Inception Stories’ Post

I love the pay-it-forward mentality of people building startups. Startups are hard. But nearly 10 times out of 10, if you reach out and ask for advice, authentically, people respond and are willing to help. I reached out to two people about growth and content strategy, neither of who I had met before, and had two incredibly helpful conversations over the past week. - Koby Conrad 🔥 led growth at Rupa Health and now is at Oneleet (check them out for your startups compliance needs). Left the conversation with three tactical things that we can begin implementing next week to help grow Marco Experiences. - Tommy Clark is building Compound Content Studio, a social agency for B2B companies. As someone who has had fits and starts with founder-led content, some great frameworks are going to help me have a repeatable content strategy. Highly recommend hitting him up if you're a founder or marketing leader looking to supercharge your content strategy. The internet can be a pretty cool place after all!

I can't stop thinking about this. On mistakes by Miles Davis 👇 "If you hit a wrong note, it's the next note you play that determines if it's good or bad" The key takeaway: Mistakes don't define us. What comes next does. Life is music—just keep playin'. - 📝 Side note: Does anybody else feel incredibly relaxed looking at Miles Davis in his element? Pure ease on this side. 🍌 Hi! I'm Joumana (rhymes with banana). I run a design agency for growing startups and VCs. My goal is share what's worked for me and to help startups stand out from the competition. I keep it real. Enjoy!

He turned his side hustle into a $20M exit. Ryan Hoover is the founder of Product Hunt, which started as a side project and turned into a multi-million dollar acquisition by AngelList. Stuck on your next startup idea? 7 ways to come up with a side project 👇 1. Reflect on your day-to-day. Often the best ideas come from one’s own experiences. Write a detailed diary of everything you do in a typical day and identify things that could be improved. It could be something important (e.g. what tasks to prioritize in your day) or relatively small (e.g. deciding whether to bike or take an Uber to work). 2. Ask your friends. Run through the same exercise above with your friends. Try to find frustrations or pain points that could be eliminated. 3. Monitor growing trends. Comb through Facebook’s API and developer docs to identify new, creative ways to build within their platform. As platforms emerge and evolve, new opportunities arise. 4. Great ideas are often built off each other. Get inspiration by browsing: - Kickstarter - Y Combinator - Product Hunt 5. Explore GitHub. Even if you’re not a programmer, GitHub can be a great source of inspiration. Browse trending repo’s for new ideas or projects to join. 6. Turn a feature into a standalone product. Look at some of your favorite apps, sites, or products. Can you repurpose and improve upon one of its features as a standalone product? 7. Read the internet. It’s difficult to manufacture a truly great idea in a whiteboarding session. Sometimes they’re serendipitous, triggered by stories and changes in the world. Read the news and blog posts to increase the chances of discovering new ideas. (Original list by Ryan Hoover from Product Hunt.) Want to get feedback on your startup idea? Book Ryan Hoover on Intro. -- Inspired? Repost and follow Intro to learn how the world's most successful entrepreneurs built $100M+ businesses.

There are no excuses to hold back on starting your startup today. The biggest fear holding aspiring founders back is the fear of failure, coupled with the worries of humiliation and shame. However, imagine a world where you're not afraid to fail. It begins with posting that first piece of content or uploading your first ad creative. Realising that failure won't end you is liberating. Survival comes with persistence. When you conquer the fear of failure, the world truly becomes your oyster. Don't let fear hold you back from starting something remarkable. #startupmotivation #unstoppable

🔴 From $10/hr to $1.5M/Year: The Journey of Mark Lou I lived with my parents, working as a part-time waiter, earning $10 per hour. Despite my humble beginnings, I boldly proclaimed to everyone that I was the next Mark Zuckerberg, destined to build a billion-dollar startup. For years, I juggled multiple entrepreneurial endeavors, each one ending in failure. I poured my heart into projects that never saw the light of day. My living conditions were bleak, sharing a tiny apartment infested with cockroaches. The frustration and despair were overwhelming. At my lowest point, I questioned my path. Why was I chasing entrepreneurship if it only led to failure? But I couldn't shake the entrepreneurial spirit within me. I decided to try again, but this time, with a different approach. I started small, focusing on solving real problems. My first breakthrough came when I created a tool for escape room businesses to attract more customers. I reached out to businesses before even building the product. To my surprise, my first cold call resulted in a sale. That moment was a turning point. With persistence, I launched several more projects. Each failure taught me invaluable lessons. I shifted my strategy to creating "painkiller" apps—solutions to pressing problems that people were willing to pay for. My revenue began to grow. Then, the pandemic hit, wiping out my business overnight. I took a break, got married, and landed a software engineering job that paid $9,000 a month. It was a relief, but the desire for entrepreneurial freedom never left me. When I was laid off, I seized the opportunity to return to entrepreneurship, but with a refined strategy. I built and launched products quickly, without overthinking. One of my projects, a reusable code base for developers, became a hit. Within a month, it generated $40,000. Today, my ventures bring in $80,000 a month. My journey from a part-time waiter to a successful solopreneur was filled with challenges, but perseverance and adaptability paid off. If you're on the brink of entrepreneurship, remember: start now, ship fast, and learn from every failure. Success is just a matter of not quitting before you win.

"Kalyani, are you sure?" — a classic question from everyone in my final year of college. Giving up a placement offer to dive into the wild world of start-ups raised a few eyebrows. Six months later, and guess what? No regrets! Let me tell you why: - Coffee with Founders? Yes, Please! Working at a start-up has been like getting a backstage pass to the rock concert of entrepreneurship! Chatting with visionary CEOs and founders has opened my eyes to the magic (and chaos) of running a business. Connection is key, folks! - Hustle Culture 2.0: Shoutout to the incredible founders at & Studio | Creative Marketing Agency (Hi, Aparna and Nidhi!). Watching them burn the midnight oil to bring their dreams to life has taught me so many lessons that I don't think I can/ will ever shake off. - A Change in Perspective: In a place where attention to detail is the backbone of every campaign, I’ve discovered just how much thought goes into crafting the perfect project. Every campaign is like a puzzle that requires some serious brainpower! As I approach my 0.5 anniversary with this fantastic company, I’m beyond grateful for the wild ride and all the lessons I’ve picked up along the way! #startup #careerupdate

"Nothing is just easy!" That's what my co-founder said to me yesterday. I was one comment away from saying the exact same thing. I was putting together a warm outreach campaign for LI. All I wanted to do was put a video into the message to make it personal. Simple? Easy? Ummm, no! Here's the process I went through... • Some videos are too large to attach in a message. • Great, so convert the video and compress it. • Then, you can only add it as an attachment, which the recipient has to download first. • FML • Upload the video to Vimeo and paste the link in the message. • At least this time, there's a thumbnail, but the link takes the recipient out of LI to Vimeo. • FML • I then discovered that if I attach the video via the LI app, it embeds it in the message. • So the recipient can press play and watch it then and there. Success! 🙏 🙌 💃 🕺 Well, only partial success; this process is WAY more manual. 𝗦𝗼, 𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝘁𝗼 𝗺𝘆 𝗰𝗼-𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿'𝘀 𝗽𝗼𝗶𝗻𝘁 - "𝗡𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘀 𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘆!" And she's 1000% right. Not many things you do the first time will be easy or simple. Building a business and running a startup is sometimes !#$!#% hard! But, it's important not to stop. 90% of people quit. 𝗜 𝗿𝗲𝗳𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺! PS - what's something you did recently that seemed easy on paper but didn't plan out that way when you got stuck in? Let's share some stories 👇 #dontquit #resilience #startuplife #startups #founders  

Ever feel like you’re shouldering the entire weight of your startup alone? 🏋️♂️ When I started my first startup at 18, I didn’t even know venture studios existed. I thought the only way to succeed was to do everything myself. So, I dove headfirst into learning everything—tech, coding, marketing, content, community, sales, fundraising... you name it, I was reading up on it. 📚 I believed that as a founder, I needed to be an expert in everything. But this mindset made my progress painfully slow. By the time I figured some things out, someone else had already launched and was gaining users. 📈 For my next venture, I found a co-founder and focused on the non-tech aspects. Yet, even then, the "business side" was overwhelming—so many things to figure out. A year later, we were burnt out. 😞 I remember one of my older co-founders warning me that startup life wasn’t what I imagined. Back then, I was full of energy, ready to work 16-hour days, feeling invincible... but the constant hustle and setbacks started to wear me down after a year. I began to wish there was an easier way. If only I had known about venture studios back then—things might have been different. Venture studios take a load off founders’ shoulders, offering the support and expertise I was desperately trying to build on my own. 🛠️ That’s why I’m happy to be in this space now and lighten the founders’ burden and help them succeed on their journey. 🚀 Have you felt the weight of your startup journey? Let’s connect and chat about how venture studios can make a difference. 🤝 #StartupLife #VentureStudios #Entrepreneurship #Founders

Countless founders Hustle... Hustle like Airbnb, Dropbox founders 🫡 Hustle inspiration for the weekend! Happy Friday! 1) Selling Cereals: 😅 The Airbnb founders sold novelty "Obama O's" and "Cap'n McCain's" 😎 Cereal boxes raised $30,000 in seed funding 2) Fashion is not for VCs: 😅 Drew Houston, the founder of Dropbox, wore the same outfit 😅 Specific red polo shirt for countless investor meetings 😎 This consistent personal branding helped him stand out. 3) Dress like your Startup: 😅 The founders of Grasshopper dressed as giant grasshoppers 😅 Just to get attention and hand out promotional materials 😎 This bold move took their company mascot to the next level Startup founders will stop at nothing to get eyeballs on their brand in those crucial early days. Their shameless hustle is both admirable and laugh-out-loud funny. Leadership does not need to be a text-book approach! What lengths would you go to get your startup out there? ♻️ Repost this if you had a laugh. #startup #leadership #funny #fridayfun #bitesize #entrepreneurship

Stop taking things too seriously. As a founder, I get it. The pressure can be overwhelming. But life’s too short for constant stress. Here’s how I’ve learned to lighten up: 𝟭. 𝗘𝗺𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝗛𝘂𝗺𝗼𝗿 I often laugh at the small missteps I’ve made along the way. Spending hours on a tiny detail that didn't matter? Funny in hindsight! 𝟮. 𝗦𝗲𝘁 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗰 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 Not every project will be a home run. Celebrate the small victories; they add up.     𝟯. 𝗖𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗯𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗦𝗺𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗪𝗶𝗻𝘀 Recently, What A Startup became a partner at a startup event for young founders. Instead of waiting for the big win, I took a moment to enjoy this little milestone. P.S.: You can sign up here btw [lu.ma/7485lr8q]     𝟰. 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗝𝗼𝘆 𝗶𝗻 𝗘𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝗠𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 Whether it’s a coffee break or a brainstorming session, I cherish those simple moments of inspiration and progress.     𝟱. 𝗦𝘂𝗿𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗣𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗶𝘁𝘆 I stay connected with other founders and mentors inside my community for support. Their insights and encouragement keep me grounded and motivated.     𝟲. 𝗟𝗲𝘁 𝗚𝗼 𝗼𝗳 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗖𝗮𝗻'𝘁 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗹 There’s a lot I can’t influence in this startup journey. Worrying about it only drains my energy. 𝟳. 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝘆 𝗖𝘂𝗿𝗶𝗼𝘂𝘀 Every setback is a lesson learned. Mistakes are just part of the adventure!    Remember, it’s okay to be human in this hustle. Building a startup isn’t just about the grind. Join 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗔 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗽 community 👉 https://lnkd.in/gm74uFNx Let’s laugh, learn, and enjoy the ride together!