Aditya Kothadiya's Blog

They say that either you take more than 10 years of both technical and managerial experience and then start, or ask for guidance from senior members who have more than 10 years experience and start when you are still small.

I am following the later approach. I am seeking guidance and advices from different industry veterans and successful entrepreneurs. I am very thankful to them for being my mentor, adviser and lot more.

When I seek guidance from different people, I get very different perspectives and suggestions from different people. One of the major reasons, which I think their advices are different because of their background – either they are entrepreneurs or they are executives.

Based on my experiences, here is how both work when the given set of conditions are same:

I am sure that this list is not an exhaustive one, but I hope you got the point.

The challenge is not to identify who is right or wrong. The challenge is to understand who is more right. I found both mindsets were right from their own perspectives, and they were equally reasonable. The interesting exercise is to listen to both minds, and then take your own call such that you take the best decision for your startup.

While taking the decision, we may have to turn down one’s suggestion, and have to go with other. But we need to communicate the reasoning behind our decision very carefully. I am not saying we need to be diplomatic to keep both advisers happy. All you have to convince that at this stage, you think the decision you are taking is the best.

Once again, no one is wrong, its just that what call we take at what stage. I don’t think there is a clear answer to whom should we listen to. Finally, its our gut feeling at particular state that will lead us to the right decision. But its very interesting and fun to listen to both mindsets.