Amardeep Parmar

An Achilles Heel for many entrepreneurs is trying to solve all the problems all at once everywhere which is just doomed to fail. You don't need to be original in all your processes and all your marketing and all your HR etc. You have one core problem to solve and that should be your focus. It's important to think about where you aren't going to innovate just as much as you think about where you are. For example, maybe you have industry standard customer support but you differentiate on flexible pricing instead. Later, you can innovate in other areas if it makes sense to but try to not reinvent every stage because it's just procrastination. Talk to customers. Find out what would make them switch to you and deliver that!

Never wrestle with a pig because you'll both get dirty and the pig likes it. If you're a leader, it's so easy to descend into fighting fire with fire. In reality, this comes from a place of insecurity NOT confidence. Showing discipline over your emotions is much more mature and oddly more intimidating. I did karate for a decade which means in conflicts I'm much calmer because I feel less threatened. This is what you want to show. When someone is being dominant but your body language and tone of voice show you aren't intimidated, it sucks air out of outbursts. Asserting boundaries and rules of engagement are important and be unafraid to walk away. Many people can try to push you into doing something but you can nod and disregard. ;)

Unpopular advice: The best way to not feel like an imposter is to not be an imposter! Acting like a know-it-all in an market where you are new is a great way to sabotage your product. Before entering the new market, you want to be talking to potential customers and getting inside their brains. Does your product solve their needs? Give them your product - what is their feedback? Do adjustments need to be made? Now the challenge is if you and your team can successfully roll out a larger launch. Take a critical lens to your internal skillsets. Where do you have evidence of being great and where do you need extra help? Gather evidence and build skills. You'll be alright.

Before you even think about pitching your scalability, you need to seriously question whether you are. I've seen so many pitch decks with ridiculous forecasts using well the fitness market is $100 trillion and the pet industry is $100 tn so our workout clothes for fish has a market of $200 tn. If you want venture capital, as a proxy work out whether a path to $100m in revenue is possible from the bottom up. How many people at what price would need to buy your product to get anywhere near that? What strategy would you use? How would you make the 1st million? the 10th million and so on? Each step will require different methods. What assumptions are you relying on? Are they reasonable? Be harsh on your own plan so it's investor ready.

Freedom as an entrepreneur is a total illusion. You can do whatever you want and hire whoever you want. But there's consequences. It's easy to get swept up in the honeymoon period without properly thinking through the why. This why can and will change yet you need to know what it is at any point in time. It comes back to focusing on what the problem you're trying to solve is. Then what are realistic timelines? What do can you do in the short-term which doesn't scale but helps you get there? Think in phases, by the end of period X, you want to reach Y stage which will then help you get to Z stage. With my cofounder, we constantly reassess our priorities and what we're focusing on based on what's effective and is correct directionally.

Your ability to make decisions fast is what differentiates a good startup leader from a good corporate leader. The key advantage for a startup is the ability to move fast - if you can't then you could be in the wrong place. Jeff Bezos's model of reversible and irreversible decisions is useful here. Any decisions which you can later reverse without significant consequences should just be made. Irreversible decisions are where you earn your title. Map out the likely scenarios for each fork of the decision then stress test them. Choose people to challenge you and get them to roast the ideas. It's important you aren't asking for what they'd do because they don't have the same deep context as you. Give yourself a deadline and decide.