Suhit Anantula's Library tagged Entrepreneurship → View Popular

11 Sep 09

26 Sep 08

[Ashish] Your tips to entrepreneurs

[Sridhar] It helps to have passion. It helps to keep in mind that there is no template to succeed - there are so many paths leading to success, and so many paths that result in a dead-end too, and nobody can tell you which is which in advance. Each person has to find their path, tuned to their inner nature and self. Like a grandmaster, it helps to study past chess games, while keeping in mind that each game is likely to be unique, so often the only way to know the outcome is to actually play out the game.

21 Aug 08

11 Aug 08

So, what’s the catch? Our approach requires patience: We cannot ramp up hiring quickly. This has implications for a VC-funded company with time-bound exit expectations, which is one reason we have elected to bootstrap, growing at a pace our recruitment model can handle.

06 Aug 08

First, high-performing companies understand that it’s not enough to be “pretty good” at everything anymore. As a company, you have to be the most of something—the most exclusive, the most affordable, the most responsive, the most friendly. Companies used to want to be in the middle of the road—that’s where all the customers were. But now, in an age of hyper-competition and non-stop innovation, the middle of the road is the road to ruin. What do they say in Texas? “The only thing in the middle of the road are yellow lines and dead armadillos.” To which we might now add: “And once-great companies that are slowly going out of business.”
Legendary management guru Jim Collins puts it best: “The signature of mediocrity is not an unwillingness to change. The signature of mediocrity is chronic inconsistency.”

There’s a third element that helps to explain extraordinary performance in these extraordinarily difficult times. Each of these companies connects with its customers based not just on price and features, but on identity and emotion. They have become virtually irreplaceable in the eyes of their customers.
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- It’s a lofty goal, but great companies (like Honda, Southwest, and Netflix) get there. Ask yourself, honestly: Can your customers live without you? Because if they can, they probably will.