This episode traces Sathvik Vishwanath's path from a family of oil business owners in a small town near Bangalore to becoming one of India's earliest bitcoin entrepreneurs. Sathvik recounts childhood hustles like reselling smartphones to classmates, running the server at a cousin's internet cafe, and teaching himself domains, email, and web hosting in the early 2000s. After an MBA in Melbourne, he stumbled into the virtual world Second Life, where he built a lucrative breedable pet business called Phoenix, complete with a genetic engine for traits like eye color and tail shape, alongside a business partner he met online and never in person. The venture grew to roughly 40,000 virtual animals and generated significant revenue, but converting virtual earnings into real money through PayPal and currency exchanges ate up around seven percent in fees. That frustration led him to research alternatives, discover bitcoin in 2012, and eventually find a Bangalore bitcoin meetup on meetup.com in 2013, where he first met host Sunny Ray. The conversation captures the entrepreneurial instincts and curiosity that would later shape Unocoin.
From reselling phones to breeding virtual pets, how Sathvik Vishwanath's entrepreneurial instincts led him to bitcoin and Unocoin.
Do you remember when and where we first met?
It was the second week of April 2013, at the Hard Rock Cafe on MG Road in Bangalore. It was at a bitcoin meetup that we were all hosting. I can close my eyes and go back to that day, back when bitcoin was around two hundred dollars.
What was your family background before bitcoin came into your life?
I come from a family of businessmen. My father was in the edible oil business, my grandfather did the same thing in a different city, and my great-grandfather did too. I think I already had some of that business instinct in me just from growing up in that family.
What was the first business you ever ran?
In university, around 2000-2001, I helped my classmates get smartphones from Bangalore since they couldn't easily travel there themselves. I'd collect money, get the phones through a friend who commuted daily, and add a profit of around ten rupees on top of the roughly five thousand rupee cost.
How did you get into the internet and web business?
My cousin ran an internet cafe near my engineering college. I helped manage the dial-up server, which let me use the connection for free. That's where I learned domains, email, FTP, and web hosting, eventually selling web space and building webpages and greeting cards for customers on early chat platforms like Yahoo Messenger.
How did you end up building a business inside Second Life?
During my MBA in Melbourne I got introduced to Second Life. As a programmer I was fascinated by its virtual economy using Linden dollars. I started offering custom scripting services, then with a partner I met inside Second Life, built a breedable virtual pet business called Phoenix using a genetic engine I coded myself.
How successful was the Phoenix breedable pet business?
We had as many as 40,000 of these animals at one point, each requiring one dollar worth of virtual food per month to survive. It generated far more revenue than I would have made as an engineer or MBA graduate, and some customers even got emotionally attached to their pets.
What led you to discover bitcoin?
To bring my Second Life earnings home I had to convert Linden dollars to American dollars, then move them through PayPal into rupees, losing about seven percent to fees. That frustration made me search for a way to move money without intermediaries, which is how I found bitcoin in 2012.
How did you find the bitcoin meetup where we first met?
I started looking into what was happening in the bitcoin space in India and found meetup.com. I saw someone was hosting a bitcoin meetup in Bangalore, just an hour's drive from me, so I RSVP'd and went. That's where I met Sunny, who was the organizer.
Building something daring? Sunny talks to founders like this every day. Fifteen minutes to see if your story belongs on the stage.
Claim your pre-interview