#7 - I swear I'm going to write more often
we back baby!
When I wrote to you last March, Fanpit had just began to take shape. We’ve made a few changes to strategy since then and a lot has happened!
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
Keep building!
Very cool!! Good luck with the next steps, and if you need any help i will join..... I'm so excited to see your next writing.