DRAKO’s Post

How do you build a successful startup outside Silicon Valley? Build a culture of dogfooding your own product to better understand your customer's needs. Matt Cohen interviews Jayesh Parmar, founder of Picatic, a ticketing platform acquired by Eventbrite, and current wellness innovator with gunkii. Jayesh discusses building a startup in Saskatoon, navigating challenges, competing against incumbents, and lessons learned from scaling a company. He also shares insights into his current venture, Gunkii, and his contributions to the startup ecosystem. Listen to the whole interview at tanktalks.substack.com

Such a fun chat with Jayesh Parmar of Picatic and his journey eating his own dogfood before selling to Eventbrite. Jay had some great advice for founders on selling your company: 1) Create an advisory group of exited founders to coach you through the process 2) Make sure to negotiate a signing bonus for the founders 3) Make sure to setup a "Party Fund" to pay for the celebration with employees 🤣 4) Make sure to ask for funds to pay for continuing education courses for founders to become better leaders (HBS, etc) Subscribe to get more amazing episodes like this one (episode link in comments)

Big thanks to Matt Cohen and Tank Talks for having me on! We talked about building startups in Canada, tackling challenges, and the journey to acquisition. I also shared some of the ways I’ve learned to better understand customers along the way. Grateful for the chance to share my story. If you check out the episode, let me know what you think! #Startups #Entrepreneurship #Gratitude

💦We started "waterboarding" our SDRs with LaCroix when they don't hit quota. (Here's what we learned): 1. Morale surprisingly increased. (Is it the bubbles?) 2. Productivity skyrocketed. (Fear is a powerful motivator.) 3. Office now smells vaguely of grapefruit. 4. We've discovered a new revenue stream by recycling the empty cans. 5. Our SDRs have become hydration experts. (Who knew there were so many flavors?) 6. The threat of Pamplemousse is REAL. #SalesLife #InsideSales #StartupLife #JustKidding #Startups

Deeper connections and valuable collaborations develop very rapidly during Fuckup Nights. This is because powerful things happen when you allow yourself to be vulnerable. When was the last time you were vulnerable in a professional setting? Let’s continue this conversation at Upstream Festival next week. #FuckupNights #Foundersstory #Scaleup #Startup Pepe Villatoro

We've faced a lot of the typical startup challenges since launching WorkFolk in Oct last year. So it was nice to face a different kind of challenge last week. Trying to pack the car to go camping! 🏕 🚀 It's been about 7 months since we launched, and it's been quite a wild ride so far. 🎯 Since coming out of beta, we've been smashing our weekly growth targets, so it was great to take some time out last week to go camping with my family in Cornwall. No matter how well/bad things are going, it's always important to remember what matters most and to make time for those things. #startups #founders #hiring #jobsearch

The challenges of building a hardware startup like Kidô Startups are tough, but hardware startups? That’s a whole different game. With Kidô, every step comes with its own set of challenges: 💡 Budgets: Hardware development is capital-intensive. Every prototype, test, and refinement comes at a cost—and there’s no shortcut when it comes to quality and safety. Luckily we can rely on partners like VLAIO - Flanders Innovation & Entrepreneurship - to give that extra push & belief in your project 🙏 ⏳ Leadtimes: The timing of building an innovative new technology takes time—nothing is off the shelf. Unlike software, where iterations happen quickly, hardware requires patience. 😅 Self-Doubt: I guess I stepped very naively into this roller coaster. Some days, I wonder—am I crazy to venture into this? Am I the right person to take this mission forward? Will I make the right choices? But every time those questions come up, I remind myself why I started: to create a device that could save lives and offer peace of mind to parents like me. Surround yourself with experts & you will find your right answers. Jong Voka Oost-Vlaanderen & Start it Accelerate | @KBC - and their network have been a blessing on this journey. 💪 Gut Feeling: Despite the doubts and challenges, there’s an undeniable drive to keep going. The belief in our mission—to make water safety simple and effective—fuels every decision, every late night, and every setback. Building a product that parents can trust is a big responsibility, but it’s one I embrace fully. Because every child deserves an extra layer of protection around water. It might take much more time than expected, but even with baby steps, we are making progress. #StartupLife #HardwareStartup #WaterSafety #ChildSafety #Kidô

A brilliant addition to the growing startup community in the heart of Sheffield. This is not Silicon Valley - nor should it aspire to be. There’s clear scope here for a hard and deep tech development with links to manufacturing/advanced manufacturing. The Fusion story this week makes it clear that a core part of the UK Atomic Energy Authority team moved from Culham to AMID to be close to Keith Ridgway and Andrew Storer who they recognised as the best people in the UK to unravel the next fusion mystery: how to build a reactor with so many manufacturing challenges. This could and should be a big part of the AMID/Spine nexus. The missing ingredient for me in this picture is the lack of an intelligent and experienced VC wrap around, as developed organically alongside emerging tech in suburban (not dense urban) California in the early years of Silicon Valley’s rise. Here The Bessemer Society and niche organisations like it ( there aren’t many to be honest) offer a pathway to establishing those VC knowledge based connections in a way that Northern Gritstone and other more localised efforts cannot hope to achieve. Manchester is experiencing the same challenge and is rightly looking to Cambridge and London for the answer. Well done Tom Wolfenden and Sheffield Technology Parks for reviving Leah’s yard and finding a future from its vibrant engineering and entrepreneurial past.

What 'get stuck in' moments can you recall when working at a startup? This is just one example from my time at Waterhaul of just that. With the rest of the team busy with other priorities, a cup of MUD\WTR and some bourbon biscuits were my treats of choice as Jon, Melissa, and I tackled a small mountain sunglasses to quality control. 300 pairs done and dusted in rapid time. We had to get them out the door on a tight turnaround (due to delays at customs) as Fistral Beach Hotel and Spa needed them for a set launch date, but we came through and delivered on time! Once finished, I drove the order down to the team at the hotel and handed them over to a very happy Emilie. I love these moments because no matter how much we grow, they remind me that we're all in this journey together, and I work with an amazing team who all get stuck in when needed. No matter what size team we have, we all muck in and get shit done together 💪🏼 #teamwork #startup #strongertogether

🚀 Calling all startuppers! Discover how coliving spaces can supercharge innovation and collaboration in our latest read: "The Impact of Coliving on Innovation and Collaboration". 🌟 Dive deep into why coliving is transforming the startup ecosystem and perfect for idea validation. Ready to elevate your startup journey? 📈 Read more here: startupp.ing #StartupSuccess #ColivingInnovation #EntrepreneurLife