In today’s episode, Steli and Hiten talk about the benefits and importance of diversity in startups. For Steli and Hiten, having a diverse team can widen your understanding and empathy for others. This can only serve as an advantage for your business, especially in your day-to-day interactions with your customers. Tune in to find out how diversity is not about filling a quota, the benefits of being challenged by people who are different than you, and why Steli and Hiten specifically seek it out.

00:05 – Today’s episode is about diversity in startups

05:11 – More empathy for customers leads to better results

05:23 – It is now easier to look for staff in different countries

3 Key Points:

A diverse team has the advantage of being more empathetic to a diverse set of customers.

Steli: Hey everybody,

Ever wonder what you should or should not say during a meeting with a potential investor? Have you ever had an unpleasant meeting and wonder what went wrong? This is completely normal. And in today’s episode, Steli and Hiten will share what investors are expecting from you and how you can best prepare for those expectations. They provide valuable insights from both the investor side and founder’s side and discuss why both parties need to discern whether or not they’re a fit.

00:05 – Today’s episode is about investor meeting dos and don’ts

3 Key Points:

Rule #1: Do not lie to your investors.

Steli: Boom. Hey, everybody. This is Steli Efti .

Hiten: And this is Hiten Shah.

Steli: And in today's episode of the , we're gonna talk about investor meeting do's and don't's. So you meet with investors, this could be the first meeting, the second or the third, this could even be a call. I think that a call could also qualify as a meeting.

Hiten: Yeah.

Steli: Whenever you interact with investors, you meet and talk to them, there's guidelines, right? Maybe not hard rules, but guidelines on some mistakes you should avoid, many mistakes that a lot of founders have made and you and I have probably made ourselves, and good practices,

Is there one way to do sales? Should you model your sales abilities against another person? What if you do not share their personality? In this episode, Steli and Hiten discuss whether sales is natural or learned. Listen in as they share their own experiences in sales and what defines a successful salesperson. Hiten and Steli also give their take on whether or not you can be the best salesperson in the world.

00:05 – Today’s episode is about sales – is it natural or learned?

05:11 – They can be overwhelming to people and not know when to listen

05:38 – Introverts also have positive traits they can bring into sales such as listening well

20:03 – Patrick asked the founder if he knew Steli; he also told him Steli would not allow him to walk away without asking the founder if he could be their customer

21:33 – Steli says you may not become the best person at sales, but that you can always get better at it and be effective in sales

22:32 – As long as you’re getting results, you ARE the best

23:04 – End of today’s episode

3 Key Points:

Being good at sales is a learned skill.

Steli Efti:

Hey everyone, this is Steli Efti.

Hiten Shah:

And this is Hiten Shah.

Steli Efti:

And in today's episode of The Start-up Chat, we're gonna talk about sales.

In this episode, Steli and Hiten talk about how you can generate your first thousand dollars in revenue. Steli and Hiten talk about the importance of doing the math to reach your $1000 goal. Do you charge less and try to reach several customers? Or, do you charge more and aim for fewer customers? Either way, setting your price point will help inform the steps you take to achieve that goal. Also be sure to share your plan with Steli and Hiten and they’ll be happy to give you their two cents.   

00:04 – Today’s episode is about how to generate your first thousand dollars in revenue with your startup

08:38 – Hiten likes using Stripe

10:15 – Figure out the payment process as you go along

13:32 – Charging for your product is the biggest validation for your product

14:03 – If you are an entrepreneur, put a plan together and share it with Hiten and Steli to get advice

3 Key Points:

To get your first thousand dollars, do the math—Charge a thousand from one customer or break up the revenue goal by a number of customers.

Steli Efti:

Hi, everyone, this is Steli Efti.

Hiten Shah:

And this is Hiten Shah.

Steli Efti:

In today's episode of the startup chat we're going to talk about how to make  or generate your first $1,000 in revenue with your startup, all right. This kind of  fits nicely into the first little eBook that we'll put together, 0 to 1,000 Customers  & Beyond, and some of the prior episodes that we've done on how to get  your first ten customers, how to get your first 100 customers and all that, and  we know that people really appreciate a lot of that, so I wanted to talk  with you specifically reframe the conversation, see what kind of differences it will make in the tactics and the advice that we give on generating your first money. Right, so  and I think that this will be equally important for the venture backed startups or  the startups that have bigger teams that want to do huge things, but maybe the  people that are self-funded or maybe the solo founders out there that are listening to  us, and I know there are a lot of them out there,

In this episode, Steli and Hiten talk about luck. Did that CEO experience huge growth just because he was lucky? Or did they tank because they were unlucky? The question of luck or a lack thereof is dependent on the belief and attitude of the individual. Steli was asked directly whether luck played a role or not in the success of one’s startup. Steli and Hiten share their two cents on the topic of luck and express why we need to foster an attitude of gratitude.

00:04 – Today’s episode is about luck

07:10 – Hiten believes everything happens for a reason and to think about luck means forgetting about the reason

07:32 – If you know WHY something happened, then it is not because of luck or a lack thereof; in this case, your attitude towards an event is important in determining what you will do about it

09:38 – Steli realized that he did not know much about how the company grew and the role that guy played in those early years    

10:15 – Attributing someone’s success to luck is based on a lack of information about someone and it is lazy to think this way

11:28 – It is better to calculate why we consider a person lucky

11:56 – Hiten says we don’t really know the causes of what happens to us in life and that is why the word luck exists

3 Key Points:

A belief in luck depends on a person’s attitude.

Steli Efti:

Hey, everyone. This is Steli Efti.

Hiten Shah:

And this is Hiten Shah and on today's episode of the Startup Chat we're going  to talk about luck and Steli's going to start because he's the one that inspired  this thing. I got a lot to say on my side. I can't wait.

Steli Efti:

Here's the deal. Somebody asked me, "What role does luck play in startup success?" That  question was not that difficult for me. I was like, "I think it does play  a role. How much is so difficult to say. How you define luck and the context around what you view as luck versus what you view as just opportunity that  you were prepared for. It's very individual way of how you and I interpret events  in life and yada, yada, yada." Eventually I was like, "You know, I do think  it plays a role there.

In this episode, Steli and Hiten talk about how to communicate with your customers during a crisis. Hiten shares how Crazy Egg handled a crisis with humor and how Steli used his recent crisis as an opportunity to become more transparent with his customers and build trust. Tune in to find out the importance of staying truthful to your customers during a crisis, why it’s not the time to make promises, and the art of being empathetic, not apologetic in handling a crisis.

00:09 – Today’s episode is about how to communicate with your customers during a crisis

01:08 – One of the technology providers of Steli’s had major downtime that affected a massive amount of their customers

02:06 – For Steli, it was funny from 2 perspectives

02:08 – First, it was amusing how the tech provider communicated with Steli

03:00 – Hiten had a crisis with Crazy Egg which was built on Ruby on Rails

03:18 – The technology on Ruby on Rails wasn’t multi-threaded

05:29 – One of the engineers who was also a game designer, thought of putting a game on the website when it went down

05:45 – When there’s an issue, you want the experience to still be engaging and almost distracting

06:55 – People tend to lie and be dry in answering about issues or a crisis

07:20 – Don’t lie and make promises because the pressure will be on you

07:52 – Don’t write to customers like you’ve consulted a lawyer before replying

08:03 – Talk to your customers like a human being

08:21 – Steli would email their customers personally, like he’s talking to them personally

10:05 – The most powerful thing you can do during a crisis is to show up and be available

11:38 – Don’t use corporate speech and tell people what happened

15:03 – Find a language that is not apologetic, but empathetic

16:26 – Once you resolve the problem, the work isn’t done yet

16:34 – You have to let your customers know what happened in detail

17:14 – Being in a crisis is a risky situation,

In this episode, Steli and Hiten talk about the importance of design, especially in the early stages of your startup. Hiten shares how easy it was to stand apart from the crowd just 12 years ago. Now, a good design is so easily and conveniently made and copied. So, just how much attention should we put towards having a creative and beautiful design? According to Steli and Hiten, that depends. Tune to find out the importance of taking cues from your target market and how your ability to solve a problem should always come before a pretty design.

00:09 – Today’s episode is about why design is important in the early stages of your startup

02:47 – On the other hand, if you are building a product for designers, you have to consider that there is a level of design you need

03:06 – The context of who your customer is matters

09:36 – People tend to copy popular products

10:16 – Base Camp keeps on changing their design

12:16 – Get closer to your customer and gain insight from them; make them the source of your inspiration

14:25 – Facebook was focused on “un-designing” and wanted to have as little design as possible—the clean format worked for them

3 Key Points:

The design of your product should be dependent on your target market—therefore, draw your inspiration from your customers.

The post 213: The Value of Good Design in an Early Stage Startup appeared first on The Startup Chat with Steli & Hiten.

In this episode, Steli and Hiten talk about how to do customer surveys. Hiten put out a customer survey that was answered by one of their podcast listeners—long story short—this podcast listener was BLOWN AWAY by how Hiten designed his survey. Listen in as Hiten shares about the 6-question survey, why it was effective in getting people to answer, and how it led to 700 responses and 52 follow up interviews to inform his next product.

00:17 – Today’s episode is about how to do customer surveys

01:04 – While answering one of Hiten’s customer surveys, he was also analyzing how the questions were sequenced and how they were asked

02:22 – Hiten had an email list called Product Habits and he rebranded it this year

03:51 – Hiten calls this Early Access Lift Off and this guarantees success because you are learning even before you build a product

04:43 – The document sharing and creation space is Hiten’s new business idea and they decided to include everyone on the email list

08:27 – People are much more likely to share their opinion when you ask them for it

09:11 – The title of the question and the call to action is the same: share your opinion

13:58 – “What is your single biggest challenge when it comes to creating and sharing documents?”

15:11 – Since they will share everything, Hiten thought they should make a really good survey

16:13 – They included a call to action wherein they said that if you’d like to be interviewed, you will get 5 minutes of advice about whatever you want in the end

17:02 – The survey had 700 responses

3 Key Points:

When writing the script for surveys—ask for their OPINION, not for their feedback.

In this episode, Steli and Hiten talk about the tricky aspect of giving equity. While there is no standard way to give equity as companies follow their own rules, there are norms that you can choose to follow—especially if you are just starting. Listen as Steli and Hiten give their tips on how you can negotiate equity with your team members, what a fair offer would be for early startups, and how such a deal communicates TRUST and a long-term relationship, at the end of the day.

00:07 – Today’s episode is about how to give equity to team members

01:20 – There are norms on how equity is given: the year cliff and four year vesting

02:24 – There are other rules for other companies  

06:55 – Giving it too early, even before they prove their effectiveness in the company, is bad for your business

08:03 – Equity is not really meaningful in the early stages of the company

09:21 – The earlier on someone is part your company the more equity they should get, especially if they are holding a senior role

10:15 – Steli knows of a company that gives as little equity as they can get away with to their early employees, but thinks this can easily be rectified

12:03 – It is almost impossible to renegotiate a lower equity

12:18 – Be thoughtful about how much you are giving away as it would be better to give less rather than more to avoid a problem

14:30 – Ask if you can trust the founders or if they are easily fooled by someone else

15:58 – Tap into the best practices and educate yourself; be thoughtful, fair, and balanced in giving out equity

3 Key Points:

There are no clear cut rules in giving equity, but there are norms or standards that can be used as a guide.

The post

Does affiliate and referral marketing really work? In this episode, Steli and Hiten share their thoughts, tips, and experiences using this strategy and how it’s impacted their customer acquisition. You’ll find out the importance of asking for that one good referral and learn about Steli’s referral marketing strategy that works like a charm.

00:07 – Today’s episode is about affiliate marketing and referral marketing

00:51 – It is about getting your existing customers to refer your product or service to others

01:18 – Steli asks Hiten if they have done affiliate marketing programs for his SaaS products

01:55 – Hiten has tried and failed trying this strategy with Crazy Egg

03:14 – Referral programs, when done right, can be effective - Uber, Lyft or Post Maid have referral programs and are successful at it

10:07 – If they do, it is weak

10:35 – Steli tells his customers that they cannot buy from him if they do not refer his product, especially if they are satisfied with it

10:50 – Steli explains that happy customers refer him to other happy customers; and they will agree to refer him because he can focus on providing them a service rather than marketing to other customers

14:15 – Make referrals as part of the sales process from the beginning