u/Silicon_Sage

Hey Everyone , I am Startup Founder building on some products around community building and creator economy. I am a technical person who writes code and build products. I have few launched product. I really want to create content for my product , launch them regularly, engage on the social media and distribution side of things more regularly to help my startup grow.

But I am a very introvert person and standing in front of the camera and creating content feels like a huge mountain to cross. I always procrastinate this and prioritize on the technical work only. Now that the products are live and not much technical work to do, I am wasting time, procrastinating and not really putting the time needed to create content for my business. I have already have almost 20+ ideas for content shortlisted, I have even conceptualized the actual content for few of them, but I am too coward / lazy to actually make the content.

I would really appreciate if any fellow founder, entrepreneur , business owner or literally anyone interested in content creation and offer some suggestion / advice / feedback on being consistent on this part.

I tried being disciplined on my own , but nothing really worked and I almost always keep procrastinating and would really appreciate outside advice on this.

Hey Everyone , I am Startup Founder building on some products around community building and creator economy. I am a technical person who writes code and build products. I have few launched product. I really want to create content for my product , launch them regularly, engage on the social media and distribution side of things more regularly. But I am a very introvert person and standing in front of the camera and creating content feels like a huge mountain to cross. I always procrastinate this and prioritize on the technical work only. Now that the products are live and not much technical work to do, I am wasting time, procrastinating and not really putting the time needed to create content for my business. I have already have almost 20+ ideas for content shortlisted, I have even conceptualized the actual content for few of them, but I am too coward / lazy to actually make the content.

I would really appreciate if any fellow founder, entrepreneur , business owner or literally anyone interested in content creation hold me accountable for all this and essentially push me to create content ( I would do the same to you too).

I tried being disciplined on my own , but this is something I am almost always procrastinating and would really appreciate outside help.

The accountability would be done online through Gmeet, Whatsapp and all ( completely remotely so honestly anyone can apply irrespective where you live, if many people apply , we can even create a WhatsApp group or something and basically motivate each other to regularly create content )

But If you are from Bangalore, India , that's a bonus as we would also create content together physically ( I also have a event and venue business so also want to create vlog style content about the events we host and events we are invited to here in Bangalore , so would be happy to take you along )

Hey Everyone , I am Startup Founder building on some products around community building and creator economy. I am a technical person who writes code and build products. I have few launched product. I really want to create content for my product , launch them regularly, engage on the social media and distribution side of things more regularly. But I am a very introvert person and standing in front of the camera and creating content feels like a huge mountain to cross. I always procrastinate this and prioritize on the technical work only. Now that the products are live and not much technical work to do, I am wasting time, procrastinating and not really putting the time needed to create content for my business. I have already have almost 20+ ideas for content shortlisted, I have even conceptualized the actual content for few of them, but I am too coward / lazy to actually make the content.

I would really appreciate if any fellow founder, entrepreneur , business owner or literally anyone interested in content creation hold me accountable for all this and essentially push me to create content ( I would do the same to you too).

I tried being disciplined on my own , but this is something I am almost always procrastinating and would really appreciate outside help.

The accountability would be done online through Gmeet, Whatsapp and all ( completely remotely so honestly anyone can apply irrespective where you live, if many people apply , we can even create a WhatsApp group or something and basically motivate each other to regularly create content )

But If you are from Bangalore, India , that's a bonus as we would also create content together physically ( I also have a event and venue business so also want to create vlog style content about the events we host and events we are invited to here in Bangalore , so would be happy to take you along )

So, I have been seriously pondering over this issue for a very long time now. In cities like Bangalore, there are so many venues like cafes, restaurants, empty office spaces, empty rooftops that completely goes underutilized most of the time. These venues could easily be utilized as venues for events, gatherings, small meetups, launch parties, workshops and what not. Especially in capital intensive business like Restaurants and Cafes I believe this would serious help in bringing additional revenue and free footfall to their retail space especially during offtime / offseasons while offering cheaper alternatives of venue booking for retail customers.

 

We don’t really have a platform to list such venues or submit request for such venues. Most of the venue booking platforms are all about established spaces, banquet halls and all that which in my sense is a serious limitation for someone looking for third spaces mentioned above.

 

Just like Airbnb was able to redefine accommodation beyond just hotels , I believe there is a serious scope of a platform to define venues and event venues beyond just booking hall and banquets halls and convert ordinary spaces to extraordinary event venues.

 

Would love to hear what you guys think and if you would be interested in something like this. I have built an entire platform on this idea , would love to share if you guys are interested to have a look and share feedback.  

So, I have been seriously pondering over this issue for a very long time now. In cities like Bangalore and Mumbai, there are so many venues like cafes, restaurants, empty office spaces, empty rooftops that completely goes underutilized most of the time. These venues could easily be utilized as venues for events, gatherings, small meetups, launch parties, workshops and what not. Especially in capital intensive business like Restaurants and Cafes I believe this would serious help in bringing additional revenue and free footfall to their retail space especially during offtime / offseasons while offering cheaper alternatives of venue booking for retail customers.

 

We don’t really have a platform to list such venues or submit request for such venues. Most of the venue booking platforms are all about established spaces, banquet halls and all that which in my sense is a serious limitation for someone looking for third spaces mentioned above.

 

Just like Airbnb was able to redefine accommodation beyond just hotels , I believe there is a serious scope of a platform to define venues and event venues beyond just booking hall and banquets halls and convert ordinary spaces to extraordinary event venues.

 

Would love to hear what you guys think and if you would be interested in something like this. I have built an entire platform on this idea , would love to share if you guys are interested to have a look and share feedback.  

So, I have been seriously pondering over this issue for a very long time now. In cities like Bangalore and Mumbai, there are so many venues like cafes, restaurants, empty office spaces, empty rooftops that completely goes underutilized most of the time. These venues could easily be utilized as venues for events, gatherings, small meetups, launch parties, workshops and what not. Especially in capital intensive business like Restaurants and Cafes I believe this would serious help in bringing additional revenue and free footfall to their retail space especially during offtime / offseasons while offering cheaper alternatives of venue booking for retail customers.

 

We don’t really have a platform to list such venues or submit request for such venues. Most of the venue booking platforms are all about established spaces, banquet halls and all that which in my sense is a serious limitation for someone looking for third spaces mentioned above.

 

Just like Airbnb was able to redefine accommodation beyond just hotels , I believe there is a serious scope of a platform to define venues and event venues beyond just booking hall and banquets halls and convert ordinary spaces to extraordinary event venues.

 

Would love to hear what you guys think and if you would be interested in something like this. I have built an entire platform on this idea , would love to share if you guys are interested to have a look and share feedback.  

So, I have been seriously pondering over this issue for a very long time now. In cities like Bangalore and Mumbai, there are so many venues like cafes, restaurants, empty office spaces, empty rooftops that completely goes underutilized most of the time. These venues could easily be utilized as venues for events, gatherings, small meetups, launch parties, workshops and what not. Especially in capital intensive business like Restaurants and Cafes I believe this would serious help in bringing additional revenue and free footfall to their retail space especially during offtime / offseasons while offering cheaper alternatives of venue booking for retail customers.

 

We don’t really have a platform to list such venues or submit request for such venues. Most of the venue booking platforms are all about established spaces, banquet halls and all that which in my sense is a serious limitation for someone looking for third spaces mentioned above.

 

Just like Airbnb was able to redefine accommodation beyond just hotels , I believe there is a serious scope of a platform to define venues and event venues beyond just booking hall and banquets halls and convert ordinary spaces to extraordinary event venues.

 

Would love to hear what you guys think and if you would be interested in something like this. I have built an entire platform on this idea , would love to share if you guys are interested to have a look and share feedback.  

So, I have been seriously pondering over this issue for a very long time now. In cities like Bangalore and Mumbai, there are so many venues like cafes, restaurants, empty office spaces, empty rooftops that completely goes underutilized most of the time. These venues could easily be utilized as venues for events, gatherings, small meetups, launch parties, workshops and what not. Especially in capital intensive business like Restaurants and Cafes I believe this would serious help in bringing additional revenue and free footfall to their retail space especially during offtime / offseasons while offering cheaper alternatives of venue booking for retail customers.

 

We don’t really have a platform to list such venues or submit request for such venues. Most of the venue booking platforms are all about established spaces, banquet halls and all that which in my sense is a serious limitation for someone looking for third spaces mentioned above.

 

Just like Airbnb was able to redefine accommodation beyond just hotels , I believe there is a serious scope of a platform to define venues and event venues beyond just booking hall and banquets halls and convert ordinary spaces to extraordinary event venues.

 

Would love to hear what you guys think and if you would be interested in something like this. I have built an entire platform on this idea , would love to share if you guys are interested to have a look and share feedback.  

So, I have been seriously pondering over this issue for a very long time now. In cities like Bangalore and Mumbai, there are so many venues like cafes, restaurants, empty office spaces, empty rooftops that completely goes underutilized most of the time. These venues could easily be utilized as venues for events, gatherings, small meetups, launch parties, workshops and what not. Especially in capital intensive business like Restaurants and Cafes I believe this would serious help in bringing additional revenue and free footfall to their retail space especially during offtime / offseasons while offering cheaper alternatives of venue booking for retail customers.

 

We don’t really have a platform to list such venues or submit request for such venues. Most of the venue booking platforms are all about established spaces, banquet halls and all that which in my sense is a serious limitation for someone looking for third spaces mentioned above.

 

Just like Airbnb was able to redefine accommodation beyond just hotels , I believe there is a serious scope of a platform to define venues and event venues beyond just booking hall and banquets halls and convert ordinary spaces to extraordinary event venues.

 

Would love to hear what you guys think and if you would be interested in something like this. I have built an entire platform on this idea , would love to share if you guys are interested to have a look and share feedback.  

Hey everyone, I am an entrepreneur and have been building tech products for a while. Earlier I used to run an agency and then also relaunched my first tech product recently. I have always made sure to give my 100% in whatever I do (at least to the best of capabilities). Build the best product I can, make the user journey as easy. But I have always ignored the most important part which was content creation or even having a digital presence for that matter.

 

I have always been a shy introvert guy, so social media was never really my thing ( I even tried installing social media, but failed to use them or simply deleted them). I don’t know I was just too shy to just reach out to people, or talk in front of a camera or may be to afraid people would judge me.

 

This hesitation kept me from creating any content for almost 2 years now. I always thought I would do this tomorrow, but it took me 2 years to finally have that courage.

 

Seems like a small problem for everyone, but honestly it is a big thing for a lot of people. But I am happy I finally took this step and I am sure there are many who feel the same.

 

I was wondering what’s your take on creating a community focused platform where we can basically discuss with each other, share our journey, brainstorm and ideate on creating content, and look for free and paid collaboration opportunities.

 

This might not solve the problem completely , but will definitely be a big help for a lot of people to have a community and make sure they are not alone in this content creation journey.

Hey everyone, I am an entrepreneur and have been building tech products for a while. Earlier I used to run an agency and then also relaunched my first tech product recently. I have always made sure to give my 100% in whatever I do (at least to the best of capabilities). Build the best product I can, make the user journey as easy. But I have always ignored the most important part which was content creation or even having a digital presence for that matter.

 

I have always been a shy introvert guy, so social media was never really my thing ( I even tried installing social media, but failed to use them or simply deleted them). I don’t know I was just too shy to just reach out to people, or talk in front of a camera or may be to afraid people would judge me.

 

This hesitation kept me from creating any content for almost 2 years now. I always thought I would do this tomorrow, but it took me 2 years to finally have that courage.

 

Seems like a small problem for everyone, but honestly it is a big thing for a lot of people. But I am happy I finally took this step and I am sure there are many who feel the same.

 

I was wondering what’s your take on creating a community focused platform where we can basically discuss with each other, share our journey, brainstorm and ideate on creating content, and look for free and paid collaboration opportunities.

 

This might not solve the problem completely , but will definitely be a big help for a lot of people to have a community and make sure they are not alone in this content creation journey.

Hey everyone, I am an entrepreneur and have been building tech products for a while. Earlier I used to run an agency and then also relaunched my first tech product recently. I have always made sure to give my 100% in whatever I do (at least to the best of capabilities). Build the best product I can, make the user journey as easy. But I have always ignored the most important part which was content creation or even having a digital presence for that matter.

 

I have always been a shy introvert guy, so social media was never really my thing ( I even tried installing social media, but failed to use them or simply deleted them). I don’t know I was just too shy to just reach out to people, or talk in front of a camera or may be to afraid people would judge me.

 

This hesitation kept me from creating any content for almost 2 years now. I always thought I would do this tomorrow, but it took me 2 years to finally have that courage.

 

Seems like a small problem for everyone, but honestly it is a big thing for a lot of people. But I am happy I finally took this step and I am sure there are many who feel the same.

 

I was wondering what’s your take on creating a community focused platform where we can basically discuss with each other, share our journey, brainstorm and ideate on creating content, and look for free and paid collaboration opportunities.

 

This might not solve the problem completely , but will definitely be a big help for a lot of people to have a community and make sure they are not alone in this content creation journey.

Hey everyone, I am an entrepreneur and have been building tech products for a while. Earlier I used to run an agency and then also relaunched my first tech product recently. I have always made sure to give my 100% in whatever I do (at least to the best of capabilities). Build the best product I can, make the user journey as easy. But I have always ignored the most important part which was content creation or even having a digital presence for that matter.

 

I have always been a shy introvert guy, so social media was never really my thing ( I even tried installing social media, but failed to use them or simply deleted them). I don’t know I was just too shy to just reach out to people, or talk in front of a camera or may be to afraid people would judge me.

 

This hesitation kept me from creating any content for almost 2 years now. I always thought I would do this tomorrow, but it took me 2 years to finally have that courage.

 

Seems like a small problem for everyone, but honestly it is a big thing for a lot of people. But I am happy I finally took this step and I am sure there are many who feel the same.

 

I was wondering what’s your take on creating a community focused platform where we can basically discuss with each other, share our journey, brainstorm and ideate on creating content, and look for free and paid collaboration opportunities.

 

This might not solve the problem completely , but will definitely be a big help for a lot of people to have a community and make sure they are not alone in this content creation journey.

Hey everyone, I am an entrepreneur and have been building tech products for a while. Earlier I used to run an agency and then also relaunched my first tech product recently. I have always made sure to give my 100% in whatever I do (at least to the best of capabilities). Build the best product I can, make the user journey as easy. But I have always ignored the most important part which was content creation or even having a digital presence for that matter.

 

I have always been a shy introvert guy, so social media was never really my thing ( I even tried installing social media, but failed to use them or simply deleted them). I don’t know I was just too shy to just reach out to people, or talk in front of a camera or may be to afraid people would judge me.

 

This hesitation kept me from creating any content for almost 2 years now. I always thought I would do this tomorrow, but it took me 2 years to finally have that courage.

 

Seems like a small problem for everyone, but honestly it is a big thing for a lot of people. But I am happy I finally took this step and I am sure there are many who feel the same.

 

I was wondering what’s your take on creating a community focused platform where we can basically discuss with each other, share our journey, brainstorm and ideate on creating content, and look for free and paid collaboration opportunities.

 

This might not solve the problem completely , but will definitely be a big help for a lot of people to have a community and make sure they are not alone in this content creation journey.

Hey fellow Entrepreneurs, this post should have been written long time ago, but here I am sharing what I have learned after launching my startup which was selected for incubation by IIT Bombay, and I ruined my startup trajectory because I got my first client too early.

 

So basically, almost a year ago, I pitched my product at Esummit IIT Bombay and they selected my idea for incubation and helped me with providing mentorship and support to bring this live. I had previously had 2 more products selected but this time I was sure this is the one. I built the product (took longer than expected) and launched it and within one month made close to 1 Lakh+. I was literally so happy and finally felt I have made it!

 

But almost more than a year later, I am completely pivoting my approach and removing all paid features in the product, the very thing that had made me money and here is what I want to share.

 

Without getting into much detail, the product was basically a Tech Freelancing Platform which was free to use, very little commissions, better discoverability, AI features, community-based tech freelancing so collaboration centric approach, etc. When I launched it, I was very happy about the product. I reached out people from IIT Bombay and some from IIT Delhi (was introduced to us by IIT Bombay only) that’s it, no other places, just personal introductions, that gave us almost 1 Lakh+ in 1 month. I was on my 9^(th) cloud, I thought that without even marketing if I had received so much, how much can I make with proper distribution.

 

I made the rushed decision to scale immediately based on this early success. I used up all my savings,  Hired people, started looking for cofounder (failed) , even got an office in a posh district in New Mumbai and was all set to make this a million-dollar company.

 

But once the incubation phase was over and we were on our own, the reality hit hard. New projects stopped coming in, getting users organically was an uphill battle, the only way we were getting users were from MOUs signed with colleges like Bits Pilani, Goa and Hyderabad, but nothing organic and tractions were dwindling. I immediately went on fixing the product, adding new features, adding things which I felt users would find useful, hired a 3d artist to make an intro video and started reaching to people I knew on LinkedIn / Reddit, Got a few more clients there but Still no distribution , Still no sales strategy and still no product market.

 

I thought closing more deals will solve our problem, but the more projects we got, the busier we got in making the project work and less time running the tech company.

 

 

Eventually I became a freelancer in my own freelancing platform, I was no longer an entrepreneur running a tech company but a businessman running a tech agency looking for any project I can get to get the money flowing.

 

Few Lessons I learned from this is:

 

• You might need to sacrifice short term gains for long term value creation.
• Getting sales is not value creation, Truly value creation is when YOUR PRODUCT creates value, not you as a person.
• If you keep only chasing money, it would be very soon that you start being an employee in your own company rather than running the company.
• And lastly if you run a marketplace company / planning to start one, never make the user feel trapped, if you try to trap them in a room, the first thing they will look for is the exit gate, not how beautiful the room is, or what amenities are there.
• Most of the early users will pay you not for your product but because they personally know you or somehow trust you, so work on improving that rather than improving the product
• Don’t be afraid and reach out to people and widen your horizon ( I was only focusing on Indian clients as I was too afraid the product is ‘not good enough’ for international expansion ) , distribution is perhaps the most important thing. A unfinished product with good distribution beats a good one with no distribution ( I am still working on it)

 

 

So, for the following reasons and after running an office with massive losses for 7months, I finally closed the office, paused the product, and now after 3-4 more months, relaunching the same platform as completely free all features free, no paid plan, even made the commission 0%. Now the user is completely free to reach out to freelancers, talk to them and even close projects outside the platform, we make money if they deliberately choose us for their project not because they are forced to.

 

So that’s my experience summarized in this post.

Hey fellow Entrepreneurs, this post should have been written long time ago, but here I am sharing what I have learned after launching my startup which was selected for incubation by IIT Bombay, and I ruined my startup trajectory because I got my first client too early.

 

So basically, almost a year ago, I pitched my product at Esummit IIT Bombay and they selected my idea for incubation and helped me with providing mentorship and support to bring this live. I had previously had 2 more products selected but this time I was sure this is the one. I built the product (took longer than expected) and launched it and within one month made close to 1 Lakh+. I was literally so happy and finally felt I have made it!

 

But almost more than a year later, I am completely pivoting my approach and removing all paid features in the product, the very thing that had made me money and here is what I want to share.

 

Without getting into much detail, the product was basically a Tech Freelancing Platform which was free to use, very little commissions, better discoverability, AI features, community-based tech freelancing so collaboration centric approach, etc. When I launched it, I was very happy about the product. I reached out people from IIT Bombay and some from IIT Delhi (was introduced to us by IIT Bombay only) that’s it, no other places, just personal introductions, that gave us almost 1 Lakh+ in 1 month. I was on my 9^(th) cloud, I thought that without even marketing if I had received so much, how much can I make with proper distribution.

 

I made the rushed decision to scale immediately based on this early success. I used up all my savings,  Hired people, started looking for cofounder (failed) , even got an office in a posh district in New Mumbai and was all set to make this a million-dollar company.

 

But once the incubation phase was over and we were on our own, the reality hit hard. New projects stopped coming in, getting users organically was an uphill battle, the only way we were getting users were from MOUs signed with colleges like Bits Pilani, Goa and Hyderabad, but nothing organic and tractions were dwindling. I immediately went on fixing the product, adding new features, adding things which I felt users would find useful, hired a 3d artist to make an intro video and started reaching to people I knew on LinkedIn / Reddit, Got a few more clients there but Still no distribution , Still no sales strategy and still no product market.

 

I thought closing more deals will solve our problem, but the more projects we got, the busier we got in making the project work and less time running the tech company.

 

 

Eventually I became a freelancer in my own freelancing platform, I was no longer an entrepreneur running a tech company but a businessman running a tech agency looking for any project I can get to get the money flowing.

 

Few Lessons I learned from this is:

 

• You might need to sacrifice short term gains for long term value creation.
• Getting sales is not value creation, Truly value creation is when YOUR PRODUCT creates value, not you as a person.
• If you keep only chasing money, it would be very soon that you start being an employee in your own company rather than running the company.
• And lastly if you run a marketplace company / planning to start one, never make the user feel trapped, if you try to trap them in a room, the first thing they will look for is the exit gate, not how beautiful the room is, or what amenities are there.
• Most of the early users will pay you not for your product but because they personally know you or somehow trust you, so work on improving that rather than improving the product
• Don’t be afraid and reach out to people and widen your horizon ( I was only focusing on Indian clients as I was too afraid the product is ‘not good enough’ for international expansion ) , distribution is perhaps the most important thing. A unfinished product with good distribution beats a good one with no distribution ( I am still working on it)

 

 

So, for the following reasons and after running an office with massive losses for 7months, I finally closed the office, paused the product, and now after 3-4 more months, relaunching the same platform as completely free all features free, no paid plan, even made the commission 0%. Now the user is completely free to reach out to freelancers, talk to them and even close projects outside the platform, we make money if they deliberately choose us for their project not because they are forced to.

 

So that’s my experience summarized in this post.

Hey fellow Entrepreneurs, this post should have been written long time ago, but here I am sharing what I have learned after launching my startup which was selected for incubation by IIT Bombay, and I ruined my startup trajectory because I got my first client too early.

 

So basically, almost a year ago, I pitched my product at Esummit IIT Bombay and they selected my idea for incubation and helped me with providing mentorship and support to bring this live. I had previously had 2 more products selected but this time I was sure this is the one. I built the product (took longer than expected) and launched it and within one month made close to 1 Lakh+. I was literally so happy and finally felt I have made it!

 

But almost more than a year later, I am completely pivoting my approach and removing all paid features in the product, the very thing that had made me money and here is what I want to share.

 

Without getting into much detail, the product was basically a Tech Freelancing Platform which was free to use, very little commissions, better discoverability, AI features, community-based tech freelancing so collaboration centric approach, etc. When I launched it, I was very happy about the product. I reached out people from IIT Bombay and some from IIT Delhi (was introduced to us by IIT Bombay only) that’s it, no other places, just personal introductions, that gave us almost 1 Lakh+ in 1 month. I was on my 9^(th) cloud, I thought that without even marketing if I had received so much, how much can I make with proper distribution.

 

I made the rushed decision to scale immediately based on this early success. I used up all my savings,  Hired people, started looking for cofounder (failed) , even got an office in a posh district in New Mumbai and was all set to make this a million-dollar company.

 

But once the incubation phase was over and we were on our own, the reality hit hard. New projects stopped coming in, getting users organically was an uphill battle, the only way we were getting users were from MOUs signed with colleges like Bits Pilani, Goa and Hyderabad, but nothing organic and tractions were dwindling. I immediately went on fixing the product, adding new features, adding things which I felt users would find useful, hired a 3d artist to make an intro video and started reaching to people I knew on LinkedIn / Reddit, Got a few more clients there but Still no distribution , Still no sales strategy and still no product market.

 

I thought closing more deals will solve our problem, but the more projects we got, the busier we got in making the project work and less time running the tech company.

 

 

Eventually I became a freelancer in my own freelancing platform, I was no longer an entrepreneur running a tech company but a businessman running a tech agency looking for any project I can get to get the money flowing.

 

Few Lessons I learned from this is:

 

• You might need to sacrifice short term gains for long term value creation.
• Getting sales is not value creation, Truly value creation is when YOUR PRODUCT creates value, not you as a person.
• If you keep only chasing money, it would be very soon that you start being an employee in your own company rather than running the company.
• And lastly if you run a marketplace company / planning to start one, never make the user feel trapped, if you try to trap them in a room, the first thing they will look for is the exit gate, not how beautiful the room is, or what amenities are there.
• Most of the early users will pay you not for your product but because they personally know you or somehow trust you, so work on improving that rather than improving the product
• Don’t be afraid and reach out to people and widen your horizon ( I was only focusing on Indian clients as I was too afraid the product is ‘not good enough’ for international expansion ) , distribution is perhaps the most important thing. A unfinished product with good distribution beats a good one with no distribution ( I am still working on it)

 

 

So, for the following reasons and after running an office with massive losses for 7months, I finally closed the office, paused the product, and now after 3-4 more months, relaunching the same platform as completely free all features free, no paid plan, even made the commission 0%. Now the user is completely free to reach out to freelancers, talk to them and even close projects outside the platform, we make money if they deliberately choose us for their project not because they are forced to.

 

So that’s my experience summarized in this post.

Hey fellow Entrepreneurs, this post should have been written long time ago, but here I am sharing what I have learned after launching my startup which was selected for incubation by IIT Bombay, and I ruined my startup trajectory because I got my first client too early.

 

So basically, almost a year ago, I pitched my product at Esummit IIT Bombay and they selected my idea for incubation and helped me with providing mentorship and support to bring this live. I had previously had 2 more products selected but this time I was sure this is the one. I built the product (took longer than expected) and launched it and within one month made close to 1 Lakh+. I was literally so happy and finally felt I have made it!

 

But almost more than a year later, I am completely pivoting my approach and removing all paid features in the product, the very thing that had made me money and here is what I want to share.

 

Without getting into much detail, the product was basically a Tech Freelancing Platform which was free to use, very little commissions, better discoverability, AI features, community-based tech freelancing so collaboration centric approach, etc. When I launched it, I was very happy about the product. I reached out people from IIT Bombay and some from IIT Delhi (was introduced to us by IIT Bombay only) that’s it, no other places, just personal introductions, that gave us almost 1 Lakh+ in 1 month. I was on my 9^(th) cloud, I thought that without even marketing if I had received so much, how much can I make with proper distribution.

 

I made the rushed decision to scale immediately based on this early success. I used up all my savings,  Hired people, started looking for cofounder (failed) , even got an office in a posh district in New Mumbai and was all set to make this a million-dollar company.

 

But once the incubation phase was over and we were on our own, the reality hit hard. New projects stopped coming in, getting users organically was an uphill battle, the only way we were getting users were from MOUs signed with colleges like Bits Pilani, Goa and Hyderabad, but nothing organic and tractions were dwindling. I immediately went on fixing the product, adding new features, adding things which I felt users would find useful, hired a 3d artist to make an intro video and started reaching to people I knew on LinkedIn / Reddit, Got a few more clients there but Still no distribution , Still no sales strategy and still no product market.

 

I thought closing more deals will solve our problem, but the more projects we got, the busier we got in making the project work and less time running the tech company.

 

 

Eventually I became a freelancer in my own freelancing platform, I was no longer an entrepreneur running a tech company but a businessman running a tech agency looking for any project I can get to get the money flowing.

 

Few Lessons I learned from this is:

 

• You might need to sacrifice short term gains for long term value creation.
• Getting sales is not value creation, Truly value creation is when YOUR PRODUCT creates value, not you as a person.
• If you keep only chasing money, it would be very soon that you start being an employee in your own company rather than running the company.
• And lastly if you run a marketplace company / planning to start one, never make the user feel trapped, if you try to trap them in a room, the first thing they will look for is the exit gate, not how beautiful the room is, or what amenities are there.
• Most of the early users will pay you not for your product but because they personally know you or somehow trust you, so work on improving that rather than improving the product
• Don’t be afraid and reach out to people and widen your horizon ( I was only focusing on Indian clients as I was too afraid the product is ‘not good enough’ for international expansion ) , distribution is perhaps the most important thing. A unfinished product with good distribution beats a good one with no distribution ( I am still working on it)

 

 

So, for the following reasons and after running an office with massive losses for 7months, I finally closed the office, paused the product, and now after 3-4 more months, relaunching the same platform as completely free all features free, no paid plan, even made the commission 0%. Now the user is completely free to reach out to freelancers, talk to them and even close projects outside the platform, we make money if they deliberately choose us for their project not because they are forced to.

 

So that’s my experience summarized in this post.

Hey fellow Entrepreneurs, this post should have been written long time ago, but here I am sharing what I have learned after launching my startup which was selected for incubation by IIT Bombay, and I ruined my startup trajectory because I got my first client too early.

 

So basically, almost a year ago, I pitched my product at Esummit IIT Bombay and they selected my idea for incubation and helped me with providing mentorship and support to bring this live. I had previously had 2 more products selected but this time I was sure this is the one. I built the product (took longer than expected) and launched it and within one month made close to 1 Lakh+. I was literally so happy and finally felt I have made it!

 

But almost more than a year later, I am completely pivoting my approach and removing all paid features in the product, the very thing that had made me money and here is what I want to share.

 

Without getting into much detail, the product was basically a Tech Freelancing Platform which was free to use, very little commissions, better discoverability, AI features, community-based tech freelancing so collaboration centric approach, etc. When I launched it, I was very happy about the product. I reached out people from IIT Bombay and some from IIT Delhi (was introduced to us by IIT Bombay only) that’s it, no other places, just personal introductions, that gave us almost 1 Lakh+ in 1 month. I was on my 9^(th) cloud, I thought that without even marketing if I had received so much, how much can I make with proper distribution.

 

I made the rushed decision to scale immediately based on this early success. I used up all my savings,  Hired people, started looking for cofounder (failed) , even got an office in a posh district in New Mumbai and was all set to make this a million-dollar company.

 

But once the incubation phase was over and we were on our own, the reality hit hard. New projects stopped coming in, getting users organically was an uphill battle, the only way we were getting users were from MOUs signed with colleges like Bits Pilani, Goa and Hyderabad, but nothing organic and tractions were dwindling. I immediately went on fixing the product, adding new features, adding things which I felt users would find useful, hired a 3d artist to make an intro video and started reaching to people I knew on LinkedIn / Reddit, Got a few more clients there but Still no distribution , Still no sales strategy and still no product market.

 

I thought closing more deals will solve our problem, but the more projects we got, the busier we got in making the project work and less time running the tech company.

 

 

Eventually I became a freelancer in my own freelancing platform, I was no longer an entrepreneur running a tech company but a businessman running a tech agency looking for any project I can get to get the money flowing.

 

Few Lessons I learned from this is:

 

• You might need to sacrifice short term gains for long term value creation.
• Getting sales is not value creation, Truly value creation is when YOUR PRODUCT creates value, not you as a person.
• If you keep only chasing money, it would be very soon that you start being an employee in your own company rather than running the company.
• And lastly if you run a marketplace company / planning to start one, never make the user feel trapped, if you try to trap them in a room, the first thing they will look for is the exit gate, not how beautiful the room is, or what amenities are there.
• Most of the early users will pay you not for your product but because they personally know you or somehow trust you, so work on improving that rather than improving the product
• Don’t be afraid and reach out to people and widen your horizon ( I was only focusing on Indian clients as I was too afraid the product is ‘not good enough’ for international expansion ) , distribution is perhaps the most important thing. A unfinished product with good distribution beats a good one with no distribution ( I am still working on it)

 

 

So, for the following reasons and after running an office with massive losses for 7months, I finally closed the office, paused the product, and now after 3-4 more months, relaunching the same platform as completely free all features free, no paid plan, even made the commission 0%. Now the user is completely free to reach out to freelancers, talk to them and even close projects outside the platform, we make money if they deliberately choose us for their project not because they are forced to.

 

So that’s my experience summarized in this post.

Finally when things were going nice , we were gaining traction and making some money , this happened !!!!

So basically , just received this email today from google console compliance team, It seems someone gained access to my an exposed API of my console and root accessed and abused the api setting of trigger for the google console team and now my account is suspended.

Never did I though that a small startup like ours will be subject to cyber security threats like this. 😿

Anyways , I have filed the appeal , lets hope for the best. Wish me luck guys 🤞

https://preview.redd.it/md4fyljnsyah1.png?width=936&format=png&auto=webp&s=547cb3f861693ce68732cee289d1d867f4fcd641