Talking growth and traction for early-stage startups
Date: October 19, 2016
Name: Talking growth and traction for early-stage startups
Presenter: Jayesh Parmar
It is not easy for entrepreneurs to gain growth and traction at early-stage startups. Moreover, they often do not know where to focus at early stage. Vancouver Growth Hackers meetup invites Jayesh Parmar, the co-Founder of Picatic, to discuss his early stage entrepreneurship. In this presentation, Jayesh Parmar will reveal his success tips to help entrepreneurs avoid common business mistakes. In addition, Jayesh Parmar will show entrepreneurs the importance of building the right product at the right time.
Jayesh Parmar is the co-Founder and CEO of Picatic. With over 20 years of event industry experience, he helped and mentored many young entrepreneurs to start their businesses. He is a serial entrepreneur and he is one of the world’s top 10 Tech Entrepreneurs Disrupting The Event Industry. He is also the winner of SISO 2013 breakthrough event technology award. Furthermore, he is a speaker that motivates many leaders in many industries.
Jayesh Parmar’s entrepreneurship started in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. He worked in many real estate and music companies. One day, he had the opportunity to pitch his idea to a serial entrepreneur and he was invited to work in Silicon Valley. The experience in the valley got him anxiety because people he met were out of his range. It was tough to survive there and he came to the realization that he needed more training to step up in their ecosystem.
Parmar took the initiative to get into an accelerator program in Toronto. He built his first startup and receive a quarter of million-dollar opportunity. He continued his path and went to New York. He managed to learn the environment and able to close the round.
While he was building his startup, he received a “5 minute long” advice from his mentor that he never forget. The advice was “Have you talk to your wife or girlfriend?”. Whenever there is stress, entrepreneurs should have a chat with someone who is close to them. Family support is important for Parmar. Whenever Parmar is in stress, he will remember his family support and continue to overcome his next obstacle.
“If you do not have family support, you cannot start this”
Parmar mentions he have many business failures. It takes many tries to come up with the current business model for Picatic.
His first idea for Picatic was the crowdfunding method. First, entrepreneurs need to create a track. Second, they will get the funding. Third, they need to launch the event successfully. If not, they will not get funded. The idea worked; however, Parmar encountered a problem and that was Picatic could not provide life time valve for entrepreneurs. If entrepreneurs have a successful event, they do not need Picatic because they have their own database or customers. It took Parmar over a million dollars spending to notice and address this major problem.
The second idea was to implement Picatic to a new business model called “Pay what you want”. Picatic allowed entrepreneurs to pick how much they want to pay for service fees. This allowed entrepreneurs to break through the economic barrier; however, the idea failed again because it created more business barriers.
Parmar changed the business model into “Freemium to Premium”. Picatic is now able to select different plans for their membership. Many entrepreneurs are giving themselves a year to try. The business model works and the sales are starting to increase. Picatic is now partnering with many big corporations.
“Every idea, we died every time because there is no road map”
Parmar shares some valuable lessons with entrepreneurs during his entrepreneurship.
Lesson #1: Team
Parmar believes team is like a marriage. The best thing for business is to get the right members into the team. Products will change, but entrepreneurs need a team to be there for the change.
Lesson #2: Market
Parmar believes entrepreneurs need to know their market size and the venture map. In British Columbia, funds will only be secured if entrepreneurs can provide enough support to investors that it has the potential to reach a billion-dollar market. Therefore, it is important for entrepreneurs to address the market carefully.
Lesson #3: Value
Parmar believes entrepreneurs need value creation. When value exceeds payment, entrepreneurs will have the sales right away. Entrepreneurs need to tell the story that adds value to customers.
“Are you a painkiller or vitamin?”
Lesson #4: Hustle
Parmar believes entrepreneurs need to keep selling and keep talking. They need to nail down that pitch, get out there and sell it. Business can only be done by handshakes and relationship starts outside of the comfort zone. Parmar mentions a statement “Stop being a Canadian” because he feels Canadian are too polite and they are not hustling enough. Moreover, there are many things out here when entrepreneurs ask.
“If it is in your mind, go out and hustle”
Lesson #5: Listen
Parmar believes entrepreneurs need to go out there and listen. If entrepreneurs are not embarrassed by their products in six months, it is not good enough. Entrepreneurs will need to push out there and let others know. For entrepreneurs who have no experience in startups, Parmar suggests if they want to do a startup, they should work in startup and learn how to do a startup first. The startup should be a space where they likely to work in future.
“Products do not belong to us, yet it belongs to users”
Parmar believes in alignment. In his team, he needs to make sure everyone is on the same page. They will have consolidated road map that expect what everyone needs to accomplish. There is no silver bullet because there is no short cut in entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs need to hustle everything. Products can be a disaster at the beginning, but that is the main reason why entrepreneurs need to keep painting the picture and try new things.
Parmar feels he is living his life because he gets to hear other people’s success stories. He emphasizes entrepreneurship is the most fun and it also the most painful experience.
“There is no silver bullet in this game”
“Nothing beats product and value”
Parmar reveals the process of startup.
- TechCrunch of initiation
- Wearing off of novelty
- Through of sorrow
- Release of improvement
- Crash of ineptitude
- Wiggles of false hope
- The promised land
- Acquisition of liquidity
- Upside of buyer
The main reason why Parmar can raise funds successfully is to speak to investors every month. He updates investors monthly to create relationship and trust.
Questions and answers
Parmer did not continue the crowdfunding method is because he focused on addressable market. In his family dynamic, he allows his wife to see how fast he needs to go in business. When she understands, he is able to fully launch himself into the business. There is no best strategy in any business, so entrepreneurs need to do their homework in advance. They need to check what other people other there are doing.
“We live in the bubble, get out of it”
There are two defense in business: users and revenue. Parmar’s strategy is to get as much users as possible because later they will bring in revenue. He will ask the inside sales to promote the users to the next level in membership. Many users in the top enterprise level membership are using the Pro level as a sandbox. This means customer value creation is essential.
Parmar believes discipline can help him move forward. The right discipline creates right hustle to win. Entrepreneurs need to be a problem solver. They need to stay consistent and stay discipline.
Parmar suggests entrepreneurs to look at their average revenue per users. Another tool they can use is NPS score. The key to help employee to move forward is to introduce the employee stock plan. When entrepreneurs have employee stock plan and hire super players, it creates alignment. Parmar recommends ideas, such as open doors, Town hall meeting, dinner with employee families, introduce people, demo day, or standups, can help employees improve their motivation to go forward.