ABOUT
The unauthorized autobiography
Welcome to my internet corner.
You either read my shitpost on twitter, used one of my apps, or actually typed “jimmyharika.com” directly into your browser(wow!). Either way, I'm flattered.
Since you made the effort, I'll give you the real story. Not the LinkedIn version.
Early Life
- •Grew up in Punjab, India with an unhealthy obsession with fighter jets. Not toy ones. Actual jets. The kind that go boom.
- •Made Air Force top 100 THREE TIMES out of a MILLION candidates. And got rejected THREE TIMES. The universe was basically screaming “try something else, dude.”
- •So I did what any Indian without a plan would do: collected degrees like they actually mattered. CS (dropped out - brilliant move), Chemical Engineering, MBA, French, Law. Yes, LAW.
- •Cracked India's toughest law entrance exam with 6th rank. Why? For cheap hostel in heart of Chandigarh. Nothing beats STUCs tea in the morning.
- •My strategy was flawlessly unpractical: avoid real life by becoming a professional student. My parents were thrilled. My bank account was not.
- •Fancy degrees piled up. Actual useful skills? Not so much. I was the most educated useless person you'd ever meet.
The Canada Chapter
- •After 2 years as a Chemical Engineer (yes, I actually used one of those degrees), I was bored to tears. Then Canada announced they needed 300 chemical engineers. The universe finally sent me a W.
- •Packed one backpack, my life savings, parents' "love" (💰), and landed in Canada. All those fancy degrees? About as useful as a paper straw in cold coffee. Who knew?
- •Did the classic immigrant hustle. Walmart, security guard, truck driver. You name it, I did it. My engineering professors would've been so proud seeing me stock shelves at 2 AM.
- •Eventually landed a “real job” (my parents finally stopped asking when I'd get a real job). Business Analyst by day, side-hustler by night. Sleep was optional.
- •Built couple of boring businesses. Logistics, rental properties, etc. Nothing too exciting but they paid for my experiments.
- •Started a tutoring business that shockingly made more money than my "real job." The lightbulb moment: I actually LOVE building things from scratch. Who knew that not flying fighter jets would lead me here?
The deviations from default path
- •It took me 28 years to figure out what makes me happy - building stuff fulltime.
- •Found my golden escape route in the form of Ryerson's weirdly named Master's program with a full ride. Sometimes angles come with a name of Master of Engineering, Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
- •This was like startup fantasy camp: master's degree + product management + internship + incubator + downtown office + free everything. It was ridiculous. And I was ALL IN.
- •Tested hundreds of ideas. Some spectacularly terrible. Built a bunch of MVPs and co-founded a couple of SaaS startups. Felt like a real founder. Narrator: “He wasn't.”
- •As a non-technical founder, I learned the hard truth: when the tech breaks and your CTO disappears to “find himself” in Bali, you're screwed. Limited shots with other people's fingers on the keyboard.
- •Felt like a total fraud. Great at selling ideas but couldn't build a digital sandwich if my life depended on it. Time to fix that...
Becoming Techinical Guy
- •I went back to square one. Design, Development, Copywriting, Marketing, DevOps—the whole solo startup package. My CS professors from years ago were laughing somewhere.
- •YouTube tutorials at 2x speed, Udemy courses during lunch breaks, Stack Overflow as my new religion, and a concerning amount of caffeine.
- •That CS degree I dropped out of? Had to relearn everything through YouTube University anyway. Plot twist: turns out 20-year-old me made terrible decisions. Shocking.
- •Here's the secret sauce: when you know WHAT to build, learning HOW to build it happens at warp speed. Motivation is one hell of a teacher.
- •Built free websites for friends and family. My payment? Them not telling me how terrible the sites actually were. Practice makes... less embarrassing.
- •Finally reached the promised land: I could actually build stuff without begging engineers or emptying my bank account. Technical founder status: UNLOCKED.
Now-ish
- •Running my Web Studio (harika.io) where I help founders and small businesses turn half-baked ideas into actual products people use.
- •Building new products is like having digital children - expensive, exhausting, keep you up at night, but occasionally make you ridiculously proud. And unlike real kids, you can push updates when they misbehave.
- •Those “boring” businesses I started years ago? Still quietly printing money in the background while I tinker with shiny new tech. Boring businesses are the best-kept secret in entrepreneurship.
- •Full circle moment: from collecting useless degrees to building useful things. Turns out the scenic route was worth it. My resume reads like someone with multiple personality disorder, but hey, it worked out.
The Fun Stuff
You've made it THIS far? I'm impressed. You deserve to know the weird stuff.
- •I collect perfumes.
- •Architecture photography is my meditation. I can stare at 19th century buildings for hours.
- •You'll find me working from riverbanks and noisy cafés. People who voluntarily work in sterile, air-conditioned boxes puzzle me. Nature's wifi might be spotty, but the vibes are immaculate.
- •Married to Manu, who deserves a medal for tolerating me. Our home is run by two dictatorial parrots who have opinions on EVERYTHING. We just pay the mortgage; they make the rules.
Let's Connect
If you made it this far, you deserve a prize. Email me and mention “squirrel” - I'll send you something good. No, not a perfume sample. Probably.