RaviSankar Sundararaj’s Post

🚀 Three Years of Innovation, Growth, and Unstoppable Momentum! 🚀 Today, we hit a major milestone—our third foundation day!  As we celebrate, I’m reminded of the "1000 Days Startup Survival Theory," which states the first three years are the make-or-break period for startups. Well, guess what? We’ve not just survived — we’ve thrived, innovated, and soared to new heights! ✨ To our phenomenal team: Your passion, creativity, and relentless drive have been the heartbeat of our success. Every late night, every breakthrough, and every challenge conquered is a testament to your incredible dedication. You’ve turned dreams into reality, and I’m endlessly grateful for each of you. Together, we’re unstoppable! 🌟 To our amazing clients: Your trust and partnership have been the pillars of our journey. Thank you for believing in us, for pushing us to be better, and for being part of our story. Your support fuels our innovation and motivates us to reach new horizons. We’re committed to delivering even greater value and success in the years ahead. As we look back on these incredible 1000 days, We celebrate the victories, learn from the challenges, and gear up for an even more exciting future. The best is yet to come, and I can’t wait to see what we achieve together! Here’s to the next chapter of our adventure — let’s continue to dream big, push boundaries, and make magic happen! #StartupJourney #1000Days #FoundationDay #Gratitude #Innovation #TeamSpirit #ClientLove

What are the Top 5 ingredients, a new startup (proposition, profile, plan..) should bring to the table early on, to drastically increase the chances of making it to the finish line e.g. → a decent or attractive return for shareholders, investors. → kind of realised the vision (1st level) or solved the problem at scale. What's your takeaway from the 10 Startup Shutdowns picked here across stages and rounds of funding - Angel to as late as Series F? Some raised millions, billion+ early, too. Apart from Timing or Unforeseeable Developments (not competition, new innovations), what's missed frequently, given such high rates of startup failures?

I once told an early-stage VC that I was thinking of creating a CRM product. Their exact reply was: “Oh, that's brave!” But I know they meant that that was a stupid decision. 😀 The CRM market is very competitive. Who in their right mind would want to start another CRM company? Apparently, I did. It’s been over 12 years since I had this conversation. We now have a profitable and growing company in a highly competitive market. That’s an amazing achievement (well done to my team!), so new business founders often ask me: “How did you do that?!” That’s a million-dollar question! 😀 So here’s a short story of how we did this: https://lnkd.in/e8K2BAwv P.S. This photo brings some good old memories of when OnePageCRM was just a few years old! #competition #startups #dreamteam

Celebrating Our Early Adopters: The Heart of Startup Growth Starting something #new is never easy, but it’s made possible by the trust of those who believe in your vision from the very beginning. #Today, we want to express our heartfelt gratitude to the businesses that have joined us as early adopters. By embracing #digitization, these forward-thinking businesses are not just enhancing their reach to more customers but also creating meaningful ways to reward loyalty and repeat business. Your trust and partnership mean the world to us in BleepRewards and it fuels our mission to empower businesses with innovative solutions. #Together, we’re shaping a future where technology makes businesses more connected, efficient, and customer-focused. To all the early adopters out there: Thank you for taking a leap of faith with us. Your support is invaluable, and we’re excited to grow and succeed together! Here’s to innovation, collaboration, and growth. 🚀 #Startups #EarlyAdopters #Innovation #Digitization #Gratitude #BleepRewards #Loyalty #RewardPoints

Hey #founders Since I announced the '4-week summer 1-1 sprint', I’ve seen a spike of interest in launch and product-to-market support. But with limited time and busy September approaching, it's tough to offer 1-1 support to everyone. So I’m seriously considering bringing back sclr labs' LaunchpadXLR8 this Autumn 2024. What do you think? Let me know what your interest is here before we call in the team and partners to prepare its 2024 edition ;) This hybrid programme is for those who are ready to take their product to market but still need to identify the best route and overcome the challenges that come with it. Unlike our bespoke flagship 1-1 support for #growth #scaleup, where we dive deep into the specifics of your venture alone; this group programme will tackle these challenges in a slightly more general way. Yet with a sharp focus on the market and accelerating your solution's path to success. (It’s still way more targeted than typical more generic programmes.) You will - Understand how to build key partnerships - Identify sales channels and routes to market - Set clear KPIs to track your growth - Ensure your systems are designed for growth - Discover and seize new growth avenues If your startup is gaining early traction, has a developed product, and is revenue generating but under $300K in revenue, this could be for you. Plus, if you're fundraising, investors are looking for traction. It’s a paid programme, but by offering it as a group, we’re able to keep it affordable. And by limiting the cohort to just 10-15 ventures, we can still ensure a focused approach. No equity, just high value at an accessible price that gets you closer to your goals. Interested? Register early interest (no commitment) to be the first to know the details and get an early RSVP as soon as we go live https://lnkd.in/eQQdJ2Kf Your suggestions are welcome, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments and /or via the form. #accelerators #marketlaunch #commercialise #producttomarket #startupgrind

What does it take to raise a Series A round in 2024? 💭 My friend Peter shared this gem of a graphic yesterday and it got me thinking. Firstly, here's what the data shows: 👉🏼 Y-axis: the percentage of companies from that seed quarter set that made it to a Series A 👉🏼X-axis: number of quarters since the cohort began 👉🏼 Seed-stage cohorts in 2020 made rapid progress, every single one of the quarters had at least 40% of the underlying start-ups get to Series A in 3 years or less. 👉🏼 Only 15% of companies that raised seed rounds in Q2 2022 made it to Series A in 2 years, the lowest percentage in the last 20 quarters. So what are investors looking for in companies raising Series A rounds? For me, it's the following: 1️⃣ - Capital efficient growth. Let's ditch the arbitrary 'you need £1m ARR to raise a Series A round' narrative and do the work to understand how start-ups are leveraging their levers for growth before allocating capital to these channels. 2️⃣ - A clear understanding of what product-market-fit (PMF) looks like and often these companies have started to experience repeat incidences of PMF signals. 3️⃣ - Clear line of sight to £10m ARR in the existing market with the existing product. The need for geographical or product expansion can distract from scaling the core business. The jump to Series A continues to widen and become harder for founders in 2024, but I still believe this will be one of the best cohorts of start-ups we've ever seen. #founders #startup #business #growth

🌟 The Rollercoaster of Starting a Company 🌟 Starting a company is full of highs, lows, and everything in between. Each step forward brings satisfaction – whether it’s developing a new feature or hearing that first piece of positive feedback from a user. But there are also long nights, tough decisions, and figuring out how to reach the people who will benefit most. And then, every so often, there’s a breakthrough – a small moment that fast-tracks the whole process, catching us completely by surprise. These are the moments that make all the challenges worth it and remind us why we started this journey in the first place. To everyone out there in the startup trenches – stay ready, keep moving forward, and embrace the unexpected! 🚀 #StartupJourney #EntrepreneurLife #SmallWins #KeepGoing #BuildingSomethingNew #QuizCards

Patience truly is a virtue in the startup world. Success doesn't happen overnight, and it's the patience to weather the storms and stay the course that sets apart the winners from the rest. At xPage, we understand the value of patience and perseverance. Every day, our dedicated team pours their heart and soul into building something meaningful, knowing that greatness takes time. In a landscape where 94% of startups fail within their first two years, it's the collective efforts of our team that keep us ahead of the curve. It's about staying focused on our goals, adapting to challenges, and continuously innovating to stay relevant. We're not just aiming to survive – we're determined to thrive and be among the top 6% of success stories. So here's to patience, teamwork, and the unwavering belief that with dedication and resilience, anything is possible. #StartupSuccess #PatiencePaysOff #Teamwork #Perseverance #Innovation #Resilience #success #story #SaaS #marketing #strategy

Funding Funny - The website says" Seeking to work with extraordinary founders and groundbreaking solutions" but when a call got over today morning, their response was "we don't understand this space". I am still laughing.... Are VCs being more risk-averse and trying to be more of a fund managers for their LPs, or just following the Silicon Valley thesis here in India? Maybe it's easier to invest in the 200th EV startup or the 300th SaaS startup in the sector that VC Partners know. However, to engage with extraordinary founders—those who view technology as an enabler rather than a business model, VCs need to invest time with the team and founders. Just realized today that when we had a concept last year, we started talking with people, mainly the users. With initial validation, our fundraising journey began. Met with many visionary founders and VCs, got some gyaan, came back and continued building. Again after sometime, met few more VCs, got gyaan, came back and continued building. In the last 1.5 years, fund raising startup now became the bootstrap one. And now we have built one of the most sought-after product for interior designers with a traction that can sustain our team till eternity. For all the demos we had given, 96% users signed up and 100% of them are active. The great sense of satisfaction such data gives just before the new year is immense. We were doing smaller deals before, but today, a design partner, along with us, just closed a project worth 41.5 lakhs. Now I have again started reaching out to VCs and founders network. I don't know if the same cycle continues, meet people, receive gyaan, come back and keep building again or we come back with a bigger partnership this time. But this journey is worth every bit of it, sometimes with a loud laugh too. Krishna Singhal Interioverse Geeta Sharma #StartupJourney #FundingFunnies #InteriorDesignInnovations #BootstrapSuccess #VCConnections #GrowthMindset

🌅 The Startup Journey: The Path is Tough, But the Vision is Clear 🌅 Starting a company is never easy. The road is long, winding, and filled with challenges, but each step brings us closer to our goal. At Darshan Divine, we are pushing through the hurdles, one milestone at a time, to bring our vision to life. We're currently in the MVP development stage, building a platform that will revolutionize how pilgrims experience spiritual journeys. We want to offer complete customization, giving pilgrims control over their darshan experience, something major platforms don't offer today. This is more than a business for us; it’s a dream, a mission. The startup journey teaches us every day: Resilience – Keep going even when the challenges seem endless. Innovation – Keep thinking outside the box, always striving to do something unique. Gratitude – Be thankful for the people who believe in you, even when the odds seem impossible. There are moments when it feels like you’re stuck, but the key is to keep moving forward. To anyone else on this journey, stay strong, stay focused, and remember – the path to success is built on perseverance. 🚀 #StartupJourney #EntrepreneurLife #DarshanDivine #Innovation #Resilience #MVP