When I started, the goal was never to run a big company. The goal was just to be independent and not depend on someone else to tell me what to do and even today, that drive remains. I do this, not to make money or something but to be independent and to get to call my shots. I don’t think humans need a better motivator than that. Having your independence, having your freedom is such a great motivator that sometimes when people experience this and they have been doing this for a while they will never be able to go back to doing what the rest of the world does. So, in a sense, when I started entrepreneurship, I was just playing around a bit, but it showed me the path to freedom and I am never going to turn away from this. So, I don’t need to be motivated.

Let us talk about my story and my experience. For us, we have tried a lot of things. We built businesses, we invested in companies. We have done a decent job I would say. With Avalon Meta, it was something different. We wanted to build India’s largest learning community. We already had some evidence of that and obviously, turn it into an ed-tech place sometime in the future. The thing about ideas is that you cannot tell which is a good idea or a bad idea. Even today, you ask me if there is a business that is doing the same what Snapchat does, I would say it is a bad idea, but if you are here with some creative ideas and modifications to it, then that's the right path. You can never predict what a right idea or a wrong idea is. Instead, what would be smarter is to get into one domain space and say “I’m gonna understand this domain in and out, I’m gonna do a very good job here and that should be my goal,” and overtime what happens is you will build something, it won’t be correct, you’ll build another thing that won’t be correct, then the third thing suddenly works and you come into action. That’s generally how you win the market, rather than coming in with some great idea and executing on it. I think ideas evolve as we learn more about the market, especially for youngsters, because they believe that they know what the right thing is, but when they start executing, that's when they realize that it’s not gonna work. So, I guess the quest to find the product-market fit is more about becoming a domain expert first and that’s why I always suggest people come up with ideas in their own space. Like if you’re a gamer come up with ideas for other gamers because you understand your market completely without going to ask anybody else. I think that’s the secret sauce.

My answer to this would be a different perspective. My thought process is, students who are eager and motivated towards getting involved in this field should always start prior and have a sketched-out plan for themselves.I think students can start from their college years. Four years is plenty of time to figure out a product-market fit or figure out what to build, how’s it going to work, who is my customer, what are his pain points, how do I solve his pain points. Once things begin at the right time, they move on smoothly and I think college is the right time.

Definitely yes. I was quite active in my college days and I highly recommend the same to all the students out there. Maintaining a side hustle not only shapes you as a human or keeps you active, but also helps you think about financial stability, considering the broader perspective. Think about it, spending your college years not thinking of your financial stability, and suddenly there you are! Vulnerable to the real world. This doesn't make sense probably. I think when you are in your college, say in the first year or second year, you don't have the pressure to earn or be financially independent but once you graduate everyone expects you to start making money. The best time to try and fail and at the same time pursue your hobbies is to make the best use of your college years, because you don't have the pressure to generate income, after graduating it becomes difficult to try and fail and keep going on. If you use your college years at their best, you can have a business ready by the time you graduate. You become a job creator from a job seeker!

Yes, that’s the quest for product-market fit. You build a product, does it fit the market and the quest to try to fit your product in the market is very similar to evolution. As we call in the biology world EVOLUTION. Identifying the correct market fit product is just like evolution. Our bodies did not become what we look like today in a moment, it was a long long history of baby evolutions which our bodies adapted, according to the changing external conditions to suit us. Similarly, the most important aspect while starting a new business is being adaptable to the changing user needs over time, where you’re constantly evolving, you’re changing one thing, you’re changing another thing until you’ll strike a chord where it just fits with the market, and some products, for example, have an extremely strong market fit and some have weak product-market fit. It’s a spectrum. For those who do not know what a product-market fit is, just ask yourself this question, do your users love what you build, and will they recommend more users to come and start using it? You can just tell if a company has a ‘usership’ or not. When you know that you just have ‘usership’, your users are using your product daily and not just sign-ups, furthermore, it is a treat to watch, and that only happens after many many cycles.

Yes, a hundred percent. Think about it right, 10 years ago, who wanted to be a YouTuber. How many kids wanted to be YouTubers? Was that even a profession? The reason they want to be YouTubers now is that what they see, the celebrities they see around them are YouTubers. Earlier people used to view YouTube as a source of entertainment, like Bollywood or media. But gradually youtube has transformed from being viewed as a media platform to a smart learning platform. Look, now you have popular freelancers, teachers, musicians, vloggers on youtube who have quite a celebrity status. So I think, soon we’ll see this amazing transformation of how people view education because education is learning a skill and applying it to solve the real problems of the world. When the youth sees that education is rewarding and attractive, we will have celebrity scientists and superstar mathematicians, who can become role models for millions!

There are plenty of things that I think are quite important. For example hard work, consistency. I think we make it all about IQ or how smart somebody is and how they can evaluate themselves. But I think those things are secondary to consistency. I have seen a lot of people, a lot of successful people who are not so smart, with low I.Q.They are making money because they are working for months and months, they are very very consistent. So, consistency is the most underrated skill I would say.

This is quite a tricky question. The internet is just a tool, it's all about how you make use of it. There is no right or wrong way to use it. When initially the internet started, there was a different way and purpose to use it then. Over the years as the Internet has evolved, its use also changes accordingly. The thing is everything changes daily. There is no manual or instruction booklet. Many people are making money using NFTs now. Again, the internet is evolving to the best version of itself. I wouldn't give anyone prescriptive advice because I could be wrong.

Ya, I guess. The thing is when you are an entrepreneur you realize that people who are working for you, do not put as much effort as you do. Eventually, you realize that bro if I want to make a huge company, if I want to create a long-term impact, I am the first and the last person who can do so. Once you learn that, you technically give up on everyone else saying hey these people are not doing as much as I do. So you push yourself harder to achieve what you have dreamt of. So, ya it is, If I don't, who will? It is a quote I stole from the character  “DRAGON FIST GOKU SHOWCASE “.

Yes, it's just like the thumbnail you have in a youtube video. Similarly, we have for the book. The content of the book is very useful and we don't shy away from giving the technical pieces. So, what people expect will be something else just for making money or something, and then they will realize that it's the natural crash course to a career after college. And that's the reason I feel it turned out to be a bestseller. It's still a bestseller.

Yes, I had a fascination for books since I was young. I was often told by my parents that you do whatever but you have to read books. So I was given a lot of books and I had no choice but to read. Then gradually you start loving it. Like when I started, I started with Harry Potter and then moved on further.

I love running a company. It’s like my playtime. Yes, in my earlier days during Jobspire I was in that phase of stress but I have a different perspective now. Stress hardly matters. Like I don't take it that way. I enjoy what I do. I try to give it my best shot and that is what matters. You may fail and that's normal. I think it’s important that people start talking about failures positively and move forward in life. There shouldn't be any stressing out on that. You can succeed only if you fail.

I think Elon Musk said this right, ”If you need words of encouragement, don’t become an entrepreneur”.This is for the people who have already decided to become entrepreneurs and are just curious to know my story, I would highly suggest everyone build a strong NETWORK. Spend time, meet people, make friends, grow your network which I would say is the topmost thing. You need a network no matter what. As it is correctly said, “your network is your net worth”.

Credits

Team CATALYST

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