Founder self-management: an interview with Chirayu, CEO of Active Soil, on setting milestones and goals for your new startup
Chirayu Shishodiya is the CEO of Active Soil, an organisation that is driving down organic food prices by producing cheaper organic fertilizer. Active Soil works with gardening centers, farmers and distributors.
I met Chirayu at Imperial College London, where we both studied Computer Science. Recently, we exchanged experiences about founding our respective startups. We talked about how founders can keep themselves motivated during stressful times and how setting small goals can help. This is our conversation.
Rudy: Great to have this opportunity to catch up! Can you tell me a little bit about Active Soil, and what are you looking forward to in 2018?
Chirayu: Sure! Active Soil is a social enterprise, based in India. We produce organic fertiliser for farmers and growers. My main goal of 2018 is to drive organic fertiliser prices down even further by expanding production and getting more customers. This should make organic food growing cheaper which was one of the founding missions of my startup.
Rudy: Congratulations on making it this far! What advice would you give to founders who’ve just started out on their entrepreneurial journey?
Chirayu: I’ve discovered that little milestones can motivate you. I learnt this the hard way. I’d set high level goals like: we should get X number of customers and Y amount of sales in the next 3 months. Getting to them took months and months of hard work. We had no milestones, most days it felt like we were toiling without achieving much. When I did meet my goals, it didn’t feel motivating at all. It felt more like a relief (Finally! We did it!).
Milestones, which can be achieved in several days/weeks (as opposed to months) will address this feeling of lack of progress.
Rudy: What does a milestone mean to you?
Chirayu: All startups, tech or non-tech, can set milestones. A milestone should ideally be small. It is a target that your startup can achieve in a few days. A big milestone is not a milestone, it’s a goal. Goals are nice, but a milestone will keep you motivated on most days, if you’re like me.
For example, if you’ve got a goal to get the first prototype ready in 2 months, having no milestones could mean that you get lost along the way. This happened to me.
I was constructing a 5000 square foot factory space for my startup. My only goal was to build the factory space in 2 months. That was it, that was all the planning I did. I didn’t spend any time planning what I would want to achieve after week 1, week 2 and so on. My excuse was that I’d never even built a DIY table at home, let alone build something this big. Good milestones would’ve been: hire a contractor by day 5, source materials by day 10, lay foundation by day 15 and so on. These would’ve kept me motivated, instead of feeling dejected on most days when things weren’t going my way.
Rudy: How do I tell if a milestone is good?
Chirayu: A good milestone is:
- something that can be achieved in a few days;
- several milestones contribute to a single goal;
- something that delivers value, externally. If you were demo-ing your product to a stranger, it will look/perform a tiny bit better at this milestone than the last milestone.
And, of course, celebrate each milestone completion. They are the silver linings in the dark uncertain world of startups :-)
Rudy: That makes a ton of sense. The other problem I have is that I find it difficult to celebrate. What do you do to celebrate?
Chirayu: Good question. I’m a private person, and when the startup was just me, I used to not do much. This was a bad idea. I constantly felt I wasn’t getting much done. It felt more like I was fixing broken things in my startup, rather than proactively looking to accomplish milestones and goals.
When it grew to a couple more people, we used to share a meal at a nice restaurant when we achieved goals (more like once or twice a year). I feel, it would’ve been nice to do this when we achieved a few of the key milestones too.
When the startup is just you, you could spend some time on your hobbies to celebrate your wins. When you grow to be a few more people, let them know that collective effort is propelling the startup forward and celebrating together is a definitely a good way to accomplish that.
Rudy: Let’s take a step back and talk about goals. How do goals differ from a milestone? What kind of goals should I set for my startup?
Goals are big. Given the vulnerability and small size of a startup, failure to meet a few goals could mean the end. Not meeting a few milestones, on the other hand, means you’ve got to plan and execute better.
It’s worthwhile having a couple of goals of this shape: get X number of users in Y months or X number of customer interactions in Y months, or get X amount of investment. Be honest, however, and make sure that your goals validate your opportunity. Friends and family giving positive feedback or investment is less useful of a signal versus unaffiliated customers or investors.
It’s ideal if money forms part of the goal. It could be money earned from selling to customers or money earned by getting investors on board.
Rudy: Any last comments about goals and milestones?
Chirayu: You should also be honest to yourself, and think about what you’d do if you don’t meet the goal. Is it worth pursuing this startup if I don’t meet the goal? We are biased towards our own ideas and it’s always a difficult decision to shut down your own startup. It will feel like your diligent hard work has gone to waste but you need to be strict about it.
Not meeting a goal shouldn’t always mean the end. You could decide to pivot the idea and market to a different customer segment. Whatever you do, you need to be honest to yourself. Make a decision based on facts and numbers, rather than an emotional one.
Rudy: Thanks Chirayu!
The world out there is daunting, and you often feel powerless and demotivated in the face of a market that couldn’t care less. To build impactful solutions to the world’s problems, we need to focus ourselves over a long period of time and keep the team motivated.
To make things worse, founders have a habit of focusing on the future. Achievements today float by unnoticed. As a result, you may constantly feel like you haven’t done anything.
Turning recent achievements into small celebrations can help streamline your energy levels. After our chat, I am more mindful to treat myself when milestones are hit, such as our 50th user interview, or when we fully integrated our MVP to our first client. A small extravagance for a good gain in productivity.
Learn more about ActiveSoil from Chirayu at cshishodiya@gmail.com.
Interested in hearing how you set goals and milestones to keep your progress in check! Share your stories and fun rewards you have given yourself in the comments section. Please clap and share :)
