Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Startup - The Truth - 2

Its been almost three years since we started GAViSTA TECH and every moment has been an experience! I've learnt a great deal and thought I should share some of my experiences of how its been so far and what I've learnt,

Mistakes - As a start-up you are bound to make mistakes! The real question is how fast you realize that you have made a mistake and correct it?

Pricing - You have got to be more flexible in pricing your product or service. You might have great expectations of what you've built and you wouldn't want to sell it for lesser than what its worth, but considering that the start-up is still growing and there are quite a few people who neither know about you or your product, you have to give in sometimes.

Salary - As a founder/co-founder or the heart and soul of your start-up, If you don't fix a salary for yourself, you will never get paid and you will never make the amount of money needed to run the company!.

People - Less number of brains = more work. Hire a few people and hire those who can contribute effectively. The more you hire, the more you lose money! They need not be brilliant, but if they are passionate,eager to learn and dedicated, they are more valuable than geniuses who wont take ownership of their tasks. The amount of work is never-ending and there are not enough resources to conduct a full fledged training, so your best bet is to hire those who are self-driven and passionate about learning new things and trying new ideas. You cant afford to hire those who are just looking for a way to make easy money.

Marketing - This is the toughest! Your customers seriously care about TRUST more than anything else. You might have an awesome product with some of the best features but word of mouth can only take you that far. Out of sight is truly out of mind, and until you build a brand, customers will be least concerned or interested in what you have to offer. Like I said earlier, being flexible in pricing will help gain the first few users who will potentially help you by spreading information about the product if they found it useful and efficient. Good products and good branding - both are equally essential for a start-up to sustain and be successful.

Ego - You need to let it go. Unless you learn to suppress your ego, learn to build a good network, learn from your mistakes and make decisions in favour of the growth of your start-up, you will only continue to struggle.

Push - There are three pushes required to succeed, First push is to start the company, second is scaling up (launching new versions, more money) and the third is expanding the market, expanding the product/service line and going public.

Its been an eventful journey so far, and its a continuous learning process...

Read Startup - The Truth - 1

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