10 ways I would start up differently next time
I closed Zaloom, my first attempt at starting up, in Jan 2023. I was brave through the journey. I learnt about life, people, and motivations. When I build again, I will carry these learnings with me.
Hola! This is Shantanu. You are reading Out of Singapore, where I write on business, marketing, and culture topics weekly. Welcome to the week 22 edition 🤩
Before we begin, let’s do a quick poll. If you don’t answer, you have to pay me USD 100. Vote now 😨
I would select the first option - my week could have been better. We launched a supplement brand last month, and revenue is slow. We are getting the website redone, experimenting with ads, and possibly taking an alternative approach to growth. I will write more about this later after I have more learnings. Beyond that there is this - let’s say I will be triple hatting, haha. I am pleased😊
Let’s jump into this week’s topic of interest (yes, you voted for it. If you didn’t, please vote for next week’s topic). I published this LinkedIn post on the first week of March 2023.
The learnings shared above are solid - I stand by them. Over the last 3 months, life has been more stable. This gave me scope to think - if I start again, how will I do it? The answers are straight forward. These are mostly the mistakes I did during the first stint. Let’s hear it out -
1. No cofounders next time. I will go solo.
Co founders slow down decision making. You end up taking care of egos instead of running a company. Two or more people rarely agree on an approach and there will be never one way of achieving a goal. It is okay to be wrong a few times and learn, instead of debating several days and weeks on how to go about something. You want to make fast decisions - with a co founder, if you take a decision and relay it to the team while forgetting to inform the co-founder - now you got emotions to handle. Would you want it this way?
There are good reasons to have a co-founder. It reduces overall risk and potentially improves decision making. However, I believe it will help only later in the journey or someone brings a long industry knowledge/connects/deals. This still does not solve ego issues that keep cropping up now and then. It hampers your control over the results.
Hence, no co-founders next time. A core team - yes. But no co-founders.
2. I will pay a good salary to the team.
No one likes to work for no or less salary and a constant risk of getting fired. It is demotivating. I should have enough money to pay living costs before hiring anyone. This means I must have enough capital in the bank - either my own money or investor money.
Last year I hired people based on promises and low salaries. It didn’t work out.
Setting the right incentives helps motivate the founding team. I will do it better next time.
3. Be more patient with business deals.
B2B deals inherently take longer, sometimes months, in the beginning. Same holds true for B2C - It takes times to scale up orders.
I will be more realistic in terms of sales expectations. However, the sales process must be airtight. It is okay if 10 customers or companies say no every day. We learn in the process, and improve. It is not okay to have zero companies say no.
Hence I will be more realistic on positive outcomes, and more focused on outcomes (positive or negative).
4. Won’t spend too much time on few customers.
I spent months with users who were showing no signs of conversion. This simply meant that I did not have good leads. If I had 100 companies to talk to, I wouldn’t have to depend on a few of them.
This brings me to the next point of building a good sales funnel.
5. Build a good sales funnel with CRM tool.
A CRM system is the best executive I can ask for an entrepreneur. CRM system helps you find right customers, reach out to them and consistently follow up. It helps separate out good prospects from the bad. This again holds true in B2C or B2B space.
6. Keep the core team at one single place.
Remote setup does not work for a startup core team. I have seen multiple teams separate out after a few months. It just does not work. You need a lot of faith and trust between the team members to handle the daily rejections. The journey is an emotional roller coster that cannot be taken alone. Everyone must feel the pain and stick together to win the race.
7. Slow down, and create space for more activities in life.
I stopped listening to music, going out with friends (I was also forever broke as well). I lost all my hobbies - no tennis, almost no exercise, and zero fun. I took life too seriously - a big mistake!
Next time, I will treat startup as work instead of survival. Companies can go bankrupt in business. I, as a person, should not go bankrupt on life.
8. Building a successful business takes 7-10 years.
It takes time to learn the craft, understand the industry and gain trust of the people in ecosystem. This is easily takes 7 years. Any success expected beforehand is superficial. Hence prioritize survival. Plan with a 7-year horizon.
Next time, I will have a 7 year outlook of how the business phases will change.
9. Prioritize output from core members
You don’t want people to slack off. You don’t want people to not focus on building value for customers. Team and employee must be productive. The survival of business depends on everyone taking their job seriously.
When at work, say 10 am to 6 pm, core members should always prioritize productivity.
10. Do something I can do myself without dependency.
I should not try to start a software company when I cannot coding. I would focus on my strength. Ecommerce, apparel, lifestyle brands, inventory planning and management were my strength. I, a smartass, tried to do something very different.
Hence, right now I am focusing on marketing and growth. I believe this as a skill set can work wonders next time I start up.
Here are a few bonus points -
I will buy softwares and solutions, instead of building in house.
I will not be stingy with buying solutions in the market.
Nothing comes for free. I won’t try to save costs while wasting time and mind space.
Sales team can be wonderful. I will hire more sales people at the right time.
I will trust my instinct more. If the instinct says something is wrong a 3 times - then it bound to be wrong.
Starting up next time won’t be easy even after these learnings. I will face new challenges. I need to be braver when these come up.
Okay, I wrap up the business section here. Amen.
During the entrepreneurship journey, I have met all sorts of people. The best among them is my first co-founder - Vince Tan. After our co-founding relationship breakup, he went to work with other people and successfully raised pre-seed funding from EF. I meet him every now and then. His startup plans got derailed due to co-founder issues. I think he is an amazing developer (I cannot certify because I don’t understand the craft, sorry Vince😆). He joined Ahrefs. If you don’t know - Ahref is the leading SEO management solution in the market. It competes against semrush, another great tool, that I use at my workplace. He mentioned something interesting - Ahref is owned by an Ukrainian while Semrush is owned by a Russian. World War initiated 💣
He mentioned a very interesting thing about Ahrefs culture - there is NO HR. The founder does all hiring and firing himself! Okay hear this out - Ahrefs did ~USD 250 mn in revenue in 2022. If you assume a revenue to valuation multiple of 5 (using Semrush’s multiple, a publicly listed competitor), Ahrefs is easily a billion dollar valued company. Isn’t it amazing - a billion dollar company without an HR. I still cannot get over the fact 😨
Moving on, I am dreading tomorrow, i.e Saturday. There was a public holiday on Friday in Singapore, so I wrote early and you will receive this edition one day earlier. I am dreading tomorrow because there is a 2 hour long dance practice for a friend’s Sangeet function. I have to dance on 3 songs, not just one. When I practised last week, I was moving like a stick. Help me!
Thank you for reading till here. You have the luxury of choosing what I should write next week. Go on, vote vote!
Haha, yes I love Jisoo.
Have a lovely weekend and a great week ahead 😋 Okay, bye!
This is so transparent and can be helpful for people starting out their businesses. It’s a difficult journey but one that’s worth it if you’re driven enough. Very well written!