Ever wondered what an entrepreneur's life was like before the notoriety and success?
That was the question on the mind of Abhinaya Konduru, a 21-year-old senior studying finance and mathematical computer science at University of Illinois at Chicago.
As a student fascinated by the tech and startup world, she regularly attended tech networking events, participated in ThinkChicago and Campus 1871, learned to code at Blue1647 and interned at dough, Goldman Sachs and Loop Capital. But she found most of her interactions with founders and entrepreneurs were once they had already achieved some sort of success--she wondered what the entrepreneur life was like before the successful funding, product launch and exit.
So she decided to find out.
Earlier this year Konduru launched a YouTube channel with two ongoing video series: "Hustlepreneur," which follows an up-and-coming entrepreneur around for the day to get inside founders' daily grind, and "Learned From Failed Startups," where she dissects why and how certain startups failed. She films, scripts, produces and edits all of her videos, interspersing interviews and analysis with animations and personal takeaways. Her aim is to document behind-the-scenes stories of founder life to help aspiring entrepreneurs see what it really takes to run a venture.
For her series "Learned from Failed Startups," she gathered a list of startups from CB Insights that have shut down. In animated videos (aided by animation software VideoScribe) she breaks down a startup failure story and analyzes what current founders can learn from their mistakes. For example, failed customization startup Treehouse Logic teaches startups to ask themselves if they're solving a market problem and whether the idea is scalable. A lesson learned from Fashion Project, a charitable clothing resale startup that raised $19 million but shut down in 2016, is to be sure that a venture idea is sustainable against competition, she said.
The "Hustlepreneur" series is a more personal take on the startup journey.
Konduru films literally every moment of her subjects' day. She filmed from the passenger seat as Ray Hightower, founder of WisdomGroup and Chicago Ruby, drove to work at 9 am (and later filmed him breaking it down on the dance floor at Blue1647's Christmas party at 10:30 pm that night), accompanied Antonio Rowry, COO of Blue1647 as he toured Lacuna Artists Lofts in December (where Blue1647 recently moved) and followed Nic Zito door to door as he campaigns for township trustee after a day of work as CEO of Naperville business incubator Rev3 and director of business services at Choose DuPage. She's also profiled aspiring UIC student entrepreneurs, such as Patricia Soto, founder of Pati Cake, and Eddy Meija, founder of ShoeBoxOne.
Through each video she weaves in the backstory and intimate details of founders' journey to entrepreneurship. Zito talks about his first venture, a nutrition supplement company marketed to college students called "Brotein," Rowry shares his experience working while in a wheelchair due to his muscular dystrophy, and Hightower explains how his first venture, a failed commercial real estate company, led to founding WisdomGroup.
The biggest takeaway is the "courage" it takes to be an entrepreneur, she said.
"One of the things I’ve learned from following around entrepreneurs is that it’s not an overnight success," she said. "There’s a lot of trial and error before you become a successful entrepreneur or company…They all hustle everyday to get there."
Moving forward Konduru aims to post two videos per week, on the future she hopes to combine finance and tech together, potentially starting her own company, working for a startup or breaking into venture capital. She plans to continue to expand the video series to the Bay Area and New York.
