Having been in the startup
‘ecosystem’ for long now, I meet people who want to startup on a regular basis.
Most have a brilliant idea; many talk about selling their companies after 2-3
years and retiring from work at early age. Raising venture capital is today
considered success by wannabe entrepreneurs, which is not. 1 out of every 100
startups succeeds; given the number of startups coming up – this will soon be 1
out of 1,000 or even 10,000. I guess there is too much press about startups
these days, about getting funded, million dollar exits and the likes.
All this is attracting many people
towards entrepreneurship without realizing how difficult the journey is. I am
sharing my entrepreneurship experience here and hope others don’t go through
mistakes I made.
1. Control your
own Fate.
To get stuff done fast, the very next day of quitting job – I
outsourced product development to another company. Estimated 60 days task took
180+ days. This arrangement continued for a few more months- burnt loads of
cash, I consider that to be my biggest mistake.
Lesson
Learned: Our success (or failure) is now in our hands, not in anyone else’s.
Advice:
1. If you are an entrepreneur, please check who is
deciding/controlling the fate of your startup? If it’s not you, you’re in
trouble.
2. If you’re planning to startup, get your own team in
place; don’t startup by outsourcing development.
2.
Things will go wrong. Again and again.
This
is the 4th time we’re writing our code from scratch. First two attempts were
with product iterations for Tyched, next was alpha release of Wishberg. Its initial version was
written by the outsourced company, it started crumbling under its own
weight as users and data grew, dumped it when we hit roadblocks. Our team is
now building the beta version on own custom framework, that will help us ship
product fast. Really fast.
Lesson
Learned:
·
When users & data starts growing
quickly, you should be able to iterate quickly. We lost about 4 months with
legacy code. Choose product / tech architecture with tons of flexibility.
3.
Stay connected with ecosystem.
I
started blogging on beingpractical.com about 3 years back when I had no
intention of starting up. I also manage the Internet & Mobile product
management groups on LinkedIn through which I connected with product
professionals across the world.
Being a product guy – helped, tested
other’s alpha & beta products, provided feedback, tips on product
management, gave suggestions to scale up products, user acquisition hacks.
Thanks to that – it connected me with many founders, product geeks and few
people in investment community. Many of them were kind enough to help me back
whenever I asked.
Over last 12 months, I have a built a
network of about 500 early adopters to help us on Wishberg; another 1000+ are
on my list.
Advice:
·
Plug into startup ecosystem well
before you start up.
·
Don’t shy away from asking. People in
startup community are always willing to help.
4.
The flawed assumption about lack of early adopters.
I
see more Indians on Quora these days, I recently tweeted - Future Generations may
think Quora is an Indian product, like current generation thinks about Bata.
India is among the top countries by users for many global products – Facebook,
Twitter, LinkedIn and so.
Almost everyone who claims about the
lack of early adopters in India are from startup ecosystem, many of them have
not yet tried out products from other Indian startups. I’m a founder /
entrepreneur and have decided to be early adopter. I try out every new product
that comes my way. Anyone who has written to me about their product, I’ve signed
up – provided feedback / suggestions to the best of my experience &
knowledge.
Advice:
·
As founders we can continue to
complain about lack of early adopters or decide to be one ourselves.
5.
Have a product roadmap. Don’t build your startup on just one idea.
Many product startups that hit dead
pool rely only on just one idea. We only know successful pivots like Inmobi,
Instagram, Fab, etc – but there are plenty of unsuccessful ones we never heard
of. Pivot is not easy, extremely difficult in both ways – managing expectations
of stakeholders as well as your own.
Talk to folks before starting up on
potential of your idea, its possibilities. Avoid situations where you have
build all that you could in 3 months and are clueless on whats to be done next.
There is no thumb-rule to this; but at least have a product roadmap that
extends into next 12-18 months, talk to users / customers in this while. They
will tell you more.
Advice:
·
An idea that can be finished in 3
months might be a hack. It ‘may’ not be a product or company. Build your
product around a vision, it may takes years to execute.
6.
Don’t divulge what is not shipped yet.
This is a tough one to explain. To
put it simply (or wisely) – ‘You can’t build a reputation on what you are going
to do.’ Here the context is different. Everyone is looking for ideas, you don’t
give it to them.
We met with one angel investor, had a
detailed discussion about our product – how we intend to market / acquire
consumers. Few days later, one of his invested startup came up with remarkably
similar approach. On another instance, one investor met us twice in a span on
10 days, insisted we share our detailed road map ASAP. A week later his firm
announced an investment in an over lapping category; he was leading the deal.
Learning:
·
We could crib or just move on. We
moved on to building our product without complaining. I feel the line of
differentiation between startups in decreasing. There are too many similar
products in investor portfolio, make conscious decisions on which investors you
want to talk with, do a small ‘check’ on their investments and portfolio.
7.
Do what’s impossible, not what is easy.
If you have a brilliant idea and you
think it’s easy to execute, there probably are another 100 startups doing it
already. You are operating in a crowded space.
I have often got this advice or being
questioned, why am I building another social commerce product, there are
already plenty of them. Here’s the answer – we’re not building a social
commerce product. We’re attempting a new method of social discovery for product
intents. It’s different, will talk of what we intend to build – once we build
it (my rule: don’t divulge what is not shipped yet!)
I usually classify start-ups in 3
segments -
1. One where making money looks real easily. (Enabling
transactions, affiliates, advertising, lead generation)
2. One that solves problems. (Usually loved by VCs)
3. One that changes user habits. (Paul Graham calls
them – The Black Swans)
Suggestion:
·
There is enough competition for
me-too ideas or easy/obvious ones. Don’t be a part of that, unless you can
completely re-define that vertical. Take up something that can radically change
user behavior / habits.
8.
Your health is important.
In this period, I’ve suffered from
hypertension, blood pressure has shot up multiple times. Twice I went unconscious
– had to be checked in at an hospital!
Long working hours, erratic sleeping
times is way of startup life. Managing time is myth, work manages your time.
For last 15 months I’ve been working for 12-14 hours daily; 3-4 hours of daily
commute (I reside the farthest if compared to all my team. Conscious decision –
office is conveniently located for all team members. They can put in more time
without bothering about commuting in Mumbai).
Advice:
·
Amount of stress first-time founders
will go through in start-up journey is unimaginable. I’ve learned to relax and
have started paying good attention towards my health.
9.
Take breaks from Startup Life at times
Entrepreneurship makes you so
passionate about your product/work that you end up talking about your product,
vision, things you plan, how you intend to change the world, etc to almost
everyone.
You tell folks stories about
Facebook, Instagram, and so on. Be grounded to reality – there is life
outside your startup too, find some time to be a part of it, unwind and get
back. Time is most precious for every startup / founder. And startup life can
be a trap., you’ll always end up postponing personal commitments for work very
often, in fact all the time.
Advice:
·
Take breaks in a while. Spend time
with your family and friends; make sure you live life outside the startup
ecosystem as well.
10.
Technically, you’re unemployed. Accept that.
Though the respect for startup founders is improving in the startup-ecosystem,
to the outside world you are unemployed.
You will be often reminded of that by
folks you will never expect – like the customer support staff at credit card
department – “Aapke pass to job hi nahi hai. 3 years ka company IT returns aap
submit kijiye.” (Translates to – ‘You don’t have a job. You will have to submit
3 years income tax returns of your company to apply for one’). This is a top
Indian bank, I’m their premier customer since last 10 years and it doesn’t
matter.
This is the reason why the post title
says – 475 Days of Unemployment.
Advice:
·
Plan your startup well. Talk to other
startup founders before you start – understand what difficulties they went
through. Startup life is not for everyone.
11.
Learn to stay calm. You will feel humiliated.
Few people talk / act exactly
opposite to what they say. One investor spoke at a conference how he thought
Social was the next big thing with some awesome statistics. Kulin (my
co-founder) and I caught up with him a week later – he was a different person
now, had only one thing to say – ‘Facebook can do this. They can kill you!’
A known investor turned up 35 minutes
late for a meeting, did not apologize, later he ordered food and drinks with no
courtesy to offer us. During the discussion he was ogling at girls in the
restaurant all the time, found someone he knew and told her he will see her in
5 minutes – all this right in front of us. We ended the meeting in next 2
minutes and walked away.
Another day, another prominent
investor met us. He disagreed on one of our points, he started off, “Do you
know whom you’re talking to? Do you know who I am?” We maintained our cool,
thanked him for his time with a smile and promised ourselves never to see him
again.
Advice:
1. Though this offended us like anything, we stayed
calm. We live in small world of founders & investors, never want to burn
bridges.
2. Don’t take names. Not online. Not offline. Not
anytime.
Maybe those investors will never
know, but I have given good amount of feedback and advice on product to
founders of startups they have invested in. On other side, there are some
extremely professional individuals and investors, they still continue to advice
us, given us time whenever we’ve asked and have continued to open connections
from time to time.
12.
Choose your investors / mentors carefully.
We had many funny incidents around
getting funded, looking for mentors or folks we came across in this journey.
·
One investor extending a term sheet
on a condition that we agree to monetize from Day 1 (something I have not
believed in).
·
One senior executive at MNC insisted
we take him on the board of directors and he will open doors for us. (Since
then I have felt being on board of directors is the new Page 3)
·
An incubator claiming they are better
than Y-Combinator or 500 Startups. ‘We can give you what they cannot.’
·
A so-called angel investor claiming
to have invested in many startups, not ready to name a single since it’s
private and confidential. (Rocket Science? Even SpaceX investors were known.)
·
Someone who does not know ‘C’ of
Coding telling us we should hire a Chief Technology Officer (he even suggested
one with 22 Lac INR salary, who could join us at minimal hike).
·
Feedback on Design: ‘Use bright red
color instead of blue. Red means attention, users should pay attention.’
Throughout my startup journey, most
of the folks I connected with in India had the common set of questions to ask -
·
Almost everyone asked: “How will you
make money?” / “When will you make money?”
·
Very few asked: “How will you acquire
users?”
·
Just one person asked: “How will you
build this product to match your vision?” He himself is a very well known
entrepreneur and angel investor. We hold him in high regards for his advice and
support from time to time, even without no formal association.
There
is nothing wrong with this question, businesses have to monetize and make
money. But few here realize that Social
Products need to monetize at scale . The ratio was just
reverse when we spoke to folks from the Valley, very few asked the ‘Money’
question.
Kulin and me share this funny
thought. Had Instagram pitched to some of these investors, wonder what sort of
feedback they would have got. Maybe – ‘Stop coloring photos. Do some serious
business.’
Maybe we met wrong people. But yes,
there some really great folks available in India too. My general observation is
– if you’re doing a B2B start up – there is good advice / mentors / investors
available in India who can open connections, get initial customers. For B2C
product startups, India has very few people who can advice on Product, Design,
Growth Hacking, Technology and User Experience. We eventually started
connecting with people from successful startups or individuals with relevant
skills from Silicon Valley / US to help us.
Advice:
·
Take money/advice from someone you
respect. If you take money from someone you don’t respect – he will kill you
with his advice.
·
Spend more time with people who can
help you with your product than the ones who can help you raise money. If you
have a right product, things will happen to you.
13.
Of hiring, people and team.
Till May this year we occupied a
shared office (paying per seat and amenities as used). We hired 3 engineers in
a month – our costs went up 3X; We decided to quit that place and we were left
without office space. During this time, one of our team members offered we
operate from his home. And we did the same while our office got ready.
The only thing that matters for any
product startup is quality of its team. There is only one rule for hiring at
startups – Hire the best engineering team, and pay them well. 1 Good Engineer =
3 Mediocre Engineers.
Have heard of tons of advice on
hiring – tell potential hires about startup, culture, fun @ work, ESOPs, etc.
This does not work. Don’t try to sell future employees what they have not
experienced. Let them join you – create a personal bonding with every team
member, nurture your ‘friendship’ with team members, they will be your extended
family. They will put in their best. Most of our team members joined us through
referrals. Don’t talk with them about passion or commitment, show them yours.
Advice:
·
Genuinely love your team and be
concerned of their well being. Create a bond with all your team members.
14.
And in the end, it’s not always about the money.
We failed innumerable times in this
startup journey. Its fourth time that we are coding our platform from scratch.
Multiple mistakes made. And there were plenty of distractions – most of them
come to you as lucrative job offers. When I quit my job, the very same week I
got a call from the HR Head of a FMCG company to join their Online Marketing
team, I was interviewed for that position few months back. I said no, and the
next week Kulin confirmed to join me as Co-founder. I’ve passed many other job
opportunities that came up in last 18 months, including one in Silicon Valley.
So all those who are considering
entrepreneurship for money or funding; the reality is different. Its not money
that drives startups, its the passion. There will be tests that will describe
your passion – failures & distractions.
Learning:
·
Startup life is difficult, daily
struggle to make ends meet. The only thing that keeps you doing is your focus,
passion and belief in yourself, your team and your product. Nothing else
matters.
The
post is shared by Pravin Jadhav and Kulin Shah, Co-Founders at Wishberg
Tags: Entrepreneur, Startup company, Entrepreneurship, Venture capital, Business, startup, Small Business, High tech
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