Here is what happened at build3 in February and March
?? Let's make this world awesome!
After working with hundreds of startups, one thing is certain. It's extremely hard for a founder (especially if you are a first-time founder) to go on this journey alone.
The startup journey involves wearing multiple hats, and it's hard for a lone founder to wear all the hats themselves.
That is why, when we select people for our impact accelerator, we divide people on the basis of 3 categories (hustler, hacker and hipster)
Hustler: sells the product
Hacker: builds the product
Hipster: makes the product look awesome
When an early-stage startup team features the hacker, hipster, or hustler skillset and personality type in their team, magic is bound to happen since everyone fulfils a crucial component of the startup journey.
Our applications for the impact accelerator are closing on the 8th of April. If you know a hacker, hustler or hipster that you would like to add to your team, do ask them to fill out the application as well.
Also, a shoutout to Prashant Rao for building our accelerator application portal. It's the first internal software that we built in-house.
??? 15 startup enthusiasts. 1 beach villa. 8 days of learning and fun
Our first cohort for our Seaside Startup Retreat has gone along swimmingly. Take a bow Parag Murali Elton Coelho Abhimanyu Gargesh Bhavy Rahangdale
Here is why we created the retreat in the first place. Do you resonate with this?
New founders face similar problems at the beginning of their journey. Does this sound familiar?
"am I building something that customers will pay money for?"
"how do I get my first customers?"
"how do I hire a team when I don't have money myself?"
"how do I find a co-founder?"
"Will my startup survive?"
The list goes on.
We have worked with hundreds of startups over the past 4 years, and it pains us to see mistakes that could be avoided being repeated again and again and again.
That is why we created this retreat.
For startup enthusiasts to learn from founders who have built startups successfully before, saving them time, energy and money.
While forming a community of startup enthusiasts who have each other's back.
Building a startup is hard for the best of us. We hope to make it easier for you :)
It was honestly heartwarming to see the friendships and bonds formed between participants who took the leap of faith to join our first cohort.
Also, a big shoutout to our mentors who joined us for our first cohort. Vikas Sekhri Snigdha Manchanda Dhimant Parekh Anchana Kota Shrivallabh K Jo Hopkins Aaina Singh Sonali Kathuria
Our applications for the second cohort are now open. It's happening from the 23rd of April - the 30th of April. We have 12 spots remaining!
?? Let's work together to create impact :)
If you are an agency and work in tech, accounting and compliance, marketing, hiring etc., please feel free to reach out to us.
With the growth of our portfolio, we would like to partner with stellar agencies that will help our founders grow their startups.
Please reach out to [email protected] for the same :)
Or you can directly reach out to Kruthika Reddy or Anjali Nair for the same.
??The importance of scarcity while building a company
When HP was scaling, the co-founder of the company, Bill Hewlett, warned his employees from riding the way of hubris and exercising prudence while launching new products.
领英推荐
These wise words were spoken at a critical juncture of HP's growth. A company flush with cash needs a few reasons to 'diversify' its portfolio and experiment with new product lines.
After all, it's seductive to think that the increase in product lines will equate to more revenue.
But coming up with multiple half-baked solutions does not equate to more sales.
And that's why most companies die of indigestion rather than starvation of funds. (Thanks for highlighting this Bryce Roberts :)
Being starved of funds is a competitive advantage that forces financial prudence and evokes innovation.
Being flush with cash without the necessary financial discipline leads to money being spent on a whim without any tangible outcomes.
One of our portfolio startups that we have seen do really well in this regard is 18startup community (take a bow Mohammed Zeeshan , Prakash Balasubramanian Iyer Teja Surishetti )
After making it to the final round of our impact accelerator and receiving some seed funding, they wasted no time running their first cohort at the build3 villa.
In a short period (<4 months since the startup's inception), they have become revenue-positive.
They did that by being agile and crafty with how they spent their time when it came to talking to customers, marketing their program, creating their program on the fly etc.
The scarcity of resources pushed them to innovate, and now they are on track for their next cohort.
When your back is against the wall, you either come out swinging or you sink ;)
?The importance of predictability in a customer's decision to purchase
Predictability leads to sales.
When customers can envision the value that your product/service offers them, sales are going to come steamrolling in.
If you are marketing and selling a product/service that is not an impulse purchase, the time between the end of a sales call to the final purchase decision is crucial.
No matter how excited a customer might sound on the phone about your product, the proof of the pudding lies when your customers quietly ponder the value of your service after the call.
This post-sales gestation period is when a customer dreams and imagine how your product can serve them.
If your marketing paints an image of your service that does not match up with the predicted value of your service, you will likely end up with a confused customer who will not take the plunge and purchase your product.
And here's the real kicker: the customer is genuinely excited on the sales call, but that does not translate into a sale.
So it's crucial to match up your offering with your marketing, and you have to be really rigorous with this process.
Otherwise, you will end up confused about why customer excitement does not translate into sales.
And that's been our learning with our cohub program.
cohub is divided into flexi stays and our Seaside Startup Retreat. While we initially began with the Flexi stay program, we faced the same problem as mentioned above.
Our marketing for Flexi Stays promised upskilling for founders, but there was no predictability in our offering (the upskilling portion depended on how many founders there were staying with us and the number of programs lined up for the week). It was kind of like a lucky draw for customers in terms of the experience they would receive.
Our SSR program solved this. There is predictability (the number of people is fixed, the stage of their startup journey is the same, the itinerary is fixed, and food and stay are taken care of)
In short, customers knew what to expect, and the sales trickled in.
And that's why our Flexi stay program is pivoting to be a place where founders from different parts of the world can meet each other and stay with each other. The upskilling component is taken care of by SSR.
???If you have a problem to solve, our impact founders are up to the task ;)
Girish Sampath and Harsh Bhonsle have been working meticulously over the past few weeks on getting our grants and sponsorships pipeline throttling at full speed.
And now they have something exciting in store for large companies and institutions.
We run an impact accelerator for ambitious founders. If you would like to tap into their drive and insights, do send us a problem statement that you would like them to work on.
The only criterion is that it needs to be impact-aligned.
Feel free to email [email protected] for more details.