Why I Left Teaching to Build a Company in Kathmandu

Direct answer: I left teaching because building MarginTop Solutions stopped being a side hustle and became the work that needed my full attention — clients, cofounders, and a product craft I could not half-commit to.

I used to teach higher secondary students in Kathmandu. I cared about that job. My classes hit a 100% pass rate, and there is a particular pride in watching someone unlock a concept they thought they could not learn. Teaching trained me to explain hard things simply. It also trained me to show up every day even when energy was low.

At the same time, I was taking client projects with my cofounder Bibek. Nights and weekends turned into deadlines. Scope grew. Clients started asking for systems, not just scripts. That is usually the moment a freelancer either caps their ambition — or starts a company.

The quiet tipping point

We registered the IT company and ran it fully online for the first six months. Sameer joined as a partner. Suddenly the work had a name on paper, invoices, and a reputation to protect. Teaching was still meaningful. But every hour in a classroom was an hour I was not shipping, hiring, or sitting with a client who needed clarity.

Founders romanticize the leap. The truth is quieter: you feel the gap between the life you are maintaining and the company that is already asking for more of you. I left teaching not because I stopped respecting education — I left because MarginTop could not be built in the margins of someone else's timetable.

What the first year actually felt like

The year after the leap was not a highlight reel. It was persistence: late nights, thin runway, learning how to sell technical work without sounding like a brochure. We worked from whatever setup we had until we earned a real office in Pulchwok, then outgrew it.

If you are a hustler deciding whether to go full-time on your venture, ask one honest question: Is the opportunity cost of staying put now larger than the risk of jumping? For me, the answer became yes.

What I would tell another founder in Nepal

• Keep a craft you can bill for while you find product-market fit — client work funded our early learning.
• Choose cofounders who can argue and still ship the next day.
• Do not wait for perfect confidence. Wait for enough signal that the work wants more of you than a side schedule allows.

Today MarginTop Solutions is a Kathmandu team building software for clients who expect global quality. Leaving teaching was the hardest professional decision I have made. It is also the reason I get to build something that outlives a single semester.

If you are wrestling with a similar leap, write to me — or explore what we build at MarginTop Solutions.