Categories
Entrepreneurship Startup

Don’t Find Ideas. Find Problems.

It is not the only way to build a startup, but building a startup to solve your own problem makes the journey far more satisfying and less challenging.

Of course, if your problem also resonates with even tens of thousands of people, then it’s worth pursuing that startup idea.

But most often or not – it’s always a bad move to start with some hot technology trend where founders don’t feel the problem first hand, so they try to “find the idea” to build some solution.

In such situations, starting is easy, but continuing is hard.

When the going gets tough, which it always does, you need a strong “why” to keep going.

Don’t find ideas.

Find your problems.

Categories
Startup

FAST goals are better for high-growth startups than SMART goals

The conventional wisdom is goals should be SMART – specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound.

At Avoma.com, we don’t do SMART goals. We do FAST goals.

The key concern is – SMART goals undervalue ambition.

And they lack importance of discussing goals throughout the year.

FAST goals are — frequently discussed, ambitious, specific, and transparent.

For startups, you need to set ambitious targets – not achievable.

You need to translate them into specific metrics and milestones.

And you need to make them transparent throughout the organization so everyone is aligned and there is near-zero wastage.

And most importantly, you need to discuss the progress of these goals frequently and adjust quickly.

This model seems more applicable to high-growth startups than the traditional SMART goals, which was popularized since Intel days.

The FAST concept was introduced by MIT’s business school a few years ago, and it stuck with me.

👉 Here’s the link of MIT’s detail documentation and research findings: https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/with-goals-fast-beats-smart/

Hope this helps when you’re planning your 2022 goals. 📈

Categories
Productivity

Prioritization hack: Replace “Couldn’t” with “Chose not to”!

The next time you want to say “I couldn’t…”, just replace it with “I chose not to…”.

And you’ll realize how you are prioritizing things on your plate.

Here are some examples…

“I couldn’t work on…” → “I chose not to work on…”
“I couldn’t get back to you…” → “I chose not to get back to you…”
“I couldn’t reach on time…” → “I chose not to reach on time…”
“I couldn’t wake up…” → “I chose not to wake up…”
“I couldn’t exercise…” → “I chose not to exercise…”

You get the idea.

The more you say “I chose not to…”, you’ll realize it’s you, who are responsible for not doing the things that you had promised to do.

Eventually, you’ll start prioritizing the things that matter to you.

Hope this helps!

Categories
Entrepreneurship

How to Learn to be Bold?

I was recently asked in an interview how did I learn to be bold.

This quote describes my philosophy the best: 👇

“Fear is temporary, but regret lasts forever.”

Take a plunge.

Categories
SaaS Sales

Predictable Revenue

Predictable Revenue happens when you have a Predictable Pipeline.

Predictable Pipeline happens when you have a Predictable Salesperson.

Predictable Salesperson happens when you have a Predictable Day (Calendar).

Predictable Day happens when you have a Predictable Routine (Habits).

“You are what you repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”

It’s about daily habits, not about the end goals.

Create a repeatable process for yourself that you can do every single day without fail.

Focus on actions you control rather than putting all the pressure on results that might not come.

Categories
Philosophy

How To Simplify Your Life?

Life is actually simple. We make it complex.

Here are a few ways to simplify it again: 👇

Are you stuck? Ask others for help.

Are you confused? Ask more questions.

Do you feel angry and frustrated? Meditate and focus on positive things.

Did someone make a mistake? Ask them what happened and tell or help them how to fix it.

Did you make a mistake? Say sorry, learn a lesson, and move on.

Did someone hurt you? Share your feelings with them.

Did someone help you? Say thank you and offer help.

Is someone angry at you? Say sorry, and just talk to them.

Are you angry at someone? Leave your ego aside and just talk to them.

Did you think of someone? Reach out to them.

Categories
Entrepreneurship

Phases of an Entrepreneur: Creator, Critic, and Crusader

There are 3 phases of an entrepreneur (3 Cs): Creator, Critic, and Crusader.

I learned this insight from Daniel Lubetzky, the founder of Kind Bars while watching Shark Tank some time ago.

The insight was so crisp and clear that it stuck with me.

Recently I shared it with a friend who’s a co-founder at a startup, so thought I should share it with a larger audience.

Let’s understand what are these 3 phases:

In the “Creative” phase, entrepreneurs are in the creative mindset – brainstorming, ideating, and then creating a solution for the problem they have been facing for a while.

In the “Critic” phase, entrepreneurs need to be the biggest critic of their idea, execution, plan, etc. They need to play devil’s advocate and try to poke holes in their vision, plan, or execution in order to create the best product and company.

IMO, this is one of the most important phases, but most entrepreneurs miss it.

And in the “Crusader” phase, entrepreneurs have a solid plan and execution, so they can be passionate crusaders of their cause to create a movement.

While this was shared in the context of entrepreneurship, I believe we can apply this perspective to pretty much all professions.

You can be an engineer, a salesperson, a marketer, or a leader – we all need to evolve through these 3 phases.

We all need to be creative to identify problems in our environment and come up with unique solutions.

We need to be the best critic of ourselves to make sure our plan and execution are strong.

And then eventually we all need to be a crusader to influence people to follow our cause and plan.

Hope this would help you identify in which phase you’re in, and it becomes a guiding post, what’s your next phase is going to be.

Categories
Product Management

Deadline

Why do we call it a “deadline” when the goal is to bring something to “life” by that time? 🤔

Yes, your work might come to an end, but its impact might begin.

Yes, you might finish some tasks, but it might start showing outcomes.

Maybe we should call it – “launch time” –something that would come into existence by that time. 🤷‍♂️

Categories
Productivity

The Evolution of Work

This is how work is evolving:

Location and time dependent:
🏭 Factory work
🏢 Office work

Location dependent but time independent:
⏱ Flex work
🏢 Hybrid work

Location independent but time dependent:
🏠 Remote-first work

Location and time independent:
💬 Async-first work

Categories
Startup

Workaholism

Workaholism is contagious.

Most often, the virus spreads from the top leadership.

Leaders need to follow the equivalent of 6 ft social distancing at work too.

With the remote work and different timeones, the boundaries of work and life are getting blurrier than before.

With the hustle culture and grow at any cost pressure, the work-life imbalance is a constant topic on everyone’s mind.

It’s easier said than done.

I constantly make these mistakes and set the wrong example for the team.

Writing this helps me remind what’s important and be accountable and practice what I preach.

As Avoma is growing, I’m constantly thinking about these things and realizing the mistakes I’m making and the changes I need to make in how I operate and what culture we set.

In the end, it doesn’t matter what you say, but matters what you do.