Lux Narayan of StreamAliveOn Five Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Startup An Interview With Doug Noll

Team. This is really #1. Decisions on co-founders and early hires shape the culture and capability of a startup. We meet people in the ‘tribes’ we live in. A simple solution here is to actively be a part of more tribes — aligned on interest groups, sports, hobbies, etc.

Startups have such a glamorous reputation. Companies like Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, Uber, and Airbnb once started as scrappy startups with huge dreams and huge obstacles. Yet we of course know that most startups don’t end up as success stories. What does a founder or a founding team need to know to create a highly successful startup? In this series, called “Five Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Startup” we are talking to experienced and successful founders and business leaders who can share stories from their experiences about what it takes to create a highly successful startup. As a part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Lux Narayan.

Lux Narayan is the CEO and co-founder of StreamAlive, the leading audience engagement platform for live sessions designed to empower company, creator and class presenters to get the best out of their technology and audiences with an AI-based audience engagement platform. Lux is a 3x company founder, and prior to founding StreamAlive he manned the helm of Unmetric, a social media intelligence company that helps digital marketers, social media analysts, and content creators harness social signals to track and analyze competitive content and campaigns, and to create better content and campaigns of their own.

Before creating Unmetric, Narayan was a co-founder at Vembu Technologies, an online data backup company. He also helped found and volunteered at ShareMyCake, a non-profit started by his wife that focuses on encouraging children to use their birthdays to channel monetary support towards a cause of their choosing.

Outside of work, he is a perpetual learner of various things — from origami and molecular gastronomy to stand-up and improv comedy. He enjoys reading obituaries and other non-fiction and watching documentaries with bad ratings. Narayan makes time every year for trekking in the Himalayas or scuba diving in tropical waters, and once he learns to fly, he hopes to spend more time off land than on it.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?

I was born in Bombay (now Mumbai) in India and grew up there. For a while, I lived in Dubai when my folks worked there. I then studied Mechanical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras where I met my co-founder & our CTO, Joe Varghese. Joe and I went on to do our MBAs at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Calcutta. There, we also met our third co-founder, Tina Lyngdoh, who I am also married to. So, three of our founding team have known each other for decades, and this is our biggest strength.

After my MBA, I worked in the entertainment industry for India’s most popular actor, Amitabh Bachchan. He remains India’s favorite actor even today. After a brief stint here, I was an entrepreneur for a couple of years when I did direct marketing for brands and sold the satellite TV rights of Indian films to various countries. I then worked in advertising in Dubai for the Interpublic group — in media, and in managing their interactive division during the dotcom boom and bust.

In 2005, I came back to India and joined a dear friend’s startup as a co-founder. This was in the peer-to-peer and online data backup space. While there, I had an idea for a social media analytics product which was launched as a separate company that finally became a social media benchmarking platform called Unmetric. As part of Unmetric’s expansion, I relocated from India to the US in 2013. Our team of 75 people was distributed across the US, Canada, the UK, and India.

Unmetric was acquired in 2019 by Cision. In 2020, following the transition of our team into Cision, I took a break and a series of serendipitous events led to our current journey at StreamAlive.

I live in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, and besides my wife and I, our family includes two adult ‘kids’, the older of whom works as an architect, and the younger recently graduated as an astrophysicist. We also have a very anxious dog, a rescue from Puerto Rico, who was caught during Hurricane Maria.

What was the “Aha Moment” that led to the idea for your current company? Can you share that story with us?

Certainly. The idea for StreamAlive first came when we had a medical emergency in the family and I took an extended break. This was also the time the world went into lockdown due to COVID-19. It was a surreal time.

I used my newfound “free time” to write a book called “Name, Place, Animal, Thing” — it had been in my head and in many scattered digital notes for many years. However, not knowing the first thing about publishing a book, I attended six courses on writing, editing, and marketing a book, all of which were delivered over a total of 56 live sessions on Zoom, YouTube Live, Google Meet, and Facebook Live.

StreamAlive was born from the chats in those streams flying by faster than the eye could see, from 95% of the audience’s responses being ignored when they answered questions, from using clunky off-platform engagement tools and experiencing their limitations, and from presenters struggling to engage audiences the moment there were over 10 people in the room.

Was there somebody in your life who inspired or helped you to start your journey with your business? Can you share a story with us?

There are many people to thank for every journey, especially Tina, Joe, and Ram (founding board member) with whom I riffed the original ideas for StreamAlive, and who believed there was a company to be built here. Hitting the rewind button, besides my family, I really have to thank my grandfather. He was very different and in so many good ways. He was an entrepreneur in the 60s in a family where traditionally, everyone was expected to work at a company. He was one of India’s first public speaking teachers and I guess my love for presenting and desire to change how the world presents and exchanges ideas stems from there. He also encouraged me to make things and taught me to clearly articulate thoughts and ideas– all good traits for an entrepreneur.

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

If I had to capture it in two words, it would be “Frictionless inclusivity.” Allow me to explain…

Our product, StreamAlive, helps give a voice to the audience in a live session, whether that’s online on Zoom, Teams, YouTube or Twitch, or in-person, or hybrid. We’ve figured out how to do this with no extra effort required by participants — they don’t need to install an app or do complex browser gymnastics just to be heard. Inclusivity isn’t really inclusive if it is fraught with friction. Making it ridiculously easy for every voice to be heard is our secret sauce. It stems from the fact that the founders were good friends first, and colleagues later. This product philosophy, interestingly, is also a company philosophy. We don’t have hierarchies as far as brainstorming and debates go. At our weekly all-hands, we share what’s happening in our lives before sharing what’s happening at work. And, every week, our team gets together to stress-test the latest version of our product (yes, we have updates every week), reminding ourselves that it belongs to and is the responsibility of all of us to deliver an amazing product experience to our users. All these beliefs and practices help us build an enduring culture and company.

How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

We believe our best work is ahead of us. Our ability and focus in giving everyone a voice in a live session can transform the dynamics of conversation in large groups. As the first tenet of the seminal book, “The Cluetrain Manifesto” says, “markets are conversations.” When ideas can freely flow, human thought and ingenuity can be compounded. More importantly, and especially in this age of generative AI, so many of us are focused on publishing content and “talking.” Our tech at StreamAlive helps people listen better. We believe that listening is a much-needed skill in all areas of life and work. To put it simply, if everyone listened more and talked less, the world would be nicer.

Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?

I believe my strongest traits are curiosity, humility, and empathy. I’m permanently like a kid in a candy store — with so much in our world to know, learn, and be amazed by. I really enjoy meeting people, each of whom I believe is a walking-talking storybook. And I really enjoy learning and experiencing new things — whether that’s learning origami or stand-up comedy (the toughest but one of the most fun things I did). On humility, it isn’t very humble to claim you are, but I believe it stems from a fountainhead of curiosity. If you’re curious and self-aware of how little we know, humility is a natural by-product. Humility at a company also helps remind you that you need a team rowing in sync to make magic happen. Empathy is easy to say and claim but difficult to internalize. It is an especially important skill at product companies to ensure you are thinking for your users — which at most times is easier said than done. Empathy for others who are instrumental for a company — whether it is your colleagues, investors, advisors, or partners, is a key attribute to aligning better with them all.

Can you share a story about advice you’ve received that you now wish you never followed?

I had a ringside view of the dotcom era around the time of the new millennium. I was tempted to be an entrepreneur then but had just started my career in advertising, and was doing pretty well for myself. My well-meaning bosses painted a picture of a great career path for me, and the progress I made on that path was, I’ll admit, addictive. For a brief period, I was enamored by my next position and package even if I wasn’t particularly in love with the work I was doing. Looking back, I wish I’d left that earlier and become an entrepreneur. There were so many amazing things happening in the world at the time. However, I am not someone who regrets lost opportunities — as new ones come all the time. And interestingly, the idea for Unmetric, our last company, came from my experiences in advertising.

Can you tell us a story about the hard times that you faced when you first started your journey?

StreamAlive was born during a particularly difficult time, personally. Our company Unmetric had been acquired by Cision who were, in turn, acquired by a private equity group within a month of our acquisition. The reorganizational wake of such changes can be confusing and painful, and I wanted to ensure my colleagues would be in good roles in the new organization. At the same time, we had a medical emergency less than a month after the acquisition- where our older son (he’s well now) was suddenly down with a rare autoimmune disease (Guillian Barre Syndrome) that had him paralyzed almost overnight while traveling in Berlin. He had to be airlifted to the US in an air ambulance, and hospitals were the core of our lives for many months after — including the period when COVID happened. Concurrently, I was managing our transition at work and it was very very stressful, needless to say. Hence, once our team was settled in, I left and took a break to focus on our child, and quite frankly, on myself too. For the first time in my working life, I didn’t have a job or a startup happening, and it felt very weird. But then, 2020 was a weird year with COVID and the lockdowns, so, against that background, it wasn’t too weird.

Where did you get the drive to continue even though things were so hard? What strategies or techniques did you use to help overcome those challenges?

I realized that I suddenly had something I hadn’t enjoyed since I was a kid: free time. I also realized that I needed to do something or make something — for my mental health. That’s how the book journey and the learnings that led to StreamAlive happened. Another big thing that helped me at the time was meditation. I used to meditate sporadically using apps like Calm and Headspace. At the end of 2020, I went for a 10-day meditation camp where you are alone with your thoughts for all that time. No devices, no pen or paper, no screens, and no talking to anyone. It was probably the toughest thing I did to myself and while every inch of my body wanted to leave on day 3, I kept on, and I think the experience transformed me in many ways. I’d gone for this after writing the first draft of my book, and after our son was well on his road to recovery, and back at college. During the last couple of days of the meditation camp, after a lot of personal catharsis, I suddenly had three product ideas, one of which would become StreamAlive. I actually called Tina and Joe on the drive back home from Massachusetts to New Jersey– to bounce it off them and ask if they were up for starting another company.

The journey of an entrepreneur is never easy and is filled with challenges, failures, setbacks, as well as joys, thrills and celebrations. Can you share a few ideas or stories from your experience about how to successfully ride the emotional highs & lows of being a founder”?

I don’t want this to sound like a plug for my book, but I have to mention it in response to your question because I think it answers it. The book is called Name, Place, Animal, Thing. It is a childhood game that I’ve used as a metaphor in a fable that has life lessons sprinkled along the protagonist’s journey. Here is the TLDR version of the book:

Thing — Make more things, physical and virtual. There is joy in creation.

Animal — That’s what we are, at our core. Mind your body and your brain, and the connection between your breath.

Place — Travel. It’s a teacher. Not just far and wide. Near and narrow too — there’s so much nearby you haven’t seen.

Name — Wear more hats. When asked “So, what do you do?”, don’t just answer with your job.

The above philosophy that I share in my book is practical and implementable and something, I know, has helped me weather many storms.

Let’s imagine that a young founder comes to you and asks for your advice about whether venture capital or bootstrapping is best for them? What would you advise them? Can you kindly share a few things a founder should look at to determine if fundraising or bootstrapping is the right choice?

That’s a really tough one to generically answer since it is so domain- and personality-specific. In general, my advice is always to bootstrap as long as you can afford to. Certain domains need large upfront investments and can only happen with upfront capital. Generative AI models are a great example. Assuming this is not the case, I think it is always good for a founder to try and get some form of MVP and validation first by themselves. Venture capital, by itself, is not bad — if you raise it from good people, which is something I’ve been fortunate to do. There are, of course, personal choices and introspection on control, ambition, and outcome. If you’re raising investment, it necessarily needs to be venture outcome-sized — a large addressable market and ambition. Less ambitious businesses — lifestyle businesses — as some (wrongly, in my opinion) call them can’t pass the venture outcome test but are no less gratifying or important. So, I have to noncommittally say, “It depends.”

Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. Many startups are not successful, and some are very successful. From your experience or perspective, what are the main factors that distinguish successful startups from unsuccessful ones? What are your “Five Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Startup”? If you can, please share a story or an example for each.

1. Curiosity. There are problems to be found everywhere, but you can’t always go looking for them. Having a permanently curious state places you in a receptive state of mind for perceiving and addressing those problems. Someone being curious about mold growing on bread gave the world penicillin.

2. Empathy. Scratch your own itch is common advice for many entrepreneurs. I certainly did for StreamAlive. The reason people say this is because it is easier to derive empathy for the problem you aim to solve. Empathy can also be cultivated and learned — to get out of your bubble and live in the bubble of others. A lot of Amazon’s decisions in their early days — their customer obsession that translated to their portfolio, payments, return policies, and lots more — were rooted in a deep empathy and understanding of the shopper.

3. Humility. It’s easy to have confirmation bias and fall prey to assumptions. I think every founder needs to say “I don’t know” more times than not. Almost every feature we have in our product has stemmed from user conversations we’ve had with the underlying ethos of “What can I learn from this person today?” Humility is also key because many startups pivot. I’ve done it in each of my three tech startups. The difference between pivoting successfully and being pig-headed is humility.

4. Team. This is really #1. Decisions on co-founders and early hires shape the culture and capability of a startup. We meet people in the ‘tribes’ we live in. A simple solution here is to actively be a part of more tribes — aligned on interest groups, sports, hobbies, etc.

5. TAM — if you’re building a venture scale startup, the total addressable market (TAM) is extremely key. Thinking through it is not just an academic exercise for raising funding. Founders need to viscerally feel it because when the TAM is large, and you manage your way to a few hundreds or thousands of users, you know that it is still a drop in the ocean, and that keeps you hungry and motivated to grow.

What are the most common mistakes you have seen CEOs & founders make when they start a business? What can be done to avoid those errors?

There can be mistakes, of course, along any of the five I just mentioned. Three things I have seen inexperienced founders sometimes do are:

1. Confirmation bias: Pre-decide on things and seek data points that validate it. This is rooted in humility and empathy, and in not having a team that helps you keep things real
2. Spotlight addiction: Entrepreneurship, especially tech entrepreneurship, is publicly seen as ‘cool’ and there are enough avenues for founders to drink their own kool-aid, chase awards and accolades that won’t move the business needle, and generally get a misplaced sense of achievement.
3. Time management: A founder’s biggest asset is their time. They need to be a lot more mindful of where it is being invested. It is easy to be distracted and pulled into a two-hour discussion on your logo. It’s important to remember that busyness is not business.

Startup founders often work extremely long hours and it’s easy to burn the candle at both ends. What would you recommend to founders about how to best take care of their physical and mental wellness when starting a company?

Besides Tina, Joe, and me, Ram, who is a founding board member, has been a great friend and mentor. I’ll repeat something he mentioned when we first met many years ago. It’s a metaphor I try to always remember:

At any point in time, we are juggling three balls. The first is that of health — physical and mental well-being. The second is that of relationships. This includes relationships with family, near and far, and relationships with friends. And finally, the third ball is that of finances. This includes your job, career, investments, the stock market, and everything. Life is all about keeping these three balls up in the air. All. The. Time.

Of course, we’ll drop some balls from time to time. Now, here’s the catch…

The finance ball that most of us focus on the most is made of steel. Drop it, and there will be a dent for sure. Pick it up again and juggle away. The relationship ball is made of porcelain. Drop it, and it will break. There’s nothing that a bit of super glue can’t fix, but the cracks will show. The ball of health is made of glass. Drop it, and unless you’re fortunate, you’ll have one less ball to juggle.

If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?

I hope to do this sometime — start a movement to teach storytelling and improv comedy at grassroots levels — in schools, colleges, and many other places. In this age of generative AI, the lived experience has never been more important and it is captured in the stories we tell each other in our tribes. We should all tell better and more meaningful stories. The central philosophy of improv is “Yes, And.” It is the opposite of “No, but.” It does not mean polite agreement, though. Beautiful and creative things can emanate from this simple philosophy. Call me an idealist but I think it will also translate to a more harmonious world.

We are blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why?

Oh, that would have to be the founder of the Virgin Group of companies, Sir Richard Branson. I read his autobiography in 1999 and it had a huge impact on me. Even the title was so contrarian — “Losing My Virginity: How I’ve Survived, Had Fun, and Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way.” He comes across as a constantly curious person, with humility and the ability to make fun of himself, and an evolved empathy that has helped him start and run so many successful businesses over decades from Virgin Music that sold records to Virgin Galactic.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

StreamAlive.com and LuxNarayan.com are the best websites to connect with my work. On social networks, I am relatively more active on LinkedIn and am at https://www.linkedin.com/in/luxnarayan/.

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!

About the Interviewer: Douglas E. Noll, JD, MA was born nearly blind, crippled with club feet, partially deaf, and left-handed. He overcame all of these obstacles to become a successful civil trial lawyer. In 2000, he abandoned his law practice to become a peacemaker. His calling is to serve humanity, and he executes his calling at many levels. He is an award-winning author, teacher, and trainer. He is a highly experienced mediator. Doug’s work carries him from international work to helping people resolve deep interpersonal and ideological conflicts. Doug teaches his innovative de-escalation skill that calms any angry person in 90 seconds or less. With Laurel Kaufer, Doug founded Prison of Peace in 2009. The Prison of Peace project trains life and long terms incarcerated people to be powerful peacemakers and mediators. He has been deeply moved by inmates who have learned and applied deep, empathic listening skills, leadership skills, and problem-solving skills to reduce violence in their prison communities. Their dedication to learning, improving, and serving their communities motivates him to expand the principles of Prison of Peace so that every human wanting to learn the skills of peace may do so. Doug’s awards include California Lawyer Magazine Lawyer of the Year, Best Lawyers in America Lawyer of the Year, Purpose Prize Fellow, International Academy of Mediators Syd Leezak Award of Excellence, National Academy of Distinguished Neutrals Neutral of the Year. His four books have won a number of awards and commendations. Doug’s podcast, Listen With Leaders, is now accepting guests. Click on this link to learn more and apply.