Lessons from a talk by Aydin Mirzaee

Notes from a fireside chat with Aydin Mirzaee on Oct 24th at a TiE Ottawa event.

There is no “Ottawa disadvantage” for startups.

• Knak, Rewind etc. have all raised substantial venture money in last 18-24 months while staying an Ottawa company It’s an alibi for some to scale things or even get started.
• Ottawa is a great city to get stuff done and not be distracted by things you "could be doing"

Founders talk to each other and support each others. Examples:

• Monthly Friday night meetings where Aydin used to meet with other founders in the city including Toby and Harley from Shopify
• Shopify became an early adopter and customer of fellow.app In a dinner conversation with the founder of Freshworks Aydin shared his worry about the competition. The response he got was “Stop doing competitive? research”

Stick with your team

• Aydin has founded 3 companies with the same founders. Their mantra: In 6 months stop all fiddling and go with the idea that’s the least least-favourite.?
• Sometimes the most obvious wins elude us At his first startup, Aydin spotted the opportunity and benefit of using the “Thank you” page to drive sign up much too late. (After his company had been acquired by Survey Monkey).?

Usage data and analytics can make or break? a SaaS business

• The second hire at Fellow was a world-class data engineer?
• When the pandemic? struck, they could quickly uncover and scale out features which were most in demand.
• There is an opportunity to build for “virality” if there is solid in-product analytics available.

Keep positioning nimble and your ear to the ground?

• The early positioning of fellow as being a Manager’s co-pilot has constantly evolved?
• Positioning and messaging are not mere words but (has to) shows in the way customers interact with your product. What do they see at login, what’s should be the most visible cues/buttons etc.?
• They were hurting with a positioning approach that led them into HR land for budge approvals and that also brought about a positioning update.

Leading/Coaching people:

• Managers go through a pendulum of being aloof and micromanaging. This differs by their directs, their own sense of the situation? etc.
• Values are key as you grow. Helps you grow people, or part ways with them if the values don’t align.
• Ask yourself about your directs, "what’s the world class version of this person/position" and determine? the delta. Give them feedback based on that. Ask questions which help the team find answers.
• Resist jumping? in and fixing things yourself. If you do that then people exit the “learning algorithm”

Tips/Hacks on building a podcast that lasts

• Pick a topic that you personally are interested in. Make it valuable for you.
• Have guest who you would want to ask questions? and learn from even if no one else shows up to listen.On Product launches
• Fake deadlines don’t work. External commitments like calendar major launches help rally the teams.
• A launch is a clear point in time where the devs, CS, Sales.. all have to come together.?

Book recommendations:

• The courage to be disliked
• The Coaching habit
• Thinking in systems
• Originals (Adam Grant)
• Multipliers (Liz Heissman) - Has also been a podcast guest with Aydin.

If you were there and heard more/different, please add in comments. Thanks !