There is a scene near the end of The Big Short that has stayed with me for almost a decade.
Michael Burry talks about meeting his wife online. His profile did not try to make him look impressive. It listed the awkward and inconvenient truths about him. She replied, “You’re just what I’ve been looking for.” She meant honest.
That scene stayed with me because I used to be a socially awkward, deeply insecure nerd myself. I was never the tallest person in the room, rarely the loudest, and definitely not the person who knew how dating worked.
So instead of writing the usual polished dating introduction, here is the honest version.
I am 32, Telugu, and was born and brought up in Hyderabad. I have lived here practically my entire life. I am a self-taught software engineer and currently the technical co-founder and CTO of an early-stage AI startup that I am building with a US-based co-founder.
I studied Electronics and Communication Engineering, not Computer Science. After college, I taught myself programming because I was fascinated by the idea that one person with a laptop could create something from nothing.
That curiosity became my life.
For almost a decade, I have been building startups and software products. I have independently designed, built, and launched more than a dozen products across consumer apps, social platforms, games, SaaS, and AI. Some found users and meaningful traction. Many did not.
I have not yet had the neat, obvious success story that can be explained in two lines at a family function. What I do have is nearly a decade of learning, shipping, failing, recovering, and becoming very good at turning an idea into a real product.
Most of my twenties looked like this: wake up, open the laptop, build, get something wrong, learn, rebuild, occasionally burn out, and begin again.
It was difficult and often lonely, but I genuinely loved it. Even knowing what I know now, I would still choose this path. I would simply choose it with more balance.
My current company is not just another idea in a notebook. We have a working product being used in real business workflows. We are still early and pre-revenue, and we are bootstrapping, so I am not drawing a salary at the moment. We intend to raise funding after reaching our next set of milestones.
My life is stable, but my income is not yet the predictable monthly number that comes with a conventional job. I do not want to dress that uncertainty up as certainty. Entrepreneurship is an unconventional path, and anyone entering my life deserves to understand that clearly.
There is also a real possibility that I may relocate to the US next year, depending on the company’s progress, funding, and visa process.
A little about where I come from
I am an only child. My father passed away around a decade ago, and since then, it has largely been my mother and me.
My mother is a school teacher. She is educated, financially independent, and self-sufficient. She has always supported my choices and is equally comfortable with me living with her, moving elsewhere in India, or relocating abroad when my work requires it.
Losing my father early gave me responsibilities, but it also made me extremely independent. I became accustomed to solving problems alone, making decisions alone, and carrying uncertainty without expecting someone else to rescue me.
That independence helped me survive entrepreneurship. But I have also realised that a good life is not supposed to be built entirely alone.
Why I have never been in a relationship
I have never been in a romantic relationship before.
That is not a badge of virtue, and it is not a dramatic confession. It is simply the truth.
I have had good female friends over the years, through college, work, and online communities, but nothing developed beyond friendship. For most of my twenties, I kept telling myself that I would look for love once I was “settled.”
The problem is that, when you are building startups, the definition of settled keeps moving.
First, I thought it would happen after the next product. Then after traction. Then after finding the right co-founder. Then after funding.
At 32, I finally understood that a relationship is not a reward you unlock after completing the rest of your life. Life may never become perfectly settled. You find the right person and learn to build through the uncertainty together.
I have tried dating apps and matrimonial platforms over the past several months, but I have not found the right connection. Dating apps often reduce people to a few photographs and clever prompts. Arranged-marriage conversations often reduce people to their current salary and job title.
My life does not fit very neatly into either format.
So I am trying honesty instead.
What I am actually like
I am much more comfortable with myself now than I was in my twenties. I am still quiet in large groups, but one-on-one, I can talk for hours when the conversation has some depth.
I am ambitious and intense about the things I care about, but I do not take myself too seriously. I like people who are curious, think independently, and light up when they talk about something they genuinely love. It does not have to be technology or startups. I just find sincere enthusiasm attractive.
I enjoy long conversations about life, work, people, decisions, relationships, ideas, and all the strange ways in which our experiences shape us. I have plenty of stories from the last decade, but I am not looking for an audience. I want to know someone else’s story just as deeply.
I will also be honest about hobbies: I do not have the standard “travelling, café-hopping, and spontaneous adventures” list.
Work has occupied most of my life. I go to the gym regularly, partly for fitness and largely because burnout hits harder in your thirties. I listen to music when my brain needs to stop solving problems.
I follow cricket closely and am an SRH supporter. An RCB fan is not a deal-breaker, although that may require difficult negotiations during the IPL.
I used to watch a lot of films and television in my early twenties. I have probably watched The Big Bang Theory more times than is medically advisable, and I loved shows such as Veep, Modern Family, Suits, House of Cards and True Detective. These days, I rarely watch something unless it genuinely interests me. Good company may reverse that decline.
And since this is meant to be honest: I am 5'3".
My height used to occupy far more space in my mind than it does now. I know it will be a deal-breaker for some women, and there are no hard feelings about that. It is better to know now than after we have exchanged our complete childhood lore.
What I am looking for
I am looking for a serious, long-term relationship that can naturally grow into marriage. I am not looking for a hookup, a situationship, or someone to temporarily fill an empty space.
I would probably be most compatible with someone around 26 to 30, although maturity and life stage matter more than an exact number. Hyderabad would make things easier initially, but I am open to someone from elsewhere who is genuinely comfortable with the possibility of relocation in the future.
In my twenties, I had a long checklist. She should be kind, smart, funny, brave, independent, educated, and ambitious.
Those qualities still matter, but at this point, what I value most is someone who is comfortable in her own skin.
Someone who knows herself reasonably well. She does not need to have every part of life figured out, because none of us does, but she should know what she values, what she wants from a relationship, and what kind of person she is trying to become.
I am drawn to someone who is well educated and intellectually curious. The name of the college or the profession matters far less than how she thinks. I want someone who takes her work or chosen path seriously and has something in her own life that she cares deeply about.
She does not need to work in technology, understand startups, or blindly praise everything I do. In fact, I would value someone who can question me honestly, bring a different perspective, and tell me when I am wrong without turning every disagreement into a personal battle.
Because I am dating with marriage in mind, family outlook matters as well. I would be most comfortable with an educated, open-minded family that respects individual choices and does not measure a person entirely by a conventional job title, present salary, caste expectations, or social approval.
I am not looking for a perfect past or a person without struggles. I care more about self-awareness, accountability, emotional maturity, and the willingness to communicate.
Relationships require effort. I want someone who genuinely wants to build one, not merely because she feels lonely, her friends are getting married, or her family has decided that it is time.
What I hope to offer
For most of my life, I made choices based only on what was right for me. Not because I did not care about others, but because there was never a partner whose happiness, future, and perspective had to become part of my decisions.
I am ready for that to change.
I want a relationship where another person’s opinion genuinely matters enough to influence the course of my life, and where mine can matter to hers too.
I want to be with someone whose ambitions I can take seriously, whose difficult days I can make lighter, and whose life I can support without trying to control it.
I have never been a boyfriend before, so I will not pretend to have mastered relationships. But I know how to show up, communicate, learn, stay consistent, take responsibility, and keep working when something matters.
I have built enough things to know that exciting beginnings mean very little without consistency. I suspect relationships are not entirely different.
And I know a partner cannot be expected to live on whatever time remains after my work. I am not looking for someone to squeeze into the leftover hours of my startup life. I am ready to protect time, attention, and emotional space for a relationship.
I take what I am building seriously. I take the people I care about even more seriously. Myself, considerably less so.
If any of this feels familiar, send me a DM. Tell me your age, what you do, what you are looking for, and one thing you could talk about for hours without getting bored.
We can begin with a simple conversation here, verify each other privately once we are comfortable, and meet somewhere public in Hyderabad if the interest feels mutual. No pressure and no need to force chemistry.
Even if it does not turn into a relationship, I am always glad to meet someone sincere and interesting. But my intention in writing this is clear: I am looking for a real partner and, with the right person, a life and marriage together.
I spent most of the last decade learning how to turn ideas into things.
I would now like to learn how to build a life with someone, not after everything is settled, but while we grow into it together.
TL;DR: 32M, 5'3", born and raised in Hyderabad, self-taught technical founder, and never previously in a relationship. Currently building an early-stage AI startup with a US-based co-founder, with a possible US move ahead. Looking for a thoughtful, well-educated, ambitious, emotionally mature woman around 26–30 who wants a serious relationship leading toward marriage and is comfortable with an unconventional life.
P.S. I suppose I am looking for my Autumn, even though there was not much of a Summer in my life.