Yes. So I have actually officially quit my day job at my Silicon Valley Tech startup and decided to be my own boss (i.e. I am now the CEO of NextDrop). I still work at the Silicon Valley startup full time until June 30th. I just bought my one way ticket to India and I’m leaving American soil on July 10th. So it’s good times.
So what does CEO-ness feel like? These are the words that come to mind:
Nausea: Every morning I get up and I feel like I need to vomit. Then I think that maybe I am pregnant, but since you would have to have sex in order to get pregnant, (and it is highly unlikely that I have been chosen to immaculately conceive the next brown Jesus) pregnancy probably doesn’t explain my need to spew my guts out. But then I think about vomiting, and feel sorry for all those pregnant women out there who have to endure it every morning. And then I realize that if I ever DO get pregnant, this would be my perpetual state of being for the subsequent 9 months of my life. Which THEN makes me question if babies are worth nausea…Babies>Nausea??? But then since I am Indian the real equation is: Babies+not being disowned by your family>nausea? I don’t know. Have you ever had to endure mornings of nausea? This is a very tough decision.
Phone calls and Meetings: Apparently, it’s a thing. 1-2 meetings/phone calls a day (calls between 5:30am-8am while driving to the job that I still have to work at but officially quit, calls from 11-1 during lunch hour in the NextDrop office aka my car, and face to face meetings between 5pm-10pm). I used to have to pay people to pretend to talk to me. And now people do it on their own. Bonus!
Interviews: Apparently it’s also a thing. It’s weird seeing your face on things or your name in print. I always say dumb stuff. I was last quoted as saying that “I am a pro at failing”. I definitely remember saying other things (or at least other words WERE coming out of my mouth), but apparently they were not as interesting as my success at failing. I really need to work on this whole interviewing thing.
Not old enough: Everyone hates getting older but I love it. Because that’s one more year of people you can be like- shut up I know more than you. The younger you are, the less people take you seriously. Especially in a field in which having at least 5 years of work experience is the norm (and no- living does not count as work experience apparently).
My nightly prayer:
Dear God,
Please don’t let me fuck up too bad.
Love,
Anurag Sridharan.
In conclusion, that’s kind of what being a 23 year old CEO feels like.
The Awkward Chronicles 
Don’t worry my dear, interviewing is a skill that comes from practice.
As for NextDrop, it sounds amazing!
I look forward to hearing more from you 🙂