Navigating the Startup Storm: Lessons Learned and Advice for Young Entrepreneurs
This story is for young entrepreneurs who dream of starting their own businesses via one of my personal experiences.
An Unexpected Meeting
In October 2017, one of my best friends called me and said he needed to talk urgently. I invited him to come over to my place, and later that afternoon, he arrived with one of his friends.
The discussion started! During our discussion, they shared an exciting brand new idea: creating a new online shopping platform for Sri Lanka. The idea was to make a centralized e-commerce website where anyone in Sri Lanka could buy all kinds of products. What made it unique was that big supermarkets like Keels, Arpico, Cargills Food City etc. could sell their products on our platform, allowing customers to shop from different stores quickly, all in one place, online.
My friend asked me to handle the project's software design and UI development. He also offered to make me a co-founder of the new business. Even though I am always busy and prefer staying occupied, I could not turn down the opportunity to help a good friend make his dream a reality. At that time, I had some extra time on my hands, so I agreed to join the venture right away.
The Mission Began
With our homes 20 km apart, my friend set up a small office in his house, and I carved out a space in mine. I dove into the project, juggling it alongside my full-time job.
On weekdays, I worked from 8:30 p.m. to 3:00 a.m., and on weekends, we started at 7:00 a.m., sometimes going until 2.00 or 3.00 a.m. the next day. Despite the limited resources and cramped space, my friends would come over on weekends, and we all worked together, pouring our efforts into the project.
We kicked off the project by studying global competitors and well-known eCommerce websites in Sri Lanka, dissecting their business models while brainstorming ideas and sketching out plans and wireframes. We delved into designing user interfaces using Photoshop, but soon realized we needed more than just HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to bring our vision to life. My role transitioned from UI Developer to Full Stack Developer as we tackled coding the approved designs.
Meanwhile, my friend continued competitor analysis and brainstorming, while also initiating agreements with major supermarkets in Sri Lanka and seeking investors. We reached out to renowned entrepreneurs in our country for valuable insights and advice.
Realizing we needed more hands on deck, my friend enlisted the help of another friend skilled in software development from Nepal. We collaborated online, sometimes working on coding tasks in parallel.
A few months later, my friend began scouting for a permanent office space for the project.
Struggle Starts
As time flew by, we pushed the project forward but encountered numerous challenges along the way. From power cuts and thunderstorms disrupting our work to personal commitments, health issues, and balancing work and life, obstacles seemed to be ever-present.
We had set out to design around 100 UI pages, but revisions and reworks often sent us back to the drawing board. Milestone plans frequently crashed as we navigated through a cycle of progress and setbacks.
Additionally, we grappled with browser compatibility issues and ensuring responsiveness across various devices, including desktops, tablets, and mobile phones, leading to countless rounds of testing. Despite the hurdles, we persevered, determined to see our vision come to fruition.
Furthermore, the project required the creation of several user accounts and roles, each with distinct privileges. We developed roles such as admin, customer, and supermarket, with subdivisions within admin and supermarket roles, such as manager, editor, super manager, and supervisor, to cater to different functionalities and responsibilities within the platform.
Moreover, we meticulously included each and every user scenario for this platform. From the customer browsing and purchasing products to the supermarket managers managing their inventory and promotions, and the admins overseeing the entire platform and user activities, we ensured that every interaction and workflow was thoroughly considered and accounted for in our development process.
A few months later, we expanded our team further by recruiting two additional software developers to ramp up our progress.
We were moving full speed ahead but with only a few people carrying the heavy workload. One major challenge we faced was the realization that despite our continuous development efforts, this project was an investment—a long-term one.
Until the platform was fully developed and operational, we had to be patient without earning a single cent. This became a significant issue as it meant investing more time and resources in our personal lives than initially anticipated.
Despite our best efforts, securing investment proved to be another hurdle. While potential investors liked our idea, they were hesitant to invest until they saw a fully developed prototype and had the opportunity to conduct test runs.
This added another layer of pressure as we worked tirelessly to meet their expectations while simultaneously pushing forward with the development of our product. Additionally, we have invested additional time in learning the latest coding technologies and tools via the Internet.
Conflicts between my friend and me were not uncommon, especially when delays and bottlenecks occurred in our work. However, such conflicts are often a normal part of startup life, where challenges and disagreements are expected as part of the journey toward success.
Personal Challenges
I used to be busy before I agreed to help my friend with this project. I had some extra time back then, but as time went on, I had to use that time for other work and social projects I was already involved in. At first, these other projects did not need me much, but later on, they became really important and expected me to help out a lot.
Because of this project, I did not have much of my time during these months. I dedicated all my time, day and night, to this project, and I ended up missing out on a lot of social events, important family gatherings, and even funerals of close relatives. I did not even have time to talk to my parents and grandmother who lived with me. All my other social projects and hobbies had to be put on hold.
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As we worked on the project, I started wondering when we would finish everything and start making money from it. At the rate we were going, it seemed like it would take many more months.
My health started suffering because of the long hours and lack of rest and sleep. I began experiencing low pressure and terrible headaches. After a few days, I felt completely drained and overwhelmed by the work pressure.
Because of the struggles I faced, I could not finish a lot of tasks, revisions, and milestone plans for over a month. My friend had to extend the deadlines and wait for me to make progress before we could move forward and complete the next steps.
Final Decision
After nine months, I made the tough decision to leave the project. But I could not bring myself to tell my friend face to face, so I sent him a message saying "It is time to say goodbye". He replied with a simple "OK," and that was the end of it.
I felt a lot of guilt afterwards and could not bring myself to contact him for months. I was so sad and kept wanting to apologize over and over again. No matter how many times I said sorry, it never felt like enough. I also could not stop wondering what happened to the project and whether they were still working on it. Trying to forget about the whole thing was hard because every time I thought about it, I felt really sad and guilty.
But eventually, after leaving the project, I was able to focus on my own life again and find a better balance between work and everything else.
Project Stopped!
About a year later, I unexpectedly met my friend and learned that the project had been abandoned a few weeks after I resigned. Since I played a major role in the project and was the person responsible for building the user interfaces, essentially laying the foundation of the platform, there was no one in the team to handle the UI designing and UI development tasks after my departure.
Lessons from this Story & My Advice
Too Late for the Opportunity
Back in 2017, Sri Lanka already had several individual eCommerce platforms, but there wasn't anything quite like our idea: a platform connecting supermarkets and major franchises, especially for everyday grocery products.
Many people questioned our decision to develop such a platform, wondering why anyone would want to buy groceries online when they could visit a supermarket in person, inspect the products, and make their purchases. Online shopping wasn't a common practice in Sri Lanka at the time, and scepticism surrounded the idea.
However, fast forward three years to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. In March 2020, the Sri Lankan government imposed the first curfew, which lasted until June, effectively shutting down the entire country.
In 2020, when the whole country shut down due to the pandemic, people faced a big challenge: how to get food and goods during the curfew from the outside.
If our platform had been developed by then, it could have been really helpful for everyone in the country. We could have even made a profit from the business. But unfortunately, it didn't happen.
Two months later, I saw a company announce that they had launched a website where people could order products from any supermarket in Sri Lanka and have them delivered to their homes. I checked out their website and saw that it was very basic, made using WordPress. Compared to our platform, ours was much more advanced.
During the pandemic, more and more people started using the internet, and online services, and making payments online. By the time the last curfew was announced in September 2021, several websites with our concept (Connect all supermarkets together) had already been developed. Some supermarkets had built their own platforms.
By then, online shopping and home delivery had become common experiences for people in Sri Lanka, especially in urban areas. It is sad to think that my friend had seen this opportunity back in 2017, but I could not make it happen.
Sorry Again
I know saying sorry might not be enough. I will never forget this incident and will not forgive myself until I die.
My Friend is Lakal Fernando, and he is deeply interested in entrepreneurship, striving to introduce innovations to the world.
He also possesses good knowledge of business strategies and financial matters. With several ventures under his belt, you can follow him on the networks listed below.
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