Short note from the Network Capital Founder, Utkarsh Amitabh 

I have long admired the power of side-hustles and weekend projects for transforming our curiosities and passions into something tangible.

Gumroad, a company I invested in, was built over a weekend. Patreon, that recently raised $155 Million at $4 Billion valuation was set up in a few weeks of hacking. The first version of YouTube was ready within days as three former PayPal employees decided to act on their frustration of struggling with sharing videos online. The YouTube of today is far more sophisticated but its origin can be traced to a few weekends of trial and error.

You may or may not build the gazillion dollar company over a weekend project or a side hustle but indulging your curiosity in a failsafe fashion has no downside. My side-hustles include

1. Writing a #1 best-selling book

2. Acting in a movie on Amazon Prime Video

3. Debating and delivering public talks internationally

4. Building Network Capital which was a side-hustle for a long time. Today it is what I do full time.

There was no magic in making these passion projects work. It involved thousands of failures, rejections, embarrassments. I was mocked and laughed at more times than I can remember but I didn't mind that too much because I enjoyed learning. The process was the reward, not the outcome. Today I am here to invite you to join the Network Capital Side-Hustle Fellowship that kicks off on June 5. During the course of the program, you will learn how to transform your curiosity into something meaningful.

Philosophy Driving the Fellowship

We can safely see that every single person on the planet has been frustrated by something. The difference between doers, procrastinators and naggers is that doers have a bias for action, procrastinators tend to push forward deadlines to a mythical date when things will be perfect (spoiler alert: things will never be) and naggers find comfort in complaining incessantly.Most of us happen to be procrastinators. All Network Capital subscribers are ambitious, curious and hungry. We don’t want to do things that don’t work or don’t scale. There is a reputation to protect and there is comfort in status quo.

In Network Capital Side-Hustle fellowship, we make a case for rapid prototyping and taking micro-actions towards your frustration. Perhaps you find the way people network silly, perhaps your neighborhood is too polluted, perhaps you are tired of fake news…..

Whatever your frustration is, there is light at the end of the tunnel.

The beauty of weekend projects and side hustles is that they propel us to scale down our vision into something tangible in a few hours of hacking. Instead of whining about why conditions aren’t conducive, weekend projects help you figure how badly you want to do something.

Weekend projects and side hustles make us better thinkers by sparking lateral thinking. We are able to develop a broader perspective on the way the world works and what our unique role is in shaping it. Essentially we are able to connect dots better.

Even if there are no tangible benefits, we would have become smarter through experimentation. Principal Economic Adviser Sanjeev Sanyal, in his Network Capital masterclass, said that there are no failed experiments. We test hypotheses through a process of trial and error, we can’t go into them expecting the result we want.

The joy of discovery is indescribable. Weekend projects propel practical innovation, stuff that actually moves the needle. In addition, they add color to our coronavirus fatigued stay-at-home existence.

Introducing the faculty

To help you with this, we have invite some of the most curious and interesting people as faculty members for the fellowship. This list includes - 

Rashi Kakkar

Rashi grew up in several cities across India and then went to the SRCC, University in Delhi. She worked in consulting and sports management before pursuing an MBA at the University of Toronto. Prior to this, she was a YIF Fellow at Ashoka University

Today, Rashi works for McKinsey and writes Decks and Diapers.

Prachi Jha

Prachi Jha runs a STEM education and outreach NGO, Life Lab Foundation, in New Delhi, India. She is also the co-founder of Daak, a digital publication and weekly newsletter that curates and revives South Asian literature and art. 

She has worked in the field of education for over a decade and is currently pursuing a Master in Development Studies at The Graduate Institute (IHEID), Geneva, Switzerland, on the NY Alumni Chapter scholarship. She completed the Young India Fellowship at Ashoka University, New Delhi, India and holds a Bachelor's degree in English Literature and Social Psychology from Lewis & Clark College, Portland, USA.

Rajat Mittal

Rajat is a software engineer turned independent creative maker. Currently, he is working on a digital newsletter called Boyish. 

Previously, he has worked for startups and large tech companies across US & India and was last at Square working as a senior software engineer.

Afterthought: “YOU DESERVE TO MAKE A LIVING DOING WHAT YOU LOVE”, Box Brown

Have a wonderful day ahead. See you at the Fellowship.