IIT Kanpur graduate made Rs 77 crore in a day at 26, says getting into Computer Science course was '20 times harder than Harvard'

Siddhartha Saxena's journey from a small town in India to building multi-million dollar companies in the United States is nothing short of a miracle. The IIT-Kanpur graduate, in a recent interview with content creator Viraj Ala, opened up about his journey and revealed how he achieved a remarkable financial milestone by making $8 million in just one day. That too, at the age of 26 when most people are busy figuring out their careers!

This helped Siddhartha Saxena position himself among India's rising AI entrepreneurs. Saxena revealed that he studied Computer Science at IIT Kanpur, claiming that it is 20 times harder to secure admission to that course than to get into Harvard.

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Who is Siddhartha Saxena?

According to his LinkedIn profile, Siddhartha Saxena completed his Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech) in Computer Science & Engineering from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (IIT Kanpur) in 2019. Born in Rajasthan's Alwar, he shifted to US to pursue his dreams and become an entrepreneur. He is based in San Francisco and is the co-founder of Merlin, a ChatGPT Chrome extension tool, his profile says.

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Besides Merlin, he is also the co-founder of Thine. His LinkedIn profile says that in 2017, Saxena worked as a research and development intern at Envestnet, Yodlee in Bengaluru, and as a research intern at Wadhwani AI in Mumbai in 2019. He also worked as a researcher at Finland’s Aalto University in 2018. Later on, he worked as a Machine Learning Engineer at Jumio Corporation in 2019 in Montreal, Canada, before co-founding Merlin.

How Siddhartha Saxena earned Rs 77 crore in a single day

During the interview, Siddhartha Saxena revealed how he achieved an astonishing financial milestone by making $8 million (approx Rs 76.99 crore) in just one day.

In 2022, Saxena along with his Kanpur batchmates, Pratyush Rai and Sirsendu Sarkar, launched Merlin, an AI-powered Chrome extension designed to enhance productivity using generative AI.

The startup has reportedly grown rapidly and is now valued at around USD 50 million.

When asked about the highest amount he had earned in a year, Saxena replied, "I'll tell you something even better. I made $8 million in a single day." When the interviewer asked if that meant he had become a millionaire overnight, Saxena said, "Yes, something like that." He became a millionaire at the age of 26.

For Saxena, entrepreneurship is driven as much by the right mindset as by innovation. He believes many Indians grow up with a "scarcity mindset" because resources are often limited in their early years.

“We come from a scarcity mindset, whereas for building companies you need an abundance mindset. You can take a lot of risk in life. We come from a place where we don't have a lot of money, and that is something which is very different in America where like there's this abundance mindset where everyone is doing things just because they love it and not because they just need to do that,” he explained.

Speaking to Ala, Saxena reflected on his own journey, saying that growing up in a modest household, he never imagined he would reach the position he is in today. When asked whether his 16-year-old self expected this level of success, he replied, "Not at all."