How not to run your start-up in this slow-down?

Everyone is saying that the start-up funding party is over.

Does it? Maybe.

The real question now should be, Can we fight this winter, long or short,?

I would say, yes, we can. No matter if you have raised a small amount of money or not raised it at all. Actually, the game is different let's see how.

I built four start-ups, here's what I have learned during my journey. If this post would help even one person to survive this winter and build a sustainable business then all the time I invested into this post will be successful.

Here are the learnings:

The concept of building business has not changed since the term "business" came into existence. And the basic concept is to make money on every unit sold.

But wouldn't it slow your growth and your competitor would win?

Not really. If you look deeper. Tech businesses all over the world are given a premium over others. Why? Because they grow faster and have very high gross margins.

There are many businesses that generate >INR 1000 crores (~$150m) in revenue. Poor guys don't even trade at 2x their rev. Why?

In the start-up circles, we often get into this debate of Growth vs Profitability?

In reality, Growth vs Profitability is not a choice. You've to do both

Why on earth would you spend $1 building something and end up selling it for 90 cents? Nobody sane is gonna do it, right?

Having a smaller bucket is much better than growing a licky bucket. For really rock-solid businesses, this is spring. Be one such and blossom. And you will be the top picks for investment once the winter is over.

Have weekly discussions within your team and with external key industry experts on how to do both, growth and profitability. Because you have to do both.

We are also doing the same at Instaminutes and summarizing our meetings into quick takeaways using our tool (https://instaminutes.com/), so that we can review our key learnings over time.

We shouldn't forget key ideas, key learnings, and key takeaways from our important conversations. Right?