A Startup Christmas

Here’s wishing these 26 things happen to every startup and every entrepreneurial team between this Christmas and the next.

1. Find your rhythm : Many startups are stuck with business plans and belief-systems that they have outgrown over time as individuals. But the “sunk cost fallacy” keeps them holding on to those. May your business find the liberation and pivot-out
2. Find the team : Not the best team, but the right team. You know it when you have it
3. Co-founders are those who share equal passion : Beyond apparent smartness and beyond Ivy-league tags. Co-founders are those who share equal passion
4. Go beyond money : Short-term money seeking is out. Long term value-creation is back in vogue
5. Find the right clients : The right client goes beyond paying bills on time. They bond with you on your philosophy of the future, gives you opportunities to push the limits. Clients are god-send, and the right ones are Gods themselves
6. Get excited about the future : The right business-plan has one unavoidable component. By definition it does not look back and isn’t too excited about markets of today. Great businesses place great bets on the future. Where are you?
7. Love the learning : Running a startup is finishing college everyday. Such is the learning. And when you love that learning-space, beyond the valuation and balance-sheet — it’s pure bliss
8. Make the unlearning easy : It takes teams and entrepreneurs a long time to shake off their pasts, and go beyond their past achievements and learning. Faster the better, forget all you know. Victory begins in the unknowing
9. Find the right investors : The right investor uplifts your soul. You know it, when you ( possibly) meet them
10. Be investor-proof : Know your business metrics should solve a real problem and not just make glossy investor slides. It takes time for this realization, but then comes the liberation
11. Love the journey: Eventual success or failure notwithstanding, when you fall in love with just the everyday envelope-pushing and the ongoing journey, it’s an entrepreneurship well-lived
12. See real scale : Getting the business plan right which can truly serve the world. Built in India ( or wherever), meant for humanity globally. Think of Truecaller, Whatsapp, used to be guys like you
13. Seek real impact : It’s a tremendous feeling when you know your business has the possibility of changing lives. After all, everyone should leave something behind
14. See the story : Every successful business is a story that scaled. The closer you get to finding the story, the feeling start transforming ( I feel the butterflies, 2018 be big)
15. Family at peace : When your family understands what you are up to finally, and why working on weekends gives you the kicks, you know it’s a job well done. My parents are yet to understand what I am really up to :) :)
16. Create : A happy entrepreneur and the team sees themselves as creators. People who are bringing a revolution truly, people who this world needs. Anything else is a compromise
17. Collaborate : With other businesses, with other stakeholders. Competitors. More open-source is your business fluently, closer are you to the scaling up
18. Stay orgasmic about what you don’t know : The world is changing and there will be always more that you don’t know, than what you do. An exhilarated passion of learning the unknown keeps you mentally the fittest. For a non-programmer, that’s picking up the codes. For a programmer, maybe learning more about finances — so on and so forth
19. Be bloody-open to failures : Love Failures. Nothing teaches better
20. Seek the calm : If entrepreneurship is chaos, the entrepreneur & team needs to be islands of calm. Listen to your inner quiet, and hold the helm
21. Be bloody-open to great things happening : Be positive. Great things do happen, and it can happen to you too. Keep at it, “Opportunity dances with those already on the dance floor”
22. Know everyone can move on : Know, no one owes you anything. Know, there is no entitlement of anyone’s attention or anyone’s time. A healthy churn is good, it pushes the culture ahead
23. Inspire : The right business inspires. The right business and entrepreneurs make statements via hard work, via smart work. Inspiration can be tangible, it brings impact.
24. Sleep at night : Know it takes time, and a sleepless night of working, won’t get you magically closer ( I am still struggling with this)
25. Exercise : Going the long haul, needs you to have a sound body. Exercise adds hours to your lives and inspiration to your Brain — never leave home for work without it ( I want to get better at this)
26. Breathe : Regular meditation creates champions. Start it and maintain it. It’s more powerful than most other productivity tools you know ( Am struggling, but really trying to make this a daily practice)

May 2018 be awesome. Merry Christmas and a very happy New Year.

Thank You

Subhadeep. On behalf of team jubi.ai