E3: After 4 Failed UPSC Attempts, He Built a ₹100 Cr Brand

4 UPSC attempts. 5 years. Ctrl+F on the result PDF — zero results found. Most people take the safe job after that. Syed Shamoil joined an early-stage bootstrapped D2C brand as business head. A year ago he became cofounder. The company does ~₹100 Cr. On The Bet with Vignesh Mallya: two bets — one that didn’t clear, one that did — and what “building” meant through government machinery, then through Barosi. Guest: Syed Shamoil (Shamoail Syed) · Co-founder, Barosi LinkedIn:   / syedshamoail   We got into: 1. Why he calls the UPSC years "building", not a detour 2. Emailing 100 serving IAS officers before he started, and hearing back from 30 3. Choosing psychology as his optional because he liked it, not because it scored 4. Why he sat for campus placements even after he had already decided 5. What Ctrl+F and "zero results found" does to you, four years running 6. Running, journaling, shayari, and a time-logged spreadsheet to stay sane 7. Why he has not read a newspaper since the day he stopped preparing 8. Persistence or stubbornness, and how he told the difference 9. How he fooled his own mind into pausing instead of quitting 10. The pitch that got him past HR with a five-year gap on his CV 11. Cold-messaging Blinkit's CEO, which became most of Barosi's business 12. The warehouse that burned down ten days before Diwali, in 2023, bootstrapped 13. How he now reads a CV with a five-year gap, from the other side of the table CHAPTERS 0:00 Intro 3:49 Welcome — two bets 5:03 Success in Bokaro 7:56 BITS, E-Cell, Instamojo & Social Cops 13:17 Why UPSC felt like building 16:27 Not a conflict — building through any machine 18:54 100 IAS emails & choosing psychology 22:37 Parents, and jobs in the pocket before prep 26:50 Four attempts — Ctrl+F on the PDF 30:29 Rock bottom, journaling, staying sane 36:13 Extraordinary outcomes need extraordinary inputs 38:38 Feature phone — cutting off the feed 40:14 Persistence vs stubbornness 44:51 The displacement into Barosi 46:56 “I have five years of work experience” 53:20 What Barosi is — and the ~₹100 Cr moment 55:22 Cold outreach: Blinkit, Rain Matter 57:24 Warehouse fire before Diwali 1:00:18 What to unlearn — calling quits 1:01:24 Cofounder title vs IAS result day 1:04:01 Happier as IAS or building ₹100 Cr? 1:06:21 How recruiters should read a UPSC-gap CV 1:10:32 Closing — ask why The Bet is a show about the career and company bets that worked, the ones that didn't, and what people learned either way. #upsc #upscmotivation #d2c #startup #entrepreneurship #bitspilani #civilservices #founder