The Startup Chat with Steli and Hiten

In today’s episode of The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about starting a Startup during the COVID-19 pandemic.

During the COVID pandemic, there’s going to be a lot of people thinking about starting a new Startup. However, whether now is a good time or now to start is a question that needs to be answered.

In this episode, Steli and Hiten talk about if this is the right time to start a Startup, why there’s never a good or bad time to start, what to consider if you’re starting something right now and much more.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:00 About the topic of today’s episode

00:23 Why this topic was chosen.

01:37 If this is the right time to start a Startup.

02:22 Why there’s never a good or bad time to start.

02:34 How the world is very different right now.

04:38 Why this is a good time to start.

07:44 What to do differently if you started now.

09:05 Why cash flow is more important right now.

10:16 Why “nice to haves” are off the table.

11:57 What to consider if you’re starting something right now.

3 Key Points:

• I don’t think there’s ever a good or bad time to start a Startup.
• The world is different.
• There’s more access to information right now than in 2008.

[0:00:00]

Steli Efti: Hey everybody. This is Steli Efti.

[0:00:03]

Hiten Shah: And this is Hiten Shah.

[0:00:05]

Steli Efti: And today on The Startup Chat we’re going to talk about starting a startup during COVID-19. Basically the idea, if we have to start a new company or a startup right now, no co-founders yet, no money, no product. Would we do it? Would we think that, with what we know about entrepreneurship, would we think that this is a good time or would we want to wait until whenever the economy’s better? And if we thought that now is a good time to start something, how would we go about it? How would we think about it? Is there anything different about starting a startup right now during this kind of special time in history around the world? Would we approach in any way differently than we usually would? I thought that it’d be a fun topic to talk about. It probably is going to have a few golden nuggets for people. So let’s get the first question out of the way because I think that’s going to be an easy one. You never know, especially with when you talk to Hiten Shah, but is this a good time to start a startup or a bad time to start a startup? What’s your reaction to that if I asked you, “Hiten, I have entrepreneurial ambitions, but I wonder if this is the right time for me to start something.”

[0:01:16]

Hiten Shah: Yeah, great question. It’s just a great question because the circumstances, like this has happened before, right? So there’s like the 2000s, and this is particularly in tech, so there’s the 2000s and there’s like the 2008 kind of housing bubble thing. And then I think the next one was right now. And these are all times when people are like, “Should I start something? Should I not?” People start talking about it. The one thing that like fascinating to me with this question as I think about it right now is, first I don’t think there’s ever a good time or a bad time. So I think it’s false to think it’s good or bad. But for some reason it comes to people’s minds when the world is going to shit and they’re like, “Oh, is this a good time?” It’s never a good time. Is this a bad time? Well, it’s never a bad time. I think it’s like whatever time works for you. Meaning whatever it comes to mind or whatever circumstances dictate that you have to find other options in whatever you were doing, like you’re laid off. So that’s where I’ll start. But I think there’s a big thing that I haven’t thought about till now that really hit me right now, which is, the world is different. Every one of those times, the world was different. You’re talking about like 2000, then eight years later, and now 12 years later, and we’re like 20 years from 2000, which many of us weren’t actually working at the time. I was in college at the time. I was definitely working, but I was in college, I wasn’t in the market, so to speak. And it’s something that I feel like there’s more access today to information than in 2008. Definitely than in 2000. There’s more information. There’s more people on the internet. There’s all these factors that were different every one of those three times. And this time in particular, anyone who wants to start something, especially in the last five years, I would have just told them, “Yeah, just do it.” You want to do it, just do it, give it a shot. Your chances are better than ever. So I don’t really believe there’s a good time or a bad time.At the same time more people on the intern...

In today’s episode of The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about how to get good at taking critical feedback.

Sometimes we need other people’s feedback or opinion on something that we are working on, this is perfectly normal and can help you improve what you’re working on. However, some people are not good at taking other people’s feedback and this can lead to negative reactions from that person or worse.

In this week’s episode, Steli and Hiten talk about why you shouldn’t take anything personally when it comes to feedback, how to get better at taking feedback, how to give feedback to someone so that they don’t take it personally and much more.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:00 About today’s topic.

00:33 Why this topic was chosen.

01:04 Something Steli is very sensitive about.

02:01 An example of someone who doesn’t take feedback well.

03:23 Why you shouldn’t take anything personally when it comes to feedback.

04:05 What makes people good at taking feedback.

05:06 How to get better at taking feedback.

05:21 How to give feedback to someone so that they don’t take it personally.

06:04 What to think about when you give feedback.

08:07 Why it might be better to ask for someone’s opinion instead of feedback.

3 Key Points:

• I’m very sensitive to people that ask for feedback but can’t take it.
• When it comes to feedback, don’t take anything personally.
• Start learning how to ask for feedback.

[0:00:00]

Steli: Hey everybody, this is Steli Efti.

[0:00:04]

Hiten: And this is Hiten [Shah 00:00:04].

[0:00:05]

Steli: And today on the Startup Chat, we’re going to talk about how to learn to take critical feedback well. And to learn from critical or even sometimes negative feedback. Here’s why I wanted to talk about this Hiten, where do I start? I think one of the things that I have very little patience for, I’ve gotten better at this in life, but I’m not great at it, is people that have a difficult time. That are asking for feedback but can’t take it. It’s something I’m very sensitive to. I instantly, very quickly I shut down on this. So one second... The thing that I have a difficult time with is people asking for critical feedback. But then when I’m telling them very direct feedback, they don’t want to hear it. They get defensive or they explain or excuse or push back or try to convince me and I’ve gotten a little better. But in general, I’m running out of patience very quickly with that and I instantly disengage. I am very judgmental of this, because in my mind I think you asked me for feedback. I didn’t ask you to convince me that your idea is brilliant. And when I told you what I think of your idea, instead of being curious and asking for more of my thinking, and then you can decide what the fuck you want to do with it. Instead of doing that, you’re now spending all this time trying to convince me of something I don’t want to be convinced and I didn’t even ask for. So I get really annoyed and irritated. And I just recently had a case where a good friend of mine, over long periods of time, multiple times had told me, “Dude, I know you don’t want to give... I know that most people can’t take critical feedback, but I really want you to always be brutally honest. You have to be really direct with me.” And then couple of times after he told me that he wants me to be more honest, more direct with him. Anytime I was direct with him, he spent all this time defending his position and I was really annoyed, until I recently brought it up. So that made me think that, the truth is most people I know are not good at taking critical feedback. I know you’re really excellent at this. I think I’m pretty okay at this. I mean nobody’s perfect, but I think I’m pretty good at this. And when people give me critical feedback, you’ll never hear me argue or excuse or explain. I usually shut the fuck up and I just ask for more. And then I’ll go and I’ll ponder it and I’ll figure out what to do with that feedback. But I wonder why are some people good at this and some people don’t. What do you have to learn to be good at taking feedback? And maybe you have a completely different point of view, which often you do. And you give a lot of people critical feedback as well. Or people ask you for your honest feedback on things. How do you think about this? Asking for critical feedback and honest feedback and then how you deal with it. How do you respond to it in the best possible way? What’s your thinking about that?

[0:03:15]

Hiten: So, I think when it comes to feedback, if you’re the giver, I think the framework I use, it’s basically the idea that is outside of just feedback. But I think a ver...

In today’s episode of The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about questions to ask yourself during this crisis.

In times of crisis, especially one like the COVID 19 crisis, where anxiety is so universal, it’s important to ask yourself certain questions so that you recognise when you might be exhausted and there’s no good answer or solution to a challenge you’re facing.

In today’s episode, Steli and Hiten talk about what the concept of a wartime CEO means, why there’s no such thing as a peacetime CEO, the right way to think about this concept and much more.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:00 About today’s topic.

00:36 Why this topic is important.

02:56 Why this particular crisis is unique.

03:53 Questions to ask when you think you’re tired.

04:50 How we sometimes ask ourselves questions that don’t have an answer.

05:57 Good questions to ask that can be helpful.

07:54 A question Steli asks his mum now.

10:00 Why Hiten switched to focusing on luck rather than gratitude.

12:03 The difference between gratitude and luck.

13:28 How focusing on what you feel lucky about can give you a new perspective on life.

3 Key Points:

• I can’t tell you why I’m exhausted.
• When you go through a time like this when anxiety is so universal, it’s literally in every interaction.
• We’ve never had a crisis at this scale before.

[0:00:00]

Steli Efti: Hey everybody. This is Steli Efti.

[0:00:04]

Hiten Shah: And this is Hiten Shah. Today on The Startup Chat, we’re going to talk about good questions to ask yourself during these uncertain times. I think this is a important topic. I will tell you why and get personal, but we always get personal on this anyway. I had a friend text me the other day, text me something of the nature of like, “I don’t know, man. I’m just tired today.” He was like, “I feel like I’m tired every night.” And it’s a friend of mine that wouldn’t tell anybody else that. I texted him and I’m someone who really wouldn’t tell anybody else that either.

[0:00:51]

Steli Efti: Yes. [crosstalk 00:00:52].

[0:00:53]

Hiten Shah: I told him, “You know what? Me too.” Then I texted him and this was the night before last, literally very fresh. I texted him last night and I’m like, You know what? I feel the same today as well.” He’s like, “Yeah, me too. He’s someone like you Steli, where I’ll tell him anything privately and we’ll chit chat publicly sometimes and stuff like that. I understand where he’s coming from when he says it to me because there’s a lot of... He’s just resilient. He’s seen lots of different things in the past. Someone like you, right? We just have this common either experiences or way of dealing with the world. I’ve just been wondering, how do you still... Of course it’s okay to feel that, but how do you ask yourself questions to just recognize when you might just be exhausted and there’s no good answer. Because I can’t tell you why I’m exhausted at night. He can’t explain why he is either. There’s just a lot going on in the world.

[0:02:18]

Steli Efti: Yeah, it’s interesting. It’s not just a lot going on in the world in the abstract. I think that when you go through a time like this where anxiety is so universal and uncertainty is so universal, it’s literally in every interaction. It’s in the hello goodbye. It’s even in small interactions that seem harmless and positive. The underlying energy exchange between all humans right now in varying degrees is always, no matter what we’re saying, we’re also probably communicating, “I’m anxious. I’m stressed. I’m worried. I feel uncertain. I’m not sure what’s going to happen next.” That, we’ve just never had that at this scale where almost everybody we interact with feels that, right? And therefore also communicates that verbally or non-verbally with each other all day long and all that is raining onto us and is amplifying those feelings. One thing I just remembered a long time ago, I think I had told you once, because you are in the small circle of people that I will tell things to that I won’t tell to most people. I think I told you that day like, “Dude, I’m tired.” You’re like, “Dude, you’re not tired. You’re just bored.” I’m like, “Huh?” Just think about it differently. When I say I’m tired, I just tell myself maybe I’m bored. “Are you bored?” I was like, “Huh?” It was such a mind twister. I’ve never forgotten that. That made such an impression on my fucking mind that any time, any time I think I’m tired, I go, “Am I bored?” Sometimes I’m like, “Damn you Hiton. I’m just tired. I’m definitely not bored today.” But I always check myself, “Are you sure you’re not bored...

Today on The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about how to ruin your reputation during a crisis.

In times of crisis, like the current COVID 19 situation, a lot of people will panic and act in a way that would ruin the reputation of themselves or that of their brand. So you want to be very careful how you treat people in times like these so as not to cause bigger problems for yourself when the crisis is over.

In today’s episode of the show, Steli and Hiten talk about Steli’s recent experience with a desperate salesman, Hiten’s thoughts on this particular experience, how treating people desperately and sleazy can ruin your reputation and much more.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:00 About today’s topic

00:42 Why this topic was chosen.

03:15 Steli’s recent experience with a desperate salesman.

07:12 Hiten’s thoughts on this particular experience.

08:22 How this is an unusual experience.

09:10 Why the devil is in the detail.

09:44 What was wrong about this person’s approach.

10:32 The second thing that was wrong with this person’s approach.

12:16 The importance of communicating your value.

12:34 How treating people desperately and sleazy can ruin your reputation.

3 Key Points:

• During a crisis, people will sometimes show their true colours.
• Some people have been consistent over the years that anything they do is not surprising.
• The devil is in the detail.

[0:00:01]

Steli Efti: Hey everybody, this is Steli Efti.

[0:00:03]

Hiten Shah: And this is Hiten Shah.

[0:00:05]

Steli Efti: And today with The Startup Chat, we’re going to talk about how to ruin your reputation during a crisis, or what not to do, so that you build a strong and positive reputation in the marketplace during a crisis. So let me set the scene real quick. The reason why I wanted to talk about this is twofold. One, a common acquaintance of both Hiten and mine, did something a couple of days ago that has ruined his reputation with me, and we were just chatting about that. But that also sparked this thought, that during a crisis I think people will sometimes show their true colors and true face, but maybe sometime impulsively just act weird. And underestimate the damage that you can do to yourself and your brand, during this difficult time, when you act selfishly, or out of order, or do shitty stuff, right? Because you’re in a panic, or because you feel pressure, or because you’re stressed. So I felt like it might be a good idea to talk about that a little bit. I’ll summarize my story, and then maybe we dissect it, and try to highlight some learnings for our listeners, that they can take away from this. So the thing that happened with this common acquaintance between Hiten and I, is that this is somebody that has been friendly with me, and I’ve been friendly with him online for many, many years. Once in a while he needed help with something, I try to help when I could. Once in a while I asked for help, he tried to help when he could. Just very casual, very like twice a year email exchange, everything’s cool. And then recently this guy has a podcast, and I have been meaning to be booked on a bunch more podcasts, to promote a new book that we’re going to have coming up. And so we had somebody on the marketing team reach out to a couple of these podcasts that I’ve been on, and a few that I hadn’t been on yet, but that I’m kind of friendly with the hosts. And so my team reaches out to him to book me on his podcast, if he’d be interested in that. And in response, he sends me a message and basically goes, “LOL. Do these cold emails work to be a podcast guest?” Now to give some context on this, Hiten and then I know a lot about this. We have a podcast, there’s not a week where we don’t get cold emails from people that want to be guests on it. And for us it’s special LOL, because we are one of the rare podcasts that doesn’t do guests, right?

[0:02:46]

Hiten Shah: It was very silly, yes.

[0:02:48]

Steli Efti: We always laugh at this. So I do get it, right. I do get that he was like “LOL. Do these emails work?” And then I responded and said, “Hey, we only do this with people I’ve been on before with people I know.” And so far they’ve worked pretty well. And then we exchanged some pleasantries, and I asked him if he’s fine. He was like, “Everything’s fine.” And then he asked me, and I was like, “Everything is good.” And that’s that. And in my mind that was that. He made a little bit of fun of me, that’s cool. I have no problem with that, I get it. And then since he didn’t offer, and didn’t say, “Yes, I’m interested, let’s do it.” I just assumed he’s not....

In today’s episode of The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about how to make plans during 2020.

With everything that has happened in 2020, you’d be forgiven if you chose to describe this year as the year of crisis. With this crisis comes uncertain and it can be quite challenging to make long-term plans in uncertain times like these.

In today’s episode, Steli and Hiten talk about if you should make plans in 2020, how you should plan in this year, why your timelines have to be shorter during a crisis and much more.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:00 About today’s topic.

00:42 Why this topic was chosen.

01:33 Should you make plans in 2020?

02:43 How you should plan in 2020.

04:19 Why your timelines have to be shorter during a crisis.

04:59 How Steli currently makes his plans.

06:04 The right way to approach crazy times like these.

08:00 How Hiten approached the crisis.

11:59 How teams could deal with high pressure.

12:12 How you can adapt to the uncertainty.

3 Key Points:

• You’re just planning, but not as far ahead as you normally would.
• 2020 isn’t done with us.
• During a crisis, your timelines have to be shorter

[0:00:01]

Steli Efti: Hey everybody, this is Steli Efti.

[0:00:03]

Hiten Shah: And this is Hiten Shah.

[0:00:05]

Steli Efti: And today on The Startup Chat, we’re going to talk about how to make plans during 2020. So, making good plans is always challenging, but I find 2020, I mean... 2020 is a particular, unique year, in that it probably is a more challenging year for companies and startups and founders to make any sort of plan that people might have real confidence in, especially if it’s a longterm plan. So I’ve encountered this a couple of times this year already with friends that I thought it might be useful for the two of us to unpack this for our listeners, which is, “What the hell do you do?” If you run a startup, if you’re a founder and you want to plan, should you, in 2020? Are plans completely useless? Are they totally useful? And how should you think about making plans kind of the way that we approach this and the things that we’ve seen work well? I thought might help founders keep their sanity and hopefully accomplish more of the things they want to accomplish, even during an outstandingly crazy year like 2020. So, first of all, let me ask you this question. 2020, should we still make plans or would you advise anybody to stop making plans because this year is too nuts?

[0:01:29]

Hiten Shah: So, the... The... I’ve had, like, two or three conversations specifically about this, and I’ve shared something that... By the time I have two or three and I get the same question, and it’s a new question, I tend to like, have some kind of way to think about it or, like, you know, I’m driven crazy, you know? So I think that’s a really good question. The way it worked for me, and the way I was approaching this, not too long ago is I... Hang on, I just need to fix my mic. So I basically... When the sort of pandemic came along, I was taking things in a sort of hour by hour adjustment period, so to speak. So everything to me was thrown out the door because now all of a sudden, there’s this virus that we’re all dealing with and we have to sort of figure out what that means for us. And so I was taking it hour by hour because new information was coming in. This is like all up to about Shelter in Place. And then after Shelter in Place, I think the first few days were very similar and our, by “our”, meaning, like people were consumed with the news about it. Nobody knew what was going on obviously, and what was going to happen to us as a society like overall. Like what’s next? And then basically I... I realized that I was then going day to day and after that I was going week to week and I barely got to like a month ahead. And then the protests started and the rioting and kind of... And then it got global. And then I got back to like almost an hour by hour, just making sure that like, you know, people I knew were safe and accounted for and were kind of, you know, taking care of themselves and then more news kept coming in and opinions and all these other things. And then I went to about day by day. And right now, I’m still at about day by day. I think I’m about to be week by week soon, maybe starting next week. And what that means is you’re just planning not as far ahead as you normally would. Because oftentimes we’re planning the month, the quarter, the year. I don’t think we can do that. And it’s not because I expect anything new to show up, but I definitely, more than ever, expect the unexpected.

[0:04:12]

Steli Efti<...