The Past , The Present and The Future….

Part 1 — Here

Part 2: The Present

Now, when I look back on the past 3 years, I can broadly categorise all the lessons learnt in two areas :

1. Entrepreneurship
2. Self realisation

Entrepreneurship

In order to generalise the lessons learnt, I will avoid getting into industry specific nuances and just capture the key lessons:

Lesson 1. Try to build a hill before you build a mountain

Then — When we started, we wanted to build something completely different and never seen before in our industry. Although a good ambition to have, it’s a dangerous strategy. It means a long learning curve — which has a direct impact on how much time and money would be spent before your product is ready to launch. For a start-up with limited resources and cash, this can be suicidal. As a result it took us almost 15 months to launch our product. This put severe mental and financial pressure on the team.

Now — With this lesson learnt, we have now built the MVP of our flagship product in just 3 months. This will drive the future of the company.

Lesson 2. Go for diversity and experience

Then — The founding team should have complimentary skill sets and experiences . My Co-founder and I both were MBA’s with similar mindset and skill sets. As a result we had few disagreements on how we went about things. While this makes working together easy but it can create risks especially in areas where difference of opinion is required. Our founding technolgy team although good, also did not have experience in the area we were getting in to. This further increased the time required to build our product.

Now — Each member of our core founding team now comes from a different background and experience relevant to what we are building. As a result, not only are we saving time and money but we are building a product which has ideas coming from each member of the team.

Lesson 3. Cash is King

Then — I am certain this cannot be emphasised more. For startups, no matter how talented, every dollar saved, is equal to invaluable time required to pivot, learn and then finally build something scalable and sustainable. My personal opinion on this is that each idea requires a minimum 2 years of failure and learnings before you can actually come up with something viable. There are always exceptions to this rule but don’t count yourself to be the exception. Although we were smart about burning cash in the first 12 months, but the next 12 months were really challenging as our costs increased by more than 100% without any revenue coming in.

Now — We are now extremely cash cautious. We save up on everything possible including co-sharing economical office space, lean team of 6 people, active use of talented interns etc.

Lesson 4. Raising money is not the end goal

Then- With all the media attention going on billion dollar valuations and multi-million dollar VC deals, one can easily be fooled to think that once you raise the money, you will be successful. Rarely do the media cover the multi million dollars lost in failed start-ups. It’s just a depressing story to share. Raising money is important for start-ups but is only a means to an end. Focus on the business. Period. We spent around 6 months trying to raise money for something which could have well been spent on pivoting and refining our business model to allow for organic growth.

Now — We have raised money. We are also growing organically. We are focusing more on that, than to raise more money and not know what to do with it. We are also only targeting VC’s or angels who can bring more than just cash. People who can help grow our business organically are the one’s we actively seek.

Lesson 5. Growth Hacking is the key to survival

Then- The first 2 years, we were so occupied building the product, that when it came to marketing it, we thought that it was so cool that it would not need any marketing support to grow. We were wrong. We did try traditional marketing strategies including PR, Reviews and Advertising etc but none of it was really cost effective.

Now — A great piece of advice I received from one of our mentors to growth hack was to “Piggy Back” on someone else’s success. This is our mantra now. We have partnerships with bigger players which help us grow organically using their brand and infrastructure.

Lesson 6 — Be where your market is !

Then- Working in India and building a product for the western markets was never going to be easy. When you are far away from your users and from potential partners or mentors then you just make it more difficult for you to be successful.

Now- We shifted to Denmark. We have a strong network of mentors with relevant experience to help us succeed. We are closer to our users and get feedback based on which we are building our products. We are in a region where global innovation is happening within education and gaming. All of this is increasing our chances of success.

Self Realisation

Self Realisation 1. Entrepreneurship is for Risk Takers !

I am a natural risk taker. In poker terminology, “I’m all-in”. I do use intuition, data and logic to drive my decisions. I think to be an entrepreneur you need to be a risk taker combined with a logical bent of mind. If you feel you have similar qualities, then you could be an entrepreneur.

Self Realisation 2. Entrepreneurship is a marathon and not a sprint

If you think you can build a sustainable, scalable and profitable business within 2 years and make millions in the bargain, you are probably wrong. Building a company requires patience, sacrifice, mental, physical and emotional toughness. It really is a roller coaster ride which makes you wiser, tougher and sometimes financially successful.

Self Realisation 3. Plan, Plan and Plan and then Hustle, Hustle and Hustle

If you want to build something from scratch, then it is important you pre-plan your life as much as possible for the next 3 years at least. Whether it is your personal life, family life, hobbies or leisure activities — everything else takes a backseat. Be sure to prepare yourself for this. Then its all about hustling your way to success.

Part 3 The Future
To be continued…