The Family Question — My parents' reaction when I told them about Elfinity. What they said. What I wish they understood.

There is a conversation every first-generation founder has.

The one you rehearse in your head a hundred times before it happens.

The one where you sit across from the people who sacrificed everything for you — and tell them you are choosing a path they have no map for.

I had that conversation.

And nothing I rehearsed prepared me for what it actually felt like.

Where I Come From

I want you to understand something before I tell you the rest.

I am from Gundi Settipalli. A village in Chittoor District, Andhra Pradesh.

My family are not businesspeople. They are not investors. They are not founders.

They are people who worked hard, sacrificed quietly, and believed — the way so many Indian families believe — that education leads to a job, and a job leads to security, and security is the highest form of love you can give your children.

My mother gave me ₹20,000. Not because she understood what I was going to build. But because she believed in me before she understood anything else.

That is the kind of love I come from.

And that is exactly what made the conversation so hard.

What They Said

When I told them about Elfinity — there was no single moment. No dramatic scene.

It was a feeling that settled over the room.

Part pride. Part fear. Both real. Both valid.

They supported me — because they always have. And they were afraid — because they always will be.

My mother didn't say "I don't believe in you." What she said, in the way mothers say things without saying them — was "I don't want you to suffer."

My father didn't say "this is wrong." What he said, in the way fathers say things with their silence — was "I don't understand this world you are entering. And that scares me."

And I sat with that. Because I had no easy answer.

The truth was — I didn't know if it would work either. I just knew I had to try.

What I Wish They Understood

That this is bigger than a job — it is a mission.

A job would have given me a salary. Elfinity is giving 3,000+ founders a community they didn't have before.

I am not just building a company. I am building something that will outlast me. Something that will carry our family's name — not as employees, but as architects.

That the sacrifices are worth it.

I know they see the struggle. The nights that run long. The months that run hard. The uncertainty that never fully goes away.

But what they don't always see is what I see — Founders launching their first product because of a connection made at BSC. Investors backing startups that had nowhere else to go. A community that calls itself a family — because that is what it has become.

Every sacrifice has built something that matters. Not just to me. To thousands of people.

That I am not struggling — I am building.

There is a difference. Struggling means you are losing. Building means you are choosing — every day — to create something from nothing.

And yes, building is hard. But hard is not the same as wrong.

That I am doing this for the family too.

Amma, when I stood on a stage in front of 40+ founders last week — I was standing there for you.

For the ₹20,000 you gave me when you had every reason not to. For the belief you showed me before I had shown you anything worth believing in.

Everything I build carries that with it. Every event. Every program. Every founder we back.

It all starts with what you gave me.

What I Have Made Peace With

My parents may never fully understand the startup world.

They may always worry — because that is what love looks like from where they stand.

And I have stopped needing them to understand it the way I do.

Because what they gave me is something no business program teaches.

They gave me the belief that starting from nothing is not a limitation.

It is a foundation.

A village boy from Chittoor didn't build an ecosystem in Bengaluru despite where he came from.

He built it because of where he came from.

Amma. Nanna.

This one is for you.

"The strongest startup you will ever build is yourself." — Dr. Ajay Reddy Zane