Ajeet Khurana ⭕

Certainly it won't come from excessive use of AI tools. Remember you can stand out in two ways: (i) Do something extraordinary (ii) Do the ordinary, but in an extraordinary fashion. See how this advice fits your present situation.

This "brink of business failure" thing is just another day in entrepreneurship paradise. Don't let it bother you to the point of irrationality. At the same time, keep in mind that "more of the same" cannot be the best approach. Use creativity instead of money, use few people instead of more, target one market instead of targeting the whole world. You get the idea.

In my experience the "chaos" that founders experience is often based on their lack of preparedness in identifying opportunities. Just focus on the one most important objective you seek at present. And evaluate all opportunities against that. Leave the comprehensive consulting report approach to the big corporates.

Lots of interesting advice here, but it is my opinion that everybody is clutching straws. Balancing an aggressive growth founder’s career and family life, is nearly impossible. You can do things to reduce the pain, you can do things to optimise time. But the falafy of “quality time“ versus “quantity time“ is just a way to fool oneself. Embrace the reality that you are going to have less time with your family. Make your interactions meaningful. Yet, try to have them as frequently as possible and not merely delegated to weekends.

Unlike a manager in a large corporate workplace with a lot of systems in place, a founder is often at loss of where to focus their attention. Is it on cost, people, customer acquisition, branding, or something else? And while the founder’s canvas can be quite complex, the only way to manage it is to go to first principles. You may have your own principles, but for me the first and foremost thing is to not die. That means focus on certain bare minimum cash, or make sure that you have enough investor support. Having done that, servicing customers is primary. Making sure that your team is motivated comes almost at the same level. Once you have these in place, the rest should be easy.

One of the challenges I find at networking events is that a lot of people are into some kind of a speed-dating game. It almost seems like the larger number of people you meet, the more successful you are at networking. Sure, connect with as many people as you like, but if you could make even one meaningful connection, you got things right. Focus on the quality of interaction and not on collection of business cards.