Thakur holds a master’s degree in computer science from the University of Southern California in the US. She lives in Pune, Maharashtra, and worked as a software engineer at major companies from 2018 to 2025. From 2022 to 2025, she worked at Inspirit as a Senior Software Engineer.
After leaving her job, Thakur decided to build her own startup. In February 2025, she launched an AI product called Fridayy.
In a LinkedIn post, Thakur said she had left a ₹75 lakh job to start her own company. However, she said ChatGPT and Google AI rendered the startup’s first product ineffective, resulting in all of its customers leaving within just 30 days.
The entrepreneur said the company then spent seven months searching for a new direction through a pivot and another nine months building something useful. The 16-month struggle left the startup with very little money, while its B2B sales cycle was taking three to four months.
Thakur said the company is now looking for investors who understand its idea and are willing to invest in it. She acknowledged that building the company had been extremely difficult, with challenges including the long pivot period, slow B2B sales and limited financial runway.
“I’m not telling you this to scare you. I’m telling you this because to build something new, you need unwavering, intense, almost obsessive belief in yourself,” Thakur wrote in her LinkedIn post.
She added, “Everything that can go wrong while building a business, will go wrong.”
Despite the uncertainty, Thakur said that even if the company were to end tomorrow, she would be happy knowing that she had given it everything she had. Her experience highlights the intense pressure faced by founders trying to build new technology businesses in a rapidly changing AI landscape.
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