Making Something From Nothing: Adit Jain Of Leena AI On How To Go From Idea To Launch

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Learn from your mistakes. There can be a lot of things that might go wrong while developing your product, so learn from them and evolve yourself.

As a part of our series called “Making Something From Nothing”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Adit Jain.

Adit is the co-founder and CEO of Leena AI. An IIT-D grad and Y-Combinator alumni, he prides himself on the astute understanding of what HR teams need to deliver a stellar employee experience. Today, with an annual turnover now coming up to $10M, Leena AI has become one of the leading SaaS products in HR Tech.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your “childhood backstory”?

Well, I was born and brought up in New Delhi, and like any typical kid, I loved all kinds of outdoor activities — cricket, football, badminton — you name it. I was always a very outgoing child, always surrounded by a lot of friends whether engaged in playing games or enjoying my life in general. Studying took a backseat at the time. It was only during my penultimate year in school, when I consciously turned into the exact opposite of what I used to be. I prioritized studying, and for two consecutive years I spent 14–16 hrs. a day just studying. After I completed my school, I took the JEE, one of the most difficult entrance examinations across India, and got into the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi which is in itself a prestigious University in India. From there on the rest is history!

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

I’m an avid believer in Nike’s “Just Do It”. It is both inspiring and motivating. With such simplicity, they’re able to inspire millions across the globe.

Is there a particular book, podcast, or film that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?

There is a movie by Spielberg, Ready Player One. It’s a sci-fi action-adventure film that predicts a metaverse and showcases what the world is going to be like in 2050. That left a deep impact on me. In the movie, the way the physical environment gets replaced by AI is intriguing, but what fascinated me the most was how people across the globe accepted it. And how slowly, the physicality of it is getting eliminated and taken over by AI.

Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion. There is no shortage of good ideas out there. Many people have good ideas all the time. But people seem to struggle in taking a good idea and translating it into an actual business. Can you share a few ideas from your experience about how to overcome this challenge?

From my experience, I would say it’s about the execution. Business owners need to get quick validation. So if you have an idea, first and foremost talk to your audience. Understand their needs, and whether your idea will solve their problems, whether it will act as a solution. In addition to understanding their needs, this will help you get clarity on your target audience, and whether they would be interested in paying for your product or business.

Often when people think of a new idea, they dismiss it saying someone else must have thought of it before. How would you recommend that someone go about researching whether or not their idea has already been created?

CrunchBase is a great platform. They have a vast resource of companies, ideas, and potential entrepreneurs — everything from funding details to the solutions these businesses are solving. By going through that, one can get an idea of similar businesses within the same ecosystem.

For the benefit of our readers, can you outline the steps one has to go through, from when they think of the idea, until it finally lands in a customer’s hands? In particular, we’d love to hear about how to file a patent, how to source a good manufacturer, and how to find a retailer to distribute it.

The process of filing a patent varies from business to business. For product-based companies, they first need proper validation that their product is going to work. It is more about getting customers first, and then building the product. This, of course, is by ensuring that the customer success is maintained throughout.

In addition, if there are multiple founders, I would say it would be best to divide and conquer, choose your focus areas, and work on that and make the best out of it. For example, for us at Leena AI, I manage everything related to our customers and stakeholders. Mayank, our Head of AI, oversees the development, testing, and deployment of the product, and Anand, our CTO, works on building the company, from talent acquisition to internal communications.

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Started Leading My Company” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)

Firstly, sell first, build later. As I’ve previously said, this would help you understand whether you have potential customers who would be willing to buy your product. Otherwise, the time spent developing will be in vain if your target audiences don’t buy the product. Unfortunately, I’ve seen a few SaaS companies making this mistake.

Second, learn from your mistakes. There can be a lot of things that might go wrong while developing your product, so learn from them and evolve yourself.

The third would be to avoid trying to do everything on your own. Hire people. As first-time managers, there is a possibility you might make mistakes in hiring the right talent. Talent acquisition, in itself, is a skill after all. Some first-time managers hire people who are representations of themselves — but this should be the criteria. Instead, you should hire those who complement your skills. Don’t hire replicas of yourself.

Fourth is to be quick in making decisions regarding people. Don’t waste time overthinking about a single candidate. Though it’s an important aspect of your overall business, learn to listen to your intuition. If they are good and competent, hire them. Similarly, you should be able to make the harsh decision to let certain employees go, as difficult as it might be. Finally, you should understand that people are amazing if given the right opportunities. They will scale up themselves, so learn to trust your people — most are innately wired to take the pressure and do exactly what is expected of them. Have faith in them, support them, guide them in the right direction and you’ll see that they will be ready to go above and beyond.

Let’s imagine that a reader reading this interview has an idea for a product that they would like to invent. What are the first few steps that you would recommend that they take?

If you have an idea, first test it. Test it by reaching out to your target audience and understanding their requirements, and whether your product fits. As I’ve mentioned before, this is crucial. Spend some time working on how and what your audience wants, and once you get the validation that your audiences are ready to pay, start building the product.

There are many invention development consultants. Would you recommend that a person with a new idea hire such a consultant, or should they try to strike out on their own?

I would recommend that they start on their own, and maybe down the line hire a consultant if needed. When you start a business, you start with limited funding, and consultants often charge quite a hefty amount of money, given their skills, years of experience, and so on. So, I would say, it’s better to start on your own, and gradually grow your company. There’s also a probability that hiring an outsider early on might bring in biasness, for example, if the consultant’s views are not completely aligned with your views and ideas about your company. Instead, you can look at hiring one after you have reached a particular stage in the growth of your company but hiring someone early on is not advisable.

What are your thoughts about bootstrapping vs looking for venture capital? What is the best way to decide if you should do either one?

There are two components to this — the founder’s aspirations and the industry vertical you are in. Firstly, founders from any verticals, who aspire to keep ownership, will not dilute their companies to venture capitals but keep the bootstrap. And secondly, there are two types of industry verticals — one that has a constant growth factor to themselves, in terms of distribution or customers, usage, and another that is slow. So, for example, if you have a mechanic shop, it is evident that it cannot be venture capital funded. At the end of the day, you need to be the judge of who you are and what you want. On the other hand, if you want to build a company that affects millions of people across the globe, you might have to go towards venture capital funding down the line. The driving force behind your idea is what will help you decide between the two.

Ok. We are nearly done. Here are our final questions. How have you used your success to make the world a better place?

As an entrepreneur myself, I realize the challenges that come with the title. So, one thing I’ve recently started, is to invest back in entrepreneurs and new founders who are developing stellar businesses. In fact, I recently completed my first angel investment a few months back, and the second one is already in the works.

You are an inspiration to a great many people. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

30-minute meetings! That’s the movement that I would like to vote for. [laughs]

We are very blessed that some of the biggest 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? He or she might just see this if we tag them.

It’s rather difficult to choose — with so many incredible leaders across different fields. But one person I would love to have lunch with, someday, is Warren Buffet. I would love to hear his story, first-hand.

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.