When I was 27, I sold my first company in New York.
Right after signing docs in Jackson Heights. I called my father from the car. My wife beside me, driving home to Long Island.
She snapped a photo.I kept it, and luckily I found it again.
I remember it like yesterday: My father answered on the old Nokia phone.
That I have given him during my last visit to india ,
He was on the farm, wind on the line….
▶️ He asked,
“బాగానే నడుస్తుంటే ఎందుకు అమ్మాలి?“Why sell if it’s doing well?”
It was hard to explain,
but I tried in Telugu, our way. Not word for word, but the meaning.
▶️ Nanna, in your world you plant, care,
and harvest from the same soil your whole life.
I grew up in that world. It raised me.
▶️ But my work is a different season, in a different place.
▶️ Nanna, I’m a starter.
▶️ Like you prepare the seedbed before the monsoon
I prepare a new field before a business even exists.
▶️ You pick stones by hand;
I clear the unknowns one by one.
▶️ You wait for the first green;
I wait for the first customer who says “yes.”
▶️ Those early days are the days where I do my best work.
a messy whiteboard,
the first hires,
the first invoices,
the first wins.
That’s where my hands matter most.
▶️ Then a moment comes: Like your farm the soil is soft, the rows are
straight, the water is steady the crop grows without me.
▶️ At that stage, the company needs a different strength: calm, patient
scaling. That’s not my gift.
▶️ My gift is to start, build systems, train people then make space for it
grow.
▶️ So when the company is healthy, the leaders are ready, and customers
are safe,
▶️ I sell not to run away, but to hand the field to a steady farmer for the next season.
▶️ అది రిస్కీ కదా? (Isn’t that risky?) he asked.
▶️ Staying after my part is done is also a risky Nanna.
An idle mind can tinker out of boredom and push a good business the
wrong way.
▶️ He Listened and said “సరే. నువ్వు ఏది చేసినా రైట్‌గా చేయి. నా కన్నా నీకే
నీ బిజినెస్ గురించి ఎక్కువ తెలుసు.” (“Okay. Do whatever you feel is
right you know more than me about your business.”)
If “serial entrepreneur” sounds odd, think serial starter.
I chose this path knowing my strength.
the first mile, learned that the hard way.
Every time I exit, a few non-negotiables stay the same:
I don’t chase trophies; I chase momentum and systems that deliver.
New field….
New map….
But Same values.
For me, serial entrepreneurship: start at zero → make it work without me → leave it stronger → begin again.
Deep respect to founders who stay with one business—the world needs your steadiness. I sometimes wish I were wired that way. I’m not, and I’m at peace with it.