Still Learning. Still Building.

September 10, 2025

Manavi Sharma

I’m Manavi Sharma, and I grew up in Gurgaon. As a kid, I wasn’t the most curious person, more of a daydreamer than anything else. Basketball was where I felt most alive, and the court was my space to reset. At different points, I imagined myself becoming a doctor, an astronomer, or maybe even a teacher. The first real spark for building came in the second year of my undergrad. By then, I was tired of making projects just for the sake of learning, stacking them up on my laptop without ever seeing them go anywhere. At the same time, I kept trying to land freelancing gigs on global platforms, but it always felt impossible to even get noticed. The doors stayed shut. That’s when GigsWall began to take shape. One late night, too many tabs open, deadlines piling up, my brain foggy with “productivity”, I thought: what if there was something simpler? Not another massive, overwhelming system, but a platform that actually made sense for students. A place where students like me could find gigs, connect, and start small, without disappearing in the noise. I’m still a student. Still figuring things out. Still Googling errors at 2 AM. And yet, I’m building a platform for students. Some days that feels ridiculous. Other days, it feels like the most honest thing I could do. One moment that made this real was when the very first student applied for a gig on GigsWall. I remember staring at the screen, realizing someone out there trusted this idea enough to use it. That tiny notification made all the late nights feel worth it. It’s not perfect. Neither am I. But it’s real. So here I am, still learning, still building, still here. Sharing not from a place of already knowing, but from a place of trying. It’s me saying: “Here’s what I wish I had.” “Here’s what might make this easier for you.” “Here’s something from someone who gets it.” Still messing up. Still trying again. But maybe that’s the point.