Kiran Brahma

By Sept 2021, my business stabilised after 18 months of Covid disruption. I could focus towards growth instead of survival.

I spent most of my career in operations, with limited understanding about sales. I knew words such as leads, prospects, pipeline, follow-up and relationship management. However, I did not know what those words meant when applied to my own business.

So I decided to hire a "Sales Manager". Six months and ₹ 2.5 Lakhs poorer, I learnt a simple lesson:

I was not hiring for a "Sales Manager". I was searching for clarity I did not have.

After meeting a few candidates, my Ops manager recommended someone with 12+ years of experience in my industry.

During his interview, he shared multiple anecdotes and success stories from his prior roles. He rarely mentioned how he did it or what support he needed from me to succeed.

I had my doubts but my limited knowledge and my operations manager's confidence made me ignore them. I made him an offer. He joined a week later.

Most articles and podcasts on sales repeat the same advice: Sales takes time and effort. Trusting that advice I told him:

What I actually said was:

For the next 90 days, he updated me on his 'building relationships', 'reaching out to my network', and 'having conversations' activities. He appeared busy but apart from a single proposal, nothing else happened.

Sales, like any other business function, has its own set of metrics. I should have tracked leads generated, qualifying leads to prospects, and proposals sent.

I never correlated his update work to any metric. So, I could not verify if he was doing the work or not.

Here is what I had missed: even if he did work hard, he would have failed. He knew how to work inside an established sales system. He had not shown that he could build one from scratch

I asked him to resign and he left quietly.

A week later, I ran the numbers: I paid him ₹ 2.5 Lakhs as salary and generated zero revenue. I could earn the money back, but never recover the time. I had wasted the post-lockdown momentum in the market.

I expected him to build a sales machine for me. I needed a builder, but I hired an operator (someone used to working inside a proven system). I could not tell the difference between "the market is tough" and "the approach is wrong".

It is easy to blame him. The larger mistake was mine. I never tested whether he could build.

In "Rework", the Basecamp founders explain why they do the job before hiring for it. They valued clarity on the work before hiring anyone.

It made sense when I read it. I ignored it when it mattered.

I spent the next few weeks actually doing the job I was scared to do. I reviewed our existing leads, set up meetings and shared our service proposal. My team qualified 50 leads, met 20 prospects, sent 15 proposals, and won 3 contracts

I realised I had already been doing sales work. I had just never called it "sales”.

Once our leads dried up, the real bottleneck was visible: we had no process to generate new ones. Rather than hiring for a "Sales Manager", I needed someone who could generate new leads.

While I am yet to hire a "Sales Manager", the lesson stayed with me: Try doing the job for two to three weeks before hiring. For roles I cannot do, I research to define progress metric before hiring.

Economists call this agency cost: paying for work that you can't inspect. My failure to understand costed me ₹ 2.5 Lakhs and months of momentum.

Now, before I hire to solve a problem, I spend two to three weeks doing the work. Once I am able to write three specific metrics that explains the work's progress, only then I decide who needs to be hired.

If I cannot define at even three progress signals, I am not ready to hire. I am only outsourcing my confusion to someone else

🧭 Navigating a Business Model | Episode 2: The Power of Focus: Why Less is More

Welcome back to Navigating Business Model! In this episode, we dive into one of the most counterintuitive truths in business: narrowing your focus actually makes you stronger, not weaker.

🎯 What You'll Learn:

Why trying to serve everyone means serving no one well

The concept of "smallest viable market" and how it leads to success

How focus creates stronger brands and better customer connections

Real examples of companies that won by saying "no" to opportunities

💡 Key Takeaway: Resist the urge to be "all things to all people." Start with a focused approach to distinct market segments with clearly different needs. This strategic restraint is especially powerful for startups.

⚡ Perfect for: Entrepreneurs struggling with market positioning, startup founders defining their target audience, and business leaders looking to sharpen their strategy.

🔍 Episode Highlights:

The "atomic network" approach to market entry

Why broad appeal often equals weak appeal

How to identify your core customer segment

The competitive advantage of specialization

🔊 Audio Note: This podcast uses AI-generated voices, but all content is carefully curated and developed by me, with a goal to learn more effectively.

📅 New episodes drop daily! Subscribe to follow the complete business model journey.

#BusinessStrategy #Entrepreneurship #StartupTips #BusinessModel #Focus #MarketSegmentation #BusinessPodcast

🧭 Navigating a Business Model | Episode 1: What is a Business Model?

Welcome to Navigating Business Model - where I am aiming to breaking down complex business strategy into clear, actionable insights for my personal consumption. The goal is to keep each episode small and around 5-7 minute long. The goal for any episode is to gain a fundamental understanding on a specific topic

🎯 What You'll Learn:

- The real definition of a business model (it's not just how you make money)

- Why thinking of business models like blueprints or recipes changes everything

- How to identify the critical uncertainties in your business before they become problems

- The difference between a business plan and a business model

💡 Key Takeaway: A business model is an integrated array of distinctive choices that specify your unique value proposition and how you'll deliver it profitably. It's your roadmap to economic self-sufficiency.

⚡ Perfect for: Entrepreneurs, startup founders, business students, and anyone looking to understand the fundamentals of business strategy.

🔊 Audio Note: This podcast uses AI-generated voices, but all content is carefully curated and developed by me, developed with a goal to learn more effectively

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I am planning to upload a episode every day and will be part of this audio podcast series.

It's often not the big, dramatic explosion that kills a startup, but a series of quiet, foundational mistakes made on day one. Are you focusing so much on your product that you're ignoring the strategic decisions that truly determine success or failure?

In this episode of DeepMind Notes, we distill the essential strategic considerations that separate successful ventures from the ones that never get off the ground. We challenge the "build it and they will come" myth, revealing why your distribution and go-to-market strategy can be twice as important as your product itself.

Learn why your choice of market might be the single most important decision you ever make, how to tailor your message for customers, investors, and new hires without losing your core narrative, and the secret to being a great "advisee" to get maximum value from your mentors. This is the tactical advice you need to build your company on a solid foundation.

In this episode, we cover 4 critical areas founders often neglect:

- Market Selection: Why choosing the right playground is more important than being the best player.

- Audience Messaging: The art of speaking to customers, investors, and potential hires differently.

- Go-to-Market: Why distribution is two-thirds of the battle (and how to prepare for it).

- Using Advisors: How to stop getting generic advice and start getting real, actionable help.

#StartupStrategy #Founder #GoToMarket #Entrepreneurship #BusinessAdvice #Marketing #Mistakes

The startup journey isn't always "up and to the right." What happens when the growth flattens, the initial excitement fades, and you find yourself in the long, difficult, and often lonely "messy middle"?

In this episode of DeepMind Notes, we don't focus on the flashy IPOs; we explore the invaluable lessons learned from the ventures that struggled, pivoted, and fought through the toughest challenges. We believe in normalizing failure, not celebrating it, to extract the data that makes you stronger. Discover why many of the most successful companies, like Slack and Notion, are the result of a successful pivot.

Learn the "Four Ps" framework for structuring a strategic pivot, why a healthy dose of pessimism can be a founder's best friend, and why the most helpful advice is often "oddly specific" and tactical, not just high-level theory. This episode is for every founder navigating the real, unglamorous, and most critical part of building a company.

In this episode, you will learn:

- Why we should normalize failure and how to learn the right lessons from it.

- The "Four Ps" framework (Problem, Persona, Promise, Product) for a successful pivot.

- How to identify and navigate the treacherous "messy middle" of a startup's life.

- Strategies to balance founder optimism with realistic planning for different outcomes.

- Why tactical, specific advice is often more valuable than high-level strategy.

#StartupFailure #Pivot #Founder #Entrepreneurship #MessyMiddle #StartupAdvice #Resilience

What truly separates successful founders from the rest? It's not just the idea or the market—it's a unique and resilient mindset built for a journey often described as "eating glass and staring into the abyss." This is the internal operating system that determines who survives the long haul.

In this capstone episode, we go beyond tactics and strategies to explore the founder's core psychology. Discover the unique traits that allow entrepreneurs to run towards uncertainty while others run away. We're not talking about business plans; we're talking about grit, tenacity, and the emotional fitness required for the entrepreneurial marathon.

Learn why the most successful founders are more like artists than engineers, driven by a vision to create something new from nothing. We'll cover the importance of building resilience before you need it, the power of authentic leadership, and how to anchor everything you do in a purpose that goes far beyond a financial exit. This is the mindset that turns challenges into data and setbacks into setups for a comeback.

In this episode, you'll discover:

- The three key components of tenacity: grit, confidence, and focus.

- Why adaptability is about being fixed on the goal, but flexible on the details.

- How to build the emotional resilience needed to survive the founder's journey.

- The unique psychological traits that define a founder's mind.

- The power of vulnerability and how it can strengthen your leadership and team.

- How to connect your work to a higher purpose that fuels you through the toughest times.

#FounderMindset #Entrepreneurship #Leadership #Grit #Resilience #StartupAdvice #PersonalGrowth

Hypergrowth is the dream, but it can quickly turn into a nightmare if your internal systems can't keep up. Are you feeling the strain of broken processes, team misalignment, and communication chaos as your company rapidly expands?

In this episode of DeepMind Notes, we deliver the playbook for designing an organization that can withstand the pressures of rapid scaling. It’s time to move beyond the ad-hoc processes that worked for a team of 10 and build the intentional systems that will carry you to 100 and beyond. Discover how to lead with a compelling story instead of just metrics through "Management by Narrative."

We'll show you how to design your organization to eliminate conflicting team missions, use temporary 'virtual teams' to execute on big projects, and create a hiring process that won't break when you 10X your volume. Learn how to involve your teams in planning to foster true accountability and build a company that's structured for sustainable success.

In this episode, you will learn:

- How to use 'Management by Narrative' to align your company around a central story.

- The key principles of organizational design to prevent internal conflict and wasted resources.

- When and how to deploy virtual or matrixed teams for critical company initiatives.

- A framework for inclusive planning that creates buy-in and accountability from your team.

- How to build a scalable, user-centric hiring process that can handle hypergrowth.

#Hypergrowth #Scaling #Operations #Startup #SystemsThinking #OrgDesign #BusinessProcess

As your company grows, does it feel like your product, engineering, and design teams are all running in different directions? The "move fast and break things" mantra that got you here can lead to chaos and wasted effort without the right structure in place.

In this episode of DeepMind Notes, we reveal the framework for creating the "connective tissue" between your company's big ambitions and the daily work of your teams. Discover Ravi Mehta's "Product Strategy Stack," a powerful model to align everyone from the top-level mission down to specific product goals, ensuring every feature and task serves a greater purpose.

We'll explore how to shift from tactical to strategic goals to empower your teams, the ideal ratio for Engineering, Product, and Design (EPD) to ensure healthy collaboration, and how to use data effectively without losing sight of crucial qualitative feedback. This is your guide to building a product machine that scales efficiently.

In this episode, you will learn:

- A step-by-step guide to implementing the Product Strategy Stack in your company.

- How to fuse your Engineering, Product, and Design (EPD) teams for maximum impact.

- The art of balancing a roadmap between new innovations and scaling existing products.

- When to integrate powerful analytics tools like Amplitude, Mixpanel, and Looker.

- Why strategic goals empower your teams far more than tactical ones do.

#ProductStrategy #ProductManagement #TechLeadership #Scaling #Startup #EPD #Roadmap

Congratulations, you've found Product-Market Fit. The frantic search is over, but a new, more complex challenge begins. The skills that got you here won't get you to the next level. How do you scale from a successful product into a sustainable, long-lasting business?

In this episode of DeepMind Notes, we dive into the advanced playbook for post-PMF growth. Discover the crucial mindset shift required as you transition from a hands-on founder to an executive CEO whose job is to enable others. We'll break down the powerful "Three Horizons Framework" to help you balance your core business with future innovations, and discuss why your business model and pricing strategy become your greatest levers for growth.

Learn how to de-risk your company by eliminating single points of failure and build a recursive product strategy for the next 10, 20, or even 50 years.

✅ In this episode, you will learn:

- The Challenge After PMF: Building a Real Business

- The Critical Transition: From Founder to Executive CEO

- The Three Horizons Framework for a Multi-Product Strategy

- How to Eliminate Single Points of Failure (Customers, Partners, etc.)

- Why Your Business Model Becomes Your Biggest Growth Lever

- Recursive Product Strategy: How to Plan for the 50-Year Goal

#BusinessStrategy #Scaling #StartupCEO #Growth #PostPMF #Entrepreneurship #BusinessModel

Fundraising can feel like a full-time job on top of your full-time job. How do you find the right investors, craft a pitch that commands attention, and create the urgency needed to close your round before you run out of runway?

In this episode of DeepMind Notes, we unpack the complete playbook for raising your Seed or Series A round. This is a step-by-step guide to the real-world process, from strategic timing to avoid investor 'dead zones' to the 10/90 rule for targeting the right VC partner who will champion your vision.

Learn how to transform your pitch from a simple presentation into a compelling story of an 'inevitable victor.' We'll show you how to master the 'live performance' of a pitch, handle any question with unapologetic confidence, and use meeting sequencing to create real momentum and close your round.

✅ In this episode, you will learn:

- The Real Process of a Seed & Series A Fundraise

- Fundraising Timeline: When to Pitch and When to Wait

- The 10/90 Rule: How to Target the Right VC Partner

- Pitch Perfect: Preparing for a Flawless Live Performance

- The Power of Storytelling: Becoming the "Inevitable Victor"

- The Metrics and Proof Points That VCs Actually Want

- 7 Common Fundraising Traps and How to Avoid Them

- The Strategy: How to Sequence Meetings to Create Urgency

#Fundraising #VentureCapital #Startup #SeedRound #SeriesA #PitchDeck #Entrepreneurship #Founder