Surviving a year of starting up. Reflections from a novice entrepreneur.

Starting up is tough. Really tough. And you know what’s the toughest part? Not knowing what to do next. I’m a confident person but starting up has tested my self belief like nothing else. You hit points where you don’t know what to do next. And there’s no one who can help. No one. Not because they don’t want to, but because they can’t. You have to solve it yourself.

Imagine being alone in a city with no map, no phone, no one to talk to, but just having a vague idea of where you want to get to. That’s what starting up feels like. All said and done, we survived Year One. So here are 3 reflections from the past year

1. Don’t get carried away by what others are doing

We’re not blind to the world of fast growth, mobile only apps, the e-commerce & hyperlocal focus, mega funding etc..It’s just that we chose to build what we want, in a fashion we think will work in the long run. We see others doing a lot of things but we feel no urge to do the same.

We met an investor (from one of India’s top seed funds) and we understood that the perspective an investor looks at us is completely different from how we look at ourselves.

This is how we look at what we do — there are 5 hard problems to solve for us to succeed with geektrust. We picked the toughest one to solve first and focused on that. We have belief in our ability to solve the remaining 4, but only when we choose to focus on it. Whatever we decide to focus on next, we will solve it. We believe that.

However the majority perspective seems to be — how will you scale? how will you automate this piece of your software? How will you differentiate from XYZ in 5 years time? Sorry, but that’s not my problem right now. Yes, we have broad ideas on how we will solve it, but haven’t thought through it completely. If we don’t solve problem #1, we don’t have a business. I don’t have the energy to think through #4 and then convince a 3rd party about it. We’ve decided that when we do look for funding, we would like to base it on our track record, and not based on hypothetical questions about the future.

2. Build a sustainable business

Maybe I’m not smart enough but I just can’t imagine how I’d have survived with GeekTrust for a year if I didn’t make money. This relates to the previous point but everyone tells you to worry about monetisation later. Maybe there’s sense in it but I just could not think that way. If I did not make money in 6 months, I would shut geektrust down. Sneha and Dhanush wouldn’t have joined and I would be in the job market myself. But, we made money.

The act of getting payment for a service you’ve provided validates a business like nothing else. Nothing beats it. It forces you to focus on providing value for your paying customer. I could have 10,000 customers on-board for free and the moment I ask for Rs.10, most of them fall off. I don’t want to risk that.

Sure, scale is important and we realise that we may get killed if we don’t figure out how to scale. But if I don’t have a business model, I’m not sure what I’m scaling.

3. Having a kickass team & support from our extended team of well wishers is priceless

More important than what we’re building, is who we’re building it with. The geektrust team is a rock solid one and we’re all in it for the journey, and not just for what we’re building. Every single day, I look forward to coming to work. And this is not about drinking beer and hanging out. This is about working with super capable people that you genuinely like.

Last but definitely not the least — support from our well wishers

The most thanks I would like to say are to those who have been our well wishers — the ones who regularly give us input on our coding problems, the ones who care enough to reach out & give us advice, the ones who have offered to invest, and the ones who regularly point out bugs via email/FB/Linkedin 😃 Thanks a ton.

Without your tangible and intangible support, we wouldn’t have survived this year. Special thanks to all my clients — especially the first set who had the patience to listen to the idea of geektrust, and to sign up.

Not naming anyone. You all know who you are. Thank you.

[About the author — Krishnan is co-founder at GeekTrust.

GeekTrust is built for passionate technologists to connect with remarkable job opportunities. Not every developer can get on to GeekTrust. Neither can every company. Curated opportunities. For the curious developer.]