Taking a break from building

I am taking a break from building and starting to invest a little. I have been burned out for the last couple of months, and after the acquisition of my robotics company, I am not in the state to start something new in deep tech. My bandwidth has gotten too low. I have spent a lot of the last few months bed rotting, which is probably the clearest way I can say that I was not doing well.

I remember when the EV money first hit my bank account. I messaged everyone. I was ridiculously happy, making plans and telling people about it. After building the company for a while, though, I was just exhausted. Now the money is in the bank and I mostly want to enjoy my life for a bit.

I spoke with one of my very good mentors today, and we talked about the mental side of all this. I have also watched peers who raised millions in venture capital become deeply depressed. I do not want to damage my reputation or my mental health by raising more money and entering that world again before I am ready.

Maybe I will do it again when I have a fully formed idea. I see a real future in crypto and stablecoins, and those are probably the areas I would look at first. But I am not thinking about starting anything right now. I want to let myself have a period where the answer is simply no.

I had a lower six-figure exit. In a few days, the money should hit my bank account. I am going to buy myself a car, spend more time with my family, and maybe go back to university. I already have my US visa sorted, and I want to visit twenty or thirty countries and just roam around for a while.

I feel like I damaged my health and my reputation in a few places. I was not in the best state. I had terrible co-founder breakups because I was often reacting to people who were larping, and eventually I pushed through solo. I do not want to do that again.

I have also interacted with a lot of grifters here. I have met people who seemed to be trying to take advantage of me or scam me, and there are probably only three or four people in Bangalore I would call genuinely good and sincere. That has made me much more careful about who I spend time with.

One reason I moved from central Bangalore to Bellandur is that I do not like the hype around the startup ecosystem here. I moved into a villa with my flatmates. One of them is a YC founder, and he was constantly giving me very good advice. Honestly, I like living with them. They are not constantly performing or chasing the same startup-bro status games. I lived at Zo House for a few months, and that was probably one of the worst things for my mental health. A lot of it felt like a downgrade from my time at Build AI and MicroAGI.

I was not able to work in the middle of that ecosystem. I started chasing external validation, and that slowly turned me into the kind of person I have been writing about: a larper. I believe in pure-play, Eddy Xu type work. I do not want to be labelled a larper, a grifter, or anything close to that, so taking a break from building feels like the right thing to do.

For now, I want to travel more, back more young people, and enjoy life for a bit. I will come back to building when I feel like myself again. I just want to relax. I am happy, honestly, that it ended. I built something, it was acquired, and now I get to find out what life feels like when I am not trying to turn every month into another company. We will see what comes next.