Last few weeks, I have heard from a few friends about competitors and how one should run fast and whatnot. In the last five years of building taghash, we have not gotten into FOMO of competition. The only thing that has worked for us is working closely with customers, solving their pain, and charging for …
Category Archives: startups
Commitment
Getting early adopters makes the product development process easy.We started onboarding only a few early adopters on a module basis.It saved a lot of our time and money. We had a customer waiting to consume it. Some early adopters also paid us because they were keen to solve their pain points. Everyone has free time …
persona
Part of building a successful product is sticking to a particular persona. It gives you ample visibility of existing pain points of customers. With persona in mind, we know what we are not building. It keeps us more focused. People building large enterprises did not start it from day one. They learned and moved up …
ass
India’s startup culture is a mix of good and bad.We have copied mostly bad things from the west. Some founders or investors are still carrying their ass persona with them. We know what happened to such folks in the valley. Being high on adrenaline is not a sign of smartness but inferiority. People don’t earn …
Chaos
Running a startup is sailing through utter chaos.Every day comes with its surprise.It is not for a faint heart. We have to live each day as it comes.Keeping a castle or future hope makes life more miserable. What helps is knowing the challenge and belief of moving forward and learning from the mistakes. It is …
fundamentals
Now that we are in the era of down rounds and limited funding, many fundamentals of building startups are back. Everyone is talking about revenue and burn. Until the last few years, it was all about growth and winning at all costs. How long will it last; nobody knows.
plan
As a founder, you are the best to judge what and how you want and build. Are you in a short game or the long game?The dynamics of the organization and journey both depend on this.Also, neither is right or wrong. It will also set up the culture for years to come. Have a game …
Open
I feel most successful organization ensures their principles are not just presentation slides. An employee is not working for a founder or team lead but an organization and its stakeholders. I see principles taking a backseat sometimes because of the founder’s ego and maligned culture. It can hurt an organization and its stakeholders badly. An …
Choice
Startups with VC money take years before the product hits the market. It takes multiple years before the product starts making any revenue and, some companies never make any revenue. There are multiple schools of thought, one championing growth, a bigger market, and first movers. Another school suggests going slow, growing on customers money. In …
lead
Founders are the soul of any startup, said repeatedly. There is no denying this. But what happens when a founder has limited vision? We have seen this with McDonald’s or Starbucks; the original owners moved away. It ended up becoming a super successful enterprise with a visionary. In the end, it is about a leader, …