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How I Got Half a Million Users in Just 16 Weeks | Rocket.new, Vishal Virani

EO10:52Added Aug 31, 2026

Meet Vishal Virani, cofounder and CEO of Rocket, and the first engineer in his family. He grew up in Surat, the diamond capital of the world, where nine out ...

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Contributed by 刘嘉琪

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  1. Intro

  2. 00:00I didn't went for any Ivy League
  3. 00:01college. We got 40 plus rejections from
  4. 00:03the vis. You needs to be from Stanford
  5. 00:05or IIT or some good colleges. They don't
  6. 00:08say it up front but I know how they
  7. 00:11judge what they judge. That was like
  8. 00:13last 3 months. After 3 months we are
  9. 00:15going to die. It was like hardest time
  10. 00:17but I never give up. If you have a will
  11. 00:20you can build it from anywhere. I'm the
  12. 00:21first engineer of my family. I grew up
  13. 00:23in Surat the largest diamond
  14. 00:24manufacturing hub where out of 10
  15. 00:27diamonds nine diamonds get manufactured
  16. 00:28in my city. If you start just creating
  17. 00:30the wall of excuse around you, you will
  18. 00:32not able to move each. Just use all the
  19. 00:34resources for your advantage. Instead of
  20. 00:36just complaining about that I'm sitting
  21. 00:38in India what I can do but instead of
  22. 00:40that what we think is like okay we are
  23. 00:41in India what advantage we can use. Keep
  24. 00:43your learning mode on. I just read
  25. 00:45everything on internet without
  26. 00:47complaining about my Ivy League
  27. 00:48background or a startup background.
  28. 00:50Location does not matter. Don't worry
  29. 00:52about your location. Don't worry about
  30. 00:53your zip code.
  31. 01:00I'm Vishal Virani, co-founder and CEO at
  32. 01:02Rocket. I'm growing up in an environment
  33. 01:04where no one was the engineer. Right
  34. 01:06after the college, I started my first
  35. 01:08venture. The device was a Figma to code
  36. 01:09platform. The device we scale our user
  37. 01:12base from 0 to 350K users. When GPD3
  38. 01:15launched, we realized like okay, this
  39. 01:17world is going to be changed faster than
  40. 01:19our imagination. That was the pivotal
  41. 01:20moment. And then after like I started my
  42. 01:22second and third venture which is
  43. 01:23rotate. If you have a idea just put it
  44. 01:26in rocket platform. You will have your
  45. 01:27entire product ready which you can just
  46. 01:29launch without worrying about anything.
  47. 01:31In just like first 16 weeks we had like
  48. 01:34a multi-million applications on our
  49. 01:35platform. Rocket is funded by Salesforce
  50. 01:38venture and Excel. In just 15 weeks of
  51. 01:40our inception we got like a $15 million
  52. 01:42of sit round. So in next five year my
  53. 01:44entire goal is removing the entire
  54. 01:46mundant clerical and repetitive work
  55. 01:48from every user's life.

  56. The First Engineer from a Farming Family

  57. 01:54I grew up in Surat. I did my schooling
  58. 01:56and my college in Surat. If I describe
  59. 01:58about the Surat, everyone of interacted
  60. 02:00with the product of Surat because Surat
  61. 02:02is the largest diamond manufacturing hub
  62. 02:04where out of 10 diamonds, nine diamonds
  63. 02:06get manufactured in my city and one of
  64. 02:07the largest uh textile manufacturing as
  65. 02:10well. A kind of without resources
  66. 02:12without a kind of an environment where I
  67. 02:14can grow.
  68. 02:16I was a quite curious guy and I'm the
  69. 02:18first engineer of my family. They don't
  70. 02:19know anything about the education. So I
  71. 02:21said like okay I want to pursue the
  72. 02:22engineering. They said you have my
  73. 02:24blessings but we cannot support you
  74. 02:27because you don't have a money but also
  75. 02:29they feel proud because like someone
  76. 02:31from our family is able to do this thing
  77. 02:34able to cross this barriers and achieve
  78. 02:36this next status. I'm just using my
  79. 02:38principles which I learned from my
  80. 02:40surroundings of a farming. In a farming
  81. 02:43you cannot control the rain, you can not
  82. 02:45control the weather. I just read
  83. 02:47everything on internet without
  84. 02:48complaining about my Ivy League
  85. 02:50background or a startup background. I
  86. 02:52started building I just give a wings to
  87. 02:54my curiosity and and and build the
  88. 02:56startup.

  89. You SHOULD Be Ready to KILL Your Success

  90. 03:01Rahul and I have a very similar thoughts
  91. 03:03instead of doing masters can we learn it
  92. 03:05from the world and that's how right
  93. 03:07after the graduation we started our
  94. 03:09first business instead of doing masters
  95. 03:10and our goal was like okay for a 2 years
  96. 03:12we'll take all risk of our life we will
  97. 03:14not focus on earning the money but we'll
  98. 03:16focus on learning and if we just get the
  99. 03:19money to survive ourselves is like one
  100. 03:20of the biggest achievement in 2021 we
  101. 03:23realized everyone is just hiring the
  102. 03:24developers LinkedIn was flooded with
  103. 03:26like we are hiring developers and we
  104. 03:28realized they are not even enjoying
  105. 03:30their own work. So the thought was like
  106. 03:32okay how we can remove the mund and
  107. 03:34repetitive work from users life. It's a
  108. 03:36prelim era. We started doing our
  109. 03:38research. Ultimately we focus on
  110. 03:40building the Figma to code solution
  111. 03:42where user just need to upload the Figma
  112. 03:43designs and we can convert into code.
  113. 03:45And with that thought we started the
  114. 03:46device. The device we scale our user
  115. 03:48base from 0 to 350k users. We process 10
  116. 03:52million screens which is like highest in
  117. 03:54this entire space. Our users convert 10
  118. 03:56million Figma screens into code. And it
  119. 03:58was like quite comfortable business for
  120. 03:59me. When GPD3 launched, we realized like
  121. 04:02okay this world is going to be changed
  122. 04:04faster than our imagination. I still
  123. 04:05remember I spent almost a 60 hours of
  124. 04:08time sitting straight forward to write
  125. 04:10my prompt to create something which is
  126. 04:13unbelievable at that time and this is a
  127. 04:15time to add up the new things. We have
  128. 04:16the conviction like okay now LLM is
  129. 04:19enough powerful where we can create a
  130. 04:20very big impact in our users life. There
  131. 04:22is a world before JP3 and there is a
  132. 04:25world after JP3. This is just iPhone
  133. 04:27version 3. We need to think about iPhone
  134. 04:28version 15, how powerful it's going to
  135. 04:30be. So don't worry about the current
  136. 04:32version of GPT. Think about GPT 15 how
  137. 04:35powerful it's going to be. That was the
  138. 04:36pivotal moment. Figma to code is going
  139. 04:38to be just a small feature in future.
  140. 04:40Let's think bigger. And that's where we
  141. 04:42again reook at our vision of like
  142. 04:44automating the entire software
  143. 04:45development life cycle. Prefer
  144. 04:46conviction over a comfort zone. And with
  145. 04:49that we decided to pivot like okay Figma
  146. 04:51to code product to a complete software
  147. 04:54development automation where user can
  148. 04:56just put the prompt and we can deliver
  149. 04:57the entire results. And when we got the
  150. 04:58conviction we decided to pivot from like
  151. 05:00device to rocket.

  152. How to Know Your Conviction is Right

  153. 05:05We always listen to our users. Whenever
  154. 05:07I interact with like any founder any
  155. 05:10right person I always listen them. We
  156. 05:13actually talk to CTOs of a fortune
  157. 05:15companies to solopreneurs everyone. So
  158. 05:18right now every day three new web coding
  159. 05:20platforms launch themselves on on the
  160. 05:22product hunt and everyone had the same
  161. 05:23answer like these are the prototypes
  162. 05:25which is not scalable which is not even
  163. 05:27a production ready code just trying to
  164. 05:29replace our Figma designs with this
  165. 05:31prototypes but it breaks and that's
  166. 05:33where we realized like okay we are
  167. 05:35building the right product we got the
  168. 05:37email from a New York user and he
  169. 05:39emailed us like a long email where he
  170. 05:41was just showing a kind of an gratitude
  171. 05:43without your product I can never imagine
  172. 05:45this kind of a thing he's a soloreneur
  173. 05:47he don't know about product management.
  174. 05:48He don't know about product marketing.
  175. 05:50He don't know about anything. He just
  176. 05:52had idea. He was using like multiple V
  177. 05:54coding platform and delivering the
  178. 05:55results. And when he got to know about
  179. 05:57rocket, he tried the platform. He wrote
  180. 05:59to us like in my life I never able to
  181. 06:02close a seven projects in just like a 20
  182. 06:04days of time. He started his journey
  183. 06:06with a $25 subscription and now he's
  184. 06:08paying a $4,000 per month without any
  185. 06:11sales speech. Just think about your
  186. 06:13users till now like we got like hundreds
  187. 06:16emails every day. I send a email
  188. 06:18personally to all the users definitely
  189. 06:19it's an auto mode but when they replied
  190. 06:21I read it personally and then we provide
  191. 06:23the required support to our users and
  192. 06:26that motion really works well for us and
  193. 06:28that's how we gained the trust from our
  194. 06:30users in the very early days

  195. You Haven't Failed Until You've Spent the Last Penny

  196. 06:35as I still remember it was a 2021 time
  197. 06:38we got 40 plus rejections from the ves
  198. 06:41when every small and big ideas were
  199. 06:43getting funded we were like getting one
  200. 06:45after one rejections After 40 rejection,
  201. 06:48we got the first term sheet. Just 15
  202. 06:50days of money left in our account, we
  203. 06:52got the tum sheet. That was like a last
  204. 06:553 month when we know like after 3 months
  205. 06:56we are going to die. It was like hardest
  206. 06:58time. Every time you need to have a
  207. 07:00background, you need to be from Stanford
  208. 07:02or IIT or some good colleges. It can be
  209. 07:05like ex Google or X Microsoft will get
  210. 07:07easily funded. I was not from the
  211. 07:09product. I always introduce myself as a
  212. 07:11X of my ex. The reason is like after
  213. 07:13college I started my first venture and
  214. 07:15then I started device. They don't say it
  215. 07:17up front but I know how they judge what
  216. 07:19they judge and they're right at that
  217. 07:20place because they need to trust on
  218. 07:22their parameters. They have some thesis
  219. 07:24and all. So definitely we are not fit
  220. 07:26there but we didn't give up. Don't worry
  221. 07:28about your location. Don't worry about
  222. 07:30your zip code. We always try we learn
  223. 07:33new things. We try this language of this
  224. 07:35world. I decided like till a last penny
  225. 07:38in my account I will not give up. I will
  226. 07:41fight for that term sheet. I will fight
  227. 07:42for that funding which can help me to
  228. 07:44survive. For the founder those are the
  229. 07:47most important moment when you are in
  230. 07:49pain don't think about the pain think
  231. 07:51about the mistakes that you are making
  232. 07:53because of that you are having that
  233. 07:54pain. So for me at that time why what
  234. 07:57was wrong in my pitch? Why I'm not
  235. 07:59getting the fund when everyone else is
  236. 08:00getting. So I start analyzing my own
  237. 08:02pitch, the word that I'm saying, the
  238. 08:04kind of an like numbers that I'm
  239. 08:06presenting, how I can articulate it
  240. 08:08better instead of like getting into a
  241. 08:10kind of a depression or something else.
  242. 08:12I just started thinking of where I'm
  243. 08:14making a mistake every day and every day
  244. 08:16I try to improve myself and and that's
  245. 08:17how we got the first term sheet of our
  246. 08:19city before that like no one else got
  247. 08:21the venture capital funds. We got it. I
  248. 08:23only say like that will never give up
  249. 08:25attitude helped me a lot.

  250. Don't Take Any Advice Before You Know THIS

  251. 08:31Every advice is not signal and as a
  252. 08:34founder you need to understand if you
  253. 08:36build the right product you will able to
  254. 08:38capture the market but if you just build
  255. 08:40the marketing company someone will come
  256. 08:42and capture your market just focus on
  257. 08:44product product stay away from noise
  258. 08:47identify the signals because nowadays
  259. 08:48you will get like hundreds of advice
  260. 08:50hundreds of new things on X but from all
  261. 08:53the noise you need to identify which
  262. 08:55signal will work for you let me give you
  263. 08:56an example GitHub copilot was the first
  264. 08:59product who started like code
  265. 09:00generation. They have the power of
  266. 09:02Microsoft in Satya Nadella in all
  267. 09:04keynotes started with GitHub copilot.
  268. 09:06They have the power of open air and
  269. 09:07everything. But still after one and a
  270. 09:09half year cursor came and capture the
  271. 09:10entire market. GitHub has everything. In
  272. 09:13that case like cursor has no space but
  273. 09:15still with the right product cursor
  274. 09:17capture the market. If you are not a
  275. 09:18native English speaker you will have a
  276. 09:20hard time to convince someone don't
  277. 09:22speak just prove. That's why instead of
  278. 09:25creating the pitch deck we created the
  279. 09:27product. We created the traction and
  280. 09:28that's why rocket is funded by
  281. 09:30Salesforce venture and Excel. Salesforce
  282. 09:32venture got to know about rocket
  283. 09:34platform on X because someone shared the
  284. 09:36story they give a try to our product
  285. 09:38first. They actually already see tried
  286. 09:41the product which is already at series
  287. 09:42AB level in the vibe coding space and
  288. 09:44when they tried our product they think
  289. 09:46like this is the best product they ever
  290. 09:48seen in this particular space and that's
  291. 09:50how they reach out to us and in just 15
  292. 09:51weeks of our inception we got like a $15
  293. 09:53million of SID round which is like one
  294. 09:55of the highest round in India. So build
  295. 09:57the right product. In the early days
  296. 09:59focus should be like 60% 80% on product
  297. 10:0120% on marketing. It should not be other
  298. 10:03way around where you are just focusing
  299. 10:0520% on product and 80% on the marketing.
  300. 10:07That's kind of a learning that I got in
  301. 10:08last like 4 years of my device and
  302. 10:10rocket journey.
  303. 10:12In next 5 years I just want to create a
  304. 10:14world where if you have idea just put it
  305. 10:16in rocket platform at the end of day you
  306. 10:18will have your entire product ready
  307. 10:20which you can just launch without
  308. 10:22worrying about anything. future is going
  309. 10:23to be looks like just consider like
  310. 10:25Charis when you are traveling from a
  311. 10:26palo to to a downtown just talk to
  312. 10:29rocket or with Siri or with your car
  313. 10:32play and by the time you will reach
  314. 10:34office like you will have your
  315. 10:35application ready how we can remove
  316. 10:37legacy systems from the world and we can
  317. 10:39create the new system that's what I
  318. 10:41think about every Yeah.