Gokul Venkatachalam

Junior Gokul Venkatachalam works on the content with his co-workers for the Threading Twine website. Venkatachalam and his team worked together to fix the errors and post the content after they have finished editing. “Our company is like a big family,” Venkatachalam said. “We check up on each other and push each other so we can provide the best effort we can for our company.”

Everyone has to start somewhere, especially in the business world. Effectively working with his partners, Junior Gokul Venkatachalam began his journey of becoming an entrepreneur when his team launched their first company together, Threading Twine.

“I got involved initially by this summer program called Catapult Incubator. There was a girl in Austin, Texas who originally thought of the idea but did not have enough members to turn her idea into a company,” Venkatachalam said. “With a team of five or six people, we began this company.”

Venkatachalam started Threading Twine with a purpose: to provide communication among students. As Editor-in-Chief for Threading Twine, Venkatachalam ensures quality content is posted and shared among students across the world.

“I got involved with my start-up specifically because I felt that there was a need among students to let their voices be heard. Social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram are not really meant to express your opinions. Even if you think they are, they are in fact pretty insular within a group,” Venkatachalam said. “So you need to have a platform where your voice can be heard but also not be attacked and actually learn something. We help to alleviate that with our company Threading Twine.”

Venkatachalam is not in it for the money. His goal is to connect students from around the world.

“Our business is a non-profit, so we don’t make money off of it. It isn’t costly so it is fairly self-sustaining,” Venkatachalam said. “We have a team of editors that edit the posts to ensure quality and then it is posted. That’s it.”

When he is feeling unmotivated, Venkatachalam reflects on how much their company accomplished and that memory pushes him to continue to create better memories.

“My favorite memory was definitely when we had an interview with a girl from Rwanda who wanted to join our team,” Venkatachalam said. “That’s when I felt that we were starting to make an impact because people that we have never met before were starting to contribute.”

Venkatachalam hopes to one day attend TedX to speak about Threading Twine.

“The biggest goal we have right now is to host big events like TedX or something,” Venkatachalam said. “As we get bigger, we’ll be able to reach out to TedX and other organizations, so our focus now is to grow our following and expand with our ambassador program.”

One thing that Venkatachalam wants his peers to know is to not be afraid to submit content.

“Many people are afraid of sharing how they feel, but our company is designed to make sure submitters are comfortable. I am responsible for content. I supervise what gets posted,” Venkatachalam said. “Don’t worry about it. If you’re thinking about it, just post anything.”