10 Things Startups Should Learn from Aloke Bajpai’s Experience

Ixigo.com has always remained in the hitlist of top 10 rocking startups of the nation. But when all of us were busy booking cabs, flights and trains for ourselves, Aloke Bajpai (Co-founder & CEO | ixigo.com), also known as the superman of the Startup Ecosystem was in his whole new world of experimenting new growth hacks, defining indigenous strategies and executing them for his ixigo family, that he started 9 years back. These 9 years have been a Roller Coaster ride for Aloke and Rajnish(Co-Founder| ixigo.com), going through extremes and moderates at ixigo.

Here is what startups need to learn from his experience so far:-

1. Invest in People to avoid future Failures

The biggest mistake that most of the startups tend to make is they are either running after sales or investments, never do they focus upon its People. A startup is a an extended family to every founder, henceforth it is founder’s responsibility to ensure that all his family members are an important part of his team. Starting from founders, leadership team, engineering team, sales & marketing folks, customer relationship people, support staff, everyone is just super important. For an entrepreneur it is very important to drive the passion of the team by showcasing the right vision .One advice that Alok Bajpai gives to all is ”Be very choosy when you hire, and don’t hesitate to fire misfits”.

2. Growth

The main objective behind running a startup is to grow bigger and bigger, minute by minute and this can only be achieved by building a super - needed pain relieving product or providing flawless services. Whether a service or a product, but startups need to focus entirely upon perfecting every aspect of it so that growth happens exponentially, rest all is gyan.

3. Culture

Culture is not something that can be bought from somewhere and placed in the office, neither it is an in built attribute nor a show piece that can be put up. It is something that has to be built and built at the grassroot level so that as an when the team grows, the organization grows, it just not grows it flourishes. Startups, are very well known not being organized, for taking things casually, but they do not realise that such startups or firms face a serious challenge of forming processes and executing promised deliverables. By the word “Culture”, we mean it is designed by the people, for the people and of the people for all to grow hand in hand. By setting the culture right we are able to process order, get deliverables, execute promises , establish credibility and take on accountability.

4. Emails and Conferences

Startup founders get the maximum emails either from sales people or from conferences . If you are in a launching state, then going and attending events is not an advisable option until and unless you are a Speaker there. If you choose to attend conferences, then spend more time outside than inside, unless it's a workshop where they teach you how they actually did it. And for the emails, empathize with the sales people and research if the product is worth having for your team.

5. Investors

It is all reference and contact game here! Mind it startups until and unless you are well connected in the network , you might end up losing a potential investor for your super amazing product. As investors only pay attention to you and your plan when you get introduced through a trusted contact in the network. Special piece of advice from Aloke is “Do not use Bankers for angel, seed and Series A rounds:it can be a turnoff for some investors if you can’t even raise money on your own”

6. Cash

Cash, not only the backbone but also the lifeline of running a startup. Being cashless is no harm, but your reaction towards being cashless defines you, your company and your team.Cash-flow planning, daily cash in and cash out status is what needs to be well defined in advance before it gets too late and you as startup owners get pushed to the wall.

7. Experimentation

Just in case, you as a startup are rapidly evolving on product,pivoting and failing stuff fast, while experimenting on multiple avenues then you will be ones who will discover growth hacks before others. Companies who are big enough have separate teams for this- one who just creates and experiments and the other who follow the routine path. Once tried and tested , follow only that path which works chuck the one that is not showing results.Try many things, try them with 100% conviction, try it for a few months if you need enough data, but when the data says it’s not working, do not hesitate to kill it and focus more on growing the stuff that works.Do not try stuff just because your competitor did (learn from their success or failure first).

8. Decisions

Decisions, which when taken can either make or break the company. As a startup founder one must be very cautious while taking decisions as every decision can have an affect adversely on the team or on you. Decisions form an integral part of the company’s integrity and credibility in the market as it reflects the execution of verdict by a team. The journey from decision making to executing, and from executing to iteration sets the pace of growth. Hence the proportionality of growth and decision making is direct.

9. Health

Keeping healthy and staying fit not only makes the founder physically fit but also keeps him mentally strong so that he can easily cope up with challenges faced daily. It is an important aspect for the founder to stay in pink of his health,so that if one idea doesn’t work he should be mentally prepared to think logically and execute practically. Eating healthy, taking adequate sleep and a good break from work not only relieves stress but rejuvenates you and increases productivity.

10. Family

Most importantly, our family who is your support system, because of which you are who you are today and without whom you wouldn’t be what have achieved what you have. Family cares about you and equally wishes to see you win and succeed. What best you can do is spend more time with them by maintaining a good work-life balance by keeping your weekends free for them. Aloke quotes “My mom suffered from terminal-stage cancer and though she lived in the same house, I wasn’t able to spend as much time with her as I wished to, due to my busy schedule. I saw her condition worsening one particular week, and on that Friday I told my colleagues that I will take the next two weeks off to spend more time with her. She died on Sunday morning. Don’t be that guy”

Henceforth to all the startup entrepreneurs out there “HEARTS, SMARTS. GUTS AND LUCK” is all that you need to NAIL IT!

Courtesy credit- Latika Suneja

Source:- https://in.linkedin.com/in/alokebajpai