Are you a first time manager or do you have any questions around workplace productivity, team management, culture? Ask away!
Hey, thanks for doing this
Which space are you currently building within? If you had to give advice for somebody looking to raise funds for the first time, what would it be?
Thanks
Hello. A common myth about entrepreneurs is that they are always building 🙂 I am actually taking a break and exploring ideas and opportunities for my next move.
As for raising funds, what I have learned is that you just need the right network to raise money. If someone tells you that a great idea or a great product will get you funding, they are lying 🙂 I also believe that the whole idea of raising funds is over glamourized. A fundamentally strong business should be able to fund itself. You should raise money only if you need some initial capital to hit the ground running. Unfortunately most of the ecosystem, in the name of funding, is inundated with pyramid schemes where no real value is being created
Sorry forgot to add this. If you are looking to raise funds for your new business i would recommend the following:
Be careful how you ration your time on all of the above. It is similar to online dating, you will meet many wrong ones before you meet the right one. So invest your time wisely. Also raising funds is a full time job. So divide the responsibilities with your co-founders in a way that it doesn't slow down the process of building the idea itself.
What team/culture building related stuff did you learn the hard way?
Not all learnings come the hard way 🙂 so I will share my philosophy of team/culture building in general:
(1) I think it's important to understand and recognize the differences (working style, personal goals, personality, etc.) within a team. A good team culture is one where everyone can belong (irrespective of their personality type, working style, etc.) and still contribute to the team goals equally effectively. As a leader, it is not enough is to just set the rules (values, guidelines, etc.) but you must also help the team members translate this to their scope of work, personality type, working style, etc. This may seem very obvious, but you'll be surprised to see how common it is for leaders to impose their biases on their team members. A common bias that I have observed is the assumption that extroverts (more outgoing, talkative, enthusiastic people) are smarter/more capable than introverts
(2) Every team must have a well-defined and more importantly well-practiced set of core values. Once core values, code of conduct, and guidelines are established, the team culture should be co-created organically with the team. Team culture can often feel like an indescribable, effusive thing and your group might have different ideas of what your team culture is. But If you want to ensure your whole team believes in your team culture and can contribute to it, it’s important to document and share what your team culture actually is
(3) Understanding the big picture is important but not enough. As a leader, you must help the team connect the purpose with core actions. You need to help each team member understand how their individual efforts will contribute to the overall purpose or how their individual goals are aligned with the team goals
(4) I think a good balance between alignment and autonomy is very important. A good team culture is one where people are aligned on purpose and empowered to work individually (or in groups) on achieving that purpose. This means
This means giving individuals and groups the autonomy to work in the best way that suits them rather than defining a common formula for the entire team
How do you build up a company for exit? Enter a space in trend, solve niche problems and then go to the biggest shark in the space?
Most of the unicorns in this day and age are walking zoombies, what do you think about exit for them? I believe getting an exit is imp for early employees and founders.
Also, were you approached by someone for an exit? Or did you approach them? How do these things happen?
Sorry for asking so many questions, but folks rarely get an exit
TIA
First of all, apologies for the delayed response. To begin with, I think luck plays its part (being at the right place at the right time). It goes without saying that if you solve a relevant problem and establish a fundamentally strong business with good unit economics, your reliance on luck will be lower. :)
I wouldn't rely solely on trends to build a business. Given the highly dynamic environment that we live in, it would be very risky to build a business based on a trend.
One option worth considering is to establish a presence in a specific segment of the value chain. For instance, you can attract a particular audience segment at the top of the funnel by developing a strong community, blog, or Instagram/YouTube channel, and subsequently be acquired by a larger company. Acquisitions made by the Good Glamm Group (Babychakra, Miss Malini, and a few others) are an example of this approach. Unacademy is built by acquiring popular YouTube channels.
Alternatively, you could establish a business that offers value-added services within an industry and aim to be acquired by a core service provider. I can't seem to remember any notable success stories in this space but one example is GoMechanic, which if managed well, could have been an acquisition target for an auto manufacturer.
About the zombie unicorns. I think most of these companies weren't really unicorns in the first place. I can't think of many that created even a fraction of the value that their valuation reflected/reflects. Many of these are pyramid schemes which will eventually crumble. Some of them will get listed to pass on the losses to the public (Zomato, Paytm), some will be bought with a massive valuation cut (I was reading about NestAway today), and some others will eventually shut shop. My biggest worry about this is the residual effect on an entire generation of professionals. At the end of it all we will be left with a large number of not very competent people in their late 20s and 30s with an inflated sense of their market value (thanks to the unreasonable salary inflation over the last few years).
For me the exit was a result of two factors. (1) We were able to buid a strong community targeted at a niche demography and (2) just being at the right place at the right time. We were approached by the interested company. It was a very early stage exit so it diddn't make us a whole lot of money. I look at it as a small milestone in my entrepreneurial journey, specially because I had invested a lot of effort in building a travel tech venture, which, after generating a lot of interest from potential investors just before the pandemic, couldn't survive the second wave :)
I don't think you understand what AMA means
With over 10+ years of experience in Product management within the insurance and Fintech sector, I’ve realized that product management is still not understood/defined well as a role. I’m open to all sort of queries.
As the title says. Happy to answer any questions you might have about starting up, raising capital, or scaling up your business.
Bit of background in tier 2 college. Running startup for 5 years. Have never invested in one. Team of ~40....
