Ilya Krivorot’s Post

START-UPS ARE NOT FOR EVERYONE? Start-ups demand a strong work ethic, attention to detail, and resilience. They rapidly teach you about your aspirations, professional capacity, and capabilities, shaping your perception of challenges and benefits. Wearing Multiple Hats In start-ups, you'll "wear multiple hats," taking on diverse roles. This environment emphasizes balancing projects and staying strategic. Growth Opportunity Start-ups offer the chance to develop the position you want. For me, it was operations; for others, it was marketing or finance. Identifying strengths and weaknesses while handling various tasks helps you craft your ideal role. Collaboration and Teamwork Whether introvert or extrovert, independent or collaborative, start-ups enhance your professional skills through cross-departmental teamwork and direct supervisor interactions. Autonomy Start-ups provide autonomy in your role, allowing you to impact organizational changes and develop vital insights, becoming a thought partner. Impact and Mission Alignment Start-ups, like nonprofits, are mission-driven. At Diverse Talent, our mission permeates daily interactions, fostering a mission-aligned team. Advocacy becomes central to serving the community. Career Start Working for a start-up shapes your career by: 1. Teaching you to work in a fast-paced environment. 2. Identifying your strengths and weaknesses. 3. Showcasing your true passion. 4. Instilling advocacy for an organization. 5. Teaching accountability, teamwork, and growth. 6. Highlighting your role preferences. If considering a start-up, be ready to make your impact, keep an open mind, embrace challenges, and start something new. If this sounds daunting, a start-up might not be for you. What are your thoughts on working for a start-up? Share your experiences and insights in the comments below!

A common question I hear is, "𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐈 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐢𝐟 𝐈 𝐝𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐟𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐬?" Many people assume that a successful startup requires a large investment from day one. But that’s not entirely true. 💡⁣ ⁣ The reality is: 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭 𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐥 𝐲𝐨𝐮’𝐯𝐞 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐭 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐡 𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧. The best way to get started is by making the most of what’s already accessible—social media. Build a team that shares your vision and start small, focusing on consistency and resilience. When your passion is clear, people with the same drive will walk the path with you.⁣ ⁣ Here’s a roadmap to begin with: 1️⃣ Build Your Core Team - Surround yourself with people who believe in your vision. ⁣ 2️⃣ Market Understanding - Stay grounded in your industry; study it deeply. ⁣ 3️⃣ Be Consistent - Start small but keep going. The power of persistence is real. ⁣ 4️⃣ Create an MVP - Test your concept with a minimum viable product. Gather feedback, iterate, and grow.⁣ ⁣ Remember, startups are a team game, not a solo journey. When you build your foundational family, you’ll see your vision start to turn into reality. Community, mentorship, and resilience will get you further than any initial funding ever could.⁣ ⁣ If you’re waiting on funds to make your dream a reality, you might want to rethink. Start with a vision and build it piece by piece. Money follows impact and progress.⁣ ⁣ 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐬𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐥, 𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐛𝐢𝐠, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐤𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐠𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠. 🌍 Suraj Biswas Saurabh Gupta Somali Das Arun Thekkedath Assessli

Series A businesses are like teenagers. That realisation was a big unlock for me. Many people think raising Series A means you've made it. An endorsement. Well done, you've made it out of the wilderness. Really? Ask any Series A founder if they genuinely feel that way? I'd say, probably not. That might be because we've always labelled startup's as either: > Early Stage or > Later Stage/Scale-Up Without recognising that the crucial years are in the middle. Where your TRUE identity is formed. i.e. The Teenage Years Some call it the 'Valley of Death'. Others, like Prof. Mohan Sawhney of Kellogg School of Management see it as the transition from: 🤼 People ---> Process 👨👩👧👧 Relationships --> Brand 🤖 MVP ---> Scalable Product 🤝 Ownership ---> Partnership 🎯 Opportunistic ---> Strategic 🔺 WHAT CAN YOU DO WITH THIS REALISATION? 🔻 Think in parallels: A teen-ager might be brilliant: But Brilliance is only as good as the discipline they are willing to stick to. A teen-ager might appear strong: But support and attention is required at every step of the way. A teen-ager will get things wrong: But excellence comes from how quickly they can convert losses into lessons - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Go easy on your business 🕊 Just because it looks like a grown-up - doesn't mean it is one - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - . . . ♻️ Repost to help founders that might need this ♻️ . . ********************************************************* Credit to Laura Marino & Tribal Advisors for the inspo ********************************************************* . If you enjoyed this, Follow Idea Paradigm for more *****************************************************

Startup Opportunities I’m Seeing in Booming Niches

Startup Opportunities I’m Seeing in Booming Niches

Startup Opportunities I’m Seeing in Booming Niches

Startup Opportunities I’m Seeing in Booming Niches

Get down to the dance floor In the fast-paced world of entrepreneurship, it’s easy to get lost in our plans and forget to do. It happened to me and I’ve seen it happened to so many. As founders, we often get stuck in our heads, navigating a maze of ideas and strategies. We get trapped in our heads, planning. We drift away from reality, stop talking to customers, and disengage from our team. Ultimately, we interact only with a PowerPoint/Canva presentation. The plan becomes our comfort zone. It gives us a false sense of control because controlling a plan is easy. But what we forget to act. To execute on that plan. To truly make an impact and build something meaningful, we must step outside our comfort zones. It’s like watching a party from the balcony, planning your moves to impress the dance floor, only to miss out. To build something meaningful and real, we need to spend more time on the "dance floor"—in the real world—interacting with customers, testing ideas, and having conversations to understand firsthand what’s happening. Only then can we step up to the "balcony," reflect, make sense of it all, and design a plan. The balance between action and reflection is key: connect on the dance floor to learn and create opportunities, then step up to the balcony to make strategic decisions. The magic happens in those real and often imperfect interactions, where we show who we are, learn from others, and create genuine value. Don’t lead with a PowerPoint from the balcony. Get down to the dance floor. Join our Bigger Founders Hub. Fill out the form.  The link to the form is in the comments!

❓ Who are you in the startup ecosystem? Are you helpful or harmful?   In a great keynote at Latitude59, Nektarios Liolios highlighted some key issues related to founder mental health, and how we all need to be mindful of the role we play in the ecosystem.   Back when I started working with startups (almost 10 years ago now, when it wasn't common for psychologists to do that), it was the norm that accelerators and investors focused on putting extra pressure on founders to "weed out the weak ones". They were grilled, they were ridiculed, even mentally abused. The expectation was that you would spend 24/7 on your startup, or you just weren't committed enough. While this approach is becoming more rare, the same attitudes still exist in the ecosystem. Why is this?   I believe that some of these very questionable attitudes are based on trauma passed on by a generation of investors who made it DESPITE what happened to them in the ecosystem. And this is the startup world they know, so they pass it on. And it was/is such a prominent message that even many founders think they need to be a certain type of individual to "make it". Let's think about it for a moment. Why would you put more pressure on someone who has already chosen one of the most high-pressure jobs they could possibly choose? They're faced with financial concerns, investor pressures, peer pressure, navigating co-founder relations, trying to maintain friendships and families, and so on. While trying to do something that has never been done before, because that's what startups do. Don't you think this is hard enough?   And why is this a problem? First of all, to solve some of the biggest issues humankind faces today, we need a more diverse set of founders. We can't just have the most privileged groups make it, we can't just have the people untouched by these destructive methods make it. You shouldn't need to have the psychological profile of a special ops soldier to make it.   Founders who can't trust their investors don't share the problems they're facing until it's too late, because the relationship is based on fear and power distance. Founder burnout causes startup failures. Wouldn't it be better to find out earlier so that you can help? It's your money that will be lost if they fail. Wouldn't it make sense to offer support instead, to open doors to coaching, to encourage at least some balance? Ask how they're doing, as human beings? I know you can't take the drive and passion away from these people and they will never work 9-to-5, but maybe being able to have a family as well is a fair ask?   It's totally fine to practice radical candor, to tell people what's wrong with their ideas so they can be developed further. It's fine to grill founders at pitch practice to be ready for when things go sideways. But how are you supporting them at the same time? Can you honestly say that you're helping and not doing harm? #latitude59 #startups #startupfounders #investors #startupmentalhealth  

Naval Ravikant shared some profound insights on the startup journey, especially around the difficult but crucial decision of when to shut down a venture 1️⃣ Restarting > Endless Pivoting ↳  In Silicon Valley, it's often easier to dismantle a struggling startup and start fresh than to endlessly pivot. ↳  Failure isn’t stigmatized here—investors appreciate the experience gained and lessons learned. 2️⃣ The Challenge of Innovation ↳ Creating something truly groundbreaking is hard. ↳ Most successful entrepreneurs, like Zuckerberg and Jobs, didn’t hit it big on their first try. Innovation is a process of trial, error, and growth. 3️⃣ Investors Value Resilience ↳ Investors often favor entrepreneurs who've faced setbacks, as they’ve learned resilience and how to navigate external challenges. ↳ Failure can be a powerful tool for growth and learning. 4️⃣ Time Is Precious ↳ Clinging to an unviable project can waste time. ↳ Knowing when to move on allows you to focus on the bigger, more promising opportunities ahead. Credit - Startup Archive 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗸𝗲𝘆 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆? Failure is not the end—it’s a stepping stone to future success. ♻️ Repost to inspire someone. 🔔 Follow Rahul Rawat for more.