I have been on this journey for a long time now. Lots of failure comes with loads of learning. Each step or initiative I took has helped me grow as a person, the business guy (ed-tech, media space), and also in terms of technicalities (full-stack product management, hardcore hands-on into technology and I love user experience)
Ps: currently running an edtech startup in pre-seed/seed stage
Feel free to ask anything, would be happy to help even personally
How to land a job at a start up ? They start ups are for learning of generalists but deep down they want experience in the business such hypocrisy . Also why only tech colleges and experiences. In the same a person doing liberal arts ends up working in a tech start up but in India they only give chances to tech people
referral. in today’s market, if you don’t have a good pedigree, the only hope is referral. believe it or not, luck is a big aspect in landing a role as a fresher in startup today
hey, this is a most common question, especially from people of non-technical background.
Startups are fragile and got to move fast, depending upon the stage (pre-seed to A+) are in need of domain specialists. Generalists or business experience is a myth until you are joining in as a co-founder.
The lesser the team size the more the specialists are required. I won't look for an employee with business/marketing skills (for example) if I am hiring for a full-stack developer. I just want the employee to execute tech for me faster.
So how do you get in?
Hope this helps, it's a competitive market, dont be ordinary, try standing out and showcase work proudly.
Are you edtech or just another examtech , tution tech startup like vedantu and all other loss making... eventually I found that edtech can't make much money everyone wants to do the same thing... online coaching for UPSC ssc and all other exams..
I picked up Product management to help me get a better idea of different facets of building a product/business. Do you think PMing can help prepare for entrepreneurship?
You are on the right path,
Also make sure you don't dodge the development part, when you closely collaborate with developers it's a chance for you to understand technical building blocks and challenges of a product because it's good to have knowledge when you are essentially building tech startup.
but do remember PM creates a product mindset but not necessarily an entrepreneur mindset. There's a thin line between both. So, keep seeking inspiration from all over the world, join online communities, follow startup news and connect/follow with VCs/founders on LinkedIn.
I moved from engineering and built products at quite a scale. So, I’m quite covered in that aspect.
I fear the product mindset thing might be correct. Anything I should do to get closer to entrepreneurship mindset? What is it even?
What prompted you to do Ed tech startup when Byju and Unacademy exists? Curious to what drives individual who believe they can disrupt an existing highly VC backed ecosystem.
Especially considering that there's not much money out there for funding UA like the current biggies did it
Brilliant question!
You know there's one thing that goes in the business world especially the startup ecosystem,
One builds, multiple follows, everyone is just running a race to grab the market share with a different flavour in terms of TG or biz model. The recent disruption in ed-tech was upskilling, in 2019-20 we were the early players of it as well (we shutdown in covid since we started with physical training and distribution) and everyone talked with recently limits the conversation till upskill market only. Why not think beyond? The education sector is a limitless opportunity, multiple loopholes and you can surely come up with solutions beyond upskilling if you think more.
Regarding investments, there's always money available that can be raised, yes it has slowed down and Ed-tech is cold right now. But numbers are everything, if you are able to make money and show traction (early signs of demand or early pmf) you are good to go.
We love and are passionate about Ed-tech, upskill was an eye opener for us, so we are onto our next journey.
Thanks for answering. Wish you all the best!
How do you validate a business idea?
problem > solution > identify set of target users > build > identify KPIs > distribute to target users > get feedback > iterate > keep narrowing target users till you find your ideal user who is willing to pay or is your fan
What about B2B startups? Same flow?
Team is less than 10 people still, slowly growing. Net profit could be higher, that's top priority to work on now. Total cash invested by founders was 15L over 3-4 years.
Yearly revenue :
2019 - less than 30k 20 - 1.5L (after piv...
We’re at about $400K bootstrapped with a team of 2 (me included), started in 2019. Revenue almost doubled in last 18 ...
Lead social, brand, perf, SEO, partnerships, community, growth, pretty much everything across zero to fairly high budgets. Happy to help.
Hey folks, recently have found myself on career crossroads. Not sure what kind of career paths generalists have after certain YoE. Are there some generalists on the platform with more than 6-7 YoE who can throw light on what kind of role...
Have been an entrepreneur since college days. Went full time on same idea and worked on it for a good 4 years full time before starting something new, raising some money, later pivoting (fucked up here) and eventually shutting shop last ...
Hey everyone.
Thought I could do an AMA. A bit about me - have 4 years of work experience and graduated from a non engineering college. Was at a startup before (from Series B to Series D) before becoming a VC
Personally look at co...
This is the biggest problem with VC ecosystem 4 yoe kids taking calls on experienced, hardworking founders. Dude firs...