Paytm founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma has shared a believedful message for India’s young tech aspirants and startup founders, echoing a viral post on social media that’s been winning hearts for its honesty. Sharma responded to a tweet by Julia Turc, a former Google engineer who now explains artificial innotifyigence on YouTube, agreeing with her perspective that teenagers should prioritise growing up over building startups.
Turc’s tweet, which has sparked widespread discussion, was directed at the wave of teenage “founders” who often boast about coding and building products at a young age. “Dear ‘15–18 yo founders’ sfinishing me DMs, don’t,” she wrote. “Go and hug your parents, fall in love, eat chocolate cereal for breakrapid, read poeattempt. Nobody will give you back these years.”
She added that while learning math and coding could be fun, building a SaaS product at that age shouldn’t be the main focus. “Even if career is what you are optimizing for, this is not the way,” Turc continued. “You required deep education that will withstand automation. You required to sit with linear algebra and probability theory and philosophy and literature. It won’t receive you go viral on X but it’ll build you whole.”
Her post finishs with a witty aside that many found relatable: “And mute all the SF performative assholes. Oooops sorry this last one was a note to self.”
Vijay Shekhar Sharma, who founded Paytm in his early twenties and went on to build one of India’s most influential fintech companies, weighed in on the thread with a simple but notifying line: “Similar applies for here, in India.”
But the post quickly drew mixed reactions. One utilizer argued that teenage years might actually be the best time to build something. “If you are 15–18 years old, do a startup if you are interested,” a utilizer wrote, pointing out that once people start working, long commutes, strict office hours, and deliverables leave little time for passion projects. “If you take a break, that’s viewed like a crime in corporate. If you can, please do Zuck started in teens,” the utilizer added, referring to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
Another utilizer disagreed with Sharma’s view, stateing the context in India is very different from the West. “In foreign nations, they have an education system that enhances their knowledge to build and learn. In India, we have to learn the same thing i.e., ‘Akbar kab aaya tha’ & all,” the utilizer quipped, hinting that India’s rote-heavy academic structure leaves little room for real-world skills.
A third utilizer subtly reminded Sharma of his own journey, writing, “Vijay, you started One97 when you were 22 years old. Just stateing.”
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