Vineet V. George’s Post

Built multiple teams from scratch, scaled organic channels from 10K to 400K but have been OUT OF A JOB FOR 244 DAYS (including today). Aug'2023: FrontRow had shut down, leaving me in a state of confusion. WHY? I knew I wanted to build but didn't know where to start. Afraid of going into complete inaction, I kept having interactions to better understand the what and why of the startup ecosystem. Around the same time, Abhishek Nand reached out to me while he was building a team for Rishihood University's upcoming program. Having been a part of crazy teams at FrontRow and Intellify, I knew the importance of having the right folks in any business. Executor at heart first, I jumped in with Abhishek to help create the Rishihood ecosystem. I rang up Snigdhaa Ghai - a part of the crazy FrontRow team, and a "people" believer - at 1:43 AM. By 2:20 we knew this was happening. And thus began the experiment (that might become "THE IDEA"). The insane high of scouting talent and building teams (a deja vu moment) made us explore companies hiring for multiple roles, beyond Rishihood University. In the last 48 hours, we found Stable Money, Magicbricks and Astrotalk hiring across roles. Along with a couple of volunteers, we filtered over 890+ PROFILES and had 100+ CONVERSATIONS. While we await responses from these 3 organisations, we ended up building a pool of 39 CANDIDATES (& growing), with high integrity and bias to action, excited to explore new opportunities. Inviting founders and leaders, looking to build there team to drop a comment and to find the best talent for your startup AT ₹0 COST. P.S. - Still chasing that crazy high, we are ALL-IN to help build teams, across April, NO CAP.

I sold my previous startup for $12Mn and started ZapScale right after. In 2011, when I co-founded Threadsol, building a startup wasn’t the coolest thing to do, you would hardly find women leading tech companies, more so taking the role of a COO. Over the next 6 years, we built ThreadSol, grew a profitable business with 30% EBITDA at 60% CAGR over 6 years in 16+ countries, and gave Asia its first ApparelTech exit in 2018 for $12Mn. After acquisition and a couple of years at an MNC that acquired ThreadSol, I could have chosen to relax, invest, advise and live my life; somehow the builder in me could not rest from experiments, from ambiguity, from being a founder - that's when I started ZapScale. I’ve worn many hats during the last 2 decades of my career, from teaching to startup founder to operator and back to being a founder. I’ve never talked much about my journey as a founder, but it's time I share my learnings and help other founders build their inner circle. Which is why I'll be joining in as a panelist at the GrowthX® Revenue Growth Masterclass for founders in Bangalore to share my journey as a founder along with Saurabh Jain (Stable Money) and Sudarshan Ravi Jha (LetsTransport). So what should you expect from the masterclass? First, an intense learning session You will design a low CAC distribution channel for your product. Followed by a session where you will learn how to build, retain and run growth teams & attract top talent. Second, founder-focused fireside chat Growing revenue is a lonely battle, let’s talk about how to handle your first win, and loss & how to get through the revenue struggle. This will be the first in-person edition of “Off the Record”. Finally, a founder exclusive networking mixer for you to connect with fellow seed to series B founders. Learn how they are cracking revenue-led growth and exchange notes on actionable frameworks that have worked for them. This is what truly ties it back together. If you are a founder struggling to plan the revenue roadmap for the next 1 year, don’t miss out on this one. This is going to be a game-changer. The link to register is in the comments 👇🏼

🚀 Reflecting on an Incredible Journey with Y Combinator 🚀 As we close a remarkable chapter at Y Combinator, we've compiled some reflections. Highlights include hearing from the founders of Pinterest, Instacart, and Airbnb, who shared invaluable lessons on the early days and scaling to billion + dollar valuations as well as the much-anticipated Demo Day, where we had the opportunity to pitch our vision to top-tier investors, alongside many other groundbreaking startups. Special shoutouts to some inspiring peers: (1) Garage (YC W24), enhancing firefighter equipment trading with a firsthand understanding of their needs. Martin Hunt + Alaz Sengul (2) Sonauto (YC W24), transforming music creation with their AI music editor. Ryan Tremblay + Hayden Housen (3) Oma care, innovating in caregiver training and compensation. Arianna Galbraith, MPH + James Galbraith (4) Octolane AI (YC W24), redefining CRM with AI. One Chowdhury + Md Abdul Halim Rafi (5) MAIHEM (YC W24), pioneering testing AI products with AI agents. Max Ahrens + Eduardo Candela Looking ahead, we are focused on revolutionizing supply chain compliance and are excited to expand our customer base, innovate further, and welcome a founding engineer to our team. Thank you to Y Combinator, all the mentors, and our fellow founders for an unforgettable experience! Here's to building the future! 🌟 #YC #DemoDay #Startups #Entrepreneurship #supplychain

It's late, but I want to share something absolutely fascinating. Today, some of you would have seen that I shared the Vena Pay demo publicly, and I built in some analysis tools to see the progress of it. It has about a 1:10 ratio of users starting the demo, to finishing the whole thing. It was very easy to pass that as "oh, maybe it's not that interesting or relevant." Then, I went out to dinner with some friends. I got talking to one who is in my target audience, and I was like "oh dang, you should check this out and tell me what you think!". I watched my ideal user, get overwhelmed and confused by my demo. The statement that hit me: "I still don't know what it does". Founders, you will know your problem and solution like the back of your hand, but, you are coming from a place of knowledge, today was a reality hit of how does someone who doesn't know, interact with my product, I watched as I saw what was pressed, and a level of frustration that I was not expecting. So, tomorrow is going to be a fun day, time to build upwards and really convey the message clearly! #Startup #Founders #Building

In the quest for product-market fit, consider your startup a puzzle. Every failed motion, iteration or pivot is another piece of the puzzle you've found doesn't fit. Eventually, the courageous emerge from these pieces with success. A mistake you don’t need (or can afford) to make post-product-market fit is your founding GTM hires. Thankfully, there is a solution….. Cognatio Solutions #GTMHiring #GoTo4GTM #Foundinghires

🚀 5 Game-Changing Lessons from Our YCombinator Journey (W20 Batch) As three-time YC applicants (third time was the charm!), we learned invaluable lessons that transformed Hiration. Here's the inside scoop: ● Customer Discovery is King 👑 Finding customers and engaging them was crucial. It was challenging, but it became the foundation of our success. ● Laser Focus Won 🎯 Surprise lesson: We had to concentrate all efforts on one thing. Team alignment amplified our chances of success. ● Iterate, Iterate, Iterate ♻️ YC taught us the power of quick iterations. We talked to customers, made changes, and repeated. We learned that sometimes doing things that don't scale is necessary at the start. ● Persistence Paid Off 💪 We were rejected twice before getting in. The key? We showed growth, talked to customers, and kept iterating. We didn't give up! ● Community was Everything 🤝 Post-YC, the founder network remained incredibly supportive. They were accessible and always ready to help. Aspiring YC Applicants: Focus on growth, customer engagement, and relentless iteration. Your persistence might just pay off! What's your biggest takeaway from these lessons? Share below! #StartupLessons #YCombinator #EntrepreneurshipJourney #B2BSaaS

Someone pinch me! I am beyond excited to announce that I will be co-hosting an event during NYC Tech Week! A book is only good if the author knows what they’re writing about. The same is true of speaking. And If engaging in something for over 10,000 hours makes you a master, then I have become a master in two things: startups and sales. Joined by Karen Chi who spent 15+ years leading gtm in monster companies like LinkedIn and Cameo, we are thrilled to bring together a panel of early stage founders to discuss everyone’s favorite topics: - Finding PMF - Scaling B2B Sales responsibly Our panelists Raghav Poddar and Nick Ornitz, who I’ve had the pleasure of working closely with, are YC founders that have successfully made the jump from founder-led selling, growing their sales teams, and having the traction that companies of their stage dream of. We are so thankful they will be sharing their learnings with us and answering questions. Big thanks to our sponsor Vensure Employer Solutions and specifically Jack Isaf for facilitating everything. Last but not least, big thanks to Reuschal who is a joy to work with, and WeWork who will be hosting us. Post discussion, we will open this up to networking and light bites and drinks. If you are a founder of operator, this event will answer all your top questions around gtm and scale - excited to see you all there! (sign up link in comments) #NYTechWeek #earlystartups #pmf #gtm

🚀 Weekly shots: Death and Birth of Startups Hey LinkedIn family, Ansham K. here! This week, I’ve been diving into some of the latest shifts in the startup ecosystem—there’s so much happening right now! I’m here to bring you the highlights, so you can stay informed without the extra legwork. Here’s a quick roundup of what’s trending: 🔑 Key Takeaways: - Vertical SaaS surge: As the general SaaS market becomes saturated, niche solutions for industries like healthcare and fintech are seeing a major boost in funding. - Lean growth strategies: Layoffs are pushing startups to prioritize profitability, adopting leaner models with multifunctional roles. - AI predictive analytics: With more startups harnessing AI for market forecasting, predictive analytics is becoming a key factor for user engagement. 📰 In This Week's Article: - Funding trends: 2024 has seen a spike in Indian startups receiving funding, with vertical SaaS and AI-powered solutions leading the way. - Emerging roles in product management: Specialised roles in AI and API-focused product management are on the rise. - Design innovations: Augmented reality and ethical design practices are shaping new UX/UI experiences, catering to diverse audiences. - Funding wins & setbacks: Success stories like Cohere and Clay contrast with struggles from startups like Rad Power Bikes and Mindstrong, highlighting the challenges in today’s funding environment. Check out the complete, in-depth article here: https://lnkd.in/g5xmAMHU on the rise and fall of startups. 💡 Let’s Keep the Conversation Going: What other trends or insights would you like to see? Share your thoughts in the comments! #startups #AI #SaaS #productmanagement #funding

November is Text Request’s 10-year anniversary month! 🥳 We’re counting down the days to our 10th birthday with some special posts that celebrate all the hard work our team has put into growing Text Request into a business that has: ✅ Appeared on the Inc. Magazine 5000 list of fastest growing companies four times ✅ Received a “best place to work” recognition by EDGE magazine three times ✅ Achieved 60% growth per year over the last three years ✅ Rapidly approached $15 million annual recurring revenue (ARR) and $20 million in total revenue ✅ Served more than 7,500 business customers across the U.S. and Canada ✅ Been recently acquired by global leader in business messaging solutions, Commify Brian Elrod, our CEO, said it best 👉 “We've hit milestones that very few bootstrapped tech companies achieve, and we're especially proud of what our recent acquisition means for our local startup community. More importantly, Text Request is staying in Chattanooga, and will become an integral part of a global messaging brand.” Here’s to an amazing journey thus far, and all the continued growth ahead. Happy 10-year anniversary month team! 🚀 #businesstexting #startup

When the team here at ScaleU launched our pod series SettingScale, we did so with the intention of having in depth conversations with awesome guests to help our founder community navigate the challenges of scaling their business ⬆ In the clip below, Benjamin Billings, discusses some of the challenges he faced while hiring engineers for both at Facebook and at the startups he advises 👨🏫 If you are interested in watching the full interview you can find it here 👉 https://lnkd.in/gRdqZPze 👈 Please share ♻ and follow 👀 if you find this content useful! #startuphiring #techhiring #buildingteams #seedstartups