✅Do Things That Don’t Scale…(Issue 007)

In today’s Issue 📥 :

• Do Things That Don’t Scale… Then Scale Them!

• Meet Radha Vembu, India’s third-richest self-made woman billionaire in 2022.

• Coca-Cola smartphone is “The Real Thing”

Think outside the scale and do what’s essential, then crank up the volume to make it exponential!

Ralph Waldo Emerson, who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. But Ralph Waldo Emerson would not have been an excellent entrepreneur. He writes, “

“If a man has good corn or wood, or boards, or pigs, to sell, or can make better chairs or knives, crucibles or church organs, than anybody else, you will find a broad hard-beaten road to his house, though it be in the woods.”

Emerson lived 150 years before the iPhone was invented. Many people believe the concept is still relevant today. People will naturally find a better mousetrap if you build one, and your startup will take off.

0 to 1 →

In reality, making a better mousetrap is rarely enough. Being really good isn’t enough. To get from 0 to 1, you usually need to do something extraordinary. It is necessary to solve a problem that others have not solved.

Startups take off because their founders force them to do something that has never been done before. It usually requires some form of a prod to get them moving.

The founder of Y Combinator, Paul Graham, famously talked about this concept in an essay titled “Do Things That Don’t Scale.” It embodies the hustle spirit required by founders to develop a successful business.

What the heck does it mean to do things that don’t scale?

Startups often need to manually recruit their first users, as seen in the cases of Airbnb and Facebook, who had to validate their business models and gain a critical mass of users before expanding. This approach may not be neat or scalable but is necessary to get a new product or feature off the ground and achieve the flywheel effect.

Here are some lessons:

1. Think small before you think big.

Founders frequently want their companies to appear large, so they mimic the shortcomings of large corporations, such as being inattentive to individual users. This appears to them to be more “professional.” However, it is preferable to accept your modest size and capitalize on the benefits it provides.

One advantage of being small is: You can provide a level of service no big company can. Delivering a great customer experience becomes harder as you scale to millions of users.

Running a startup requires a distinct problem-solving approach as it faces daily challenges such as user recruitment and engagement. Startups need to constantly find new and innovative ways to keep users happy. Starting small and experimenting with a small user group can help identify what works before deploying automated solutions for everyone.

2. Do things that don’t scale.

Manually doing things may be scary for some startup founders, but it’s less scary than deteriorating your customer experience and losing consumers.

This may include devising novel approaches to attracting your early adopters. It could include recruitment at conferences, trade exhibits, and college events. Participating in niche online groups, such as subreddits, with others who have similar interests. For a hardware startup, this could mean hand-assembling your first products before investing in automated manufacturing.

3. Scale them!

There may be things in any firm that you believe cannot be scaled, but time has a way of addressing your problem for you. The technical advancement arrow points towards automation and scalability. Algorithms improve as computing costs decrease. Global labor forces enable cost savings. To help your business, an ecosystem of third-party technology emerges.

You may believe that something like a safety program cannot be scaled. However, as long as the fundamental component of your business works — as long as consumers accept it and spend money — a cottage industry of tools will arise, and you will be able to rely on them for nearly-free R&D. You only need to survive the early years of your industry’s development.

HOT SIP

Quench your thirst for innovation with the ‘Real Thing’ – Coca-Cola’s refreshing smartphone!

Realme has put out limited edition smartphones in the past, by partnering with movies like ‘Spiderman: Far from Home’, ‘Dragon Ball Z’ and ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’. According to the brand, the goal of such cooperation is to combine technology with distinctive design. The realme 10 Pro 5G Coca-Cola Edition was recently released by the smartphone manufacturer.

In an interview with afaqs! Madhav Sheth, CEO of realme India and president of realme International Business Group, said, “This is our initiative to offer a smartphone that combines cutting-edge technology with Coca-Cola’s iconic design elements.”

“The aim is to appeal to the consumers, who want both style and functionality in their device. The unique design and the custom UI system bring extra charm and fun to the user experience,” he adds.

According to Counterpoint study, realme remained in fourth place in Q3 2022, with a 14% market share. The brand increased by 2% year on year.

Not so Unique:

The idea of a Coca-Cola-themed smartphone is not unique, as numerous non-smartphone corporations have previously entered the smartphone industry via partnerships and collaborations.

For instance, Oppo partnered with the ‘House of Dragon’ web series to release a special edition. Infinix launched an Avengers edition and iQOO released a BMW edition smartphone as part of its iQOO 9 series.

TG: The younger generation is the target audience for realme’s Coca-Cola edition smartphone. According to Sheth, the brand aims to provide a better product experience for young people by taking into account their needs for design, performance, gaming, and the greatest quality camera at various pricing ranges.

SMALL SIPS

China: China announced on Monday that US high-altitude balloons have violated Chinese airspace more than ten times since the beginning of January 2022.

Must Apologise: BJP MP Nishikant Dubey said today that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi must apologize in Parliament or risk losing his Lok Sabha seat for reportedly making unparliamentary remarks about Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Unethical: “I’m sorry, but I cannot write a cover letter for you,” the new Bing told Huileng Tan, a Singapore-based writer working for Business Insider “That would be unethical and unfair to other applicants.”

Highest Growth: Tata Group is on track to achieve its best growth rate in history, with both unlisted and public firms increasing by 20% or more. Importantly, both conventional and new enterprises have large capital expenditure plans.

Mass Murder: Some people may respond to social creatures gathering on their rooftops by shooing them away, while others may not see it as a problem. The article asks how one would respond to seeing thousands of crows swarming a society’s streets and buildings.

With CHAI ☕

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It’s Interesting: Movie previews are called “trailers” because they were originally shown after the movie.

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