Maor Ofek’s Post

Was invited to give a talk at my alma mater (Northeastern University) 🙏🏽 I spoke about having conviction ⤵ This weekend, it felt awesome to go back to where we started Alia and give a talk about how we built our startup out of school. I wanted to focus on the importance of conviction for startup founders and here's the main point I made👇🏽 Running a startup is hard. Very hard. And only the strong survive and push through the hard times. I think it gets easier to have conviction in the company as you start making significant progress. But how can one have strong conviction at the very infant stages? The answer is to have conviction in yourself as a person. Ideas change, customers change, and markets change. But conviction in yourself as a person is the one thing that won't change. When people tell you that it's not smart to do a startup or that it won't work, conviction will be the thing that keeps you going. When you launch and nobody cares about your launch, conviction will keep you going. You don't need to be the smartest. You don't need to have the best idea. You just need to have conviction in yourself as a person.

The session was truly amazing and packed with valuable lessons on entrepreneurship and startup building! Here are some of the key takeaways that really stood out to me: Mindset Matters: Success starts with the right mindset—focus on timing and relentless execution. Product Over Everything: Don’t spend too much time on logos or social media early on. Build a product people love. Feedback is Gold: Actively seek and use feedback to improve your product and grow. Strategic Social Media: Use social media wisely. Build your personal brand and create meaningful connections. Traction is Key: Show momentum—traction proves that your startup has real potential. Master Financial Markets: Understanding the financial landscape is crucial to make informed decisions. Think Strategically: Develop strategic thinking skills to navigate challenges and find new opportunities. In the end, it all boils down to three things: Product, Team, and Experience. These are the pillars of any successful startup. If you’re thinking of starting something new, focus on building a great product and growing a strong team. Stay open to feedback, stay strategic, and most importantly—take action! 🚀

No one cares about what you do. They care about what you can do for them. A successful startup in any industry is built on the value you add. → Focus on solving a specific problem exceptionally well. → Listen to your customers and try to deeply understand their pain points. → Continuously innovate and adapt to meet the evolving needs of your customers. → Build a strong brand that communicates your unique value proposition effectively. Success in startups hinges on delivering tangible value to your customers. - Enjoyed this? ♻️ Repost it to your network and follow Vamika Singhal for more. Want more such resources for founders or students? Join my free community of 500+ members - comment “community” to get the link :) #startupjourney #howtostartup #youngentrepreneur

I watched a quick video with Denzel Washington. He said, "ease is a greater threat to progress, than hardship". Got me thinking! If we don't make mistakes, if we don't struggle, if we don't fall, how are we going to learn, how are we going to make it better and how will we progress. I certainly don't like to struggle, as I am sure no-one does, but I can say, that with the right mind set and attitude, struggle becomes opportunity. I work for a startup, and 1 question I have asked, when is a startup, no longer a startup? I have now come to realise, that does actually not need an answer. The advantage a startup has, is learning. No-one is looking to us for the answers to the universe and therefore we are able to focus on what we do best, perfecting our craft without appearing to have all the answers. I like that space. At Whistle, we work, daily, to perfect our product, create a professional brand that is known and trusted. This startup has been doing this for 4 years now, we know SDR's and the strategies required to take your product to market. As for the rest, we will leave to the pro's to figure out. Happy Tuesday everyone... 😃 #lessons #learning #progress #innovation #sdr

Want to make better decisions faster? Treat everything as an experiment. In this week’s newsletter, David explains how successful founders don’t simply grind to make their original ideas work at all costs. Instead, they think in bets and pivot quickly to find what actually works 🚀 To start running experiments across your startup, try this simple process: 🎯 Decide on a metric that matters ⏰ Timebox your experiment 💡 Make big (enough) changes 📝 Record and analyze the results To learn how to do this at your startup, read the full column in this week’s newsletter, linked in the comment section below ⤵️ You’ll also discover why this approach is vital for making better decisions faster and avoiding common pitfalls.

You asked for more detail on the list of “8 reasons startups fail” I posted. Here’s more on Reason 2. Reason 2: Needing a perfect product before go-live Perfect is never achievable. Spending all your development money on chasing perfection is achievable. Very easily achievable. Don’t do it. Release something good enough to get started. Pro tips: 1️⃣ Make it EASY for customers to give feedback on performance and features 2️⃣ Have the capability to release rapid, customer-responsive changes to the product 📨 Share this post with a founder you love. ⏰ Reason #3 coming next Tuesday. (Indoors if raining). 🔔 Follow me, and make sure I ring your bell, so you don’t miss the other reasons

90% of startups fail. And I guess that's okay. Failure is a part of the learning process. I have failed a lot in my career and I can't say I regret it. (It still doesn't feel good though). What I do regret is WASTING too much TIME on - thinking about business ideas - building MVPs - never launching the MVPs that I spent too much time building - not killing or pivoting the MVPs You get what I mean. Just because it took a long time to make a mistake, doesn't mean you have to continue making it. My fellow non-techies with an entrepreneurial spirit, here are some useful frameworks for you. Learn from my mistakes and follow the advice of the greats. Launch quickly and then iterate/pivot/kill/scale your business. ------- If you want to get more advice like this, keep following me on LinkedIn 🛎️.

Dive deep into understanding your market. Knowledge is power when it comes to startup success! #StartupTips #MarketResearch

Many of you out there are struggling with the daily grind of keeping your team or company moving in the right direction. It seems like it is particularly challenging for startups right now. One piece of guidance I was given with my first startup was to have a thirst to learn from others and one great way to do that is reading their stories. Over the next few weeks I'll be sharing some of the books that have provided useful information that has helped me. I'll start things off with "The average is always wrong" by Ian Shepherd. If you want to stand out, avoid building something average. Talking to customers very early in the journey helps to determine what they really care about and what isn't so important - this can be very revealing. Also, talking to non-customers about why they don't currently use a product and what it would take to convert them. Chapter 4 - Not everyone is the same - is core to Sonical's platform. I hope you also find this useful - contact me for more information. #ThirstyThursday #Learning

Confirmation bias is a topic I talk about a lot. That's because, after years of working with startup founders and being an entrepreneur, I see the devastating impact confirmation bias can have. We see it not only in startups but in politics and media. In fact. Most of our feed is dominated by it. The posts you'll see most align with your core beliefs. It's because you'll most likely reject ideas that don't align. This can be very dangerous in startups. You might believe you have a great idea, but confirmation bias will help you be "sure" of that, forgoing any real validation. I've seen it too often just to let this go. My latest Medium article explains how to mitigate confirmation bias. It's so simple that your confirmation bias might not believe it. Let me know what you think in the comments, please.