Writing this on 18th, Vibecon was from 16th to 17th.
1st i will talk abt how the event went. and then i will talk abt what are the mistakes i did, so that i can learn from them.
For the sake of this document, i would refer "Bangalore" as "BLR".
Enjoying Time of My Life
it was day 0, 14th apr 2026. I was having the time of my life in BLR. Before going to vibecon, i already had met a judge and 3 sponsors of vibecon. Additionally i had met a VC. I also met a guy who lives in Dubai, and has a lifestyle business and his teammates (they were participants at Vibecon)
Ideation
Let's step back one more day, 15th apr 2026. I kept this day purely to brainstorm what to build at Vibecon. I had 2 ideas, one was a social media where people would form real offline connections, and 2nd one was a tool that used AI to determine what's the Virality factor of a video, and how can u make it better. Looking back, if i had just made anyone of these, i would have probably won. But I didn't, we will come to this later.
While thinking abt both the ideas, 1st one felt too "cliche". And i tried making the 2nd one, but i wasn't able find API providers for Meta Tribe v2, nor was i able to get A100 to host the model on cloud. And the day ended with a dead end, and i was desperate to find ideas.
Vibecon DAY 1
This was the day i was waiting for, 16th apr 2026. I went to Polaris school of technology with the 2 other people i met. And the reality of it was dawning on me, The sheer scale of event was crazy. in Mumbai No one knew abt Vibecon, but in BLR it was the thing everyone was talking abt. If i just said to people that, i am going to vibecon, They would look at me like i have cracked something big.
i was meeting so many new people, i was talking to so many people that it was overwhelming. I would argue that this was one of my biggest mistake too, but we will come to that later.
The start had some logistical hiccups: food took time, WiFi was slow, and credits came in later than expected. But honestly, none of that defined the event for me.
But even due to all of these delays, I managed to come up with 2 ideas. I wanted to solve the procrastination problem for GenZ. Coz before coming to vibecon i asked all my friends, "What's the one problem in ur life, which if solved can improve ur life by 10x". And Almost all of them said something on the lines of procrastination, motivation, getting things done. So i came up with 2 methods to solve this:-
- Accountability Market Place: A platform where you can find like minded people, who would act as accountability buddies.
- Prediction platform, For other's Goal: People could bet on people completing their goal or not, and you would stay accountable to prove the haters wrong, and the supporters right.
No points for guessing, i went for the 2nd idea. coz it sounded a bit more edgy. I spent 1st half of day 1, thinking how would the user interact with our platform. And networking with people. And TBH, i don't even remember the names of 99% people i met at Vibecon. I was up all night till 4am the next day, and then slept for 3hrs.
Vibecon DAY 2
This was where i was rested, and had processed the overwhelming place i was in called BLR. So now the reality started dawning on me, I had made a freaking meme platform in a place like Vibecon. But what would someone who is sleep deprived, stressed, having a mental breakdown, hasn't completely shed older habits do?
IDK abt you, but i just naturally drifted to older habits. And my Cortisol was so high, that even if i tried i couldn't act different. So i went to an LLM to talk abt it, and well what a program designed to be a "yes man" do? it would give u false hope, and i was so vulnerable at that point that i took it. I could have pivoted at that point and chosen a new idea. But i didn't, coz i was listening to a stupid yes man.
Even though I had the realization of not using LLMs, for thinking, journaling, etc. a long time ago. But at that time, it was the only thing i had.
And then i made a pitch deck, And just waited till 4am. In the mean time, I spent time in conversations that were fun, but not useful for what I was there to do. I was called in for the pitch at around 4, and i fucked it up so hard. I was visibly nervous as fuck, and i knew some points i had to say, but i just din't verbalize them.
After The pitch was over, i went to the public area where the final closing and top 10 pitches were gonna happen. There i was grief, so much grief that the guy sitting next to me noticed it too, and he was a complete stranger. But i tried to squeeze some value from the final 2hrs too, i went to Hemant Mohapatra (Advisor at Lightspeed ventures), and i asked him a question (i would talk abt this later).
While the top 10 winners were pitching, I went through many intense emotions. I still haven't named what I was feeling at that time, but here's the best description I can recall. First, I went into a mode where I felt like the stupidest person alive. I went to LLMs for help, it didn't help, and I was reminded of the conclusion I had made about LLMs a couple of months ago. Then, for a moment, I wanted to escape the feeling somehow. I didn't, because I knew it would only borrow happiness from the next day.
Then I realized that just feeling bad is what everyone does. If I'm gonna become the next Parshva Gala, I should be the one picking myself up. I would analyze what went wrong and course correct. So I did that. Went back to my hotel, people there were watching a movie, I watched it for a bit. Then went to my bed, opened many YouTube tabs, caught up on a lot of things like Opus 4.7 and the Avengers Doomsday trailer, and fell asleep watching a Veritasium video.
The Next Day
on 18th apr 2026, i woke up at 7.30 am. Realized that i had forgotten 2 bottles in the freezer overnight, so i rushed to get them out. Luckily the fridge was so bad that it didn't cool the water enough to turn into ice. I ordered food, completed the veritasium video, and watched harry potter and the sorcerer's stone while processing everything. I slept again at around 2pm, and woke up at 4.30pm coz my mom called me.
And then i quickly booked a uber to corner house. It's known for deserts in BLR, and i wanted to go there before i leave BLR. After that i visited The Rameshwaram Cafe, Which is another Trending place in BLR. IDK why it's trending, or what's the speciality. Coz i tried Ghee plain Dosa, and TBH an average Mumbai restaurant has better dosa than Rameshwaram cafe. After that i took a cab to Koramangala, coz i have a comedy show at 8pm. So started writing this in the cab, and right now at Starbucks i am completing the experience section.
The Learnings
I had many learning on this trip, i don't remember all of them. But i have tried to remember those that matter the most. And this is the collection of that, in no particular order.
You Can't Do it Alone
Almost everyone in the top 10 was a team. There was just 1 solo builder, and surprisingly she was the winner. But you shouldn't just copy what the winners are doing, they could be wrong, they are humans at the end of the day right? Yes, u shouldn't blindly copy. But here's why you should copy this particular trait.
Because when you have people around you, they can fill in for you when u are down. And i am the one who needs this most. Coz my cortisol can spike and fuck me up, but if i have someone who says "STFU" on my face, that changes the game.
Additionally When you are down, its incredibly hard to notice it and pick yourself up. You can do it, but the probability is not in your favor. So the biggest thing one must do to completely change the course of their life is, NEVER DO IT ALONE.
Add upon that the benefit that, 2 people can quite literally do 2x work then 1 person can.
Just Talk
Here in BLR, where i finally feel like i am not the odd one out and can talk to people, form connections, etc. I think that's possible only coz of 1 reason. That reason is, i just talked. Imagine trying to get to know people, without even talking. And if you are a good listener, people will talk to you. And i believe i am a decent listener. So yeah, even if i ever disconnect from society, and i i ever want to get back, i now know that i can do iit again.
It's ok to be Human
This isn't a specific learning i had at Vibecon, But it was solidified the most at Vibecon. Even before vibecon, i have been trying to internalize this. And recently my therapist also said something on similar lines. SO yeah, its perfectly ok to be a imperfect human.
I am mentioning this here, because i got nervous during the pitch. And that was coz, i lost the power dynamic b/w me and the judges in my head. Instead, they are just humans too.
Trust ur instinct
I will explain this in a better way, using my conversation with Hemant. I asked him, That is the Going to IITs still the best route in 2026? And he didn't answer it directly, but what he asked me was, "What do u want to do". I answered my end goal is starting a startup, he said "JUST DO IT". Well ofc i am not gonna drop out, and start a startup today, coz the probability isn't in my favor. But what i extrapolated from that msg is, that u should just Believe in what u want. And Just Do it, things will not work out for the longest time period imaginable.
But if you keep you keep doing this for long enough, and keep learning. You won't realize when things suddenly start working.
The best example of this was at vibecon, I shld have just trusted my instincts and acted upon the offline social media idea. But i didn't, coz it sounded cliche. And LLMs said that it won't work.
Side note: in the Worlds of LLMs, when you ask them to research. You must have the self believe in yourself to say a program that knows everything, that it is wrong. Coz most of the ideas a creative person might have, are creative coz they haven't been down before and the LLMs don't have any data abt it.
Here is a general rule of thumb i must follow. If a LLM agrees with you, its hallucinating/people pleasing, or there have already things written on it. And if its disagreeing with you, you are probably upon something.
Action > Everything
Before going to vibecon, i met Rishabh Singh. He is the guy from Boundless ventures, the VC i talked abt earlier. He told me one thing, the best founders are the hardest to get a hang of for investing, or they would have a cofounder that would take care for VCs.
And i saw this pattern across all the winners. Everyone who had 2 teammates, one of them worked on the product, while the 2nd one went around, networked, did other things. And the winner, who was the solo builder, was deeply focused on building. I tried talking to her, but she seemed locked in on what she was there to do. That's why i said before that one of my biggest mistake was over networking.
The only way to do great things is to hyper focus on action, other things like networking, etc will be the bi-products, Or have someone to do that for you.
Closing Thoughts
I am completing this the next day, at around 11am. I will be leaving BLR tonight at 8pm, and this trip has been quite a ride. I thought BLR would be exactly like this, but experiencing this is very different. I have decided to take some space from the builder/startup guy inside me, and to hyper focus on JEE right now. But my urge to move to this place, has never been higher. I just imagine how cool SF would be, if BLR is so cool.
Prashant said one thing at vibecon, even if you failed at Vibecon. This event will change your life, and after this you will exactly know what you want, and what you are gonna do next. I can't say anything for others, but for me this absolutely changed my life and gave me clarity. I exactly know what i want from life, and what i need to be doing next. And the sheer amounts of things i learned in these 6days, i couldn't have learned in a year.
Vibecon is the best thing that has happened to me. I hope i could say that this was just the start, that i can say that vibecon was the smallest thing in my life.