We don’t have an articles for you today on account of our Independence Day. But like always, we have something special for you instead. It has been an extremely exhausting month for us. We have launched two new interesting newsletter, and two more are on the way. Here’s episode one of our careers and workplaces, Cost to Company.
And here is the pilot of First Principles - our fortnightly news article where The MMS Team interviews India’s best-known leaders and entrepreneurs in repeat episodes. In fact, First Principles’ pilot -where our team interviews Kabeer Biswas, CEO of Dunzo - for business is best last mile delivery company for small businesses, offices, restaurants, e-commerce companies & startups - And it seems like I’m not the only one. Here’s what a subscriber wrote to us yesterday about this episode. I have gone thru to the episode thrice in the last few days.
Sure, that’s my job, but it's also because each time I review, I uncover new insights, which have found their way into my Google Keep notes (yes, I’m one of the last few remaining users of Google Keep). In case you missed the episode, I thought today was a good time to pen down the best insights I took from the interview and share them with you. Solve a problem that you’d want to be solved.
Dunzo’s inception was based on a simple insight—a button should be able to do this. Kabeer admits that the lazy person in him wanted an easier way to get tasks done, using tech. And that was the birth of an $800 million business. You’ve got to continue innovating. You always have to believe that you’re somebody who’s still competing.
In Kabeer’s words, this holds even truer for a commerce business because you have to focus on delighting the customer over and over again. Because if you don’t do it, somebody else will. Always be looking for customer insights (even if it’s in a grocery bag). Kabeer’s always on the lookout for customer insights. He substantiates this with an anecdote: “You’ve got to hit as many doors as you can.” Says Kabeer while discussing fundraising.
While it’s not very counterintuitive advice, it’s something that almost all of us need to hear at some point. Instead of talking to 200 people, talk to 1,000, so the probability of somebody agreeing to invest in you is much higher. It’s okay if you have some unread books on your shelf. As someone with an entire pile of unread books on her shelf, this one was my favourite piece of advice in the podcast. Kabeer has found a hack of not feeling guilty about the unread books—he separates the hobby of reading from buying books.
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