From Android developer to founder: my 17-year path

I'm Jaimin Mehta. I have spent more than seventeen years in tech, mostly with Ahmedabad companies, and in 2026 I started Bolo Media. This post is the plain version of that path, one role at a time, and what each kind of role tends to teach the person doing it.

Who is Jaimin Mehta

The short version, in my own words: "Entrepreneur with 17+ years in tech, building Bolo Media: helping small businesses advertise like big brands with the help of AI."

Bolo Media turns a product photo or a few lines of text into ready-to-post video ads and reels, with natural voices in Gujarati and Hindi. It also makes short stories, local-news style videos and talking-presenter ads. It is built for small and local businesses that cannot hire a studio or an agency. "Bolo" (બોલો) means "speak" in Gujarati and Hindi.

I speak Gujarati, Hindi and English. Here is how I got from a first job writing Android code to building a company.

2009 to 2011: The developer years

Android developer at IndiaNIC Infotech

My career started in June 2009 as an Android Developer at IndiaNIC Infotech in Ahmedabad. I stayed until April 2010.

Android was barely a year old as a public platform then. I've written about what that era looked like in from Android in 2009 to AI in 2026.

A first developer job teaches the basics that never stop mattering. You learn that code is read far more than it is written. You learn that "it works on my machine" is not the same as "it works". And you learn to ask questions early, because a wrong assumption costs more each day it lives.

Starting on a new platform adds one more lesson: comfort with change. When the platform shifts under you every few months, you stop expecting things to stay still.

Software developer at Softweb Solutions

From April to November 2010 I worked as a Software Developer at Softweb Solutions, also in Ahmedabad.

A short stint early in a career is common in Indian IT, and it teaches something useful. Every company does things a little differently: different code standards, different review habits, different ideas of what "done" means. Seeing a second way of working early makes you realise that your first company's habits were choices, not laws.

Senior developer at Astron Infotech

In November 2010 I joined Astron Infotech as a Senior Developer, and stayed until October 2011.

The "senior" title changes the job more than the code. A senior developer is expected to make judgement calls: how to structure something, what to push back on, when good enough is good enough. Others start to look to you for answers, which means you have to be honest when you don't have one.

It is also usually where you first feel the gap between writing code and delivering a project. The second involves people, timelines and trade-offs that no compiler checks.

2011 to 2020: Nine years at Silver Touch Technologies

In November 2011 I joined Silver Touch Technologies as Assistant Project Lead and Mobile Engineer. I stayed until 2020, which makes it the longest chapter of my career so far.

That dual title describes a real tension. A mobile engineer is close to the code. An assistant project lead is responsible for how the work moves: planning, coordinating, unblocking others. Holding both teaches you to translate between the people building something and the people waiting for it.

A long tenure teaches different things from a short one. You live with your own decisions for years, and you see which shortcuts come back. I've written more about that in nine years at Silver Touch.

2020 to 2026: Technical project manager at Vagaro

In 2020 I moved to Vagaro as a Technical Project Manager, and stayed until 2026. Vagaro is a global software company for salons and spas. It was the one employer in my career not based in Ahmedabad.

A technical project manager sits between engineering, product and the business. The role teaches you to work across time zones and cultures, to write things down clearly because people read them hours later, and to think about software that a great many businesses depend on every day.

It is also, quietly, a role that serves small businesses. Salons and spas are mostly small, owner-run operations. That is worth noting, since Bolo is built for the same kind of customer.

The habits of a project manager don't all transfer to founding a company, though. Some had to be unlearned. I've written about those in what I had to unlearn going from project manager to founder.

2026 to now: Founder of Bolo Media

In 2026 I started Bolo Media.

A founder's job is all of the earlier jobs at once, plus the ones nobody hands you a title for. You write code, plan work, decide priorities, talk to customers and pay the bills. There is no one above you to escalate to.

What each earlier role gave me shows up here:

Role	What it tends to teach
Android developer	Comfort building on a young, changing platform
Software developer	That every team's habits are choices
Senior developer	Judgement, and owning a call
Assistant project lead and mobile engineer	Translating between builders and stakeholders
Technical project manager	Coordinating across teams, time zones and scale
Founder	Owning the outcome, not just the task

What ties the path together

Looking at the whole path, two threads stand out.

The first is mobile and platforms. I started on Android when it was new, and I'm now building on AI while it is new. Both times, the work was about making a young platform useful to ordinary people.

The second is people who are not technical. Over time my work moved from writing code to making sure the code served someone. Bolo is the most direct version of that: software for a shop owner who should never have to think about the software.

Outside work, I've ridden a red Bajaj Avenger, seen the Asiatic lions at Sasan Gir, and spent time on the Goa coast and in Pahalgam. I follow European football. None of that is a career lesson, but it is part of the person writing this.

If you came here searching for Jaimin Mehta, that's the honest outline. Seventeen years, six roles, and a company I'm building in the languages my customers speak.