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Ayush Jangra ✦

What advice would you give someone who is starting their own company?

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I wish someone had told me how much time it would take. I was so naive when I started my company, thinking that it would be easy to get off the ground and make a name for myself. What I didn't realize until later is that there's so much work involved in building a business and so many things that can go wrong. I'm grateful for my experience now, but if I could go back and tell myself something about starting a company, it would be: "Don't expect things to go smoothly. And if you had to pivot... PIVOT!"
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Lucas
Talk a lot with clients/users listen to them, but learn to say no. At the beginning of the entrepreneurial journey when people are excited about just the fact of building a product or having their first clients you can tend to say yes too much. At least that is what I did😉 It's bad on many levels but in general, this can result in wasting time on unnecessary features or even bad deals from a financial point of view.
Ayush Jangra ✦
@lukasz_misiak I would say to find a co-founder. It's not easy to do everything by yourself, and having someone to bounce ideas off of and help you stay on track is invaluable. It's also a lot more fun! 😊
Bjarn Bronsveld
Learn from failures, nothing will be perfect from the start and most of al: focus! Don't try to do too many things at once: focus on your company and not other side hustles.
Ayush Jangra ✦
@bjarnbronsveld 💯 I think it's important to know that failure is going to happen. It's just part of the process. You're going to learn so much from it and be able to use those lessons in your future endeavors. When you're starting out, focus on really honing in on what makes your company unique. Then, as you grow, keep that core value at the center of everything you do.
Uttiya Roy
I think it's the eternal lesson of being humble, there are better experts, there are better people, you need to learn from them and trust them and also train them to follow your vision. Takes a long time but, this zen is what distinguishes good founders from mediocre ones
Ayush Jangra ✦
@uttiya_roy The best advice I've ever gotten is just to keep moving forward, even if it's not perfect or exactly what you imagined. The only way to get better at what you're doing is to keep doing it, so don't let yourself get bogged down in the minutiae of how things should be. Just do what you can with what you've got. Thanks for sharing your thoughts 😊
Chris Horne
Build something *you* would use and you'll always have at least one customer.
Ayush Jangra ✦
@vlchris I love this. I've always believed that the best way to build a business is to create something that you yourself would use, and your advice here is so spot-on. It's also a great reminder to keep things simple: if you can't envision your own use case for the product/service you're building, then chances are there's not enough of an audience for it yet. I'm so glad you're sharing this!
Chris Horne
@ayushjangra Just signed up for your wait list.. I feel like there are a lot of people trying to accomplish what you are doing but still haven't gotten it down. Definitely curious to see what you have put together and if I can use it on my project as well!
Sharath Kuruganty
The most important thing I would say is building momentum through all forms - product, content, community, building in public or whatever fits you. If you don't build momentum, assume your startup is dead by default.
Ayush Jangra ✦
@5harath I agree with you Sharath - momentum is everything. I've been watching a lot of videos on YouTube about startups, and the common theme seems to be: if you don't have momentum, you're dead. The thing is, though, I think that's only partially true. It's not enough just to have momentum - you have to be building it in the right way! That means focusing on the right things at the right time, and making sure that what you're doing is helping your startup grow in a sustainable way.
Nikita Shupeyko
I'd advise not to listen to someone else's advises, follow the gut, and learn from your own mistakes. P.S. Learning from someone else's mistakes is wise and beneficial, just don't let any of them veer you off course.
Ayush Jangra ✦
@webyneter I love this advice Nikita! It's so true that we often learn more from our mistakes than we do from the advice of others, but it's also important to listen to other people's perspectives. I think it's a good idea to take in as much information as you can, and then make your own decision on what path to take.
Reginald Andreas
The advice I'd give is "if you dont care about people, you wont care about their challenges, and if you don't care about their challenges, you will not be successful at effectively solving them. Your startup is about people, not your product."
Ayush Jangra ✦
@reginaldandreas I think this is an excellent point. I would add to it that the most important thing you can do is to listen to your customers and act on what they tell you. This is true even if they don't know what they want yet, because they probably have ideas about how to solve their challenges that you would never think of! Listening also means understanding that people are not all the same your customers are diverse, and it's important to understand their differences and needs so that you can serve them better.
Tomas Laurinavicius
You can never know for sure what will work. To increase your odds of success, try to acquire as many skills as possible to be able to run many experiments without relying on others. Keep things simple and lean. Place small bets. There are only 3 modes: Build, Sell and Admin. Distribution is underrated. Don’t quit until you try at least 100 distribution experiments while talking to your customers or potential ones if no one is paying. Learn about network effects, NfX has a fantastic masterclass available for free.
Ayush Jangra ✦
@tomaslau I think your advice is great, especially the part about distribution. I think that's really important for people who are just getting started in business.
Deep K
Develop a clear and compelling business plan that outlines your company's mission, target market, and financial projections. Identify and validate your target market through research and testing. Be prepared to adapt and pivot as necessary. Many startups have to change course several times before they find the right product-market fit.
Ayush Jangra ✦
@deep_k I agree. It's important to stay flexible when you're first starting out. It can be tempting to try to stick to your original plan no matter what, but if you want your business to be successful, it's critical that you listen to customer feedback and make changes when necessary.
Steven Marshall
So I'll keep it more related to what you mentioned about the work involved. Rely on outsourcing more. Sounds daunting, but sites for freelancing such as Fiverr can really help you save time getting some of the tedious tasks done rather than spending hours on end learning something new.
Ayush Jangra ✦
@steven_marshall1 I completely agree with this! Outsourcing can be a great way to save time and energy. I've used sites like Fiverr to get some of my own tasks done, and it's been super helpful.
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