Ishmeet Sethi — Co-Founder
I lost $125,000 on my first startup. Co-founder mismatch. Quit my job too early. Hired wrong. Bet everything on one deal. It all fell apart during COVID. That expensive lesson taught me what I couldn't learn at Microsoft. So I spent 4 years at Microsoft Teams rebuilding — not just my finances, but my playbook. I studied what actually separates operators from dreamers. Then I went back in. The journey so far: → 2018: Co-founded Simplified Automation as CTO, scaled to $500K ARR → 2020: Shut down during COVID — lost $125K from my home equity line → 2021–2025: Microsoft Teams, rebuilding and planning the next move → Now: Founding engineer at a stealth AI startup, first hire, equity on the line What I've learned the hard way: → Being a founding engineer is 60% non-coding work — recruiting, customer calls, random fires → You own outcomes, not tasks. That shift changes everything. → The skills that made you successful at Big Tech won't automatically transfer I'm documenting the real journey on YouTube — the messy middle, not the victory lap. The mistakes that cost money. The mindset shifts that matter. The lessons I wish someone had told me before my first startup. My mission: Making entrepreneurship accessible for everyone by sharing what I'm learning in real-time, not teaching from the mountaintop. If you're an engineer thinking about startups, a first-time founder, or someone who'd rather build than theorize — that's who I make content for. 📺 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BuildWithIshmeet?sub_confirmation=1 💬 DM me if you're navigating the Big Tech → Startup transition
Stackforce AI infers this person is a SaaS and AI-focused engineer with strong expertise in mobile and web development.
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Experience: 3 yrs 8 mos
Skills
- Data Analytics
- Ios Development
- .net Core
- Angular
Career Highlights
- Successfully scaled startup to $500K ARR
- Improved Microsoft Teams reliability to 99.5%
- Documenting entrepreneurial journey on YouTube
Work Experience
Jobreel
Founding Engineer (AI) (1 yr 2 mos)
Simplified Automation Inc.
Technical Advisor (1 yr)
Co-Founder and CTO (3 yrs 1 mo)
Microsoft
Software Engineer 2 (4 yrs)
RBC
iOS Developer (1 yr 1 mo)
Developer co-op (4 mos)
MPOnline Limited (A joint venture of Govt. of Madhya Pradesh, India and Tata Consultancy Services)
Summer Intern (2 mos)
SAS
Summer Intern (3 mos)
Menestys Techno
Co Founder (1 yr)
Education
Master of Engineering (M.Eng.) at Queen's University
Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech.) at Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University