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This is an archive article published on November 25, 2024
‘Am leaving Bangalore for Pune’: Techie-turned-entrepreneur’s X post draws flood of job applications
Ujjwal Asthana, a software engineer who started out with Infosys in 2007 and is building a health and fitness company, announced his plan to move to Pune from Bengaluru on X.
For job-hunters in Pune or those interested in moving to the city, here is a positive outcome of Asthana’s move—he has announced that he is hiring for several roles.
Over the past few days, Ujjwal Asthana has shared his views on protein intake, pre-seed startups, Jasprit Bumrah and the nuances of networking. But then came an X post titled “Personal note: I am leaving Bangalore for Pune”. It took off. “Well, a city move was all that was needed to cross 1k followers,” he noted a few hours later.
Asthana, a software engineer who started out with Infosys in 2007, co-founded athleisure brand Zymrat, which has now been acquired, and is building a health and fitness company — Gabit. He has been a Bengaluru resident for 14 years.
To clear the air, Asthana added on X, “The city has given me all the good things in my life—first job, first foreign trip, a life partner, 2 successful businesses, funding, startup acquisition, great friends, a network worth in gold and much more. I am not a local but there wasn’t a day when I felt like an outsider – and if you are thinking its because I live in a bubble of a high rise apartment and a car —that’s not the case. I have also lived the BMTC, auto, cab life in the city for longest time,” he wrote.
Personal note: I am leaving Bangalore for Pune.
Bangalore has been home for 14+ years. The city has given me all the good things in my life – first job, first foreign trip, a life partner, 2 successful businesses, funding, startup acquisition, great friends, a network worth in…
— ujjawal (@ujjawalasthana) November 24, 2024
“And while I am going to make Pune my new home, and I can’t wait to start my journey there, I will keep walking the lanes of Bangalore—the city I have called home since I became an adult, on each trip,” he added.
For job-hunters in Pune or those interested in moving to the city, here is a positive outcome of Asthana’s move—he has announced that he is hiring for several roles. “Salary no bar for the right folks. We’re very well capitalised. High agency folks, ex-founders, founding team members will be given preference,” he wrote.
Asthana wrote that he was looking for business-to-business software-as-service marketing/sales leaders, performance marketing experts/leaders and content marketing/inbound generalists.
Asthana’s tweet has set off a flurry of applications with the entrepreneur saying that direct messages were coming in swiftly. He has shared his email and promised to evaluate each application.
As he turned into a news story, Asthana has been humorously commenting on his becoming an online sensation. “I feel this is my peak Bangalore Techie form,” he wrote.
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Engaging with responses, he said that most of his family lives in the National Capital Region and that all cities
have humbling qualities.
“Twitter is a weird place. A single tweet adds 800+ followers and 200+ dms/email. The same tweet also gets some people angry, who didn’t read the tweet properly, and failed to note that I have nothing but gratitude towards the city,” he wrote. To another entrepreneur, he replied, “Yeah I think I need to capitalise on this, if I go silent, the reach will die. Still figuring out how you guys build and tweet together—very hard.”
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