“Disruption-First” Bull crap
Startup buzzwords like Disruption or change the world are the new word for “Revolution” from Communist era, and they are misleading the entire community
Words have power, starting something small — -> Crawl >Walk > Run
The word disruptions is super used by startup and VC world, but what no one tells is business is supposed to be built for business of earning money and not disruption. Closer to 1–1.5% of startups which claim or was called disruptors have survived over a period of 13 years serving their customers. This a philosophical message over business analysis, let’s not call it disruption un-till the startup makes money and can fuel for it’s disruption, let’s not be left alone over again in another funding winter or fund freeze time frame.
What we can learn from 1000s of protest & so called resulted change in the last 80 years we could apply it to our startup eco system as well. Things work when you diversify and the diversification don’t work on early stage.
The point is both revolution and disruption are words can motivate a rebel or in latter case a entrepreneur to move ahead but the basics
Consistency , Discipline, Simple Business model , Frugal is gonna hell him on 0–10 journey.
Disruption is a word people would use only when you are successful
Before you do that you are “Wired” as you choose to do things differently
Most in our eco system think great products 10X growth born out of great thinking and they need right missionaries backing it. But truly great product come out of the first few 50-100 right step taken by the right steps by right minds who them selves are missionaries.
What needs to be there on that 50–100 steps is great love of oursevles and our customer. Finding what you love and transport that love if possible to the customers.
To the kids I am trying to hire for my future venture, for them startup needs to be with 100X hype growth business all the time, be part of unicorn, be part of disruptor, great culture, Silicon Valley show inspired
For them i given an analogy of love which these kid would be able to relate to,
Saying you want to work in disruptions Its like saying true love only needs to look like this
Then you are overlooking the real super normal boring stable relationship which holds this society together for 500+ years
If you think the Idea your are working on or community or a product you cant wait for a lightning to strike you !!
You will Ignore the day to day small wins which would matter for you and people are around you including your customer.
If you think the disruptions need to be starting with Your story articles and LinkedIn posts
You will overlook a small customer support or l2 bug which would really saved the day for your customers.
You don’t need disruptions all the time, I wish i had told 3 year old my self to stop chasing a wrong dream, we need
I am not saying disruption is all wrong, all I am pointing don’t over hype it, its not greater than customer satisfaction, success or happiness.
I Stick to my day to day wins, with great long term strategy, it keeps me present, grounded and in motion.
Hi I am Gokul Rangarajan, Google Ventures, Ex- Freshworks, Ex-Bigbasket, Ex-Keka HR. I am Senior VC/ Product Manager in SaaS for around 14+ years, Have built & scaled business from scratch to $50M revenue, worked with 50+ Founders on their Product & fundraising journey.
I trying to put out content about Community lead growth on a regular basis, I am also building in public
follow me on Medium
Linkedin : https://www.linkedin.com/in/gokulrangarajan/
Twitter : https://twitter.com/The_Product_VC
