Suman Siva’s Post

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

How do you go from $1M to $10M ARR? 📈 (the early stage startup playbook) To make sure you have enough potential, look at the 4 goals below and assess your status. $1M ARR startups should see a path to those goals: ➤ 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 strong resonance with your ideal customer profile (ICP), with early signs of a platform ➤ 𝗚𝗼-𝘁𝗼-𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆 a repeatable, scalable sales motion with strong customer success ➤ 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 strategic prioritization of investment to drive growth endurance and capital efficiency ➤ 𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗺 a full bench of functional experts who complement the founding team’s expertise If those resonates, look at the deck below for tactics and example that leads to $10M ARR. 🔔 Follow me (Hugo) for more startups content 📰 Subscribe to my newsletter at the link below my name

The best creators all have this in common: (and it starts before they publish anything) They know their Market of One. The one person they create most of their content for. Make your Market of One as specific as possible. Ideally a real person. Ask yourself with everything you create: “Would my Market of One be interested?” Be extremely focused on your content. It can be hard to be focused on one person. But you’ll grow much faster. Bonus tip: Print their LinkedIn page out and put it on your office wall. This forces you to always think about your person. --- Click the Subscribe to my newsletter under my name to get steal the growth secrets that built the world's leading startups 🚀

today, i had one of those days every founder knows well you’re deep in the thick of growing your startup when, out of nowhere, it hits you—clarity you don't always expect it in that moment, but sup, nice to see you again old friend. it might strike in the shower or sauna or while in a team meeting, you never know. but suddenly, you see everything what you’ve been doing wrong and exactly what needs to happen next. everything just clicks: - that feature you’ve been obsessing over. useless. kill it - the marketing channel you ignored. it’s a goldmine. double down - the "best practices" you followed from that expert. purism, not progress. ditch it you see where your business could be in 10 years—and also in 12 months. probably the most important timelines to be able to see where you're going. long term and short term. and right then, it’s clear: all that matters is staying on this path. Build wealth for your team and have a blast doing it. I think of it as "startup puberty". painful, awkward, but completely necessary. I used to make excuses when I had some clarity. “let’s give it another quarter.” “one more A/B test.” “but [insert tech giant] is doing it!” “we saw some growth this month.” but tough decisions are tough for a reason. the move is to zoom out, get existential, and ask yourself: 1. what have I really learned? 2. what am I really building? 3. would we even be in this business knowing what we know now? Or are we just optimizing our MySpace page while Facebook is being born? savage, i know. one thing i've learned is when clarity hits, embrace it. follow it like your life depends on it. because in startupland, clarity without action is just expensive journaling. And who wants that. for more startup stories like this, sign up to gregisenberg.com

Are startups really profitable? The truth might shock you. Many believe every startup has the potential to be a goldmine. The reality is, most struggle to break even. Here's why: 🔹 Market Fit: Finding the right audience is harder than it looks. 🔹 Cash Flow: Managing money is a constant challenge. 🔹 Competition: Standing out requires serious effort and innovation. My experience with Fe/male Switch showed me this: We initially underestimated the market fit challenge. Result? We pivoted lots, and it cost us time and resources. Here are strategies that worked for us: 🛠 Understand your market deeply before launching 🎯 Focus on solving one problem perfectly 📝 Keep an eye on cash flow daily Example: Slack started as a gaming company, then pivoted to team communication because that's where the demand was. What's your take? Is your startup profitable or struggling? P.S. When the startup grind gets tough, take a break and dance. Life's too short!

Since we’ve built one of the fastest-growing startups in Europe, a lot of new entrepreneurs ask me about acquisition strategies. I love helping people (even if they’re boomers), so I share advice whenever I’m asked. I often give them a lot of cheap and dirty hacks that can be incredibly useful for their businesses. But then they hit me with this: “I’m not sure if that’s good for my brand.” My usual response? “Your mom doesn’t even know the name of your business. Remind me again, what brand are we talking about here?” So many people are overly obsessed with their brand when they don’t even have users yet. Just focus on building stable and cheap channels of acquisition. Once you have those channels and you’re getting hundreds of thousands of users every month, then you can work on the brand every below-average marketer loves to talk about.

Co-founders can be overrated.  Having a co-founder can bring a ton to the table, but it can also be a disaster of significant proportions. Disagreements happen. Goals change. Businesses pivot. And when things go south, they can really go south. Where I've seen it work? If you have clear alignment on core values.   This is the case almost 100% of the time. My co-founder at my first SaaS startup and I were in lock step as a result of being in full alignment on value system. It created stability. As I gear up for my next startup, I and my new business partner front loaded our discovery with a focus on value identification and alignment. I'd add it was something I was extremely conscious of before 'jumping in bed'. It was for him too. Take the necessary time to understand each other.  Dig deep. Have that inform fit. Its values, in my opinion, that will carry you through the inevitable tough times that litter the startup journey. Go in, eyes wide open. And stay grounded with shared values. Happy Monday, ya’ll.

Built 3 succesful businesses and invested in 8 startups. Did it all without: + Without waking up at 5 am + Without reading a book a week. + Without making my bed. + Without journaling. + Without a 2-hour morning routine. + Without giving up social life. + Without cancelling my Netflix. + Without following business gurus. + Without buying extragavant courses. The only thing you need to do is find the right problem that a lot of people want solved and willing to pay for it. Solve that problem by building the right product or service, by listening to the people who have that problem. Pivot, pivot, pivot until you find the right product market fit.

Most startups fail to understand their audience because they believe they already know what people want. That’s a massive oversight! Understanding your audience is the lifeblood of your business. Without it, you’re just guessing: 🟢 WRONG ASSUMPTIONS: You might think you know what they need, but do you really? 🟢 DISCONNECTION: If you don't listen, there’s no real engagement. 🟢 LOST CUSTOMERS: Missing their pain points means losing potential sales. 🟢 WASTED TIME: You could spend months building a product nobody wants. I learned this the hard way. At Fe/male Switch (the women-first startup game that takes you from IDEA to FIRST CUSTOMER and beyond), I didn’t fully grasp my audience's needs at first. I ended up with: 😟 Products that missed the mark. 😟 Frustrated customers. 😟 A lot of backtracking. You don't have to face this struggle. Dive deep into your audience’s goals, desires, and pain points. Your startup's success depends on it! What did I miss? Do you have stories of your own? Don’t make the same mistakes I made. Join the F/MS startup platform and start building with a clear picture of your audience!

This week's newsletter (scroll to read). A weekly 60-second newsletter with simple actions that have helped companies become the top 1% fastest growing startups on the planet. Sign up here: https://lnkd.in/e4vpWj7m ⭐ READ IN 58 SECONDS It drives me mad (and also sad) to see founders chase revenue at all costs. But premature scaling is usually fatal. Why? Because scaling prematurely diverts resources away from customer understanding, and insight into what will truly matter in the long term. What’s more important - short term revenue that isn’t scalable, or taking your time and positioning yourself for genuine long term growth? The golden rule? Don't devote lots of resources to your product until you have proof that you’re building something people truly want. ⭐ Inflection Point: Airbnb Early on, Airbnb had slow growth. Instead of focusing on scaling, they took a step back. They identified a core issue: low-quality listing photos. They addressed this by offering free professional photography to hosts. ⭐ Rapid Growth: This simple change drastically improved the platform's appeal and doubled bookings in a week. By focusing on product-market fit first, they laid the groundwork for the massive growth that followed. ⭐ Ask Yourself: Are your customers raving about your product? Are they willing to pay a premium for it? Would they be disappointed if your product disappeared tomorrow? If you can't answer "yes" to these questions, you are likely to waste a LOT of time and money building a product or service that nobody wants. ⭐ What Next: Talk to your customers: Get feedback. Really listen. Iterate quickly: Make adjustments based on what you learn. Don't be afraid to pivot: If your idea isn't working, change it. Remember: Scaling before you've found product-market fit is like pouring gasoline on a fire that hasn't started yet. Are you building a sustainable flame or just creating smoke?