Paritosh Sharma, Social Media Marketing, New Media, LIVE Blogging, Entrepreneurship, Marketing

To the MVP: build fast, get feedback, iterate faster!

My journey as a product entrepreneur is no less than a hockey stick learning curve. to start with, the passion, grit and conviction in what we are doing is making everyday feel as if we are changing the world already!

While I am enjoying the journey, I will share my learnings throughout, which might help other folks to NOT repeat the mistakes which I am learning from.

BUILD. Stop all other Bull Shit

This is lesson no 1. BUILD. There’s clearly a reason why am I putting those 5 characters in caps. You can go, think. Think and think a little more. And keep thinking.

Get your ass off that chair. You left your comfort zone (job), to start-up, so now that you have at least a fairly clear idea of what you are looking to do, go BUILD.

But WHY?

Well, because, you can’t think a product in air. This is certainly NOT magic and you can’t expect things to move forward on their own.

Version I: it’s not supposed to be a fully loaded product

Don’t over burden yourself by setting the target of creating a world class product and only then do a soft launch/ raise funds/ take any other action.

Build in short tranches, build FAST. Take it to the close group of your TG, who can give feedback and then iterate FASTER. You don’t have to deliver a 100% fully loaded product.

Make mistakes (as many as you can), at this stage, they will be the cheapest.

Traction

Traction: this is one bit required by most angel investors, especially for mobile, internet products. It establishes a clear proof that there’s a market for what you think there is.

Traction: its not necessarily hundreds of thousands of users on board. Its as much that your product needs to establish a clear case with your TG.

Lock Down Features: Cut that NOISE: Keep saving notes

The tendency of taking feedback and advice from many amazing people out there for a product entrepreneur is common. Its a lonely journey and you get a lot of confidence if someone else out there, who’s been through it successfully, approves of your thinking.

Though, much of it actually is NOISE (not that its a waste), but NOISE in your current scenario.

When you are building the MVP, just focus on the MVP. Lock the features down and don’t keep adding up more features, only because someone out there said so.

If you are absolutely clear about your product, you will be able to make the investor understand what the product will evolve into, once you have a full time team (assuming that you don’t have one right now, as you have just started up). If the dude with the money does not understand it, aint the right partner for you, move on (get references).

Get to the MVP. Go BUILD.

Blog / Experiences — 2 comments
11
Mar 13

What will I lose if I delete my facebook account?

Mark Zuckerberg remarked once, we’re not building something cool, we’re building something of value, something useful. (im unsure of the exact words, but this was the context).

Iv been a facebook user since quite sometime. Have seen it evolve overtime, had also gotten an offer at least in conversation from a recruiter at fb to join the growing team at Hyderabad.

Iv loved it. Every bit of it. What MZ has done in these few Cinderella years, only a few really can.

But, there’s something happening!

My relationship is getting weaker overtime. I tried questioning myself again, before writing this post. Is it just me over-reacting OR am I truly not feeling great about this relationship anymore?

My facebook profile:

That’s a quick snapshot of my fb profile. 1388 friends, 193 followers, probably the most important numbers, w.r.t me.

What’s the use?

Interestingly many of these friends and followers are entrepreneurs from around India and the world, which is the most cherished community that I love to be part of. But overtime, my timeline has become more of a message by brands rather than relevant updates from friends/ community which I want to be ‘social’ with.

Where’s the value?

I don’t want to know what deals are what brands offering. Bit that’s what’s happening with sponsored stories and more. There’s information flow happening. There’s contextual referencing happening, but it feels like, I am standing on an island with marketing messages screaming at me.

What has the Newsfeed done to me?

Nothing so impacting, that I can recall distinctively.

Which features am I exercising overtime?

To reduce the noise, I am hiding from my newsfeed updates which are just irrelevant. Which have no sense around me. I am ‘Un-liking’ brand pages, which are again not making any sense any more.

Ultimate thing: how many hours/ days can I stay away from fb?

Well, easily over 72 hours (this is something I have practiced). I logged in in between only to check a message from a mentor, who I was waiting for in my fb inbox, only coz I did not have hie Email ID. That’s it.

I don’t see value, other than okay I have an fb profile. Am I the only lonely OR are there more like me around? I would love to hear from people who are feeling the same!

Experiences / Life — 2 comments
01
Mar 13

Its Okay to Fail

Teaching is one of my biggest passions. I teach during weekends, teach not for money but to share what I know and learn what I don’t. Over the past couple fo years I have had brilliant interactions with young grads, post grads and professionals. One of the best experiences has been interacting with young Indian Information Service Officers (IIS).

Iv been lucky to get some great feedback, thanks to everyone who has found my thoughts/ learnings that I share usable and inspiring enough!

Now to something far more important: the ‘F’ word! Yeah, I don’t feel awkward, talking about it so openly!

Lets see:

My first attempt at raising a start-up right after I graduated out of college was a failure
My second attempt at doing a start-up was a better failure
After my stint at a fast growing IT company in Bangalore, I came back to Delhi to : Sell Insurance as an insurance agent (no im not kidding), I wanted to learn how to sell and insurance is a tough one

Now its not about me, its about the ‘F’ word as I said. Across various stages of life, there have been failures.

But there’s a brilliant pattern of something far more bigger than the ‘F’ word, around all of the 3 incidents above. The pattern is that of the awesome learning and that of risk taking.

Yes! its the learning which I truly cherish and I am madly after. Obviously with each of these ‘F’s above, is a related relative risk, which is part of the deal.

The cusp: generation in between

Our generation today is at a cusp of what we have been taught (not to be natural risk takers) and what we are learning by seeing things around. I strongly feel its time we swim against the tide, take risks (yes many will lose breath, die along the way) but sure each one will contribute to making an amazing world of fearless leaders, great thinkers, brilliant innovators tomorrow!

Trust me, I aint kidding when I face IIS officers telling them, they will be change-makers tomorrow for India. They can’t afford to be the next set of sarkari babus who know all about the job security they have, but not about how radically they can change India towards a path of un-paralleled growth! And at times I get attentive ears, at times I don’t, but will I stop making this ‘dent’ in the universe around me, well NO!

And I invite everyone reading this blog, to leave the comfort zones and make life worthwhile for themselves and impact the ecosystem around for many others! Your name might still not be written in golden words, but you will be proud reading your Obituary!

Blog / Experiences — Leave a comment
11
Jan 13

When the Ladies Gave a Tank Full, I Said Awesome!

94,000 KMS is what Iv clocked with my car of about 6.5 years age!

Never have I experienced in the past 6.5 years the joy of a tank full!

Obviously clocking these 94k KMS, there have been many tank-fulls, though what happened this time was something different. It was an experience which I would love to drive to and pay for!

Location: Chankyapuri service station
City: New Delhi

The Incident:

Drove into the service station for a tank full. Was greeted with a kind namaste by an all woman staff. As I parked right next to the filling pump, a lady (well trained) directed me as if she was directing an airplane to its parking spot (as they do it with both the hands). Loved it!

In a process driven format, got the windshield cleaned, the bill given as a proper print and wallah, quickly I was done and drove away.

The experience stuck. This experience could be a one day wow, im not sure. But if it truly is a process followed, I loved it!

Lessons:

Great working environment
Flexible and set processes
Continuous skill up-gradation
Ownership of work & the passion for creating a life

A combination of the above can sure create wow experiences, gender aint’ even a matter!

Business Innovation / Customer / Distribution / Marketing — Leave a comment
09
Jan 13

Social objects & networks in real life

What is it about social networks?

In terms of pure value, I define social networks as great distribution platforms. Just like in real life products require great distribution, social networks enable the same for content.

What’s really being shared?

Products/ Objects! If it was not for content driving conversations, social networks won’t hold much value. Would they? The point here are the objects, which trigger a human emotion, which further initiates a conversation. Conversations drive social networks!

Social Objects?

Effectively, any object (not necessarily physical) which triggers a certain human emotion and initiates conversation and engagement is a social object. A conversation effectively will always be a connecting factor between two/ more beings.

Human Behavior + Social Objects = growth!

For any business growth matters. I would refer a product start-up, as that’s what I represent. If a start-up was to spend its marketing dollars towards offline activities, it should really look at understanding the user behavior of its TG and find out all possible social objects that connect them. Next should really be setting touch-points to activate these social objects with a certain call to action, which drives the users towards the product.

If done right, social objects coupled with innovative distribution machinery, in the real (offline) world, can be one of the most effective user acquisition methodologies, while creating a strong brand connect with the intended audience!

Apps / Questionable Thoughts — Leave a comment
04
Jan 13

Messaging – who do we respond to first?

Taking @hikeapp global has been nothing short of an amazing lesson. There are interesting questions which rattle the grey cells, when one starts thinking on user engagement and growth!

A question knocks while exploring engagement: who do we respond to first?

The point is simple. You respond to messages from close contacts first OR in the order of importance (depending on the contextual situation – professional/ personal). There’s an interesting bit here if we see closely. See the pointers below:

When do we respond to a ‘real trigger/ prompt’
When do we respond because of an ‘obligation’ to respond

If you answer these questions for yourself. You will reach to something which affects all human behavior: authenticity!

Engagement: machines ( – ) / humans ( + )

When its about conversations, many emotions are involved, which drive user action. Web tools/ mobile apps should try to inspire users to take actions by driving them contextually. An interesting start could be to figure out users who are connected through the ‘x’ degrees of separation, with actual active & engaged users of your application.

Use those notifications for sensible user engagement and not for in-authentic actions which the users might take once, but won’t fall for the same twice.

Would love to hear from you!

I would love to hear from product folks, who are working on human behavior while building the awesomeness they are!

Blog / Movies — Leave a comment
01
Jan 13

Movie Quotes Which Struck

Don’t ever let somebody tell you.. you can’t do something. Not even me! All right? You got a dream, you gotta protect it! People can’t do something themselves, they wanna tell you, you can’t do it.

If you want something, go get it. Period.

- Pursuit of happyness

I think if your clients want to sit on my shoulders and call themselves tall, they have the right to give it a try, but there’s no requirement that I enjoy sitting here listening to people lie. You have part of my attention, you have the minimum amount! The rest of my attention is back at the offices of facebook, where my colleagues and I are doing things that no-one in this room, including and especially your clients, are intellectually or creatively, capable of doing. Did I adequately answer your condescending question?

- The Social Network

Let me tell you something my friend. Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane.

- Shawshank Redemption

If you’re good at something, never do it for free

- The Dark Night

America’s not a country, its a business. Now fucking pay me!

- Killing them softly

Big things have small beginnings!

- Prometheus

Good artists copy, great artists steal!

- Pirates of Silicon Valley

There’s no such thing as too far. You understand? You push everything as far as you can. You push and you push and you push until it starts pushing back. And then you push some goddamn more.

- Two for the money

Don’t tell me I can’t do it; don’t tell me it can’t be done!

- The Aviator

There is no such thing as a no sale call. A sale is made on every call you make. Either you sell the client some stock or he sells you a reason he can’t. Either way a sale is made, the only question is who is gonna close? You or him? Now be relentless, that’s it, I’m done.

- Boiler Room

Entrepreneurship — Leave a comment
25
Dec 12

Sairee Chahal at TEDxBayArea Ignite

Proud of you Sairee! Let the good time’s roll

Growth, Ideas and Entrepreneurship