Amar Krishna

As an early stage founder, you want two things from any solution (tool/person): 1. Peace of Mind that the problem is getting handled -- often in an ambiguous & broad problem space where the requirements are ill defined & subject to evolve 2. Cost-effectiveness given tight runway #1 is *far* more important than #2 -- most of the time you optimize for cost-effectiveness over peace of mind, you end up paying more and getting worse results.

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{New pod 🎤} "𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗳𝘂𝗹 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗣𝗠 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵 𝗜𝗜 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗦𝗾𝘂𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗠𝗲𝗿𝗰𝘂𝗿𝘆" Was super-fun to record this with Rohini Pandhi - Product Lead at Mercury and ex-Product Lead at Square/ Block. The first half of this episode covers best practices and frameworks used by best-in-class fintech companies like Square and Mercury to build products and drive go-to-market.  In the second half, we discuss insights and learnings for PM career planning in fintech, including ways to prepare for the potential impact of AI on product jobs. Some great learnings here for fintech product leaders, young PMs, and founders. Let me know what you think! Spotify - https://lnkd.in/dJQMM9sB Apple Podcasts - https://lnkd.in/dyDaCDk7 An Operator's Blog - https://lnkd.in/dREtbx9n

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Hello Product #Startup Founders, You might have a dysfunctional engineering team if any of the following is confirmed: 1. There is no single point of contact with the marketing, sales, or customer support teams. 2. Engineering leadership spends more than 10% of their time in meetings. 3. You prefer using WhatsApp for communication over email and collaboration platforms. 4. More than 20% of the team's work falls outside the scope of the planned roadmap. 5. Daily stand-ups focus less on work updates and more on new surprise tasks that need immediate attention. 6. There is no product roadmap in place. 7. You have a product roadmap, but nobody pays attention to it. 8. Meetings resemble a wrestling arena, where everyone seems more interested in attacking each other. // Image by pikisuperstar on Freepik

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Super stoked to share my new professional journey as Chief Product Officer at BHub! BHub is a back-office as a service platform for SMBs, backed by top tier VCs, including Hedosophia, monashees, Valor Capital Group. Our purpose is to unburden entrepreneurs, allowing them to focus on their core business, while BHub deals with all the rest. A special thanks to our founder Jorge Vargas Neto, BHub leadership team, Board Members and Investors for trusting me to be a servant leader for the Product teams! Are you an entrepreneur looking to grow your business? Check how we can help you at www.bhub.com 🚀🚀🚀

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This hard reset is required for all AI founders from India building global B2B products: Product Innovation > GTM muscle Product innovation is happening at a rapid pace in each of your categories, valley competitors are building thought through features that can help them win customers mid-long term, GTM muscle alone without product differentiation wont help you win in the first half of this AI decade. We are doing this hard reset within BoldCap on what we are looking for in AI founders. Ping us if you are tinkering in global AI B2B products. Shiv Tayal Pratham Chadha Aditi Gera

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Struggling with low app ratings? Fello shares their secret! Watch now: https://lnkd.in/g3si864m Fello's Founder & CEO, Manish Maryada, dives deep into their successful app rating turnaround strategy in this exclusive video. HelloMeets - Upskilling platform for PMs. #apprating #Fello #HelloMeets #strategy

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"How do you guys build all this with a 6 person engineering team?" We got this question from a VC who couldn't believe that we have 1000's of customers and over $3M in annual revenue with such a small team! Here's how our 'Eye of Providence' concept makes our startup efficient: I used to build bridges in the USA in a past life, as an engineer. These projects typically cost $500M and spans 5 or more years. They follow what's called a design-build approach, where the design evolves as construction progresses. Much like a startup, where you leap off the cliff and build the plane on the way down. - Many experts join at different times - Each focused on their job - While an all-knowing core team keeps an eye on everything The core team stays constant and they know every little piece. They’re the 'Eye of Providence'—the all-seeing overseers who keep everything on track. They dish out just the right amount of info to make sure every piece falls into place perfectly, even as new experts may come and go. Their steady guidance ensures the whole machinery hums along smoothly, no matter how many moving parts there are. I drew on the same method for building Zoko. It starts with the founders, who do many jobs—design, product, front-end, back-end, sales, marketing As the startup grows, we find the tasks we can give away to a core team. Put the right person in those jobs and build the rest of the team around them. This ongoing sharing of work and teaching the team is key. - Our way has founders doing the task first while the team watches - Then, the team starts doing parts of it, with the founders helping - In the end, the team takes over, and the founders just watch and stay out of their way For Zoko (YC W21), it took about a year to fully give away the engineering roles. This process lets us grow smoothly. The result? - We built a strong system where everyone knows their job - Deliver 2 week sprints, like clockwork - Developed a united company culture There's no right or wrong way to build a startup. But our way has worked fantastically well for us.

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I am excited to announce that Pepsales has closed its Pre-Seed round led by Chiratae Ventures 🙌 🙌 At Pepsales, we have always focused on the customer obsessed mindset and speed of execution. When Ajay Singh and I decided to build Pepsales, we knew that the odds were against us and we needed to have the right partners for our long journey 🏇 🏇 I am always driven by basic tenets: learning fast, improving constantly, and building with speed. The journey of a startup is anything but predictable, and while we’re still at Day 0, the one thing that’s clear is this—getting here has been a team effort. The road ahead is long, and this is just the first step. I’m incredibly grateful to Venkatesh Peddi, Naimil Shah and the team at Chiratae Ventures , and everyone who’s supported us in bringing Pepsales to life. Your trust means the world, and it’s given us the foundation we need to keep pushing forward. We’re here to solve real problems for sales teams—helping them make smarter decisions without getting buried under endless data. But we also know that building something meaningful takes time, effort, and the right people. That’s why this journey excites me, because it’s as much about learning and growing as it is about the product itself. ⌛ ⏳ There’s a lot more ahead, but knowing we have the right partners by our side gives me confidence in what’s to come. I’m looking forward to conversations with fellow founders and sales leaders. If you’re a B2B SaaS company looking to empower your sales teams and create a world-class experience without the data chaos, we’d love to connect and see how we can add value to your journey. #FounderJourney #DayZero #B2BSales #ContinuousLearning #Gratitude #SaaS #Pepsales #fromonedaytodayone #teampepsales Link to full article -

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The a16z podcast on product-market sales fit with Jyoti Bansal, Peter Levine, Satish Talluri and Sonal Chokshi is a goldmine of lessons for founders and product leaders of startups at different stages. Here are a few key takeaways from my perspective: 1: There is no market without the user.  In the early phases of a company, when you're still pre-product-market-fit, obsesses over the user, not the technology. It is crucial at this early stage that you are able to define what metric you will use to measure user adoption, and optimize for it accordingly. 2: Integrate the go-to-market model into your product thinking. Who you sell the product to, and how you intend to sell and support your product is just as important as the functional & technical requirements of the product. The features of the product should reflect aspects of the go-to-market strategy. 3: Solving an existing problem? Do it 10x better. If you want to introduce a product in an already established market, make it 10x better - 10x easier, or 10x cheaper or 10x more scalable. 4: Bridge the gap between engineers and customers. Who said engineers don’t need to understand the customers? While this may be especially relevant to technical products, I’d argue this applies across the board. Engineers hold the keys to innovative solutions, but to fully equip them, it's necessary they possess a robust understanding of both the business and its customers. 5: if your users are getting adoption and are happy with the product, the money will come.  Lower margins for the first year with a platform + services deal is still okay, if it significantly increases your chances of renewal. 6. Follow the two-thirds, one-third rule Dedicate two-thirds of your engineering resources to sustaining current customers and penetrating existing markets further. Assign one-third of your engineering resources to broadening your TAM (new markets/new users). 7. Display creativity with your product, but maintain simplicity in pricing. Keep it straightforward for your sales team to explain your pricing structure. Price your product in a format that your customer is familiar with. Understand the ROI, the value your product adds to the business, and their budget constraints. Use these factors as pricing guidelines. Once you know this, it's better to price higher; you can always offer discounts later. 8. Concentrate on the aspect you must learn the most to reach the next milestone. Excel at it and then proceed to worry about the subsequent milestone when you get there P.S. I've put the link in the comments below" 👇 #brand30 #productmanagement

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Founders of early tech startups can gauge their progress and ensure they are on track by focusing on several key aspects: roles and jobs, runway, resources, and specific milestones or indicators of success. 1. Tracking Progress Customer Acquisition: Number of new customers acquired. Revenue Growth: Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) or Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR). User Engagement: Active users, usage frequency, and churn rate. Product Development: Milestones achieved in the product roadmap. Market Validation: Feedback from beta users or pilot projects. Financial Health: Burn rate, runway, and fundraising progress. 2. Essential Roles and Jobs CEO/Co-Founder: Visionary leader, responsible for overall strategy, fundraising, and stakeholder management. CTO/Co-Founder: Leads product development, technology strategy, and engineering teams. COO: Oversees daily operations, processes, and execution of strategic initiatives. Key Early Hires Product Manager: Manages product development, features prioritization, and user feedback. Lead Developer/Engineer: Focuses on coding, system architecture, and technical problem-solving. UI/UX Designer: Ensures the product is user-friendly and visually appealing. Sales and Marketing Lead: Drives customer acquisition, brand awareness, and go-to-market strategy. Customer Success Manager: Focuses on customer satisfaction, onboarding, and support. 3. Runway Financial Planning Burn Rate: Monitor monthly expenses and ensure they are aligned with your budget. Fundraising: Plan fundraising rounds (pre-seed, seed, Series A) based on milestones and market conditions. Budget Allocation: Allocate funds wisely across product development, marketing, operations, and salaries. Contingency Planning: Maintain a buffer for unexpected expenses or delays. 4. Resources Tools and Infrastructure Development Tools: Source control (e.g., GitHub), project management (e.g., Jira, Trello), and collaboration tools (e.g., Slack, Zoom). Cloud Services: AWS, Google Cloud, or Azure for hosting and scaling your application. Analytics: Tools for tracking user behavior, product usage, and business metrics (e.g., Google Analytics, Mixpanel). Financial Management: Accounting software (e.g., QuickBooks, Xero) and financial forecasting tools. Human Resources Advisors and Mentors: Experienced professionals who can provide guidance and support. Legal and Compliance: Legal counsel for contracts, intellectual property, and compliance with regulations. HR and Recruitment: Processes for hiring, onboarding, and retaining top talent. 5. Milestones and Indicators of Success Early Stage MVP Launch: Develop and launch a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) to test the market. User Feedback: Collect and analyze feedback from initial users to refine the product. Market Fit: Achieve a Product-Market Fit where a significant number of users are engaged and satisfied.

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We are running a pilot with Catalyst AIC (Supported by AIM, NITI Aayog) 🥳 This morning we onboarded the founders from AIC's Summer Cohort 2024 for a 100-day pilot program with PredictGrowth. 🚀 Complimenting AIC's great mentorship program, these founders will leverage our Business Planning software to apply their incubation learnings and save significant time by utilizing our well-defined frameworks. ✅ Instead of navigating scattered resources, they'll have everything in one place, helping them accelerate their journey from idea to execution. Over the past quarter, we've been busy scouting close collaborations with industry leaders and top incubation centers across India and refining our business planning tool to unlock its full potential. This is not just about nurturing startups; it's a golden opportunity for all of us at PredictGrowth to gather invaluable feedback on our platform directly from our core ICPs. Their hands-on experience will provide us with deep insights, helping us fine-tune our offering to meet the evolving needs of early-stage founders. Special shoutout to Dilnawaz Khan for making this happen! Excited to share more of what's been happening at Predict Growth in the coming days! PredictGrowth Catalyst AIC (Supported by AIM, NITI Aayog) Deepanshu Khandelwal Saaniya Afreen ⚡Moses J⚡ Vamshi Magam Harsh Baid

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Another insightful session I attended at the Product-Led Alliance conference was "Navigating your team towards Product-Led Growth" by Prassath Leelakrishnan. Key takeaways include: ⤷ Experimentation is key to product-led growth. Aim for a 25% win rate. Every 1 in 4 experiments should be a success. ⤷ Clarity through Documentation. Create a one-page document for each experiment: › Who: Which customers are we serving better? › What: What problems are we solving for them? › So what: What impact does solving these problems have? › How: How are customers interacting with our products? The best part: Losing an experiment costs at most 2-3 weeks, but a winning experiment benefits the organization for its entire timeline. Thanks Prassath Leelakrishnan for the invaluable insights and to the Product-Led Alliance for organizing such a great event! #ProductLedAlliance #ProductGrowth #Experimentation #ProductManagement

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Thrilled to share that I have been shortlisted for the The VC Fellowship! This opportunity aligns perfectly with my passion for innovation and supporting visionary entrepreneurs. Excited to contribute to the startup ecosystem and learn from the best in venture capital. #VCFellowship #Entrepreneurship #Innovation #PassionForGrowth 🚀

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Over the weekend, Paul Graham's latest article struck a chord in startup circles, particularly with first-time founders grappling with the tension between Founder Mode and the conventional wisdom of managerial leadership. PG highlighted a recurring theme: as companies grow, founders are often pressured to adopt "best practices" that, rather than helping, can undermine their unique vision. This dilemma was vividly captured in a talk by Brian Chesky, where he described how following the well-meaning advice of "hiring good people and giving them room to do their jobs" nearly derailed Airbnb. For first-time entrepreneurs, this challenge is even more acute. When you’re venturing into uncharted territory, the natural instinct is to second-guess yourself. The idea that you need someone more "experienced," someone who’s "done it before," starts to creep in, feeding your insecurities. It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that seasoned professionals can navigate growth better than the person who brought the company to life in the first place. Graham's article reminds us that this outside conjecture is often misguided and can be damaging. Historically, many VCs echoed this sentiment, frequently replacing founders with more experienced CEOs once a company reached a certain scale. The belief was that professional managers were better equipped to handle the complexities of a growing business. Then a16z entered the scene, championing the notion that founder-led companies are not just viable but preferable. They turned the tide, advocating that the founder's unique insight and passion are irreplaceable assets, even as the company scales. The takeaway for first-time founders? Listen to feedback, but don’t let the inevitable self-doubt take root. Your instincts, which have guided you this far, are more powerful than you realize. You will need to adapt and change, but that’s part of the game. As Albert Camus wrote, "In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer." Trust in that inner strength. The road might be uncertain, but you have the resilience to navigate it, no matter how daunting it seems.

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Thrilled to introduce my Co-founder and CTO at SPARK ,Aman Pal Aman came into our world of mayhem, re-engineered our product from the ground up, and cut our monthly burn while bringing structure to chaos I didn’t even realize existed. His leadership has propelled us into some of the biggest startup programs, and his relentless pursuit of excellence has completely transformed SPARK Aman didn’t just fix what was broken—he enhanced, re-architected, and rewrote our code from scratch. His agility, speed, and ability to scale quickly is exactly the energy I treasure. In startup life, velocity is everything, and Aman embodies that. His extensive experience in travel tech, fintech, and beyond has been critical in making SPARK robust, scalable, and secure. He’s driving new UI/UX updates, launching features, and building the architecture that will carry us forward. Aman Pal is the epitome of the agility and speed every startup needs. Welcome to the spotlight, Aman Pal, my Co-founder and CTO. Here’s to more velocity, more growth, and making waves at SPARK. Let’s crush Asia. #startup #techleadership #innovation #velocity #CTO #scalability #productdevelopment #startupculture #Spark #cofounder #agility #technology #growth

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🎉 The Clientell Family has some exciting news to share 🎉 We're thrilled to announce that Clientell has successfully raised $2.5 million in a seed funding round led by Blume Ventures, with participations from our existing investors, including Chiratae Ventures, Artha Venture Fund and from Z5 Capital. https://lnkd.in/gZukPBUg This investment marks a significant milestone in our journey to redefine Revenue Operations. At Clientell, we envision a future where autonomous AI agents handle the entire spectrum of RevOps tasks. These AI-driven agents will serve as copilots, enhancing productivity and efficiency for RevOps teams everywhere. While our vision is expansive, the road ahead is filled with opportunities for innovation and growth. We are gearing up to dive deep into the development phase and are enthusiastic about the impact we as a team can create in this space. We're hiring! To realize our ambitious goals, we are expanding our team. We are looking for passionate, innovative minds ready to join us in shaping the future of RevOps through cutting-edge technology. If you are excited about AI and making a significant impact, we would love to hear from you. Career's page: https://lnkd.in/gwPXQhjZ A special thank you to Venkatesh Peddi from Chiratae Ventures for taking an early bets on us in our first round as well as being the pillar of strength and voice of reason across the pivots and hard decisions. Lastly, the only thing that I'm really proud about here is the stellar team we have who are building this company. It's a whirlwind ride it wouldn't have been possible if any one of them wasn't there. Since it's their company as well so won't say thank you, but I really appreciate the opportunity of building a company with each one of them: Aryan Trip. Ruthuparna K. Prathik Shetty Sayak Samaddar Shivraj N. Ayush Singh Chauhan Palak Jani Penchala Tharun 🚀 Kirti Bhatia Malaya Sahoo Ankit Deshwal To our investors, partners, and the entire Clientell community, thank you for your trust and support. It is an exciting journey and we look for to sharing the same with you all. #Clientell #FundingNews #RevOps #AI #StartUpLife #WeAreHiring #Innovation

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Notion just crossed 100M users this month. Here are 5 biggest growth levers every SaaS entrepreneur needs to study 👇 In just 10 years, Notion got a $10B+ valuation and had investors like Sequoia and Naval Ravikant. With an ~$576M ARR, their success is worth studying. Here's a breakdown of Notion's winning strategies: 1️⃣ Laser focus on a unique product Notion identified a gap in the market. • Existing tools (Word, Docs, Evernote) had limitations • Offered a single, flexible workspace for multiple functions • Commitment to ease of use and beautiful design This was crucial for attracting users who wanted a single, powerful tool. The "category of one" approach created significant value & drove adoption. 2️⃣ The freemium model Notion's free tier isn't just a demo - it provides real, long-term value. This strategy is gold: • Hooks users by letting them experience the full power • Creates a massive pool of potential paying customers • Turns free users into your biggest advocates Don't be stingy with your free offering. Give users a real taste. 3️⃣ Reducing friction with templates Notion's template game is really off the charts. They're serving up 5K+ ready-made solutions for everyone: • Project managers • Content creators • Marketers, you name it Why it works: ↳ Bigger TAM for wider scale ↳ New users see value instantly ↳ Showcases product versatility Lower barrier to entry → higher adoption & retention across various user types. 4️⃣ Supersmart integrations for a unified workflow Notion isn't just a standalone tool. It's a central hub for work, integrating with 50+ apps like Google Suite, Slack, Figma, and more. Their integration capabilities are impressive: ↳ Syncs data with other tools ↳ Becomes indispensable for businesses ↳ Fits right into existing tech stacks Less app-switching = less headache Streamlined workflows = more productivity In SaaS, well-connected tools are hard to leave. Make your product an essential part of daily workflows. 5️⃣ Community-driven development Notion's really smart when it comes to leveraging their community. • Users create and share templates • Newbies get started quickly • Long-time users stay engaged with fresh ideas It helps build a loyal user base & the product evolves to meet real needs. ↳ Don't just build for your users. ↳ Build with them. ↳ Engaged users can be your best product influencers. In fact, there are tons of "notion-specific" influencers who just make notion content, driving a core community of users. --------------------- That's a wrap. If you liked this, do follow me for more insights on entrepreneurship & SaaS.

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How do you Bootstrap your Startup to an Early Exit? “Working with Sramana Mitra and the 1Mby1M Premium program has been invaluable for Adya as a bootstrapped company to better understand how to best position the product and the company while working within constraints. Sramana has a very fresh perspective that promotes bootstrapped startups making slow, steady progress while rejecting the need for institutional investments. This also makes companies better targets for acquisitions. Thanks to her introductions, we were able to pitch Adya to the right companies at the senior executive levels. This led to, I am happy to say, an acquisition of Adya by Qualys! Without Sramana, this happy outcome would likely not have happened.” Deepak Balakrishna   Co-Founder and CEO, Adya (Acquired by Qualys) :: Over the last decade and more, I’ve had the privilege of working with a large number of bootstrapped entrepreneurs. These include self-financed companies and also modestly capitalized startups that operate in a capital-efficient manner applying the principles of bootstrapping. I’ve also interviewed hundreds of investors, especially micro-VCs and angels who are playing in the early stage game. I’ve asked all of them the following questions: The commercial Internet has now been around for almost 30 years. Lots of stuff has already been built. Nowadays, there aren’t so many wide open opportunities out there. But there are many, many niche opportunities. Some of these businesses need to be built for very small amounts of capital: Invest $1-2M, and sell for $10-15M. Do you have an appetite for this type of investment? What about a notch smaller? Invest $250k-$500k and sell for $5-$10M? What about a notch larger? Invest $5-10M and sell for $50-$60M? As I expected, a large number of investors are still chasing Unicorns. They are interested in investing in companies that will go from 0 to $100M in 5-7 years. However, I have spoken with a number of investors who recognize the niche opportunities and answer yes to my questions above. Yes, they are interested in investing small amounts and harvesting through smaller exits. In that strategy is the recognition that most acquisitions happen in the sub $50 million price-point. Therefore, for all stakeholders to make money, a capital efficient strategy is required. If you're considering an early exit, come talk to me at one of my Free 1Mby1M Roundtables. https://lnkd.in/gF2zTJj You can also ask me anything here … #startups #entrepreneurs #entrepreneurship #startup

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