Hi,
The value of an advice is most when it kicks some serious ass. Gets you out of slumber, puts you on a road to somewhere, otherwise it’s just general Gyan.
So what’s that ONE serious ass-kicking advice that you got?
We’d like to hear. But why should you tell us? Read on..
I am sure you are aware about TiE Mumbai Smashup 3.0 coming up tomorrow 6-Apr-2013 at IIT-Bombay. This is the biggest startup party in this part of the country – loads of learnings, oodles of fun and some serious ass kicking on the agenda. Learn more about it on Smashup website
Unfortunately, if you haven’t booked your ticket already, you are in tough luck, but fortunately, TWO RODINHOODERS GET FREE PASSES!
So you guessed it right – share the most ass kicking advice you got from a startup mentor (Alok or anyone else!) as a comment below. Make sure your true story is super impressive ‘coz the TWO BEST ADVICE STORIES shared here get FREE ENTRY to Smashup!
You haven’t got any ass kicking advice yet? Never mind, come over to Smashup tomorrow and we have entire 30 minutes lined-up with some serious ass kicking advice from Alok Kejriwal, Mahesh Murthy and Vishal Gondal!
So get going guys – we’ll close this contest at 6 PM today!
p.s: If you already have tickets to SmashUp you are still eligible to participate. You can always give your ticket to a friend and earn some good karma! See you tomorrow!!
Nameet Potnis
I have been building various business since the past few years, from 2006-2008 I built an events company, from 2008-2010 I built and ran a restaurant and I am currently building a tech company which helps business go online, set up stores and social stores.
Over the years, I have got some excellent advice from mentors, listing some of it below:
Customer is King, Queen, Jack:
Irrespective of which of the 3 business I was building, I learnt that customer is one of the most vital parts of the organisation. Now a days we believe in a philosophy passed on by Steve Jobs “A customer does not know what he wants until you give it to him”, despite this, I have learnt that a customer is very true in his reaction, if it works, it works, if it doesnt, they wont show any enthusiasm for whatever it is that you are selling.
Always keep innovating
When I was running the restaurant we realised that though our food portions were scrumptious, office goers wanted to take away food that they could eat on the way. On came a new added section of rolls and new packaging material which had a spoon attached to it, people could eat main courses on their way, and not have to spoil their hands.
Be open to feedback
If someone takes the time to write to you, they are either extremely pissed or extremely happy. Value both, celebrate both, be happy that your product managed to evoke a response. Then after spending all of 5 seconds feeling elated or worried, go back to the drawing board and figure if it was good, how could we make it better and if it wad bad, what could we improve.
These 3 gems of advice I have received over the years have helped me become better at what I do. Trust me, hearing them is one thing, actually putting them into practice is another. A quote by Aristotle could sum this up
Sudarsan Ravi
I received some serious kick ass advice from mentors and here are a couple.
1. If you change your end customer and your product, it is not called pivoting. It is called shutting down one business and starting a new one. Pivot only one axis – either the product or the customer segment. Preferably try to keep the same customer segment and sell add on work
2. Stay Paranoid. Only the paranoid survive the startup world. Every time you hear of a competitor, be worried. Use the paranoia to good effect in driving the team and the company.
Nameet Potnis
That is good solid advice 🙂 Thanks for sharing
Perzen Darukhanawalla
While I haven’t started up anything myself, I have now worked in two start-ups so far and have received some awesome advice that may seem quite obvious but helped us a lot!
1. Collaborating with Competitors – We definately need to stay paranoid as mentioned by Sudarshan but it’s also important to collaborate and be partners rather than competitors – the areas of synergy between competitor organisations is greater so there are always ways to work together rather than against each other if they are explored. At Ennovent, even though we offer incubation services ourselves, we still partner with others that do the same because it is better to work together and grow the pie rather than keep fighting for the same measly piece of the pie.
2. If you need help, ASK! – This may seem really obvious but startups often get caught up in trying to rival their bigger competitors by having various strategies in place. With a small team and everyone being involved in key decision making, often you keep revolving around the same point. It’s better to get a small minimum viable product out and test it by asking your biggest fans – your customers. By having stakeholder calls at our company we realised our customers didn’t even know the full range of our services. So now, we make a small change, make it live, ask 10 – 20 of our supporters and then make some more changes. Living on the edge it may definately be but its much more valuable than waiting a year to find out your strategy did not work.
Vishal Gupta
Some of the advices that i got for my ventures in 2 little years of my entrepreneurship journey from Alok Kejriwal ( Games2win), Ravi Kiran (Venture Nursery) & Aloke Bajpai (ixigo)
Alok Kejriwal advise for my first e-comm startup http://www.spastore.in ( Failed & Ashes before launch)) – If you want success in digtal espeically E-comm insdutry Keep your Customer Acquisition Cost near to Zero + Delight your customer better than your competitor…. Some more were there but can’t recall all of them.
Gautam Sinha – MyFirstCheque : Being an entrepreneur first & always do what you love do, don’t; listen anyone not even your wife.
Ravi Kiran (Venture Nursery: Advice for my startup http://www.hostelfinder.in : Being a founder of tech startup never stay far away from your core market & team. Always sit on the magma chamber of your startup 🙂
Aloke Bajpai (ixigo) – Meet him in Smashup 1.0 – Think for big but start making small & perfect things / products first, coz those small are the foundation for your startup bigger version.
Nikunj Bubna
In line with Kanchan’s theme, this advice can be as ass-kicking as it can be. Helped me immensely & I hope fellow Rodinhoods also benefit:
https://www.guglanisam.me/investor-entrepreneur-who-is-the-horse-and…
In a gist, it talks about we the entrepreneurs being the horse & a VC/ angel investor is ideally supposed to be the cart. Most people suppress entrepreneurship waiting (like a cart) for an investor to come like a horse. At times we might also get carried away by Miss-India type personality entrepreneurs getting truck-loads of cash easily & we start believing that raising capital is the real victory. But if investors are the horses, then its not happening boss.
How this advice helped me: I am into the 3rd (but the most exciting venture of my life) & in Chulbul Pandey style, I started up a truly innovative concept with virtually nothing. Was successful in getting registration fee in advance & profiting from HNI-type clients. Then for my mass-market pivot, got a generous funding offer from one of those HNIs. Due to some unfortunate blockages of funds at the investor’s end, couldn’t receive entire committed/ contracted funds. Cash crunch situation occured also thanks to my aggressive plan made assuming entire investment coming in. Just as our proprietary & complex technology got ready & business had just taken off, things came to a standstill awaiting funds. Now, this advice has given me a fresh motivation to go very lean, reduce dependency on investor money, make product enhancements after understanding the market even better, try to get some marquee clients & in the meanwhile explore alternate minimal fund-sources. Wish me luck guys that I am able to succeed!
Full credit to this gentleman Samir Guglani of Morpheus. Please read it completely, every sentence is worth a million $….Btw If am sharing $100 million, don’t you think I deserve a $100 pass :-)….I have already bought one actually
Dhaval Shah
Best advice which I ever got was:
If you want something. Be there – Observe. Hear. Ask. Everyone has something to teach. – Just be there & you will know your way.
asha chaudhry
nameet – irrespective of whether you win a ticket or not today, over the weekend pls post this “comment” as a “DISCUSSION and save under YOUR STORY”.
i know i’ve been pestering you for quite a while. and at the risk of sounding vain, if i may add, i normally am able to spot a gem when i see one… and when i see one i have to say it out loud!
you have soooo much to share… let this be one of the many posts to come…
Nirav Kaku
I am yet to receive such heart moving… ass kicking advice so I am going to make one up right now….. “never lie”. Now… where should I meet you tomorrow to collect my pass? 🙂
kanchan.kumar
Thank you guys for some awesome comments.
I am sure each of these would call for a post in itself. It’s been a tough choice. I had to request a panel of 3 to choose 2 posts each. Together they ended of choosing 3. So THREE RODINHOODERS get the free ticket!
Nameet Potnis
Sudarshan Ravi
Perzen Darukhanawalla
Congratulations! Let’s smashup tomorrow!
Perzen Darukhanawalla
Thank you Kanchan so much! This really means a lot and may just be the kick in the ass I need to get started again and take baby steps towards my startup! Look forward to seeing you all tomorrow
Nameet Potnis
Thank you very much Kanchan! See you tomorrow
Nameet Potnis
Asha, I promise I will try and get this written ASAP. Kanchan just informed me that he is being extremely kind and letting me have a pass for the smashup! This weekend will be there, but i promise will pen this soon.
Thank you for the constant encouragement! 😀