Today on The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about whether you should be the face of your company. Being the “face” of a startup can be very intimidating for some founders, which is why a lot of prefer to not approach marketing this way. However, being a public CEO or founder can be a very effective way to market a startup. In today’s episode of the show, Steli and Hiten talk about what made them become the face of their companies, examples of companies whose founders are the face of the brands, how to approach this if you’re starting a business today and much more. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:00 About today’s topic 00:12 Why this topic was chosen. 01:55 What made Hiten be the face of his brands. 04:37 How Steli became the face of his brands. 06:11 How Steli created videos in the early days of Close. 06:31 How Steli stumbled in public speaking. 07:01 Example of companies with public faces. 08:17 How to approach this if you’re starting a business today. 08:33 Why you shouldn’t make it complicated. 09:33 Why you do what’s right for your customers. 3 Key Points: It started out with me wanting to do the best job with the businesses that we had.There’s ego involved in everything.Once I discovered that creating videos was super easy for me, I just started creating a lot of them [0:00:01] Steli Efti: Hey everybody, this is Steli Efti [0:00:03] Hiten Shah: And this is Hiten Shah. [0:00:05] Steli Efti: And today on The Startup Chat we're going to talk about humanizing your brand and being the public persona behind your company. Hiten, both you and I are pretty public people and are very closely associated with being kind of the humanized version of our companies, right? A lot of people but no closed in connection with Steli, right? Or Steli Efti. [0:00:33] Hiten Shah: Yeah. [0:00:33] Steli Efti: And same with FYI and Hiten Shah, right? It's inseparable. And I had an interesting conversation recently with somebody that was asking me lots of questions on how I strategically decided to go down that route. What are the pros and cons? Who should do it? Who shouldn't do it? Is it good? Is it bad? Is it just an ego trip? And I thought this is actually fascinating topic and I thought it'd be fun for the two of us to kind of quickly unpack this for people. So let me first ask you, you know, FYI is not the first company and product that you launched, that you have been very closely as a human associated with versus just being a brand where people don't know who the people are behind the company. Pretty much every company that you've been involved with, you've been a very kind of public face off and you've been building kind of your personal brand in conjunction with the companies that you've been building. Was that a strategic move? Did you ever do research and then decide this is the best way to make a company successful, hence I'm going to go down that path? Was this kind of more random? How do you think about that, kind of looking back? Why did you in particular ended up doing this and building kind of a pretty public profile and brand on your own? [0:01:52] Hiten Shah: Yeah. For me, it started out particularly with like wanting to do the best job I could with the businesses that we had and kind of fell into it naturally. I actually fell into it by doing a ton of customer support for Crazy Egg back in 2005 and I was mentioned as a line item by people when they talked about our product versus like alternatives to our product. And a line item meaning like Hiten will respond to you really fast, if do you have a question? And I was just, I just knew that, particularly for that business, we helped you, we basically helped you see what's happening on your web pages by creating a heat map and so it was a very visual representation of analytics data.

Today on The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about whether you should be the face of your company. Being the “face” of a startup can be very intimidating for some founders, which is why a lot of prefer to not approach marketing this way. However, being a public CEO or founder can be a very effective way to market a startup. In today’s episode of the show, Steli and Hiten talk about what made them become the face of their companies, examples of companies whose founders are the face of the brands, how to approach this if you’re starting a business today and much more. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:00 About today’s topic 00:12 Why this topic was chosen. 01:55 What made Hiten be the face of his brands. 04:37 How Steli became the face of his brands. 06:11 How Steli created videos in the early days of Close. 06:31 How Steli stumbled in public speaking. 07:01 Example of companies with public faces. 08:17 How to approach this if you’re starting a business today. 08:33 Why you shouldn’t make it complicated. 09:33 Why you do what’s right for your customers. 3 Key Points: It started out with me wanting to do the best job with the businesses that we had.There’s ego involved in everything.Once I discovered that creating videos was super easy for me, I just started creating a lot of them [0:00:01] Steli Efti: Hey everybody, this is Steli Efti [0:00:03] Hiten Shah: And this is Hiten Shah. [0:00:05] Steli Efti: And today on The Startup Chat we're going to talk about humanizing your brand and being the public persona behind your company. Hiten, both you and I are pretty public people and are very closely associated with being kind of the humanized version of our companies, right? A lot of people but no closed in connection with Steli, right? Or Steli Efti. [0:00:33] Hiten Shah: Yeah. [0:00:33] Steli Efti: And same with FYI and Hiten Shah, right? It's inseparable. And I had an interesting conversation recently with somebody that was asking me lots of questions on how I strategically decided to go down that route. What are the pros and cons? Who should do it? Who shouldn't do it? Is it good? Is it bad? Is it just an ego trip? And I thought this is actually fascinating topic and I thought it'd be fun for the two of us to kind of quickly unpack this for people. So let me first ask you, you know, FYI is not the first company and product that you launched, that you have been very closely as a human associated with versus just being a brand where people don't know who the people are behind the company. Pretty much every company that you've been involved with, you've been a very kind of public face off and you've been building kind of your personal brand in conjunction with the companies that you've been building. Was that a strategic move? Did you ever do research and then decide this is the best way to make a company successful, hence I'm going to go down that path? Was this kind of more random? How do you think about that, kind of looking back? Why did you in particular ended up doing this and building kind of a pretty public profile and brand on your own? [0:01:52] Hiten Shah: Yeah. For me, it started out particularly with like wanting to do the best job I could with the businesses that we had and kind of fell into it naturally. I actually fell into it by doing a ton of customer support for Crazy Egg back in 2005 and I was mentioned as a line item by people when they talked about our product versus like alternatives to our product. And a line item meaning like Hiten will respond to you really fast, if do you have a question? And I was just, I just knew that, particularly for that business, we helped you, we basically helped you see what's happening on your web pages by creating a heat map and so it was a very visual representation of analytics data.

The Startup Chat with Steli and Hiten

496: Should You Be the Face of Your Company?

In today’s episode of The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about how to give presentations to your team. Internal presentations are very common in the startup world. And while these presentations can be very boring and packed with data, it doesn’t have to be. Learning how to make your presentations exciting will help a long way in communicating your message to your team. In this episode, Steli and Hiten talk about some mistakes people make when they give internal presentations, examples of good presentations, how to improve your presentations and much more. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:00 About the topic of today’s episode 00:29 Why this topic was chosen. 01:23 A big trend in internal communications. 03:20 How to present your data. 03:56 Why your presentations should have context. 04:27 How internal presentations are similar to speaking at conferences.  05:00 An example of how to create good presentations. 07:14 How to improve your presentations. 07:45 How the best presentations have stories in them. 09:10 What teams need from presentations. 3 Key Points: Internal communication is a very big topic.People are not used to presenting.People are overwhelmed by with too much information. [0:00:00] Steli Efti: Hey everybody, this is Steli Efti. [0:00:03] Hiten Shah: And this is Hiten Shah. And today on The Startup Chat we're going to talk about something that plagues every company at some point. And Steli had an experience that I haven't heard yet, or some experiences, so I'm dying to hear them and talk about this. But it's basically the idea of how do you communicate internally inside your company? Steli, take it from here. Lead out. [0:00:26] Steli Efti: Yeah. There's obviously the internal communication is such a big topic. The one thing that I'd like to zero in on, because we are going through this and I've just personally had to go through this a couple of times and I'm currently working with leadership at close on this, is when people who are leading teams are giving presentations either for those teams or company-wide. And this could be a monthly report, hey, let's a summary of what happened last month and what we are projecting or our goals for next month. It could be a big project that was concluded or that is planned. Any kind of communication where somebody that is responsible for a project is sharing the learnings, pros and cons, or what has happened, or what is about to happen with people. One big trend that I see, one thing that I've seen again and again and again, is that people will go through the, this is a general communication challenge, they'll go through the simple work of just collecting information. So let's say I'm running a sales team. February concluded, so I'm doing a summary of what happened in February and it's a slide, and let's say there's six bullet points and it goes, we had a, whatever, 20% conversion rate, we closed this amount of customer, our goal was this revenue, but we only had that hit that revenue, with this one audit that affected closing two deals. Just reporting on a bunch of information, a bunch of numbers, a bunch of random events that happened. Just [crosstalk 00:02:12]. Yeah, go ahead. [0:02:14] Hiten Shah: No story. [0:02:15] Steli Efti: No story whatsoever. [0:02:17] Hiten Shah: That's what you're trying to get at, right? No story. [0:02:19] Steli Efti: Yes. You've instantly got it. [0:02:21] Hiten Shah: I was like, wait, I've heard this before. [0:02:23] Steli Efti: So you look at this and basically as an audience, as the sales team, or let's say the company that is getting this presentation about the sales results of last month, as a team member, or as an employee of the business, I look at that slide and now I am burdened with doing all the hard wor...

In today’s episode of The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about how to give presentations to your team. Internal presentations are very common in the startup world. And while these presentations can be very boring and packed with data, it doesn’t have to be. Learning how to make your presentations exciting will help a long way in communicating your message to your team. In this episode, Steli and Hiten talk about some mistakes people make when they give internal presentations, examples of good presentations, how to improve your presentations and much more. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:00 About the topic of today’s episode 00:29 Why this topic was chosen. 01:23 A big trend in internal communications. 03:20 How to present your data. 03:56 Why your presentations should have context. 04:27 How internal presentations are similar to speaking at conferences.  05:00 An example of how to create good presentations. 07:14 How to improve your presentations. 07:45 How the best presentations have stories in them. 09:10 What teams need from presentations. 3 Key Points: Internal communication is a very big topic.People are not used to presenting.People are overwhelmed by with too much information. [0:00:00] Steli Efti: Hey everybody, this is Steli Efti. [0:00:03] Hiten Shah: And this is Hiten Shah. And today on The Startup Chat we're going to talk about something that plagues every company at some point. And Steli had an experience that I haven't heard yet, or some experiences, so I'm dying to hear them and talk about this. But it's basically the idea of how do you communicate internally inside your company? Steli, take it from here. Lead out. [0:00:26] Steli Efti: Yeah. There's obviously the internal communication is such a big topic. The one thing that I'd like to zero in on, because we are going through this and I've just personally had to go through this a couple of times and I'm currently working with leadership at close on this, is when people who are leading teams are giving presentations either for those teams or company-wide. And this could be a monthly report, hey, let's a summary of what happened last month and what we are projecting or our goals for next month. It could be a big project that was concluded or that is planned. Any kind of communication where somebody that is responsible for a project is sharing the learnings, pros and cons, or what has happened, or what is about to happen with people. One big trend that I see, one thing that I've seen again and again and again, is that people will go through the, this is a general communication challenge, they'll go through the simple work of just collecting information. So let's say I'm running a sales team. February concluded, so I'm doing a summary of what happened in February and it's a slide, and let's say there's six bullet points and it goes, we had a, whatever, 20% conversion rate, we closed this amount of customer, our goal was this revenue, but we only had that hit that revenue, with this one audit that affected closing two deals. Just reporting on a bunch of information, a bunch of numbers, a bunch of random events that happened. Just [crosstalk 00:02:12]. Yeah, go ahead. [0:02:14] Hiten Shah: No story. [0:02:15] Steli Efti: No story whatsoever. [0:02:17] Hiten Shah: That's what you're trying to get at, right? No story. [0:02:19] Steli Efti: Yes. You've instantly got it. [0:02:21] Hiten Shah: I was like, wait, I've heard this before. [0:02:23] Steli Efti: So you look at this and basically as an audience, as the sales team, or let's say the company that is getting this presentation about the sales results of last month, as a team member, or as an employee of the business, I look at that slide and now I am burdened with doing all the hard wor...

495: How to Give Presentations to Your Team

In today’s episode of The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about how to deal with rejection. Rejection is very common. If there’s one thing that is going to happen to you as a founder is that you’re going to be rejected a lot, and this hurts. But just because you’re likely to be rejected when you ask for something shouldn’t stop you from asking. How you deal with rejection can determine if you’ll be successful or not. In this week’s episode, Steli and Hiten talk about how nobody likes being rejected, coping mechanisms that you can use to deal with rejection, the problem with rejection and much more.  Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:00 About today’s topic. 00:23 Why this topic was chosen. 01:08 How Steli doesn’t like to be rejected. 03:13 How Hiten deals with rejection. 04:30 The problem with rejection. 04:50 Why rejection is just an idea. 06:01 Why you need to ask all the time. 07:43 Why your decisions matter. 08:24 Why you shouldn’t put your self worth in someone else hands. 11:00 Tips to help you deal with rejection.  3 Key Points: I encourage people to get rejected and put themselves out there.I, for sure, don’t like to be rejected.Ask the person who you think is good at dealing with rejection how they do it. [0:00:00] Steli Efti: Hey everybody. This is Steli Efti. [0:00:04] Hiten Shah: This is Hiten Shah. [0:00:05] Steli Efti: Today on The Startup Chat we're going to teach you how to deal with rejection. If you know Hiten and me, you know that we do believe great things come with taking great risk. If you know me, you know that I encourage people to get rejected. To put themselves out there, and to ask for things specifically that will place them completely outside their comfort zone, and with that bring a lot of risk of being rejected. Both Hiten and I have been rejected many, many, many times in our lives, and we know a thing or two about it. I do believe this is such an important topic. We thought today we're going to do a little bit of a back and forth of just like coping mechanisms that we have developed, strategies, ideas, habits that allow us to deal with rejection. One thing that I'll say right out of the bat, before I'll ask you for your first tip Hiten here, is that I do not know anybody, I've never met somebody, and I surely I'm not somebody who doesn't care about being rejected, or who likes being rejected. I for sure don't like to be rejected. People think, especially when they see somebody that is as outspoken and as loud as me, and has as much sales experience as I have that I don't care anymore. I could attempt anything and get rejected and I would not even just nothing from me, I would just dust off my shoulder. It's not true. It is simply not true. [0:01:46] Hiten Shah: That's not true? [0:01:46] Steli Efti: That's unfortunately not true, no. Even after many, many, many, many, many thousands of rejections over the past 20 years of being an entrepreneur and in sales and all that, I still don't like the feeling. I still don't like the word no. No does not feel good to me. It doesn't. I have just learned to deal with it. I've just learned to deal with it better than most people. I have learned to not run away from it as much. Not delay my actions as long. To me it's like I've jumped a thousand times from this super high point into the water, and every time I'm a little afraid I get a little bit of goosebumps, but when I look down, I'm like, "I've done this many times. It sucks the first few seconds, but I'll just jump." That's how I deal with this, versus what I think most people think, which is after he learned the magical art of not caring about being rejected and being so confident, nobody can shake his confidence. Now Steli walks around like a machine, and could ask anybody for money or for anything. Has zero emotions, zero fear,

In today’s episode of The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about how to deal with rejection. Rejection is very common. If there’s one thing that is going to happen to you as a founder is that you’re going to be rejected a lot, and this hurts. But just because you’re likely to be rejected when you ask for something shouldn’t stop you from asking. How you deal with rejection can determine if you’ll be successful or not. In this week’s episode, Steli and Hiten talk about how nobody likes being rejected, coping mechanisms that you can use to deal with rejection, the problem with rejection and much more.  Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:00 About today’s topic. 00:23 Why this topic was chosen. 01:08 How Steli doesn’t like to be rejected. 03:13 How Hiten deals with rejection. 04:30 The problem with rejection. 04:50 Why rejection is just an idea. 06:01 Why you need to ask all the time. 07:43 Why your decisions matter. 08:24 Why you shouldn’t put your self worth in someone else hands. 11:00 Tips to help you deal with rejection.  3 Key Points: I encourage people to get rejected and put themselves out there.I, for sure, don’t like to be rejected.Ask the person who you think is good at dealing with rejection how they do it. [0:00:00] Steli Efti: Hey everybody. This is Steli Efti. [0:00:04] Hiten Shah: This is Hiten Shah. [0:00:05] Steli Efti: Today on The Startup Chat we're going to teach you how to deal with rejection. If you know Hiten and me, you know that we do believe great things come with taking great risk. If you know me, you know that I encourage people to get rejected. To put themselves out there, and to ask for things specifically that will place them completely outside their comfort zone, and with that bring a lot of risk of being rejected. Both Hiten and I have been rejected many, many, many times in our lives, and we know a thing or two about it. I do believe this is such an important topic. We thought today we're going to do a little bit of a back and forth of just like coping mechanisms that we have developed, strategies, ideas, habits that allow us to deal with rejection. One thing that I'll say right out of the bat, before I'll ask you for your first tip Hiten here, is that I do not know anybody, I've never met somebody, and I surely I'm not somebody who doesn't care about being rejected, or who likes being rejected. I for sure don't like to be rejected. People think, especially when they see somebody that is as outspoken and as loud as me, and has as much sales experience as I have that I don't care anymore. I could attempt anything and get rejected and I would not even just nothing from me, I would just dust off my shoulder. It's not true. It is simply not true. [0:01:46] Hiten Shah: That's not true? [0:01:46] Steli Efti: That's unfortunately not true, no. Even after many, many, many, many, many thousands of rejections over the past 20 years of being an entrepreneur and in sales and all that, I still don't like the feeling. I still don't like the word no. No does not feel good to me. It doesn't. I have just learned to deal with it. I've just learned to deal with it better than most people. I have learned to not run away from it as much. Not delay my actions as long. To me it's like I've jumped a thousand times from this super high point into the water, and every time I'm a little afraid I get a little bit of goosebumps, but when I look down, I'm like, "I've done this many times. It sucks the first few seconds, but I'll just jump." That's how I deal with this, versus what I think most people think, which is after he learned the magical art of not caring about being rejected and being so confident, nobody can shake his confidence. Now Steli walks around like a machine, and could ask anybody for money or for anything. Has zero emotions, zero fear,

494: How to Deal With Rejection

In today’s episode of The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about daring to be different in all that you do, for your future happiness. In a world where most people seem to be doing the same things, being different can be a good thing. It can help you stand out from your competition and lead to you being very successful in future. In today’s episode, Steli and Hiten talk about What it means to be different, why being different takes courage, how being different pays off in future and much more.  Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:00 About today’s topic. 00:33 why this topic was chosen. 00:43 Steli’s initial thought on Hiten’s tweet. 01:39 What prompted Hiten’s tweet. 03:00 Why being different takes courage. 05:46 Why Hiten used to word “dare”. 05:05 What it means to be different. 08:39 How being different pays off in future. 09:07 Why Hiten chose the phrase “future happiness”. 10:34 How being different helps you express yourself better. 3 Key Points: It’s ok to be different.Being different takes courage.Different means going against something [0:00:00] Steli Efti: Hey everybody, this is Steli Efti. [0:00:03] Hiten Shah: And this is Hiten Shah. And today on The Startup Chat we're going to talk about a tweet of mine that was very impulsive, not in a bad way. And I'm tweeting a little bit more than I was over the last few months and the tweet said "dare to be different in all that you do for your future happiness" and Steli, it must have like struck a nerve or did something cause we're talking about it today and Steli suggested it. So yeah, it's about being different and daring to be different. So how did you take it? What did you think? [0:00:39] Steli Efti: Well, the first thing I thought was what prompted this? (laughing) When I see a tweet of this nature, especially with somebody that I know like you, I'm like, huh, I'm curious what... Typically I would assume it's a conversation that inspires this with you, but who knows? It could be a million different things, but the first thing that it made was make me go, huh, this is interesting. I wonder if there's a backstory or there's a thought or a conversation that made Hiten want to send this message out to people. [0:01:14] Hiten Shah: Yes. [0:01:15] Steli Efti: What prompted this? [0:01:17] Hiten Shah: Yes, so there's no exciting story or a conversation. Some of the tweets definitely are part of a conversation. I think this one was just, I think I was thinking about it. And I was thinking about what makes people exceptional? And what causes them to, achieve things, basically? And I think one of the factors that if you start looking at a bunch of patterns of people that have achieved exceptional stuff, whether in business or personally, is they were different, there were different, something was different. They did something different. And in that process, thinking about that, I just came to this thought and I wanted to inspire myself, but also others that, hey, it's okay to be different. And I think it comes with happiness too because if you're not different, you're likely conforming to whatever, society's expectations are or your own expectations are based on society and other people of what you should be. [0:02:34] Steli Efti: So one of the reasons that I love this tweet is in the details, right? And so let's break them down one by one because it's two statements basically right there. I mean it's one statement, but it's like two sentences. So it's broken in two parts. The first one, the thing that I found interesting in my mind, the thing that stood out was the choice of the very first, word which was "Dare", right? You didn't say "aim to be different" or "be different in all that you do", "aim to be different in all that you do", "You should be different in all that...

In today’s episode of The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about daring to be different in all that you do, for your future happiness. In a world where most people seem to be doing the same things, being different can be a good thing. It can help you stand out from your competition and lead to you being very successful in future. In today’s episode, Steli and Hiten talk about What it means to be different, why being different takes courage, how being different pays off in future and much more.  Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:00 About today’s topic. 00:33 why this topic was chosen. 00:43 Steli’s initial thought on Hiten’s tweet. 01:39 What prompted Hiten’s tweet. 03:00 Why being different takes courage. 05:46 Why Hiten used to word “dare”. 05:05 What it means to be different. 08:39 How being different pays off in future. 09:07 Why Hiten chose the phrase “future happiness”. 10:34 How being different helps you express yourself better. 3 Key Points: It’s ok to be different.Being different takes courage.Different means going against something [0:00:00] Steli Efti: Hey everybody, this is Steli Efti. [0:00:03] Hiten Shah: And this is Hiten Shah. And today on The Startup Chat we're going to talk about a tweet of mine that was very impulsive, not in a bad way. And I'm tweeting a little bit more than I was over the last few months and the tweet said "dare to be different in all that you do for your future happiness" and Steli, it must have like struck a nerve or did something cause we're talking about it today and Steli suggested it. So yeah, it's about being different and daring to be different. So how did you take it? What did you think? [0:00:39] Steli Efti: Well, the first thing I thought was what prompted this? (laughing) When I see a tweet of this nature, especially with somebody that I know like you, I'm like, huh, I'm curious what... Typically I would assume it's a conversation that inspires this with you, but who knows? It could be a million different things, but the first thing that it made was make me go, huh, this is interesting. I wonder if there's a backstory or there's a thought or a conversation that made Hiten want to send this message out to people. [0:01:14] Hiten Shah: Yes. [0:01:15] Steli Efti: What prompted this? [0:01:17] Hiten Shah: Yes, so there's no exciting story or a conversation. Some of the tweets definitely are part of a conversation. I think this one was just, I think I was thinking about it. And I was thinking about what makes people exceptional? And what causes them to, achieve things, basically? And I think one of the factors that if you start looking at a bunch of patterns of people that have achieved exceptional stuff, whether in business or personally, is they were different, there were different, something was different. They did something different. And in that process, thinking about that, I just came to this thought and I wanted to inspire myself, but also others that, hey, it's okay to be different. And I think it comes with happiness too because if you're not different, you're likely conforming to whatever, society's expectations are or your own expectations are based on society and other people of what you should be. [0:02:34] Steli Efti: So one of the reasons that I love this tweet is in the details, right? And so let's break them down one by one because it's two statements basically right there. I mean it's one statement, but it's like two sentences. So it's broken in two parts. The first one, the thing that I found interesting in my mind, the thing that stood out was the choice of the very first, word which was "Dare", right? You didn't say "aim to be different" or "be different in all that you do", "aim to be different in all that you do", "You should be different in all that...

493: Dare to Be Different in All That You Do. For Your Future Happiness.

Today on The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about business Intelligence for startups. Handling all the data that you interact with at your startup can be a challenge, and it gets even more complicated as your business grows. It’s important to be on top of your data as things can easily get out of hand for your startup if you don’t. In today’s episode of the show, Steli and Hiten talk about what business intelligence means, questions to answer when you do business intelligence, tools that can help you do business intelligence better and much more. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:00 About today’s topic 00:20 Why this topic was chosen. 03:06 What business intelligence means. 03:48 How you’re always doing business intelligence. 05:12 Questions to answer when you do data intelligence. 06:32 How some companies handle business intelligence 06:43 Why doing data intelligence can be tricky. 08:01 The right way to handle business intelligence. 08:33 Concerns to have when doing business intelligence. 09:14 Tools that can help you do business intelligence better. 3 Key Points: The amount of data in your business skyrockets as your customer base grows.You’re always doing business intelligence as long as you’re looking at some metrics.Trying to put data together is tricky. [0:00:01] Steli Efti: Hey everybody, this is Steli Efti. [0:00:03] Hiten Shah: And this is Hiten Shah. [0:00:04] Steli Efti: And today on The Startup Chat, we're going to talk about business intelligence for startups. So here's the deal, Hiten. Here's a trend that I've seen over the last few years and also something that's been on my mind. It's the big topic of data and insights within your company. I think when you're just starting out in your startup and you're a handful of people and you're working day and night and you're super involved with everything, you generally have, and should have, everybody care about data and look at the numbers. Look at the information and collect and do the research, and constantly and consistently generate insights that help you adjust and pivot until you figure out the big building blocks of your business. Try to figure out what is it that we're building? Who is it that we're building it for? What differentiates us? How do we bring this to market? All these things. But as your company grows and as you become 20 people and then 50 and then a 100, and as your customers are now thousands and thousands of customers, and you grow to hundreds of thousands and millions in revenue, the amount of data in all regards of your business, this can be marketing data, this could be sales data, this could be success data, this could be product metrics and data. The amount of information in your business skyrockets. And there comes a point where any time there's a question around specific metrics, you can have a team go after it and try to figure it out. But it seems like there are more and more companies that will have somebody or a team that's actually, to a large degree, responsible for doing business intelligence, which means having an overview and an insight into most of the big business metrics, and trying to generate insights or view opportunities or risks ahead of everybody else. Because they have a holistic view and the mandate to be looking and driving data to generate insights for the business. And this is still a new field. There's a lot of bullshit involved. There's a lot of lack of clarity on, is this needed? When is this needed? Who should be doing this? How should it be done? So I wanted to chat with you a little bit about this, because I know you are incredibly experienced and insightful when it comes to data in companies. So first of all, when you think about business intelligence for startups, is that just bullshit? Is that an amazing field that needs a lot more investment?

Today on The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about business Intelligence for startups. Handling all the data that you interact with at your startup can be a challenge, and it gets even more complicated as your business grows. It’s important to be on top of your data as things can easily get out of hand for your startup if you don’t. In today’s episode of the show, Steli and Hiten talk about what business intelligence means, questions to answer when you do business intelligence, tools that can help you do business intelligence better and much more. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:00 About today’s topic 00:20 Why this topic was chosen. 03:06 What business intelligence means. 03:48 How you’re always doing business intelligence. 05:12 Questions to answer when you do data intelligence. 06:32 How some companies handle business intelligence 06:43 Why doing data intelligence can be tricky. 08:01 The right way to handle business intelligence. 08:33 Concerns to have when doing business intelligence. 09:14 Tools that can help you do business intelligence better. 3 Key Points: The amount of data in your business skyrockets as your customer base grows.You’re always doing business intelligence as long as you’re looking at some metrics.Trying to put data together is tricky. [0:00:01] Steli Efti: Hey everybody, this is Steli Efti. [0:00:03] Hiten Shah: And this is Hiten Shah. [0:00:04] Steli Efti: And today on The Startup Chat, we're going to talk about business intelligence for startups. So here's the deal, Hiten. Here's a trend that I've seen over the last few years and also something that's been on my mind. It's the big topic of data and insights within your company. I think when you're just starting out in your startup and you're a handful of people and you're working day and night and you're super involved with everything, you generally have, and should have, everybody care about data and look at the numbers. Look at the information and collect and do the research, and constantly and consistently generate insights that help you adjust and pivot until you figure out the big building blocks of your business. Try to figure out what is it that we're building? Who is it that we're building it for? What differentiates us? How do we bring this to market? All these things. But as your company grows and as you become 20 people and then 50 and then a 100, and as your customers are now thousands and thousands of customers, and you grow to hundreds of thousands and millions in revenue, the amount of data in all regards of your business, this can be marketing data, this could be sales data, this could be success data, this could be product metrics and data. The amount of information in your business skyrockets. And there comes a point where any time there's a question around specific metrics, you can have a team go after it and try to figure it out. But it seems like there are more and more companies that will have somebody or a team that's actually, to a large degree, responsible for doing business intelligence, which means having an overview and an insight into most of the big business metrics, and trying to generate insights or view opportunities or risks ahead of everybody else. Because they have a holistic view and the mandate to be looking and driving data to generate insights for the business. And this is still a new field. There's a lot of bullshit involved. There's a lot of lack of clarity on, is this needed? When is this needed? Who should be doing this? How should it be done? So I wanted to chat with you a little bit about this, because I know you are incredibly experienced and insightful when it comes to data in companies. So first of all, when you think about business intelligence for startups, is that just bullshit? Is that an amazing field that needs a lot more investment?

492: Business Intelligence for Startups

In today’s episode of The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about 100 ways to count your blessings. Being grateful for the things in your life is key to being happy in your life. The life of an entrepreneur can be super stressful sometimes and we tend to dwell on the things we don’t, which tends to increase our stress levels, versus being grateful for the things we do have.  So in this episode, Steli and Hiten talk about why you should be thankful for what you’ve got, why you should appreciate the people around you, the importance of counting your small blessings and much more. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:00 About the topic of today’s episode 00:13 Why this topic was chosen. 02:18 Why you should be thankful for what you’ve got. 02:47 Why you should appreciate the people around you. 04:23 When to have a moment of gratitude. 04:53 Why you should write down what you’re grateful for.  05:49 The importance of being grateful with somebody else. 06:05 Why you need to find something to be grateful for when you’re feeling down. 07:08 The importance of counting your small blessings. 08:31 The need to be grateful for your health. 3 Key Points: No matter what the experience is, be thankful for what you’ve got.Tell people that you’re grateful for them.I think it’s good practice to have a moment of gratitude everyday. [0:00:01] Steli Efti : Hey everybody, this is Steli Efti. [0:00:03] Hiten Shah: And this is Hiten Shah. [0:00:04] Steli Efti : And today on The Startup Chat we're going to talk about all the ways in which you can count your blessings and why you want to become an expert and really good at doing that. So any of you that have been listening to us for a long time, and a lot of you do and we really appreciate your attention and we really appreciate all the feedback and you sticking with us through all these years. We've been doing this podcast for a while now. For those of you that know us well, you know how much the power of gratitude and the power of appreciation means to both Hiten and me and how much we think about it and how much we try to practice it. We did a really popular episode awhile back, episode 161, The Power of Gratitude. You can just search it on thestartupchat.com or if you just put it into Google, Startup Chat, and then episode 161 you'll find it and you can check it out. But today I don't want to talk that much about why being grateful is of benefit to you in the world and why using the power of appreciation is really impactful. We'll just assume you already know. What I'd like to do is just do a quick episode where we share all the ways we have practiced and counted our blessings and just to stimulate people maybe with new ideas or to push them to pick up some old habits that they had accumulated. Because I really think that if we can increase, if we can even just get a handful of listeners to start counting their blessings a bit more every day, the impact is impossible to measure, but it'd be very exciting to me. So I want to just ping pong, go back and forth between you and I. I'm going to share a way I have counted my blessings or practice gratitude or have seen others or heard from others. And then you go and I go and we'll do this for a couple of minutes and we'll wrap it up and hopefully people won't be able to help but to start using some of these ideas to increase the level of appreciation in their daily life. [0:02:04] Hiten Shah: That sounds good. [0:02:05] Steli Efti : All right. You go first. [0:02:08] Hiten Shah: I think one thing to practice is, no matter what the experience is, being thankful for whatever experience you got. You're next. [0:02:19] Steli Efti : No. All right. I love it. I was like, "This is a negotiation tactic." I'm like, "Silence, maybe he'll say more." I was like ...

In today’s episode of The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about 100 ways to count your blessings. Being grateful for the things in your life is key to being happy in your life. The life of an entrepreneur can be super stressful sometimes and we tend to dwell on the things we don’t, which tends to increase our stress levels, versus being grateful for the things we do have.  So in this episode, Steli and Hiten talk about why you should be thankful for what you’ve got, why you should appreciate the people around you, the importance of counting your small blessings and much more. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:00 About the topic of today’s episode 00:13 Why this topic was chosen. 02:18 Why you should be thankful for what you’ve got. 02:47 Why you should appreciate the people around you. 04:23 When to have a moment of gratitude. 04:53 Why you should write down what you’re grateful for.  05:49 The importance of being grateful with somebody else. 06:05 Why you need to find something to be grateful for when you’re feeling down. 07:08 The importance of counting your small blessings. 08:31 The need to be grateful for your health. 3 Key Points: No matter what the experience is, be thankful for what you’ve got.Tell people that you’re grateful for them.I think it’s good practice to have a moment of gratitude everyday. [0:00:01] Steli Efti : Hey everybody, this is Steli Efti. [0:00:03] Hiten Shah: And this is Hiten Shah. [0:00:04] Steli Efti : And today on The Startup Chat we're going to talk about all the ways in which you can count your blessings and why you want to become an expert and really good at doing that. So any of you that have been listening to us for a long time, and a lot of you do and we really appreciate your attention and we really appreciate all the feedback and you sticking with us through all these years. We've been doing this podcast for a while now. For those of you that know us well, you know how much the power of gratitude and the power of appreciation means to both Hiten and me and how much we think about it and how much we try to practice it. We did a really popular episode awhile back, episode 161, The Power of Gratitude. You can just search it on thestartupchat.com or if you just put it into Google, Startup Chat, and then episode 161 you'll find it and you can check it out. But today I don't want to talk that much about why being grateful is of benefit to you in the world and why using the power of appreciation is really impactful. We'll just assume you already know. What I'd like to do is just do a quick episode where we share all the ways we have practiced and counted our blessings and just to stimulate people maybe with new ideas or to push them to pick up some old habits that they had accumulated. Because I really think that if we can increase, if we can even just get a handful of listeners to start counting their blessings a bit more every day, the impact is impossible to measure, but it'd be very exciting to me. So I want to just ping pong, go back and forth between you and I. I'm going to share a way I have counted my blessings or practice gratitude or have seen others or heard from others. And then you go and I go and we'll do this for a couple of minutes and we'll wrap it up and hopefully people won't be able to help but to start using some of these ideas to increase the level of appreciation in their daily life. [0:02:04] Hiten Shah: That sounds good. [0:02:05] Steli Efti : All right. You go first. [0:02:08] Hiten Shah: I think one thing to practice is, no matter what the experience is, being thankful for whatever experience you got. You're next. [0:02:19] Steli Efti : No. All right. I love it. I was like, "This is a negotiation tactic." I'm like, "Silence, maybe he'll say more." I was like ...

491: 100 Ways To Count Your Blessings

In today’s episode of The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about hobbies for founders. The life of a founder, and entrepreneurship, in general, can be very stressful. In order to avoid burnout and stress-related illness, it’s important for founders to disconnect from work and do other non-work related activities, and picking up a hobby is a great way to do this. In this week’s episode, Steli and Hiten talk about whether having a hobby is a good idea, why you should decide if you’re a marathon runner and a sprinter, the benefits of hobbies and much more.  Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:00 About today’s topic. 00:23 Why this topic was chosen. 03:06 Whether having a hobby is a good idea. 04:11 Why you should decide if you’re a marathon runner and a sprinter. 06:20 How most people go through different phases. 07:03 What Hiten hobbies are. 08:00 Why Hiten’s hobbies are not seen as traditional hobbies. 09:52 What Steli’s hobbies are. 10:29 The benefits of martial arts to Steli. 11:23 How Steli views his hobby.  3 Key Points: Are you a marathon runner or do you like to sprint?Some people might operate best in certain situations.I don’t particularly have any hobbies at the moment. [0:00:01] Steli Efti: Hey everybody, this is Steli Efti. [0:00:03] Hiten Shah.: And this is Hiten Shah. [0:00:05] Steli Efti: And today on The Startup Chat we're going to talk about hobbies for founders. Should founders have hobbies and a life? Should they not have them? Are there good hobbies and bad hobbies? Let's just quickly talk about this and kind of unpack it for our listeners from our perspective. So I want to set this up with a story. Many, many years ago and I'm going to have to be careful, I can't use real names, but I remember being at an event where one of our angel investors had invited us to, this is 2011 so long time ago, we had raised a small seed round back then and for what we were doing, and this is like a legendary [Angelo Messi 00:00:00:57] or somebody, everybody really knows in the start-up world, and I remember sitting in the audience, he was giving a talk and one of my co-founders is a super passionate skier. He loves the outdoors in general. He loves hiking, but he especially loves skiing. And remember at some point of the presentation of that angel investor, an angel investor going on on a rant that if you want to be a founder and now that it's great skiing season, every weekend you want to go hit the snow and ski, then you know you need to figure out your priorities. He would never invest in people that waste their weekends for lifestyle instead of putting focused effort into their work and outworking their competition. I remember looking over at my co-founder, this angel just had invested in us. He just didn't know that my co-founder was a passionate skier at the time and so we looked at each other and we both had to smile and laugh so much. And then Anthony, my co-founder, whispered in my ear, "Let's not mention to him that I'm going skiing this weekend," and we had a laugh about this and that stuck in my head. The is it a good idea or a bad idea to have hobbies? I feel since 2011 in the last nine years, a lot has changed and I don't think that that same angel investor would be on stage telling the same story again and telling people that founders with hobbies or with interests out of work are not fundable. But I'm pretty sure he still holds the belief, but I think it's not as politically correct to voice those. And a lot of people's minds have changed over the years. So I wanted to unpack this for the founders, especially the earlier founders that are listening to us and are wondering, is it a good idea for me to have a hobby? Is it a waste of time? Should all my free time be dedicated to the company that I'm starting to get off the ground and if I have a hobby,

In today’s episode of The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about hobbies for founders. The life of a founder, and entrepreneurship, in general, can be very stressful. In order to avoid burnout and stress-related illness, it’s important for founders to disconnect from work and do other non-work related activities, and picking up a hobby is a great way to do this. In this week’s episode, Steli and Hiten talk about whether having a hobby is a good idea, why you should decide if you’re a marathon runner and a sprinter, the benefits of hobbies and much more.  Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:00 About today’s topic. 00:23 Why this topic was chosen. 03:06 Whether having a hobby is a good idea. 04:11 Why you should decide if you’re a marathon runner and a sprinter. 06:20 How most people go through different phases. 07:03 What Hiten hobbies are. 08:00 Why Hiten’s hobbies are not seen as traditional hobbies. 09:52 What Steli’s hobbies are. 10:29 The benefits of martial arts to Steli. 11:23 How Steli views his hobby.  3 Key Points: Are you a marathon runner or do you like to sprint?Some people might operate best in certain situations.I don’t particularly have any hobbies at the moment. [0:00:01] Steli Efti: Hey everybody, this is Steli Efti. [0:00:03] Hiten Shah.: And this is Hiten Shah. [0:00:05] Steli Efti: And today on The Startup Chat we're going to talk about hobbies for founders. Should founders have hobbies and a life? Should they not have them? Are there good hobbies and bad hobbies? Let's just quickly talk about this and kind of unpack it for our listeners from our perspective. So I want to set this up with a story. Many, many years ago and I'm going to have to be careful, I can't use real names, but I remember being at an event where one of our angel investors had invited us to, this is 2011 so long time ago, we had raised a small seed round back then and for what we were doing, and this is like a legendary [Angelo Messi 00:00:00:57] or somebody, everybody really knows in the start-up world, and I remember sitting in the audience, he was giving a talk and one of my co-founders is a super passionate skier. He loves the outdoors in general. He loves hiking, but he especially loves skiing. And remember at some point of the presentation of that angel investor, an angel investor going on on a rant that if you want to be a founder and now that it's great skiing season, every weekend you want to go hit the snow and ski, then you know you need to figure out your priorities. He would never invest in people that waste their weekends for lifestyle instead of putting focused effort into their work and outworking their competition. I remember looking over at my co-founder, this angel just had invested in us. He just didn't know that my co-founder was a passionate skier at the time and so we looked at each other and we both had to smile and laugh so much. And then Anthony, my co-founder, whispered in my ear, "Let's not mention to him that I'm going skiing this weekend," and we had a laugh about this and that stuck in my head. The is it a good idea or a bad idea to have hobbies? I feel since 2011 in the last nine years, a lot has changed and I don't think that that same angel investor would be on stage telling the same story again and telling people that founders with hobbies or with interests out of work are not fundable. But I'm pretty sure he still holds the belief, but I think it's not as politically correct to voice those. And a lot of people's minds have changed over the years. So I wanted to unpack this for the founders, especially the earlier founders that are listening to us and are wondering, is it a good idea for me to have a hobby? Is it a waste of time? Should all my free time be dedicated to the company that I'm starting to get off the ground and if I have a hobby,

490: Hobbies for Founders

In today’s episode of The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about how to set up successful partner programs. Creating a partner program for your company is a great way to grow your customer base without spending too much on marketing and customer acquisition. However, like most things in business, you have to do it the right way for it to be successful. In today’s episode, Steli and Hiten what partner programs are, how to create one for your startup, mistakes to avoid when creating them and much more.  Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:00 About today’s topic. 00:19 What partner programs are. 03:00 Why you should create an ideal partner profile before creating a partner program. 04:22 The importance of finding the right places to promote your partner program. 05:10 How to determine who could make a good partner for you. 05:46 How the team at Close created their own partner program. 07:10 Tools to manage partner programs with. 08:39 When to start a partner program. 09:31 Mistakes companies make when creating partner programs. 09:57 Why you need an application process. 3 Key Points: Partner programs are different from affiliate programsA lot of SaaS SMBs have started investing in partner programsAsk yourself who would be an ideal partner for you. [0:00:01] Steli Efti: Hey, everybody. This is Steli Efti. [0:00:03] Hiten Shah: And this is Hiten Shah. And today on The Startup Chat, we're going to talk about our thoughts on setting up a partner program for your business. So, there's affiliate programs, and those are ones where you actually give somebody sort of a payment, whether it's a fee for when they bring you a signup, or a fee on an ongoing basis when you get a customer from them, and then there's partner programs. And partner programs are actually quite a bit different, and they usually involve actually partnering up and having something more official happen, doing joint PR and things like that. So, that's the topic, and that's kind of a high level of difference between an affiliate program or partner program. A partner program, in some ways, is a deeper sort of relationship or it tends to be. [0:00:55] Steli Efti: Yeah, deeper commitment relationship. And I don't know if you agree with this, but just my observation has been that in the kind of past two years or so, two or three years, a lot of SAS SMB companies have started investing in partner programs that used to be a lot more of a play and a growth channel that... and took price, enterprise companies would go after. But now I see kind of more and more SMB companies go after that. Is that just my observation, or would you agree with that? [0:01:33] Hiten Shah: I would agree with that. I think it used to be something that larger companies would build out. Now it's something that I think even if you're targeting SMBs, or you're an SMB, you might start working on this. I mean, the markets are bigger. There's just more buyers out there, and there's also more companies out there. So, in a way it feels like a natural evolution. [0:01:57] Steli Efti: Awesome. All right, so before we go any further, and we'll talk about kind of a few best practices to set up a successful partner program. For those of you that are interested in the affiliate program and learning more about how to do that, check out episode 361, How to Use Affiliate Programs to Fuel Your Growth. That's an episode that we recorded earlier. So, coming back to the partner program, and a little shout-out for the Close peeps out there, Close just is announcing the launch of our partner program, so this is part of why I wanted to talk to you about this. So for those of you that are interested in learning more about how we set that up, and even potentially for some of you that want to partner up with Close, you can go to close.

In today’s episode of The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about how to set up successful partner programs. Creating a partner program for your company is a great way to grow your customer base without spending too much on marketing and customer acquisition. However, like most things in business, you have to do it the right way for it to be successful. In today’s episode, Steli and Hiten what partner programs are, how to create one for your startup, mistakes to avoid when creating them and much more.  Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:00 About today’s topic. 00:19 What partner programs are. 03:00 Why you should create an ideal partner profile before creating a partner program. 04:22 The importance of finding the right places to promote your partner program. 05:10 How to determine who could make a good partner for you. 05:46 How the team at Close created their own partner program. 07:10 Tools to manage partner programs with. 08:39 When to start a partner program. 09:31 Mistakes companies make when creating partner programs. 09:57 Why you need an application process. 3 Key Points: Partner programs are different from affiliate programsA lot of SaaS SMBs have started investing in partner programsAsk yourself who would be an ideal partner for you. [0:00:01] Steli Efti: Hey, everybody. This is Steli Efti. [0:00:03] Hiten Shah: And this is Hiten Shah. And today on The Startup Chat, we're going to talk about our thoughts on setting up a partner program for your business. So, there's affiliate programs, and those are ones where you actually give somebody sort of a payment, whether it's a fee for when they bring you a signup, or a fee on an ongoing basis when you get a customer from them, and then there's partner programs. And partner programs are actually quite a bit different, and they usually involve actually partnering up and having something more official happen, doing joint PR and things like that. So, that's the topic, and that's kind of a high level of difference between an affiliate program or partner program. A partner program, in some ways, is a deeper sort of relationship or it tends to be. [0:00:55] Steli Efti: Yeah, deeper commitment relationship. And I don't know if you agree with this, but just my observation has been that in the kind of past two years or so, two or three years, a lot of SAS SMB companies have started investing in partner programs that used to be a lot more of a play and a growth channel that... and took price, enterprise companies would go after. But now I see kind of more and more SMB companies go after that. Is that just my observation, or would you agree with that? [0:01:33] Hiten Shah: I would agree with that. I think it used to be something that larger companies would build out. Now it's something that I think even if you're targeting SMBs, or you're an SMB, you might start working on this. I mean, the markets are bigger. There's just more buyers out there, and there's also more companies out there. So, in a way it feels like a natural evolution. [0:01:57] Steli Efti: Awesome. All right, so before we go any further, and we'll talk about kind of a few best practices to set up a successful partner program. For those of you that are interested in the affiliate program and learning more about how to do that, check out episode 361, How to Use Affiliate Programs to Fuel Your Growth. That's an episode that we recorded earlier. So, coming back to the partner program, and a little shout-out for the Close peeps out there, Close just is announcing the launch of our partner program, so this is part of why I wanted to talk to you about this. So for those of you that are interested in learning more about how we set that up, and even potentially for some of you that want to partner up with Close, you can go to close.

489: How to Set up Successful Partner Programs?

Today on The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about the role entrepreneurship plays in your childhood. Things that happen in our childhood play a big role in shaping our adulthood, and becoming an entrepreneur is no different. Most founders would agree that there were things that happened to them when they were kids that influenced their decisions to become entrepreneurs.  In today’s episode of the show, Steli and Hiten talk about events that influenced them to become entrepreneurs, how your past is not your future, how our natural tendencies can affect us becoming entrepreneurs and much more. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:00 About today’s topic 00:14 Why this topic was chosen. 01:15 Things that influenced Hiten to become an entrepreneur. 03:03 Why Hiten’s father gave him some early advice. 03:42 The effect this advice had on Hiten. 04:31 How you get a better understanding of your childhood as you grow up. 05:54 Why how you respond to what happens to you is super important. 07:05 How your past is not your future. 08:24 Things that influenced Steli to become an entrepreneur. 10:12 How our natural tendencies can also affect us becoming entrepreneurs. 3 Key Points: There were things that happened in your childhood that made you become an entrepreneur.My dad told me not to work for anyone.Your past is not your future. [0:00:01] Steli Efti: Hey everybody, this is Steli Efti. [0:00:03] Hiten Shah: And this is Hiten Shah. [0:00:04] Steli Efti: And today on The Startup Chat we're going to talk about what role your childhood plays in entrepreneurship and if it plays a role at all. So here's an interesting question. When you think back to your childhood, I do believe ... I have prior knowledge, but I do believe that there were things that happened during your childhood that played a role in you becoming an entrepreneur and how you develop as an entrepreneur. Is that true? Would you agree? [0:00:33] Hiten Shah: Yeah. Yeah. [0:00:35] Steli Efti: And I would agree for certain on my childhood and what role it played in me becoming an entrepreneur and how I approached the whole thing. So maybe let's just talk personal on this episode and talk about kind of what role our childhood played in it and how it influenced us. So when you think about your childhood, what are the immediate things that stand out where you go, well this is what happened during my childhood and how these events of things influenced me becoming an entrepreneur and what kind of an entrepreneur I became? [0:01:08] Hiten Shah: Yeah. Mine was very direct. So my Dad, when I was four or five, told me I shouldn't work for anyone. So I think he wanted to live vicariously through me and so he spoiled me at that point and said that. Then, over the years, he said three things. He said you could be an entrepreneur and work for yourself, the sky's the limit. That was his take on it. And he was already a workaholic. He's a physician, he's an anesthesiologist. So what would happen is he would come home from work, we would have dinner and then he'd actually take me to work with him. I would sit in, basically, the IT room and I would mess with the computers and stuff. That was his version of taking a kid to work. It was literally every day. And then by the time I was seven or eight I just sat there and messed around with the computers. I had one since I was eight. I would build them and break them and take them apart and learn all about them and get on BBS's and all that kind of stuff, the bulletin board systems from back then. I had dial up really early, Prodigy, AOL, all the good things and that was my childhood. The second and third things said were get married early and have kids early. So now what I'll say, and then I'll hand it over to you, is I've done everything he wanted so I don't need to l...

Today on The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about the role entrepreneurship plays in your childhood. Things that happen in our childhood play a big role in shaping our adulthood, and becoming an entrepreneur is no different. Most founders would agree that there were things that happened to them when they were kids that influenced their decisions to become entrepreneurs.  In today’s episode of the show, Steli and Hiten talk about events that influenced them to become entrepreneurs, how your past is not your future, how our natural tendencies can affect us becoming entrepreneurs and much more. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:00 About today’s topic 00:14 Why this topic was chosen. 01:15 Things that influenced Hiten to become an entrepreneur. 03:03 Why Hiten’s father gave him some early advice. 03:42 The effect this advice had on Hiten. 04:31 How you get a better understanding of your childhood as you grow up. 05:54 Why how you respond to what happens to you is super important. 07:05 How your past is not your future. 08:24 Things that influenced Steli to become an entrepreneur. 10:12 How our natural tendencies can also affect us becoming entrepreneurs. 3 Key Points: There were things that happened in your childhood that made you become an entrepreneur.My dad told me not to work for anyone.Your past is not your future. [0:00:01] Steli Efti: Hey everybody, this is Steli Efti. [0:00:03] Hiten Shah: And this is Hiten Shah. [0:00:04] Steli Efti: And today on The Startup Chat we're going to talk about what role your childhood plays in entrepreneurship and if it plays a role at all. So here's an interesting question. When you think back to your childhood, I do believe ... I have prior knowledge, but I do believe that there were things that happened during your childhood that played a role in you becoming an entrepreneur and how you develop as an entrepreneur. Is that true? Would you agree? [0:00:33] Hiten Shah: Yeah. Yeah. [0:00:35] Steli Efti: And I would agree for certain on my childhood and what role it played in me becoming an entrepreneur and how I approached the whole thing. So maybe let's just talk personal on this episode and talk about kind of what role our childhood played in it and how it influenced us. So when you think about your childhood, what are the immediate things that stand out where you go, well this is what happened during my childhood and how these events of things influenced me becoming an entrepreneur and what kind of an entrepreneur I became? [0:01:08] Hiten Shah: Yeah. Mine was very direct. So my Dad, when I was four or five, told me I shouldn't work for anyone. So I think he wanted to live vicariously through me and so he spoiled me at that point and said that. Then, over the years, he said three things. He said you could be an entrepreneur and work for yourself, the sky's the limit. That was his take on it. And he was already a workaholic. He's a physician, he's an anesthesiologist. So what would happen is he would come home from work, we would have dinner and then he'd actually take me to work with him. I would sit in, basically, the IT room and I would mess with the computers and stuff. That was his version of taking a kid to work. It was literally every day. And then by the time I was seven or eight I just sat there and messed around with the computers. I had one since I was eight. I would build them and break them and take them apart and learn all about them and get on BBS's and all that kind of stuff, the bulletin board systems from back then. I had dial up really early, Prodigy, AOL, all the good things and that was my childhood. The second and third things said were get married early and have kids early. So now what I'll say, and then I'll hand it over to you, is I've done everything he wanted so I don't need to l...

488: What Role Does Your Childhood Play in Entrepreneurship?

In today’s episode of The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about whether entrepreneurs are made or born. Is being an entrepreneur something that comes naturally to some people and not to others, or can they can anyone, through education, experience and mentorship, develop the skills needed to become an entrepreneur? This is a question that comes up all the time and one that is not easy to answer. So in this episode, Steli and Hiten talk about how entrepreneurs and founders come from all works of life, the intent behind this question, why no one is born to be an entrepreneur and much more. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:00 About the topic of today’s episode 00:17 Why this topic was chosen. 01:14 How entrepreneurs and founders come from all works of life. 01:14 How It’s the hard work that comes after you’ve started that matters. 02:43 The intent behind this question 03:47 How hard work plays a big role in being successful.  04:45 Why this question might matter to some people. 05:57 Why no one is born to be an entrepreneur. 06:31 The biggest fear people have about starting their own business. 07:32 How there’s always an issue to solve when you own your own business. 3 Key Points: Entrepreneurs and founders come from all works of life.Everybody wants answers, but nobody knows anythingIt’s the hard work that comes after you’ve started that matters [0:00:00] Steli Efti: Hey everybody, this is Steli Efti. [0:00:03] Hiten Shah: And this is Hiten Shah. [0:00:04] Steli Efti: And today on the Startup Show we're going to talk about and debate the age old question, entrepreneurs, are they born or are they made? I don't know if you've ever been asked this question, but I definitely have. So let me ask you right out of the bat, Hiten, and we've never talked about this before, I think. Entrepreneurs, what do you think, are they made or are they born? [0:00:29] Hiten Shah: What if I said neither? [0:00:31] Steli Efti: Yeah, if you said neither, I wouldn't be surprised. That's what would happen. [0:00:37] Hiten Shah: I don't think this question needs to exist. And I think this question doesn't need to exist because entrepreneurs, founders, people who start companies come from all walks of life and they come from all kinds of backgrounds. And there is no predictor of success. That's bottom line. There's no predictor of success. There's no high likelihood that this founder, that founder is going to build $1 billion business or even a profitable business. There is no predictor of success. This stuff is hard. And so I think my response to the question of are they born or are they made, is that they are who they are and most are accidental to some extent. Right? They build something and it just works. And in some way, right? After 10 years of nothing working for example, or the first thing that they decide to do, they just get it so right. But that doesn't make them a genius. It's the hard work that comes after you start that matters, not necessarily the fact that you started. And this whole born or made almost basically suggests that it's already taken care of before you start in some way. Even made, it's like, "Oh, before you start, these are the things you need to do." Your mate, a founder or an entrepreneur. Or if you're born with it, it's like, "Oh, your family comes from a family of entrepreneurs," or, "you grew up in the Bay Area and you've been around it," or whatever. That's just not how it works. They come from all walks of life. There's no real strong pattern. There are things that you can do once you start, there are a lot of things, but I don't think that means that you're made or you're born. I think that just means that you're in this current existing situation that you've got yourself into, whatever it may be.

In today’s episode of The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about whether entrepreneurs are made or born. Is being an entrepreneur something that comes naturally to some people and not to others, or can they can anyone, through education, experience and mentorship, develop the skills needed to become an entrepreneur? This is a question that comes up all the time and one that is not easy to answer. So in this episode, Steli and Hiten talk about how entrepreneurs and founders come from all works of life, the intent behind this question, why no one is born to be an entrepreneur and much more. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:00 About the topic of today’s episode 00:17 Why this topic was chosen. 01:14 How entrepreneurs and founders come from all works of life. 01:14 How It’s the hard work that comes after you’ve started that matters. 02:43 The intent behind this question 03:47 How hard work plays a big role in being successful.  04:45 Why this question might matter to some people. 05:57 Why no one is born to be an entrepreneur. 06:31 The biggest fear people have about starting their own business. 07:32 How there’s always an issue to solve when you own your own business. 3 Key Points: Entrepreneurs and founders come from all works of life.Everybody wants answers, but nobody knows anythingIt’s the hard work that comes after you’ve started that matters [0:00:00] Steli Efti: Hey everybody, this is Steli Efti. [0:00:03] Hiten Shah: And this is Hiten Shah. [0:00:04] Steli Efti: And today on the Startup Show we're going to talk about and debate the age old question, entrepreneurs, are they born or are they made? I don't know if you've ever been asked this question, but I definitely have. So let me ask you right out of the bat, Hiten, and we've never talked about this before, I think. Entrepreneurs, what do you think, are they made or are they born? [0:00:29] Hiten Shah: What if I said neither? [0:00:31] Steli Efti: Yeah, if you said neither, I wouldn't be surprised. That's what would happen. [0:00:37] Hiten Shah: I don't think this question needs to exist. And I think this question doesn't need to exist because entrepreneurs, founders, people who start companies come from all walks of life and they come from all kinds of backgrounds. And there is no predictor of success. That's bottom line. There's no predictor of success. There's no high likelihood that this founder, that founder is going to build $1 billion business or even a profitable business. There is no predictor of success. This stuff is hard. And so I think my response to the question of are they born or are they made, is that they are who they are and most are accidental to some extent. Right? They build something and it just works. And in some way, right? After 10 years of nothing working for example, or the first thing that they decide to do, they just get it so right. But that doesn't make them a genius. It's the hard work that comes after you start that matters, not necessarily the fact that you started. And this whole born or made almost basically suggests that it's already taken care of before you start in some way. Even made, it's like, "Oh, before you start, these are the things you need to do." Your mate, a founder or an entrepreneur. Or if you're born with it, it's like, "Oh, your family comes from a family of entrepreneurs," or, "you grew up in the Bay Area and you've been around it," or whatever. That's just not how it works. They come from all walks of life. There's no real strong pattern. There are things that you can do once you start, there are a lot of things, but I don't think that means that you're made or you're born. I think that just means that you're in this current existing situation that you've got yourself into, whatever it may be.

487: Are Entrepreneurs Made or Born?

In today’s episode of The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about how Zoom became the best web conferencing product in a decade. Zoom is a popular video conferencing tool used by a lot of companies around the world, from small startups to big enterprises. However, the story of how Zoom became so popular is quite remarkable, as they were going into a very competitive niche when they started. In this week’s episode, Steli and Hiten talk about how Zoom got started, what makes it so competitive in a crowded market, Steli’s initial thoughts on Zoom and much more.  Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:00 About today’s topic. 00:25 Why this topic was chosen. 01:15 Steli’s initial thoughts on Zoom. 03:11 How Zoom just works. 04:48 Some not so obvious things that Zoom did. 05:58 How Zoom got started. 06:20 What Hiten learned while researching Zoom. 06:37 What made Zoom succeed in a crowded market. 09:00 How difficult it must have been for the founders to make Zoom a success. 09:59 What makes Zoom competitive.  3 Key Points: One of the most interesting thing about zoom is that they went into an existing category and set the bar on reliability.What Zoom did was very subtle.We use Zoom extensively within our company. [0:00:00] Steli Efti: Hey everybody, this is Steli Efti. [0:00:02] Hiten Shah: And this is Hiten Shah. Today on The Startup Chat we're actually going to talk about, I think a company that both Steli and I are big fans of, the company Zoom. I'm sure many of you listening are also big fans of the company. Many of you might know, I do these long write ups about companies just because I feel like a historian sometimes and I like really documenting kind of the history of a company and give my take on it. The company I did a little bit ago was Zoom, and it's a blog post, it's on the FYI blog. It's at usefyi.com/zoom, Z-O-O-M dash history. And you'll be able to get to it and you'll read, I don't know how many words it is, probably five, six, 7,000 words or something like that about Zoom, if you're interested. But you can also listen to us now as we talk about Zoom. One of the most interesting things about the company to me is that they went into an existing category and actually set the bar on something very basic, which is reliability. It's really reliability with this idea of video conferencing and being able to see people on video, and even the audio part of it. Now, ironically or not, we're also on Zoom right now as we're recording. [0:01:18] Steli Efti: That's very true. Now, this is the funny thing, when Zoom first launched, or when I first became aware of them, I remember, and there's an important lesson in this, I remember thinking, who wants to go into the video conferencing or web conferencing space now? Right? [0:01:43] Hiten Shah: Right. [0:01:44] Steli Efti: It was both, although I knew that all the web conferencing solutions sucked, it was not a single one that was out there that I thought was awesome or that I knew anybody else thinking is awesome. Although I knew all that, there was still something inside of me that went, this is a crowded and established market. There's a few winners. Who'd want to get into this right now? Then I also remember checking out Zoom and the first impression ... Now, I'm probably not as sophisticated or as smart at evaluating products on day one, but when I looked at it, it was not immediately intuitively clear to me why this is amazing. I was searching for something that stood out. But what Zoom did was very subtle, right? The interface was not different. They didn't do anything that was flashy, right, and in your face, "Wow, they're innovating because they're doing web conferencing with [inaudible 00:02:41]." No, it was basic web conferencing. But from the start you realize that this kind of just works.

In today’s episode of The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about how Zoom became the best web conferencing product in a decade. Zoom is a popular video conferencing tool used by a lot of companies around the world, from small startups to big enterprises. However, the story of how Zoom became so popular is quite remarkable, as they were going into a very competitive niche when they started. In this week’s episode, Steli and Hiten talk about how Zoom got started, what makes it so competitive in a crowded market, Steli’s initial thoughts on Zoom and much more.  Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:00 About today’s topic. 00:25 Why this topic was chosen. 01:15 Steli’s initial thoughts on Zoom. 03:11 How Zoom just works. 04:48 Some not so obvious things that Zoom did. 05:58 How Zoom got started. 06:20 What Hiten learned while researching Zoom. 06:37 What made Zoom succeed in a crowded market. 09:00 How difficult it must have been for the founders to make Zoom a success. 09:59 What makes Zoom competitive.  3 Key Points: One of the most interesting thing about zoom is that they went into an existing category and set the bar on reliability.What Zoom did was very subtle.We use Zoom extensively within our company. [0:00:00] Steli Efti: Hey everybody, this is Steli Efti. [0:00:02] Hiten Shah: And this is Hiten Shah. Today on The Startup Chat we're actually going to talk about, I think a company that both Steli and I are big fans of, the company Zoom. I'm sure many of you listening are also big fans of the company. Many of you might know, I do these long write ups about companies just because I feel like a historian sometimes and I like really documenting kind of the history of a company and give my take on it. The company I did a little bit ago was Zoom, and it's a blog post, it's on the FYI blog. It's at usefyi.com/zoom, Z-O-O-M dash history. And you'll be able to get to it and you'll read, I don't know how many words it is, probably five, six, 7,000 words or something like that about Zoom, if you're interested. But you can also listen to us now as we talk about Zoom. One of the most interesting things about the company to me is that they went into an existing category and actually set the bar on something very basic, which is reliability. It's really reliability with this idea of video conferencing and being able to see people on video, and even the audio part of it. Now, ironically or not, we're also on Zoom right now as we're recording. [0:01:18] Steli Efti: That's very true. Now, this is the funny thing, when Zoom first launched, or when I first became aware of them, I remember, and there's an important lesson in this, I remember thinking, who wants to go into the video conferencing or web conferencing space now? Right? [0:01:43] Hiten Shah: Right. [0:01:44] Steli Efti: It was both, although I knew that all the web conferencing solutions sucked, it was not a single one that was out there that I thought was awesome or that I knew anybody else thinking is awesome. Although I knew all that, there was still something inside of me that went, this is a crowded and established market. There's a few winners. Who'd want to get into this right now? Then I also remember checking out Zoom and the first impression ... Now, I'm probably not as sophisticated or as smart at evaluating products on day one, but when I looked at it, it was not immediately intuitively clear to me why this is amazing. I was searching for something that stood out. But what Zoom did was very subtle, right? The interface was not different. They didn't do anything that was flashy, right, and in your face, "Wow, they're innovating because they're doing web conferencing with [inaudible 00:02:41]." No, it was basic web conferencing. But from the start you realize that this kind of just works.

486: How Zoom Became the Best Web Conferencing Product in a Decade

In today’s episode of The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about Product Hunt do's and don'ts. Product Hunt has become the ultimate place where founders go to launch their products to an audience that’s passionate about technology. While launching on Product Hunt can be great for your product, there are some do’s and dont’s you should be aware of if you decide to launch your product on Product Hunt In today’s episode, Steli and Hiten how Product Hunt is a strong community to push something out, the importance of finding a way to engage with the community, how to launch your product properly and much more.  Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:00 About today’s topic. 00:17 Why this topic was chosen. 01:53 How Product Hunt is a strong community to push something out. 02:25 The importance of finding a way to engage the Product Hunt community. 02:59 Various ways to engage the community. 03:03 How to present your product on Product Hunt. 03:24 The importance of timing on Product Hunt. 05:43 How to launch your product properly. 06:19 Why you should be prepared to promote your page. 06:40 How founders should think about promoting their product launch. 3 Key Points: Most internet-related products are launched on Product Hunt today.If you can find a way to engage the community, that would be really smart.If you know there’s going to be a popular launch, you shouldn’t launch on that day. [0:00:04] Steli: Hey everybody, this is Steli Efti. [0:00:06] Hiten: And this is Hiten Shah. Today on The Startup Chat we're going to talk about Product Hunt do's and don'ts. The reason for that is because I ended up getting contacted sometimes multiple times a day, sometimes it just comes in waves, to submit a company, post a company to Product Hunt. Or a feature, or a marketing tool, or something like that. I tend to have a response to people right away after I check out what they have. The biggest do is make sure you do your homework about what's required when you need to submit to Product Hunt because there's a bunch of stuff that's required. There's like a title, a sort of tagline, a description, a bunch of images or a video if you have it, ideally, the makers and the categories you want to be in. There's just a number of things that are required. If you don't pay attention, you're not going to ... Basically you're going to come to me, or anyone else that might post for you, if you want someone to post for you, and they're just going to come back to you and say, "Hey, I need these things." So just be ready for those things. So that's my first two. I'm sure you have some questions, Steli, or at least some idea of what we should be talking about here, because I could talk about this probably all day. [0:01:31] Steli: Yeah. Well first of all, I think that it's important for to understand ... I mean, would you say that most software products, most internet related products they're launching on Product Hunt. It's become a more and more popular platform to launch early access or to launch a new feature to launch a brand new product into the world. Right? It's an exceptionally strong community to put something new out? [0:02:01] Hiten: Yeah, absolutely. I think, the community is great. I think there's a lot to say about that. The biggest thing is like if you can find a way to engage the community, that would be really smart. That's what I would highly recommend. But yeah, the community is great. I'm a big fan. I think it's important, make sure that whatever you're posting, you understand how it can be valuable for people in general. You understand who it could be valuable for, you understand kind of what it is that you're providing, and it comes across in the things that you put out, whether it's the images or even the first comment. So another do, is make sure that one of the makers has a really stro...

In today’s episode of The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about Product Hunt do's and don'ts. Product Hunt has become the ultimate place where founders go to launch their products to an audience that’s passionate about technology. While launching on Product Hunt can be great for your product, there are some do’s and dont’s you should be aware of if you decide to launch your product on Product Hunt In today’s episode, Steli and Hiten how Product Hunt is a strong community to push something out, the importance of finding a way to engage with the community, how to launch your product properly and much more.  Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:00 About today’s topic. 00:17 Why this topic was chosen. 01:53 How Product Hunt is a strong community to push something out. 02:25 The importance of finding a way to engage the Product Hunt community. 02:59 Various ways to engage the community. 03:03 How to present your product on Product Hunt. 03:24 The importance of timing on Product Hunt. 05:43 How to launch your product properly. 06:19 Why you should be prepared to promote your page. 06:40 How founders should think about promoting their product launch. 3 Key Points: Most internet-related products are launched on Product Hunt today.If you can find a way to engage the community, that would be really smart.If you know there’s going to be a popular launch, you shouldn’t launch on that day. [0:00:04] Steli: Hey everybody, this is Steli Efti. [0:00:06] Hiten: And this is Hiten Shah. Today on The Startup Chat we're going to talk about Product Hunt do's and don'ts. The reason for that is because I ended up getting contacted sometimes multiple times a day, sometimes it just comes in waves, to submit a company, post a company to Product Hunt. Or a feature, or a marketing tool, or something like that. I tend to have a response to people right away after I check out what they have. The biggest do is make sure you do your homework about what's required when you need to submit to Product Hunt because there's a bunch of stuff that's required. There's like a title, a sort of tagline, a description, a bunch of images or a video if you have it, ideally, the makers and the categories you want to be in. There's just a number of things that are required. If you don't pay attention, you're not going to ... Basically you're going to come to me, or anyone else that might post for you, if you want someone to post for you, and they're just going to come back to you and say, "Hey, I need these things." So just be ready for those things. So that's my first two. I'm sure you have some questions, Steli, or at least some idea of what we should be talking about here, because I could talk about this probably all day. [0:01:31] Steli: Yeah. Well first of all, I think that it's important for to understand ... I mean, would you say that most software products, most internet related products they're launching on Product Hunt. It's become a more and more popular platform to launch early access or to launch a new feature to launch a brand new product into the world. Right? It's an exceptionally strong community to put something new out? [0:02:01] Hiten: Yeah, absolutely. I think, the community is great. I think there's a lot to say about that. The biggest thing is like if you can find a way to engage the community, that would be really smart. That's what I would highly recommend. But yeah, the community is great. I'm a big fan. I think it's important, make sure that whatever you're posting, you understand how it can be valuable for people in general. You understand who it could be valuable for, you understand kind of what it is that you're providing, and it comes across in the things that you put out, whether it's the images or even the first comment. So another do, is make sure that one of the makers has a really stro...

485: Product Hunt Do’s and Don’ts

Today on The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about mistakes to avoid when trying to sell your startup. In the startup world, it’s very common for founders to sell their startups at some stage. While this can be an exciting time for the founders, it’s important that you avoid certain mistakes so that things go as smooth as possible. In today’s episode of the show, Steli and Hiten talk about common mistakes to avoid when selling your startup, why companies buy other companies, how not to negotiate a deal and much more. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:00 About today’s topic 00:14 Why this topic was chosen. 01:18 On really big mistake to avoid. 01:33 Why you should think about the reason people buy companies. 02:54 Why you need to know what you’re bring to the table. 03:31 How not to negotiate a deal. 05:29 Why you need to know what you want to optimise for and what position you’re are in. 06:00 The importance of prioritising. 06:45 How emotions can get in the way of getting a deal. 08:15 Why you should learn to disconnect your emotions. 3 Key Points: Companies are bought not soldBuys are strategic.You need to know what you’re bringing to the table [0:00:01] Steli Efti: Hey everybody, this is Steli Efti. [0:00:03] Hiten Shah: And this is Hiten Shah. [0:00:04] Steli Efti: And today on The Startup Chat we're going to talk about mistakes to avoid when trying to sell your startup. So here's the reason why I want to talk to you about this, Hiton. Well one, I think it's compelling content and people are going to be interested in this. Lots of people that are running a startup might want to sell it one day. And currently it's kind of part of my world because I have some friends that are in the process of selling their startup, and I've been very much involved in that and observing from the sidelines their approach and their strategies. And also, from my perspective, I've been observing a bunch of mistakes they're making or have made. So I thought, and I know that you've helped a ton of people sell their startup, so I thought that we could provide some value to our listeners out there. So, let me start with asking you, if you think about the more recent examples, or maybe there's just a top-of-mind. This is a big mistake most people make when they're trying to sell their startup, and if there's somebody that's listening to us that's going to be in this situation, this is the one mistake I'd like them to avoid. What comes to your mind immediately on this topic? [0:01:21] Hiten Shah: Yeah, the typical thing is that companies are bought, not sold. So, you got to think about, why would someone need your company, why would they buy it? Even if you're going through a banker or one of the firms that helps with that sort of opportunity of selling your company, you still need a reason why someone would buy it. And I think that's my number one tip is, if you know that and you're going to sell your company either way, whether people are coming to you or you have to use third party and go to them, you have to think about this idea that companies are bought, they're not sold. So why would someone buy it? What impact are you and your business going to have for them? And that's often not thought about enough in the right ways. Because the best buys are strategic, not because they're going to buy you and acquihire you as they say, and then shut down whatever you're working on. [0:02:22] Steli Efti: That makes a ton of sense and that's killer advice. I think the thing that's top of mind for me when it comes to mistake to avoid what you're trying to sell your startup, is ... I mean, this is true in many different situations, but in this situation it's very important. You need to know what your line in the sand is, and you need to know what you bring to the negotiation.

Today on The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about mistakes to avoid when trying to sell your startup. In the startup world, it’s very common for founders to sell their startups at some stage. While this can be an exciting time for the founders, it’s important that you avoid certain mistakes so that things go as smooth as possible. In today’s episode of the show, Steli and Hiten talk about common mistakes to avoid when selling your startup, why companies buy other companies, how not to negotiate a deal and much more. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:00 About today’s topic 00:14 Why this topic was chosen. 01:18 On really big mistake to avoid. 01:33 Why you should think about the reason people buy companies. 02:54 Why you need to know what you’re bring to the table. 03:31 How not to negotiate a deal. 05:29 Why you need to know what you want to optimise for and what position you’re are in. 06:00 The importance of prioritising. 06:45 How emotions can get in the way of getting a deal. 08:15 Why you should learn to disconnect your emotions. 3 Key Points: Companies are bought not soldBuys are strategic.You need to know what you’re bringing to the table [0:00:01] Steli Efti: Hey everybody, this is Steli Efti. [0:00:03] Hiten Shah: And this is Hiten Shah. [0:00:04] Steli Efti: And today on The Startup Chat we're going to talk about mistakes to avoid when trying to sell your startup. So here's the reason why I want to talk to you about this, Hiton. Well one, I think it's compelling content and people are going to be interested in this. Lots of people that are running a startup might want to sell it one day. And currently it's kind of part of my world because I have some friends that are in the process of selling their startup, and I've been very much involved in that and observing from the sidelines their approach and their strategies. And also, from my perspective, I've been observing a bunch of mistakes they're making or have made. So I thought, and I know that you've helped a ton of people sell their startup, so I thought that we could provide some value to our listeners out there. So, let me start with asking you, if you think about the more recent examples, or maybe there's just a top-of-mind. This is a big mistake most people make when they're trying to sell their startup, and if there's somebody that's listening to us that's going to be in this situation, this is the one mistake I'd like them to avoid. What comes to your mind immediately on this topic? [0:01:21] Hiten Shah: Yeah, the typical thing is that companies are bought, not sold. So, you got to think about, why would someone need your company, why would they buy it? Even if you're going through a banker or one of the firms that helps with that sort of opportunity of selling your company, you still need a reason why someone would buy it. And I think that's my number one tip is, if you know that and you're going to sell your company either way, whether people are coming to you or you have to use third party and go to them, you have to think about this idea that companies are bought, they're not sold. So why would someone buy it? What impact are you and your business going to have for them? And that's often not thought about enough in the right ways. Because the best buys are strategic, not because they're going to buy you and acquihire you as they say, and then shut down whatever you're working on. [0:02:22] Steli Efti: That makes a ton of sense and that's killer advice. I think the thing that's top of mind for me when it comes to mistake to avoid what you're trying to sell your startup, is ... I mean, this is true in many different situations, but in this situation it's very important. You need to know what your line in the sand is, and you need to know what you bring to the negotiation.

484: Want to Sell Your Startup? Avoid These Mistakes!

In today’s episode of The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about the perfect onboarding plan for a new hire. Making a new hire is an exciting time for a team, however, it’s really to get onboarding right, as the experience that a new hire gets at the early stages determines if he’s going to succeed in the team or not. So in this episode, Steli and Hiten talk about how Hiten handles onboarding of new team members, why you want to make new team members feel like they’re in the right place, How some onboarding plans set up new team members for failure and much more. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:00 About the topic of today’s episode 00:26 Why this topic was chosen. 01:14 How Hiten handles onboarding of new team members. 02:11 What Hiten’s onboarding process looks like. 02:45 Why you want to make new team members feel like they’re in the right place. 03:33 Why you should make sure that they can get to work as soon as possible.  04:35 How isolating it can be for new team members. 05:28 Why getting onboarding right is very important. 09:03 How some onboarding plans set up new team members for failure. 10:00 What you should do if your startup fails or is failing. 3 Key Points: We want to make sure that new team members feel supported.You make sure that they get to know the team.You want to make them feel like they’re in the right place [0:00:01] Steli Efti: Hey everybody, this is Steli Efti. [0:00:04] Hiten Shah: And this is Hiten Shah. [0:00:05] Steli Efti: And today on The Startup Chat we're going to talk about the perfect onboarding plan, the first 30, 60, 90 days of a new hire. What are the best practices to make sure that, once you've gone through the intense exercise of recruiting and hiring and finally making an offer and that offer being accepted. And having this new team member that you are now bringing into the company, into your startup, how do you make sure that you onboard these people in the most successful way possible to really set them up for success and longevity? And what are some mistakes that companies, teams and founders make when it comes to onboarding new hires that we have made or witnessed painfully and you should avoid? So let me ask you first, Hiten, when you hire somebody new, do you have a formal 30, 60, 90 day onboarding plan? Do you do that with everybody or is it something that with some roles you do, sometimes you don't or? Is it something that you don't like and just out of principle, you never do with anybody? [0:01:07] Hiten Shah: I don't know if it's like a 30, 60, 90 days. I like to do a [Koster 00:01:11]. The way we think about it is we want to onboard someone within two weeks and make sure that they have everything they need. I think one thing that we keep in mind is this idea that when an employee joins, one concept we try to make sure that we're accounting for is the idea of they don't want to look stupid and we want to make sure that they feel like they're supported and don't have this situation where they feel like they're looking stupid to anyone else. And so we have a very deliberate process around that. [0:01:50] Steli Efti: What's the process around that? I love the framing by the way. I'm not surprised that I love the way that you guys frame things but not making them look stupid. Just tell me more about that. I think that's super awesome. [0:02:01] Hiten Shah: So you make sure that they get to know the team and the team's really friendly. That could be as simple as a really solid welcome message inside of Slack, welcoming the person to the team and encouraging that person to write their own version of it as well after. I think a welcome email for the person. We haven't done this yet, but one thing I'm really excited about is as we're scaling teams and scaling people,

In today’s episode of The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about the perfect onboarding plan for a new hire. Making a new hire is an exciting time for a team, however, it’s really to get onboarding right, as the experience that a new hire gets at the early stages determines if he’s going to succeed in the team or not. So in this episode, Steli and Hiten talk about how Hiten handles onboarding of new team members, why you want to make new team members feel like they’re in the right place, How some onboarding plans set up new team members for failure and much more. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:00 About the topic of today’s episode 00:26 Why this topic was chosen. 01:14 How Hiten handles onboarding of new team members. 02:11 What Hiten’s onboarding process looks like. 02:45 Why you want to make new team members feel like they’re in the right place. 03:33 Why you should make sure that they can get to work as soon as possible.  04:35 How isolating it can be for new team members. 05:28 Why getting onboarding right is very important. 09:03 How some onboarding plans set up new team members for failure. 10:00 What you should do if your startup fails or is failing. 3 Key Points: We want to make sure that new team members feel supported.You make sure that they get to know the team.You want to make them feel like they’re in the right place [0:00:01] Steli Efti: Hey everybody, this is Steli Efti. [0:00:04] Hiten Shah: And this is Hiten Shah. [0:00:05] Steli Efti: And today on The Startup Chat we're going to talk about the perfect onboarding plan, the first 30, 60, 90 days of a new hire. What are the best practices to make sure that, once you've gone through the intense exercise of recruiting and hiring and finally making an offer and that offer being accepted. And having this new team member that you are now bringing into the company, into your startup, how do you make sure that you onboard these people in the most successful way possible to really set them up for success and longevity? And what are some mistakes that companies, teams and founders make when it comes to onboarding new hires that we have made or witnessed painfully and you should avoid? So let me ask you first, Hiten, when you hire somebody new, do you have a formal 30, 60, 90 day onboarding plan? Do you do that with everybody or is it something that with some roles you do, sometimes you don't or? Is it something that you don't like and just out of principle, you never do with anybody? [0:01:07] Hiten Shah: I don't know if it's like a 30, 60, 90 days. I like to do a [Koster 00:01:11]. The way we think about it is we want to onboard someone within two weeks and make sure that they have everything they need. I think one thing that we keep in mind is this idea that when an employee joins, one concept we try to make sure that we're accounting for is the idea of they don't want to look stupid and we want to make sure that they feel like they're supported and don't have this situation where they feel like they're looking stupid to anyone else. And so we have a very deliberate process around that. [0:01:50] Steli Efti: What's the process around that? I love the framing by the way. I'm not surprised that I love the way that you guys frame things but not making them look stupid. Just tell me more about that. I think that's super awesome. [0:02:01] Hiten Shah: So you make sure that they get to know the team and the team's really friendly. That could be as simple as a really solid welcome message inside of Slack, welcoming the person to the team and encouraging that person to write their own version of it as well after. I think a welcome email for the person. We haven't done this yet, but one thing I'm really excited about is as we're scaling teams and scaling people,

483: The First 90-Days Onboarding Plan

In today’s episode of The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about remote work worries? Are people working hard enough? Remote teams are relatively a new thing in the startup world, and deciding whether to allow your staff to work remotely can be a challenge. Questions about managing team members while they are working remotely are inevitably going to come up and how you address these issues is important. In this week’s episode, Steli and Hiten talk about founders concerns about implementing remote teams, how some people are better at working remotely than others, why hiring the right people is very important for remote teams and much more.  Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:00 About today’s topic. 00:35 Why this topic was chosen. 01:10 Hiten’s thoughts on how to handle remote working. 02:36 How some people are better at working remotely than others. 02:58 Qualities a good remote worker needs to have. 03:15 The number one challenge of remote working. 03:34 How managing a remote team is ultimately the same as managing a non-remote team. 04:07 Why having good processes is important for remote teams. 05:29 Why hiring the right people is very important for remote teams. 07:21 Why Steli doesn’t worry about his remote teams.  3 Key Points: I don’t hear this specifically because I think people are not just willing to ask me.There are certain people who are better at remote working than others.The ability to direct themselves and be proactive about getting things done it super important. [0:00:01] Steli Efti: Hey everybody, this is Steli Efti. [0:00:03] Hiten Shah: And this is Hiten Shah. [0:00:04] Steli Efti: And today on The Startup Chat we're going to talk about remote work worries. Are your people working hard enough? Here's why I wanted to briefly talk to you about this. This should be a fun little episode. This is the number one... I don't know what your number one thing is that founders ask you regarding to remote work, but the number one thing founders and CEOs ask me when they meet me somewhere and they learn that I run a fully remote company. The number one thing that they seem to be worried about is that they, and usually they lower their voice and they look me deep in the eye and they look around as if it's some kind of a dangerous thing to say. They look around and they go, "How do you know these people are actually working hard enough?" And I'll tell you what my answer to this is, but I would die to hear two things from you first Heaton. Number one, do people ask you this as much as they ask me as well? I mean, I also direct a lot more internationally with people. This might be much more something people bring up in Europe than they do in the U.S and I would assume in the Bay Area it would be even less. But I'm not sure, so I'm curious. So do you hear this often or as often as I do or at all? And then what would your response be to this particular concern of remote work? And then I'll give you my... [0:01:39] Hiten Shah: Yeah, I don't hear this. I don't hear this specifically because I think people are just not willing to ask because I think people are just not willing to ask me. And I also live in the Bay Area where even if people were thinking that, they probably wouldn't ask unless they were... I have been asked it. When people are considering going remote, that's the situation I've been asked similar things. But then it's very tactical about, not out of curiosity, but out of, "Hey, how do I deal with these things that are easier right now when I'm remote? So right now I'm not remote. Our team's not remote, we will be remote. How do I deal with these thing?" And so if the question is very specific like you said, my response to it would be, there's a bunch of things you do. Well, one, there are certain people who are better at remote than not.

In today’s episode of The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about remote work worries? Are people working hard enough? Remote teams are relatively a new thing in the startup world, and deciding whether to allow your staff to work remotely can be a challenge. Questions about managing team members while they are working remotely are inevitably going to come up and how you address these issues is important. In this week’s episode, Steli and Hiten talk about founders concerns about implementing remote teams, how some people are better at working remotely than others, why hiring the right people is very important for remote teams and much more.  Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:00 About today’s topic. 00:35 Why this topic was chosen. 01:10 Hiten’s thoughts on how to handle remote working. 02:36 How some people are better at working remotely than others. 02:58 Qualities a good remote worker needs to have. 03:15 The number one challenge of remote working. 03:34 How managing a remote team is ultimately the same as managing a non-remote team. 04:07 Why having good processes is important for remote teams. 05:29 Why hiring the right people is very important for remote teams. 07:21 Why Steli doesn’t worry about his remote teams.  3 Key Points: I don’t hear this specifically because I think people are not just willing to ask me.There are certain people who are better at remote working than others.The ability to direct themselves and be proactive about getting things done it super important. [0:00:01] Steli Efti: Hey everybody, this is Steli Efti. [0:00:03] Hiten Shah: And this is Hiten Shah. [0:00:04] Steli Efti: And today on The Startup Chat we're going to talk about remote work worries. Are your people working hard enough? Here's why I wanted to briefly talk to you about this. This should be a fun little episode. This is the number one... I don't know what your number one thing is that founders ask you regarding to remote work, but the number one thing founders and CEOs ask me when they meet me somewhere and they learn that I run a fully remote company. The number one thing that they seem to be worried about is that they, and usually they lower their voice and they look me deep in the eye and they look around as if it's some kind of a dangerous thing to say. They look around and they go, "How do you know these people are actually working hard enough?" And I'll tell you what my answer to this is, but I would die to hear two things from you first Heaton. Number one, do people ask you this as much as they ask me as well? I mean, I also direct a lot more internationally with people. This might be much more something people bring up in Europe than they do in the U.S and I would assume in the Bay Area it would be even less. But I'm not sure, so I'm curious. So do you hear this often or as often as I do or at all? And then what would your response be to this particular concern of remote work? And then I'll give you my... [0:01:39] Hiten Shah: Yeah, I don't hear this. I don't hear this specifically because I think people are just not willing to ask because I think people are just not willing to ask me. And I also live in the Bay Area where even if people were thinking that, they probably wouldn't ask unless they were... I have been asked it. When people are considering going remote, that's the situation I've been asked similar things. But then it's very tactical about, not out of curiosity, but out of, "Hey, how do I deal with these things that are easier right now when I'm remote? So right now I'm not remote. Our team's not remote, we will be remote. How do I deal with these thing?" And so if the question is very specific like you said, my response to it would be, there's a bunch of things you do. Well, one, there are certain people who are better at remote than not.

482: Remote Work Worries? Are People Working Hard Enough?

Unfiltered insights and actionable advice straight from the trenches of startup and business life.

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The Startup Chat with Steli and Hiten

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