Shikhar Shrestha
Co-Founder, CEO
What is one thing you’d want other entrepreneurs to know about Preface?
In the early days of a startup - 90% of people you talk to don't believe in the opportunity, in fact even as the founder some of your days are going to be filled with self-doubt on whether your are on the right path. This starts to change as the company grows and gets market validation to a point where a majority of people you talk to believe in the opportunity and the fact that you are onto building an industry defining company. There are plenty of investors that can be great partners in that later phase once things start playing out but Farooq (Preface) is an investor that can build conviction as an independent thinker, partner with the company and support you as a rock in those very early days when the story is yet to unfold.
What was your least favorite part about fundraising in the early days (or now)?
I am a natural operator and running the business day in day out in the trenches is really the most rewarding part of my job. Fundraising process is so all consuming that it forces you to shift focus away from operating the business (customers, team, product etc.) and thats my least favorite aspect of the process. However, at the end of it, when you find the right partner, they can change the trajectory of the business and it makes the whole thing worth it. That has certainly been our experience with every new partner we have brought onboard.
What did you take from your last experience(s) that informed the founding of Ambient?
I was a victim of an armed robbery as a kid and grew up tinkering with security alarm systems to figure out how incidents could be prevented. My professional interests centered around AI and computer vision and while working in the field during my graduate research and later in Industry, I developed a passion to build vision systems that can understand the world as well as humans. The founding of Ambient was very organic in that I saw an opportunity to solve a problem I felt a deep sense of purpose towards (preventing security incidents) using secrets I had learned about the core enabling technology from my background in computer vision. The icing on the cake was finding the right co-founder to start this journey together with so we could do our life's work building this company.