From ‘Lazy’ Engineer to AI Automation Founder | Ritesh’s Backend Story

In this episode of TheBackendStory, Ritesh Hegde, Founder & CEO of Ritz7 Automations, breaks down how a “non‑studious” electrical engineer became an automation founder, AI educator, and daily YouTube creator. He shares how boring Excel work led him to automate his job, how he spent a decade in companies like Robert Bosch and Continental automating every repetitive task, and how he turned Fiverr freelancing into a full‑time automation business. Ritesh also talks about shutting down his first startup, the mistakes he made with legal setup and no marketing, and what he does differently now. We dive into why students should focus on projects and AI over exam scores, how professionals can use automation to escape boring work, and what first‑time founders must understand about marketing, sales, and distribution. Ritesh also explains his 1000 videos in 1000 days challenge and his mission to make people industry‑ready with AI and no‑code tools. 00:00 Meet Ritesh Hegde 02:18 What He Does Today 02:54 College Mindset 03:16 First Software Job 05:30 Training Setback 07:38 Excel Automation Spark 09:35 VBA Explained 12:00 Corporate Years Abroad 13:37 First Startup Mistakes 19:13 Freelancing on Fiverr 22:09 Quitting in Pandemic 23:35 Marketing Reality Check 27:26 Custom Automation Services 28:56 No Niche Challenge 29:39 Niche Versus Marketing 31:45 MBA Lessons For Founders 35:02 Office Hours To Coaching 38:03 Meeting Prashant And Build 41:34 Scaling Teaching To Thousands 43:33 Thousand Days Video Challenge 48:17 Content As Client Magnet 48:59 Developers In No Code Era 54:14 Bridging Education Industry Gap 56:38 Final Takeaways And Thanks #thebackendstory #thebackendstoryclips #careerjourney #podcast #ritz7automations #aiautomation #nocode #aitools #ai #startuplessons #freelancing #indianentrepreneurs