10 Ways

[00:00:00] Here are 10 ways that I'm running my current startup differently from the ones that I've

[00:00:04] done before. Before I start, a quick shout out to our kind sponsors, HP Probook 445G11,

[00:00:10] powered by the amazing AMD Ryzen processors. This is the laptop that everyone in my team

[00:00:16] called the Warikoo uses and I'll tell you why very shortly.

[00:00:20] Number one difference, bootstrapped as against raising money. So, nearby.com which was

[00:00:25] my previous startup was a venture funded company. We raised $43 million from top investors but

[00:00:30] I couldn't give them a return that I would be proud of. But in the process, I learned

[00:00:35] how raising money, particularly venture capital works but also doesn't work.

[00:00:41] My current startup, Webveda is bootstrapped. I do not intend to raise money for it. It's

[00:00:46] been profitable from day one and that is the way I hope it remains. So, I've actually

[00:00:50] raised money from customers.

[00:00:53] Difference number two and a big one, slow and small. For the past decade I was in this

[00:00:59] mode of fast and big. Being fast was the only thing that mattered and you either go big

[00:01:04] or you go home. But today I'm taking it slow. I'm slow to add costs. I'm slow

[00:01:09] to take decisions that are irreversible and I'm patient because all good things

[00:01:14] in life take time. I think the biggest lesson that I've learned is do not confuse

[00:01:19] starting slow as starting small. So, my entire team, Varekru is basically a very

[00:01:25] young team. Almost everyone is below 25. They're young, they're ambitious, they

[00:01:30] want to look cool as well but they also want productivity. So, one of the reasons

[00:01:33] why we all use the 445G11 is because it has a super sleek premium full metal body finish.

[00:01:41] So, it gives a very premium look and feel. It's very robust. It's very

[00:01:44] sustainable. It's thin and light. It's easy to work from anywhere.

[00:01:48] Rounded edges, large screen experience, large keyboard and keypad and we all love that.

[00:01:55] Difference number three, no co-founders. Nearby which was my previous startup had

[00:02:00] six co-founders. All of them were smart people but they were different people

[00:02:03] and my leadership style I recognize now was not suited to handle all of those

[00:02:07] differences. I didn't confront. My feedback was often sugar coated.

[00:02:11] Tough decisions were delayed, late, perhaps never even taken and the company

[00:02:15] suffered frankly because of me and my leadership style but this time around I'm

[00:02:19] doing it alone. I love that I'm 100% accountable for all the setbacks

[00:02:23] and can still share our success with the entire team. People are not confused

[00:02:27] and nor am I. Difference number four and this was a first for me.

[00:02:33] Intern first and then full time. So, nearby we started with this

[00:02:37] enviable leadership team and added people, lots of people because I was in a hurry

[00:02:43] to grow fast, to grow big but this time I'm hiring slow. I have a team of 12,

[00:02:49] nine of whom have been there with me for two plus years and only five of them

[00:02:54] are full-time with me. Rest, everyone is an intern and the model is I encourage

[00:02:59] them to work with whosoever they wish to work with. A full-time commitment

[00:03:03] for me is a really big commitment. Why do you want to get stuck?

[00:03:06] You can earn your income from here. I don't want to restrict you to whosoever you

[00:03:10] want to work with, it could even be competition. We'll only learn. So go out,

[00:03:15] make the most of your time, make the most of your skills, earn a lot more,

[00:03:18] learn a lot more and I love the fact that we have this flexibility where I'm not

[00:03:24] hiring crazy and I'm not hiring super fast and yet I have people dedicated and devoted.

[00:03:32] Productivity and performance is like the cornerstone of our team

[00:03:35] and we love the fact that the HP Probook 445G11 is powered by the AMD Ryzen 7000 series processor

[00:03:42] with amazing performance and great battery life. So we can work from a cafe, we can work from the gym,

[00:03:47] we can work from the airport and we know that we'll have all the power we need to get it all done

[00:03:52] and of course it comes with Microsoft Co-Pilot key which I absolutely love how seamlessly

[00:03:57] is embedded into the system. Difference number five, no ESOPs or employee stock options

[00:04:04] instead profit sharing. So at nearby we gave everyone ESOPs, everyone had ESOPs but the ESOPs

[00:04:09] frankly didn't mean anything if they were never liquidated and unfortunately we could never

[00:04:14] reach a liquidation stage. There was no exit, there was no secondary buyout so all of us

[00:04:19] including me had paper wealth which was running into lots of money but it never really translated

[00:04:25] into actual money. But at WebVeda I have no ESOP plan. 10% of the net profit every quarter

[00:04:31] is distributed within the team so we keep ourselves accountable to make those profits

[00:04:36] and people have the cash to do whatever they want to do with that money. Invest, buy fancy things,

[00:04:43] a combination thereof so they can use as per their needs and I do not have to bear the

[00:04:47] burden of converting their equity into cash at some point in time in the future.

[00:04:52] Difference number six, we only build what we are good at now what does that mean? At

[00:04:57] nearby we built almost everything in-house because we had these unique internal processes

[00:05:03] and we had a KICAS tech team so the decision to buy was almost always shot down. We built everything

[00:05:10] but today I'm only building what the core product is which is courses and the learning piece.

[00:05:17] Everything else is either outsourced or managed by software. From day one my software build has

[00:05:23] been higher than my payroll. It is singularly the biggest cost item after marketing. We're working

[00:05:29] with experts across the globe and we're writing on what they do best while we focus on what we do best.

[00:05:37] Difference number seven, we're 100% remote. I remember when we built the nearby office

[00:05:42] I built it as if I was building my own home. It was my favorite space where we all came

[00:05:47] together and we felt that we belonged. It was collaborative it brought the best in people

[00:05:51] and all made them feel respected but I also realized that to grow slow and to be deliberate

[00:05:56] which is what we're trying to do at Web Veda I had to drop the idea of an office. Now this was

[00:06:01] before COVID struck. This was before remote and hybrid became fashionable. Today the entire

[00:06:06] team is spread across the country. We have people from Jodhpur, we have people from Indore,

[00:06:11] we have people from Kolkata, from Delhi, Pune, Bangalore and most of us have never even met

[00:06:17] each other in that sense. We have an offsite every quarter and that's when we truly meet

[00:06:22] but I love the fact that we are fully remote and we're fully asynchronous. That also means

[00:06:27] that our machines need to support this collaboration. So one great thing about the HP 445G11 is

[00:06:34] audio tuning and noise reduction provided by Poly Studio. It gets rid of all the background

[00:06:40] noises, barking dogs, pressure cookers, screaming kids. So when you're in that meeting you can feel

[00:06:47] professional and you're still working from home. It has a 16-10 aspect ratio for large screen

[00:06:52] experience and a 5 megapixel IR camera. Difference number 8, I call the shots. My leadership style

[00:07:00] is that of extreme autonomy which doesn't really work in the early stages of a startup

[00:07:05] and things are so uncertain it requires one voice to call the shot, not have people interpret every

[00:07:12] situation differently or worse, have multiple leaders that they can refer to and get confused.

[00:07:17] But this time I made a huge change. I take the calls. The strategic decisions are 100%

[00:07:22] my responsibility and once taken the team brings in their ability to execute and we play to

[00:07:27] our strengths. Difference number 9, 100% transparent. This was something that I always

[00:07:34] wanted to do but I could not achieve it at nearby. Bring in 100% transparency. So the company financials,

[00:07:40] everyone's salary, the basis of that salary, everything should be known because I don't want

[00:07:45] people to be wielding any power because of what they know. So that is how we do it right now.

[00:07:51] Every quarter the company financials are shared with the team. Everyone's salary including mine

[00:07:55] is known to everyone else. There's nothing hidden. I want people to focus on their work

[00:08:00] and their growth, not in uncovering secrets. And then finally, difference number 10,

[00:08:07] there is no goal. At nearby we set goals every year, every quarter. When we hit them,

[00:08:12] we celebrate it. When we didn't hit them, we reflect it. But hand on heart, was there a basis for

[00:08:16] setting those goals? Frankly, no. They just felt like desires. That's what we wanted to hit

[00:08:23] but there was no fundamental reason or basis for that goal. So right now I have no goals

[00:08:29] for Webpeda. We have signed up for a why for the business and a process and we will stay true to

[00:08:36] that why, to that process and time will tell us where this takes us. Set habits not goals.

[00:08:44] And one of those habits, company-wise, personal-wise, is doing what's good for business and also

[00:08:50] what's good for everyone else. For example, we have a 100% refund policy for our courses.

[00:08:55] The way we make it good for our business is to keep it at a 14-day level. So within 14 days,

[00:09:00] people get to experience the course and it creates good one because you feel in control. You feel as

[00:09:06] if you're not being scammed. You feel like I have authority. I have agency. If I don't like the

[00:09:11] course, I can get 100% of my money back. It's good for everyone else because as I said,

[00:09:16] they feel in control. They feel like we're trusting them with their judgment and it works

[00:09:20] beautifully well. Similar for the HP 445G11 as well, it comes with what is a responsibly

[00:09:27] sourced packaging. The outer box and packaging is 100% sustainably sourced, making again something

[00:09:33] that's good for business and good for everyone else. Now while all of these differences exist,

[00:09:38] there's something that I core to me which haven't changed. Number one, I still hire culture first

[00:09:43] without looking at the resume until much later. Number two, I still believe in respect as the

[00:09:48] core tended off the organization. Number three, I believe in offering perks and privileges to the

[00:09:53] team that make their life easy and enjoyable and I love pampering my team frankly. Number four,

[00:09:58] I still speak to several customers. In this case now students every day and frankly,

[00:10:03] the last decade has been peak growth for me. I've learned so much about myself,

[00:10:07] what drives people and I've realized how I help others and how I'm unable to help others

[00:10:12] as well. So when I stepped down as a CEO of nearby, I reflected upon my failures,

[00:10:16] my mistakes, my shortcomings and I wanted to be true to the person that I had become.

[00:10:21] I changed as a person, as a leader and I did not want the world's image of who I was

[00:10:25] to dictate who I would be. So I love this journey that I'm on. There's nothing to prove,

[00:10:31] nothing to show, nowhere to reach, no one to please. I'm responsible for three people and

[00:10:35] only three people, my customers, my team and my own self. And these differences represent how

[00:10:41] I've come to know of myself now. I'm a different me today and my startup is a reflection of who I am,

[00:10:47] as it should always be. The kind people at HP because they're sponsoring this podcast have

[00:10:53] also given something really cool for all of you listeners. You get 4,000 rupees of maximum

[00:11:00] of two units per purchase, which are assigned to AMD products only if you buy on the HP store.

[00:11:07] There is a code that you have to use. The code is slightly long, but I would love for

[00:11:11] you to record this right now. It's A as in Apple, N as in New, F as in France, B as in Bombay, HP,

[00:11:21] which is Hewlett Packard and then Pro, P, R, O. I'll repeat this once more. A, N, F, B,

[00:11:30] HP, Pro all in caps and you go to the HP store, you use this code and on any AMD product

[00:11:39] you would get 4,000 rupees off to a maximum of two units per transaction. This is valid for the next

[00:11:45] 90 days from the release of this podcast and I hope you avail that and enjoy the HP service

[00:11:51] and productivity and performance just as much as we have all the best.