Polygon Founder: Born in a Slum, Failed 3 Times, Resilience Built Today's Success
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Polygon Founder: Born in a Slum, Failed 3 Times, Resilience Built Today's Success
Expectations can serve as stepping stones toward life goals, or they can become a burden that hinders personal growth.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: Sandeep Nailwal
Translated by: Block unicorn
With the launch of the Nailwal Fellowship last month, I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting on my roots and thinking about how such a program could have helped me during my entrepreneurial journey. Today, I want to share the story behind creating the Nailwal Fellowship—from humble beginnings in a rural village to Polygon becoming a leading blockchain network protocol.
My Early Life
I was born in Ramnagar, a small hill town in northern India. My family came from very modest circumstances—my grandfather worked as a domestic helper for a wealthy household, my father was a daily wage laborer, and my mother, who never attended school, was a homemaker. In pursuit of better educational opportunities for me, my family moved to the "Jamna-Paar" area of Delhi when I was still a child. I proudly call this place home, though it is often labeled by others as a slum or low-income neighborhood (shown in the image below).
Our lives were defined by "tension"—the tension of relocating from Ramnagar to a new community in Delhi, the tension surrounding my father’s drinking, gambling, and violent behavior, and the financial strain caused by our unstable income. These experiences shaped my determination—I resolved that neither my present nor future family would live this way again. I clearly remember one childhood incident that profoundly influenced my life.
When I was six years old, I visited a temple in Ramnagar before moving to Delhi. It's customary at such temples to make a wish before leaving. I wished that one day I would be able to provide my family with the kind of life my parents couldn’t give me. That wish became the guiding force that helped me overcome hardship and shaped my success as a founder.
Education was my path to a better life. Even after changing schools due to relocation, I was fortunate to excel academically. When it came time for middle school, neighbors and friends advised my parents to send me to a school outside Jamna-Paar to fully realize my potential. Transitioning to a larger school in Delhi was challenging, but I knew it was a step toward a better future for my family. I focused on my studies and once again achieved top grades, which paved the way for higher education and eventually my entrepreneurial journey.
The Burden of Expectations: My Entrepreneurial Journey
Expectations can be stepping stones toward life goals—or they can become burdens that hinder personal growth. In my life, they were a heavy burden. As the eldest son, I was expected to be the breadwinner—expected to support my family financially even while repaying student loans. At times, the pressure of providing for my family kept me awake at night; I vividly recall moments when I wasn’t sure I could afford to fund my sister’s wedding. While I took pride in supporting my family, these expectations often forced me to prioritize stable income over entrepreneurial ambitions.
In my personal life, as my relationship with Harshita (then my girlfriend, now my wife) grew more serious, I felt pressure to buy a house and provide a certain standard of living. This could have pushed me down a career path unsuited to my true passions. Fortunately, Harshita encouraged me to pursue what I loved, challenging the notion that happiness comes from owning a big house. Her support empowered me to follow my interests, ultimately leading to the creation of my first company and later co-founding Polygon.
However, I know not everyone has such support. The goal of the Nailwal Fellowship is to provide individuals with the backing they need to pursue their passions and break free from the constraints of societal expectations. Through the Fellowship, you’ll receive financial support and access to a network of resources that will allow you to follow your passion on your own terms. Looking back, I wish I had had the opportunity to participate in a program like the Nailwal Fellowship. It would have accelerated the founding of Polygon and significantly improved my overall well-being.
The Importance of Resilience
Reflecting on my personal journey as a founder, I want to emphasize one quality I believe is essential for any entrepreneur—resilience. I’ve always been passionate about entrepreneurship, but throughout my life, factors such as student debt, family responsibilities, and social expectations often held me back from pursuing my dreams. My early ventures were all side projects, scheduled around my regular job. Because I couldn’t commit full-time, most of them ended in failure. Yet, these failures were invaluable lessons that built my resilience.
My first real startup experience was during college, when I joined a small company developing software for government agencies. Though we made some progress, time constraints prevented us from scaling, and we eventually had to shut down. My next attempt came years later, while working as a consultant at Deloitte, when I took on a part-time project launching a logistics startup. We saw initial success, but faced intense competition. Ultimately, that venture also had to close. These experiences taught me valuable lessons: I needed to find a blue ocean market—one where I could gain a competitive edge. More importantly, I realized I needed to go all-in if I wanted meaningful growth.
Me (second from left, top row) during my college days
Encouraged by Harshita, I left my stable corporate job to work full-time on my entrepreneurial pursuits. Next, I launched a B2B marketplace that began showing signs of growth. We secured contracts with major brands, and revenue started flowing steadily. However, we soon hit a plateau. Despite our best efforts, we couldn’t break through to the next level. We had to shut it down—marking the end of my third attempt. Three consecutive failures led to deep self-doubt. But my resilience outweighed my doubts. I drew lessons from past experiences, and I had unwavering support from my family—they urged me to get back up and keep going. And indeed, the fourth attempt turned out to be the breakthrough. My next venture was a small blockchain project called Matic. At the time, I had no idea that Matic would evolve into Polygon and achieve unimaginable success.
Early days of Matic: Me, JD, and Sid
Resilience—the ability to persevere—has played a crucial role in my achievements today. The Nailwal Fellowship aims to identify and support creators who demonstrate resilience and are willing to overcome setbacks to realize their dreams. We don’t care how many times you’ve failed—we care how many times you’ve gotten back up and tried again. To us, this is the most important value any founder must possess. If there’s one lesson other founders can take from my story, it’s that you need an inner drive pushing you to build something greater. You don’t need to share my background, but every great founder I’ve met carries within them a deep force that drives them to achieve more.
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