A successful organization is built on a set of values. In founder life, these values get tested quite often. It can be for revenue, hiring, or customers. While they can be beneficial in the short term, they can come to haunt us in the long run. A founder needs to have a clear understanding of everyday decisions.
Some of my friends call me crazy when I tell them, that we purposefully say no to a few customers because they don’t fit our values. For a layman money is coming from customers take it, for us it’s the other way around. We are in a business that is relationship-driven and we are connected on both personal and professional fronts.
We have been running our company for the last 7 years and there were times we were almost out of money, these were the times when the team and the customers both stood by us. When I tell many that I am running a service as a software many go nuts. I like working with people who respect us, help us get better, and pay us.
The same goes for hiring. We are not high-flying paymasters as we are not running a VC-funded business. We are profitable and growing slowly. Many candidate interviews go haywire and many never spoke after the first call. We are fine with it. We are building a mercenary, not an army. In a 1.5 billion population finding half dozen odd is not difficult. The ones who believe in us, our core values and stay for long to reap the rewards.