Nikhil Patil

Hyd

Issue Nov 2026 Hyderabad A zine about one person

Nikhil Patil

I’m Nikhil Patil, a self-taught builder in Hyderabad. I left school after Class 10 and learned the rest on the job: shop counters, deliveries, cloud kitchens, and now my own startup, Smelloff.

Nikhil Patil, smiling, in a black t-shirt.
that’s me
Nikhil Patil on a beach, in a pink striped shirt.
out of office
A photocopied halftone of the spray bottle my startup makes.
thing I make
NowBuilding my first startup.Read the now note

Now

The main thing

Building my first startup, and learning whatever it needs next.

On the side (two, max)

  • Getting its first product to real customers, and listening to what they say after.
  • Building this site, so a search for my name finds me and not another Nikhil.

Everything else is parked on purpose. Ideas wait in a list until this one works.

Updated in Hyderabad · The /now page

Clocked in

Every job I’ve had, roughly in order. No dates on this card, just what each one taught me.

Time cardNikhil Patil

  1. School, up to Class 10 Then I stopped. Everything below this line I learned on the job.
  2. Mobile shop counter Selling across a counter, one customer at a time.
  3. Deliveries A city, a deadline, repeat.
  4. Cloud kitchens Operations at Zomato Everyday for about a year and a half.
  5. Asked for a chance at the computer Went from cleaning and floor work to registers and spreadsheets, because I asked.
  6. Team lead Later, I was the one supervising the team.
  7. Founder Started my own startup. Still clocked in.
An older selfie of Nikhil in a blue work polo, from his early jobs.
a few jobs ago

Self-taught syllabus

School stopped at Class 10. Everything on this page I picked up because something I was doing needed it.

  1. Selling

    What it covered
    Talking to customers, pricing, why people say yes
    Where it shows
    A shop counter first, my own store now
    Status
    Ongoing

  2. Operations

    What it covered
    Floors, registers, spreadsheets, running a team
    Where it shows
    The jobs on my time card
    Status
    Done

  3. Web

    What it covered
    HTML, CSS, vanilla JavaScript, Cloudflare Workers, Supabase
    Where it shows
    My startup’s store and this site
    Status
    Ongoing

Remark Prefers to find out how things work by building them.

Shelf

Side A · watched, recommended
  1. Hajime no Ippo
  2. Attack on Titan
  3. Mob Psycho 100
  4. Dandadan
  5. Sakamoto Days

Things I’ve made

Take a card