

I also have Nachi join me to help with building Fanpit products. Nachi too is building his own startup and is super fun to have around in stressful situations!

We are Fanpit!

We also experienced our first server crash!

We put out an ad on LinkedIn to hire interns for design and marketing and UI/UX. We did not want to use any third party providers and wanted to collect all applications because we ran a pretty cool AI model on them to figure out a perfect fit!

Our servers were on a low tier and couldn’t handle what came next! We had close to about 500 applications hit our servers in less than an hour! We were ready for 100 overall :p

Anyway, we scaled the servers up and learnt about auto-scaling! Rest assured, this won’t happen again I hope :p

We’re live at Soft Serve!

I spoke about maybe going live with one more client last time. We did!

And as of this post, we have 98 users who have signed up to be part of Fanpit! Everyone loved what we had to say and we can’t wait to build on!

If you every are at Soft Serve, check out their Breakfast Cup and Cereal Milk! Never would I ever had imagined cereal and ice cream pair so well!

Coffee House by Fanpit

We moved into Fanpit’s first ever office space at Gopalpuram! The premises that once was home to my mom’s practice, now houses us. We did up the kitchen to give it a coffee - shop vibe and made sure every room has a TV. It feels professional now!

Oh and we have bloody fast wifi - something that I am super proud about! We bought a new router - and if you are ever looking for one - get this one!

Non - Fanpit related stuff, I watched a movie last week!

In fact two! NEEK and Vidamuyarchi! Both these movies were fun and it was nice to not think too much about things and get my mind all clouded. I do miss the Sathyam popcorn mixers though. PVR Cinemas - please bring them back!

I ALSO GOT A PRESSURE GUN TO WASH WALLS!

Omg, I have to talk about this! I bought this pressure washing gun to wash the walls and the floors in the terrace at office and it’s super cool! It felt like one of those satisfying Instagram cleaning reels! If you ever want to let off some steam and chill out, we have a lot of walls that need washing!

Do you see a difference? Amazing right!

Mind dump, raising funds

I’ve been pondering over raising funds for quite a bit of time now. The whole process is excruciatingly hard, especially if you are only cold emailing VCs.

I started writing to VCs and making pitch decks right at the idea stage and it wasn’t until we went live with our first client (Umber Speciality Coffee) and started seeing a few users did I even get a response. So cold emailing works, but you need to have something to show for it!

Here is the problem, everytime I hit a milestone, I ponder over the thought of raising funds. On one hand, this means better growth, better security and a lot other benefits. But on the other hand, it means giving up a larger share of equity and not to mention, going through a brutally hard process of making and updating pitch decks.

If you are starting up and are looking at what your deck should be structured like, there is no right answer. I’ve found that while decks need to have very specific information, the way it flows through is very personal. To make things easier for you, I’ve decided to open source my deck template for you to build on!

fill this form to get the pitch deck delivered to you!

Tools to help you - your first 100 days!

When you do start up, you are going to have to make a lot of decisions. A bulk of those would revolve around what tools you need to use to help your team and organisation!

Here are a list of tools we are using to make it easier for us!

• Communication - Slack

  • Slack is effortlessly the best. The kind of features and integrations it offers is unparalleled!

• Email - Zoho

  • I am aware that Microsoft has a Founders Program that gives you email for free for one year. The reason we decided to go ahead with Zoho is that, over a period of time, Microsoft turns out to be a lot more expensive. So factor that into your costing as well!

• Tasks and Tracking - Slack

  • Does the job

• Documentation - Confluence

  • Recommended by my tech head. Did not ask any questions

• Hosting - Render

  • While I was trying to figure out where to host, there was a lot of mumbo jumbo on AWS, Azure and the likes. Render seemed pretty straight forward gets the job done

• Recruitment - LinkedIn for advertisements, in house development for tracking and collection of CVs.

• Accounting and ERP - Odoo

  • We are still playing around with this one.

• Sales and Leads tracking - Slack !

Earworm - Jiyara,

Check it out, you will understand why!

Hopefully, you would be able to find Fanpit in and around more! Here is to manifesting! How did you like this? What clicked? What missed? What would you like to read more about?

You can reach me at tejas@fanpit.live or wherever you usually find me hanging around!

Cheers!
TPS

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If this is your first time here, Hello! I’m Tejas and I write this newsletter that is delivered to you every Wednesday (I try!) on things that I did and worked on the last week! Think of this, as sort of an unstructured thought dump that will almost always make sense.

If you have been reading the editions so far, you would be curious to know which way I went with my decision on Civil Services vs. Fanpit. I picked Fanpit.

Why? Well, it just felt right and I was obsessed with everything Fanpit! So I took the leap of faith and here we are!

On that note, last week was all about more development, UI/UX refinements, branding, merchandise making and we may even sign up another client for our early deployments!

More on this in next week’s waffle!

Other than that, it was my birthday on 30th! Spent the day doing responsible stuff. Too personal to talk about here, but did manage to get time to go to an amazing dinner at Chap Chay and tried out their unlimited stir fry buffet. The folks there are super cute and even got me a cake!

Speaking of cakes, Shreya surprised me with a super cool, yummy cake that she had baked at 12 AM. Ate it almost entirely on my own. Was absolutely worth it.

Oh and! I GOT TO SEE ED SHEERAN PERFORM LIVE IN CHENNAI! OMG! OMG! I WAS SO CLOSE TO HIM AND WE MADE POSTERS AND FRIENDSHIP BANDS AND AARFGAGAAGGAGAGH!!!

Anyway, here we are now!

Weekly two cents - Please work on UI/UX!

It doesn’t matter if you are B2B or B2C, good user interface and user experience go a long way. It gives a lot of clarity and helps to make sense of all the chaos!

Good UI/UX means significantly lesser barriers to adoption / conversion and saves a lot of time on training and knowledge sharing! This doesn’t mean the underlying isn’t important. No.

Proverbs like “Don’t judge a book by it’s cover” exist for a reason. And no matter how much we do try, we are more likely to pick a book with a good cover, than one without. The same works here too. Your product is picked because of its cover, but continues to be used because of its story. You have to work on both!

We also got around to talking about API Integrations!

I realised this very early. Our platform, no matter how many features we add, will have to have a lot of automation built into it. This reduces errors and also makes it easier for operational teams to actually use our platform more!

Enter, the API! For those of you who do not know - here is what APIs are all about! Simply put, APIs enable different applications / programs to talk to each other and agree to exchange information in required formats. APIs form the underlying for most integrations and they really are a godsend!

We’ve started talking to different partners with whom we could agree to exchange information to enable processing of transactions on our platform. More on this in the next editions to come!

Oh and Fanpit now has a LinkedIn page!

And yes, I did update my work history too! No longer in stealth! Time to take Fanpit to the world!

I wanted to launch Fanpit and tell the world about it at Ed Sheeran’s concert. So I designed a t-shirt to wear to the concert with a QR code that when you scanned, redirected to www.fanpit.live/legohouse. I did not wear the shirt, but hey! Welcome to Fanpit! Check out the URL now and sign up! We are just getting started!

Also, we are hiring for multiple roles and we are looking to build a super cool team! If you think you have skills and will pass the vibe check, or know someone who will, apply at www.fanpit.live/joinus! If we find your application amazing, we are very happy to go back and find out where we can fit you into our budgets!

Oh and we love interns too! All you need to do is fill the form!

Entity incorporation is hard. There are way too many forms to fill and I just don’t like doing it!

Also, I now need to take a lot of decisions on all things Fanpit.

For starters, are we even going to continue to be Fanpit? Or Fanpyt? Where are we going to host our web app? Should we really get sucked into the big 4 or should we host with a start-up? Also, who is going to run our emails? Microsoft? Zoho? What CRM do I get? Do I get only the CRM or everything? Or do we just build everything in-house? If you have any inputs on any of these things, or anything at all, please write to me!

I now understand why Microsoft surveyed people if we would recommend Windows as an operating system. They knew what adulting was all about.

I finished watching the new season of Shrinking

It’s not very often that I have no words to describe something. Shrinking got me here. It is an absolutely hilarious and wholesome show that is definitely stands for it’s 8.1 rating on IMDB!

So good to see Jason Segel and Harrison Ford on the same screen and the dynamic they share!

Saving the best for the last - Ed Sheeran

Anyone who knows me, knows how big of a “Sheerio” I am. I mean, Ed has been my top artist for six years straight. I have a wall with posters of all his albums, something I paid way more than I should have.

I got to see him. I got to see him smile at a poster we held. I got to see him rock the stage. I got to see him do so well - so effortlessly, in the city I love!

What would you like to read more about? Should I talk more about building Fanpit? Do I build more publicly? Tell you about interesting things I study about(if I do

Drop me a note - tell me what clicks, what doesn't - I'm all ears!

You can reach me at tejas@fanpit.live or wherever you usually find me hanging around!

Cheers!
TPS

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Will get an update delivered to your mailbox by the weekend on #4!

Cheers!
TPS

The cold did get better and at this point it’s only a runny nose that I can’t seem to catch (I know! I know!) Overall, a pretty good week! Did get a bit overwhelmed and lost it for a bit. But “All Iz Well!”

My 2 cents on an MVP - Maybe don’t skip this!

When you are starting up or building, something, you would keep hearing, especially if you are product based, is that you need to really nail out your MVP.

So what is an MVP?

For the sake of conversation, I’m going to say here what Wikipedia says - “A minimum viable product (MVP) is a version of a product with just enough features to be usable by early customers who can then provide feedback for future product development.”

When you are making something to take to a market or to a prospective customer, you definitely don’t have it all figured out. No one does. It’s what your gut tells you - coupled with technical feasibility that must define what your MVP should have. If you think it’s necessary, it is!

Keep building, keep iterating and somewhere, your MVP will actually be something people want and be “usable by early customers”. Its okay if you are “overbuilding” - you can always hide things. Do not underbuild!

Treat this advice like you must treat any advice. My uncle says treat advice like it’s perfume - smell it, don’t drink it! I may come back a while later and eat my words!

But do think about this!

This week was about development sprints

I got this idea from Silicon Valley. Essentially, you block out time on your calendar to do one thing only. Code, iterate, chalk out flows and code. Over the last week, I spent around 80 hours putting together some very important modules which I believe would finally give Fanpit it’s MVP!

I built a catalog manager which supports multi-channel pricing, better transaction claiming flows to make it easier to claim points, landing pages for businesses and the most important of them all, a team management module that helps to build team flows and configure user permissions on Fanpit!

This week I also switched things up and worked from cafes! I found my sweet spot in Chennai at Coffee Trotter - Kotturpuram - where many days ago I launched the Fanpit beta!

Coffee Trotter is amazing! They have great coffee, amazing ambience, amazing scones (YES! SCONES!), sexy fast Wifi, moderately annoying only because it is repetitive music, great seats and the whole place is set at the perfect temperature! Really is my happy place!

Working at Coffee Trotter got me thinking. Why do so many people prefer working at cafes? What about it makes so much sense that websites like I Miss My Cafe exist to simulate a coffee shop experience?

The coffee shop effect

Apparently, this is a thing. Not making it up! Check this out!

Picasso, Rowling, Dylan. Whether they’re painters, singer-songwriters, or musicians, people across the world have time and again testified to the coffee shop effect, that they did a good part of their best work at a cafe!

No, it’s not the coffee or the pretty girl in the coffee shop (Hi Shreya :)) that gets this going. The sounds you hear in a coffee shop - which I Miss My Cafe beautifully simulate, boosts your abstract thinking ability, which can lead to more creative idea generation.

A 2019 study dubbed this as Stochastic-resonance. (Yes, the learning section of this newsletter is back!) It’s the phenomenon in which just the right amount of noise benefits our senses. This is the coffee shop effect and maybe I too can testify to this! Only time will tell!

I went to CT because - being cooped up at home got to me and I needed a better place to go out to think fresh. You should try it too!

Food and nostalgia

There is this scene in the movie Ratatouille where Ego, the critic, takes a bite of Remy’s Ratatouille and is immediately taken back to his childhood days where his mother made Ratatouille, which makes us believe, is his comfort food!

Food-evoked nostalgia, a study by Reid CA, Green JD, Buchmaier S, McSween DK, Wildschut T, Sedikides C., tested this very premise. Results revealed that food is a powerful elicitor of nostalgia and was largely positive!

These help you relive memories and take you back to a place of comfort. I recently felt this over the weekend when I went to Amaravati and took down multiple servings of Andhra Paruppu Podi with nei. Oh! What a day! 11/10 would recommend!

Food-evoked nostalgia is also the theme of the book I’m planning to pick up next - The Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashiwai! More on that when I get to it!

This week my mom gifted me an airfryer

The very idea of air frying french fries making them only 140 calories for a serving of 100 grams is amazing and I cannot believe we did not get one earlier! Up next, I’m going to try making Kung Pao Paneer. More on that next week!

This week I also got to watching the new season of Shrinking!

This show is hilarious and the 8.1 IMDB rating is not surprising! Never did I even think I would watch Marshal from HIMYM (Jason Segel) share a screen with Han Solo from Star Wars (Harrison Ford). I mean - if you were a HIMYM person, you’d understand this - considering Marshall Eriksen was a big fan of Star Wars!

Nothing I say here would do justice to how cute this show is - so take my word, watch it!

I may have made a decision

UPSC vs Fanpit? I may have made a decision. You’ll know soon

Also, fingers crossed - we may land a new customer soon!

Speaking of Fanpit - we started making Ed Sheeran inspired Fanpit merch too! So if you are reading this and want one, let me know and I’ll order one for you too!

My inbox is still open!

What would you like to read more about? Should I talk more about building Fanpit? Do I build more publicly? Tell you about interesting things I study about(if I do

Drop me a note - tell me what clicks, what doesn't - I'm all ears!

You can reach me at tejas@fanpit.live or wherever you usually find me hanging around!

Cheers!
TPS

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That being said, this week, apart for the physical demands of putting up with a cold, was amazing!

Also, just so you know, this newsletter isn’t only going to talk about the ultra-productive things I’ve done. It’s got the good, bad and ugly. So read on!

Just get started (maybe advice) - feel free to skip

Starting up is hard. Building products is hard. Finding product-market fit is hard. Debugging code is hard. But the learning? It's massive. That's the same with every new thing though, right? The learning curve hits you like a brick and suddenly you're drowning in it all. But you push on.

Look, this newsletter isn't written to give advice. But if there's something you've been stewing on, get started with it. Start somewhere, anywhere! If you are looking for a sounding board to help you - feel free to get in touch!

When I first thought of Fanpit, I was all over the place. Still am. My first vision was nothing like what we do now. I could never have dreamed up everything we do today if I hadn't just started and learned to deal with that curve. So. Just. Get. Going.

Why am I saying this? After last week's waffle, I caught up with Sameer Hate - a friend from my KPMG days in Mumbai. He told me how Fanpit and this newsletter got him thinking about an idea he wanted to explore. That made my day - it's exactly why I write this! So if you're looking for a sign, this is it.

Fanpit x Umber Ground

In last week’s waffle, I told you about the Umber Ground - an event put together by Umber Speciality Coffee in Egmore that aimed at creating a community around coffee. Fanpit powered this event - by managing RSVPs and Loyalty, and I’m proud to say we got 13 new user signups!

Here's the thing about Fanpit Events - it's built for pretty much anything you can dream up. Open mics, meetups, pop-up displays, concerts - you name it. We handle all the boring stuff: RSVPs, check-ins, attendee management, and transaction tracking. Plus, you get a slick landing page to share your event.

The whole point? Helping our customers serve their customers better. Picture being at a pop-up event where everything's curated just for you. Pretty sweet, right? (Still working on paid events and ticketing though - we'll get there!)

Want to see what we're building? Drop me a line at tejas@fanpit.live (yes, I have a @fanpit.live email - how cool is that?) or just reach out however you usually do. Let's chat!

UmagineTN, storytelling and scriptwriting

When I told Shreya about meeting people to tell them about Fanpit and pick their mind about where to go from here, she said it feels like how a director/screenwriter usually take around their story to multiple people to get a feel about it, make tweaks and fixes - or maybe even do a re-write. I couldn't have found a better analogy!

Last week was all about taking Fanpit out to the world and getting better perspectives on everything I am doing. Most of it was advice on things that could go wrong but a lot of very interesting feature modifications as well, that I would love to bring to Fanpit!

I took Fanpit to it’s first ever tech-fest - UmagineTN where I got to pick the minds of industry leaders and tech enthusiasts! I also met Nithya after a very long time - again someone whom I got to know from my Bombay days! We caught up and she told me about how she was to meet Mr. Modi the coming week and also about all the cool stuff they have been doing at ePlane Company!

Talk about milestones - because this definitely is one!

I did not study last week

Well, I did not. Most of my time last week was spent talking about - you know and whining about how I don’t have “me time” at all. So I put all my energy there and completely forgot about the aspirant part of me. Maybe this caused some stress too, who knows.

Also I moved my table out of my room so the moment I walk into it, I fall asleep. NO MORE STEWING IN BED TRYING TO SLEEP! YAAY!

I did, however make it to all my workout sessions at SimpleStrong! We did a session today called Xs and Os that felt amazing to finish. 850 calories - one session! Let’s go!!!

Weddings bells are ringing! Sushi plates are dining! Onitsuka Shoes are wearing! Pongal meals are eating!

I also got to attend the very cute wedding of Yuvagelin, my batchmate from KPMG! - Congratulations Yuva! Met all my mates and ex-colleagues. The food there was just amazing and it set the tone to a week of amazing things to eat!

Went to Dhalia later in the week to have sushi - ate a lot more - but the sushi was the highlight! Wore my brand new Asics Onitsuka Tiger - Tokyo Edition to a Japanese restaurant. What? Yes!! (Thanks Shreya!)

Pongal was all about amazing lunch (no naps sadly) and making matcha! May not be a matcha person, figuring that out too!

Maybe I find more “me time” this week?

I’m going to try.

No movies again, just binging a lot of Ted Lasso. Got hooked to a new song this week! - Kuch To Log Kahenge - Kishore Kumar and R. D. Burman.

How do you write something about a song that makes me silent and sends me to a state of thought - only? The song - scales great because of the absolute simplicity with which it is written by Anand Bakshi - aand darts straight to your heart (I’m a poet and you know it!)

I watched Amar Prem (1971) dir. Shakti Samanta - the movie from which this song comes from many years ago, but the song did not stick with me until recently.

Maybe, I grew up. Just maybe.

Leaving you with this, here.

Over to you!

I've been thinking - I'd love to hear your thoughts on this - whatever I am doing here! What would you like to read more about? Should I talk more about building Fanpit? Do I build more publicly? Tell you about interesting things I study about(if I do)

Drop me a note - tell me what clicks, what doesn't - I'm all ears!

You can reach me at tejas@fanpit.live or wherever you usually find me hanging around!

Cheers!
TPS
(P.S. This is how I sign off now!)

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A few months ago I took a step down from my job at KPMG to prep for the UPSC Civil Services Examinations. This decision was something that I had been pondering for many months.

I spent the whole of last year trying really hard to decide between doing an MBA, starting up and taking a break to do the Civil Services. Infact, I even went on to list it as part of my “Goals for 2024”.

So back in June, I finally took the plunge and put in my papers. I was sure that this is what I wanted, until, Fanpit happened - good problems :)

For the first couple of months, I told no one about it. I wanted to be sure it made sense to get confused again, before I announced it to the world.

And now, you know and get to be part of me navigating all that!

Building Fanpit!

Remember when you couldn't get tickets to Coldplay in Mumbai, even though you were willing to pay? Yeah, that stung. But here's the thing – it wasn't just about missing a concert. It was about a system that couldn't distinguish between a die-hard fan who'd waited years for this moment and someone who just wanted to flip tickets.

That frustration sparked Fanpit. Initially, we dreamed of revolutionizing artist-fan relationships. But as we dug deeper and pivoted, we discovered something bigger: the loyalty problem wasn't just in entertainment.

Think about it – you have your favorite café where the barista knows your order by heart, that pizzeria you've been ordering from for years, the theater where you've watched every movie premiere. But do they really know how loyal you are? Can they reward you beyond the basic "buy 10 get 1 free" card?

That's when it clicked. We're building what we wish existed: a loyalty platform so simple that any business – from your corner coffee shop to a massive concert venue – can launch a proper loyalty program in under five minutes.

No coding needed, no massive budgets required. Just pure, straightforward appreciation for your most valuable customers.

Want to see what we're building? Check out Fanpit – we're live in beta! And who better to introduce you to Fanpit than our mascot, Bolt! ⚡

More on Fanpit - in the editions to come!

Starting up, MVPs, Proof of Concept, Fund Raising, VCs, Angels, Incubators

The last few weeks have been all about trying to figure if building Fanpit actually made sense. So I set out to test waters and spoke to many many business owners to pick their minds on what they thought about a loyalty program.

With what they said, I put together a proof of concept / MVP to take back to them.

Starting up is daunting. These podcasts don’t even give you 1% of all things you need to do, and the amount of learning along the way has been immense!

While I would love to write more about it here, it doesn’t feel too Waffle-esq. I want this newsletter to catch you up on what I have been upto and maybe teach you a thing or two!

What I will say is, if I do manage to make sense of what this starting up fiasco is all about, I would write a guide to help you get started too! If you can’t wait for that, here is the thesis that has shaped all of Fanpit. Build great products / tools / platforms that people want to use. This should help make ends meet. Do whatever you need to - to do this.

Also - again! Fanpit is live. Has been for about a week now! Check it out!

This week we also shipped an uber useful feature that helps businesses manage and host events on the application - to track RSVPs, Attendees, Performances and Transactions.

To put this to test and to take Fanpit out to the real world, we have partnered with Umber to manage the RSVPs for the event and Loyalty!

Umber is hosting The Umber Ground on January 12th 2025 and I will be there to tell you about Fanpit! If you want to come, RSVP here!

Twelve Grapes and new year traditions around the world

Last year, the first post I wrote on @wah_tej was on the psychology behind why New Year’s is at the heart at explaining survival. You can read it here.

Now, I must say, I cannot believe I did not speak about Twelve Grapes - a tradition that was made popular by the very beloved show - Modern Family! In season 4, episode 11, Gloria tells Jay "Few years ago I was a single mother living in the slum. Today I'm driving to Palm Springs, in my new car, with my rich husband. You do what you want, I'm eating the grapes". I mean, wow! I’m intrigued!

Thanks to social media, we all got to see this bandwagon effect in India - of something that aired way back in 2012 -2013. We indeed do live in strange times!

We have now reached the learning section of this waffle.

Twelve Grapes started out as a tradition in Spain where people gathered around dinner tables or at main squares where they ate a grape for every time the clock bell wrang. According to the tradition, eating the Twelve Grapes leads to a year of good luck and prosperity, and some even believed it warded off witches and evil in general! Oh and the flavour of the grapes - whether sweet or sour – also predicts what the year will bring.

Speaking of whacky NYE traditions - enter the Danes.

It’s hard to keep the Danish folk out of a holiday favourite. Take the Danish cookies for example! I had the chance to shadow a Dane make cookies and wow! Art it was! The secret ingredient? A BOAT LOAD OF BUTTER! (Thank me later)

Circling back, a Danish tradition sees people smashing plates and glasses on the doorsteps of friends and neighbors to wish them good fortune and to celebrate a new beginning. Broken plates are considered a sign of good luck and strong relationships in the year to come. The more broken glass you receive, the more popular and loved you are.

I did not watch a movie this week so no recommendations, but…

I usually watch a movie or more every week but this week has been a lot of to-dos. So I’m here leaving you with a gem I found this Christmas - Zach Seabaugh!

His songs will transport you and my personal favourite is Christmas Lights! Check it out!

That’s it for this week’s waffle! I’ll let you know on how the Fanpit launch goes on next - week’s Waffle! I might catch a few waves this weekend, don’t know yet!

Till then, this is your sign to do amazing and interesting things this year!

Cheers !

Subscribe now

Each week, you'll get a behind-the-scenes look at my journey building Fanpit (we're making loyalty programs accessible to everyone), mixed with whatever caught my attention that week – from the Spotify tracks I've had on repeat to the latest film that kept me up way too late.

Why start now? Well, there's something about the fresh energy of a new year that makes you want to document the journey ahead. Plus, I've realized that some of the best conversations happen when we share both our work and the things that make us human.

What to expect next week:

• The story behind Fanpit and why I believe loyalty programs shouldn't be rocket science

• My end-of-2024 playlist (warning: it's an eclectic mix)

• The movies that defined my holiday break

• And whatever else happens between now and then!

Subscribe now to catch the first edition next Wednesday. Can't wait to share this journey with you!

See you on January 8th,
Tejas

P.S. Why "Wednesday Waffle"? Because like any good waffle, expect these newsletters to be warm, occasionally messy, but always worth your time!