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Building GenAI stuff (Prev led & grew SaaS products at Zoho) • Building thefoundersfoyer.com for founders & creators • Creating AI films & exploring voice, video AI • Product Mentor @ Stanford Seed
How is it to have ideas constantly bustling inside your mind? One day you want to kickstart a new project and just by the evening, you want to build another idea out. Navigating this path of building things for fun, also aligned with monetization and community goals is definitely a huge challenge.
I sat down recently with Sharath Kuruganty, a seasoned creative builder who loves exploring ideas, shipping things quickly, and iterating and learning from feedback. Sharath’s experiences go so wide—from helping creators launch stuff at Product Hunt, to growing communities with OnDeck, interviewing underdogs on his podcast, and building out products like shoutout.so, GuestLab.ai, he’s a complete creator-product package.
We chatted about a personal favorite topic—how to deal with 'fragile' creativity, how not to let failure deter creative ambitions, and why being 'content but not satisfied' is a great way to pursue success. All through his creative pursuits and product building, Sharath kept his focus on a singular goal and let all the bets add up to that. That's the most powerful way to deal with failures too, he says, just as he unpacks a bunch of his fails-turned-learnings too. Tune in!
It's done very delicate to associate creativity with mistakes because one small thing that goes wrong, you immediately start obsessing about it and you kind of carry that hurt or remorse along with you. So it's it's, I feel like it's always a fine balance that you deal with creativity without also letting any small setbacks affect that creativity and and sort of get the bigger picture out there. So how do you see the relationship between create being creative and also like learning from mistakes and how do you keep? What's going together? I don't think you need to give you. I think first of all, I feel everybody needs to. Chill the F out. You know you should. You should not take life too seriously about you know, the things you try. Uh. And I think in order to you to get there, I think you need to be very content with what you have and not satisfied with what you want to achieve, right. So it's a different big difference. What you have is you have everything you need, right? Like for example you have. You have a life, you have a family and you basically like every every basics that you need so. Be content with what you have. But don't get satisfied with what you have and right try to basically aim for what you want. So that is something that that should drive you, right, I feel yeah, once you. So I think Naval said this famously, which I think is really, really. On spot and it's so powerful. He says have one desire. In. Suffer on the desire. Idiot. So I think what I what he means by that is. Basically have one one of the things that you really, really, really want or really kind of, you know, umm. Dream about or whatever that things. That is actually your ambition, right? Have one ambition. And everything that's not going well with the ambition you can suffer. You can basically take the hit like you said. Uh, get hurt like, you know, feel bad about, like everything. Everything else is immaterial. So say for example, you're launching your event, say for example, your biggest dream is like build a build business, build a startup will be a founder, right? Yeah. And in that process you are kind of taking, you're launching a side project. It failed. You shouldn't necessarily. Be heard for that one move because it's not going to actually impact the bigger dream, right, right. So if someone wants to run a marathon and he or she started like, you know, running a five mile hike, for example. And he didn't. He or she didn't make it the time he set up. That's not the, that's not the end point. So I feel if you try to convert. Or try to shift your mindset where? Your whole focus is on one that on one big dream, whatever it is, right? You will start treating failure completely differently because that's when it becomes experiments, or that's where it becomes lessons. And. Everything will be like so you'll you'll tend to fail more because you're not treating yourself as a failure. You give more opportunities yourself and which actually eventually makes you become more creative or. Make you makes you become more smart, makes you become more wiser because you are taking. You're learning, you're being you're, you're in that machine of. Doing a thing, either it's a failure or success. You learn something, you kind of do another thing, you know, so you can keep on moving towards that. So. I feel that's how I think we should be rewarded. Have one ambition, you know, don't have multiple so you can have. You can have like, I want to be a millionaire and I want to build a business and I have a I have to have like a, you know, a podcast which successful and I have to have something. So you you can have 10 different dreams in. You can basically like, you know, go towards them. Right, because you'll be so distracted. So I think the best thing to do is have one thing. Achieve that. In in that process, take those shots. Whatever it is, take those actions. And if it is failing, learn from it, because you're not. You're eventually you will, you will see it set yourself to go there. That's the whole point, so. I think that's how I think, you know, I view. For example, last year. I launched. I think 2-3 projects. In every everything was a failure. If if you if you describe it like I launched an AI product called Booby, it got like good. Wait list and all that. More than 1600 people was on the list and all that, but it never took off. No, nobody actually tried to like pay, you know. So, umm, I launched another thing called Next Step, a community of second time founders. Nobody actually took a. Uh, look at seriously. So that's a failure in a way, right? So I think yeah. But you still have to go keep on going. And I launched this thing called Guest Lab and the first I think 60 days. I didn't get any signs, you know, but I think after like. After like two months or so, we launched MVP and all that and then we got our first paying customer was like, OK. Yeah. So you basically have to make a gradual process of taking shots, learning from it, improving yourself. You make mistakes. I think it's fine, I think, right, without making mistakes. If you're not making mistakes, I think you're not learning a lot. So. You just basically like, you know, convert that mindset or turn flip the page and say that I'm in the process of. Going after one big thing. Right. I really don't care about like all the. You know, slide. Ohh, missteps or mistakes or whatever you wanna call it doesn't matter right? Because I want my end goal is there. So put your focus there. And everything will be like, you know, you'd be basically chill. You will be chilled out because you don't panic. That's how I think. One of the ways to at least, yeah. Encounter anxiety as well, like kind of, you know, resolve that. Because when you remind yourself that that is the goal and everything in between is kind of, you know, it's a process of the journey.
Rise & Grind Time!
Get ready to crush the week ahead with actionable insights, inspiring stories, and a healthy dose of motivation.
Here’s what’s hot this week:
1. Podcasts Generate Warm Leads
2. Sales Hack
3. Overselling
4. IG is Now Letting Users Go Live with Close Friends
5. Sierra Mist Forgets to Renew Trademark
6. Google Stops Continuous Scroll
Let's get this grind started!
Safi’s season of ‘quests’ continues -
I've been helping Jake Hurwitz and the Thursday Labs team ascend to the next phase.
We make it so 1hr-a-week from you returns a 20-episode podcast that's chunked into engaging short-form video and distributed across every channel you can think of.
And it's not just about quantity, our clients have interviewed some of the most impressive people in the world. Those conversations have led to customers, investors, and partners. It's sneakily a relationship-building growth hack.
During our time together, we’ve:
1. Helped our clients grow from ~150k-250k organic eyeballs to 500k-4M organic eyeballs across their first 8 episodes
2. accionvegana the entire content production operation into Notion, reducing the logistical burden of the team when creating content, and clients when approving it, by ~5x.
3. Cemented aspects of our culture, like compensating every applicant for their time and investing in our JDs to attract the right people. This led to quickly hiring excellent writers Joanne and Jonah and finding top-tier candidates for our Head of Network position.
All to say, we're ready to help more founders and funds become famous for just 1 hour a week.
Reach out if you’re interested in starting a show that gets you in front of customers, investors, and partners or being a guest on an existing show.
Website in the comments.
Recruitment & Career Development Adviser | Empowering German Companies with Global Talent | Building Diverse Teams & Strong Career Paths | My Career Growth Planner 2025 - Link in profile
We often want to do everything “perfectly,” but this can stop us from even starting. Recently, I heard a great piece of advice: “Do it just on an ‘ok’ level and improve as you go.” 🌱
This really changed how I think. For example, when I made my first podcast this week, I didn’t have a fancy camera or editing software. 🎙️ I simply used my phone, quickly edited it with the InShot app, and posted it on YouTube. It wasn’t perfect—not even close!
It’s there now, and it already has 250+ views. And that’s ok! 👌
The important thing is that I got it done and put it out there. The process wasn’t perfect, but I learned so much just by doing it. Next time, I’ll make it a little better. Step by step, I’ll keep improving. 🛠️
The lesson? Just start. Don’t wait for everything to be perfect, because it never will be.
Sometimes, “good enough” is better than not starting at all. You’ll learn and grow as you go! 🚀
What’s one project you’ve been holding back because you’re waiting for it to be “perfect”? Share in the comments! 💬👇
#Perfectionism#JustStart#GoodEnough#LearningByDoing#Journey#KeepGrowing#Progress#Perfection#Motivation
I've been in tech for over a decade and have always had multiple streams of income.
Speaking, consulting, podcasting -- there was always some extra cash coming in. I turned the expertise and skills I was building in my career and built on top of that.
But so much of that journey was haphazard.
I never knew if I charging the right prices, never had a plan on how to make more, didn't have a coach to walk me through my options. I just stumbled my way through the multihyphenate, multiple-revenue-stream life, and while it mostly worked out, I can't help but wonder how much easier it could've been, how much more I could've made if I had more guidance, more support.
That's exactly what we're offering next week in our first Big Cash Money workshop.
In a hands-on session, we teamed up with growth and accountability coach Ryan Cox to create an action-packed workshop full of exercises, activities, a workbook to help you figure out how to take your skills and expertise and turn them into additional income streams.
So if you've been thinking about ways to increase your income and want some guidance on getting started, come check it out.
Early bird sale ends today.
Use promo code: BCMEarlyBird for $25 off.
https://lnkd.in/gpn_g8Qi
The Consumption-Creation Harmony: What If?
What if you matched every hour of consumption with an hour of creation?
Picture a world where:
- Your morning playlist inspires a new melody
- A startup podcast sparks a fresh business idea
- A coding tutorial leads to experimenting with a new algorithm
In this balanced reality, your day might look like this:
1. Read a blog post, then write your own insights
2. Watch a tutorial, then practice the skill
3. Listen to a podcast, then record your thoughts
This isn't just about productivity—it's about impact. Each creation, whether it's a line of code, a business strategy, or a musical riff, compounds. It shapes your skills, your product, and ultimately, contributes to the world around you.
When you create more than you consume, you're not just leveling up. You're contributing. You're part of the conversation.
Simple scales. Complexity fails.
In today’s episode of the Woman Owned podcast, we’ll reveal a simple google spreadsheet that helped one woman owner sell her business for multiple millions.
You might be able to relate to Sreejata Chatterjee's story.
Smart woman builds what she thinks will be a great offer.
But the marketing is hard. Sales are slow. And customers don’t stick around that long.
She keeps tweaking with her product and engineering new improved features…but nothing seems to work.
Until, she stops guessing what her customers want…and starts asking them instead.
Almost overnight she sees a 3X increase in sign ups
And a 15X increase in price.
Sreejata Chatterjee is a programmer and computer science genius who co-founded LeadSift (a Foundry company) in 2012.
Leadsift helps B2B companies fill their pipelines using intelligence from publicly available data from social media.
She sold Leadsift in 2021 and as she’s about to share, it was a simple google spreadsheet she built and used to identify her super niche ideal clients that catapulted annual recurring revenue, profits and ultimately, helped her secure a multi-million dollar exit.
In this in-depth interview, you’ll learn:
✅Exactly what process Sreejata used to 3x her signups, 15X her prices and finally start making the money she knew she was capable of
✅How letting go of non-ideal customers allowed her to increase overall customer retention almost overnight
✅The huge oversight she made when she negotiated the sale of her company
✅A big mistake she made when she built her first company that she’s still recovering from
✅And so much more.
Shoutout to Katelyn Bourgoin 🧠 whose customer insights genius is referenced in the episode.
And to ACOA - APECA's Martin Braganza who gets shouted out in the discussion as well.
Sreejata is wise, humble and a great example of a woman who put in the work to build a solid business, and was able to cash in on the other side.
Link to the case study interview is in the comments!
𝐖𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐌𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝-𝐂𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐬 𝐃𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐋𝐢𝐟𝐞?
𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐒𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐓𝐨𝐨𝐥 𝐖𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠
Most people aren't great at making decisions, no matter their job or experience.
I learned about the Decision Register from Shaan Puri, host of the greatest podcast of all times My First Million, and it's a game-changer.
𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭'𝐬 𝐚 𝐃𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐑𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫?
A list of your big choices
Helps you make better decisions
𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐢𝐭:
Write down your big decision
Note if it felt important then
Write the main reason for your choice
Pick a date to check back
Later, write what happened and what you learned
𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐢𝐭 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬:
Makes you think more about your choices
Shows your decision patterns
Helps you learn from past choices
Makes you better at deciding over time
𝐓𝐢𝐩𝐬:
Keep it simple
Be honest
Look at it often
Use for work and personal stuff - I have a separate one for each.
𝐁𝐨𝐧𝐮𝐬: 𝐔𝐬𝐞 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐭𝐆𝐏𝐓 𝐨𝐫 𝐂𝐥𝐚𝐮𝐝𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐥𝐨𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐭:
"𝐻𝑒𝑙𝑝 𝑚𝑒 𝑎𝑑𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑚𝑦 𝐷𝑒𝑐𝑖𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑅𝑒𝑔𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟.
𝑈𝑠𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑠𝑒 ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑠:
𝐷𝑒𝑐𝑖𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛
𝐷𝑖𝑑 𝐼𝑡 𝑆𝑒𝑒𝑚 𝐵𝑖𝑔?
𝑂𝑛𝑒 𝑀𝑎𝑖𝑛 𝑅𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑜𝑛
𝐷𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝐶ℎ𝑒𝑐𝑘 𝐵𝑎𝑐𝑘 𝑊ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝐻𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑑
𝑊ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝐼 𝐿𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑛𝑒𝑑
𝐿𝑒𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑙𝑎𝑠𝑡 𝑡𝑤𝑜 𝑏𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑘 𝑖𝑓 𝑖𝑡'𝑠 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑐ℎ𝑒𝑐𝑘 𝑏𝑎𝑐𝑘 𝑦𝑒𝑡."
Tip: Use voice-to-text apps like Super Whisper or Better Dictation to quickly speak your decision details.
Start your Decision Register today.
An easy way to start is to think about your last 3 big decisions.
Over time you'll make better choices.
Here's simple template for the Decision Register I use (thanks Shaan Puri!):
https://lnkd.in/exaV_5AE
🚀 New BUILD Episode Alert!
🎙️ I Had the chance to sit down with Jason Haugen, a young powerhouse who’s built nine-figure businesses while staying true to what matters. We break down the mindset shift between rich and poor mentalities, especially when it comes to money habits. 💸
Jason dives deep into the lessons learned from flashy buys like that first Rolex – and realizing real wealth is about cash flow, assets, and investing in people and purpose. 🔑
From flipping businesses to building a strong, culture-first team, he shares how self-awareness and sacrifice create the ultimate path to success.
If you’re looking to elevate your mindset, avoid common pitfalls, and build something extraordinary, this episode is for you. 💡💼
🎧 Tune in now! And if this hits home, don’t forget to like, subscribe, and share! Let’s BUILD together.
It's crazy how one simple tweak can take a video from total flop to over 500,000 views within days – 1,000,000+ within weeks! 🚀
I’ll share the exact formula, as it could work for you too.
Back in August, we interviewed Dave "Laundromat Millionaire" Menz, the kind of interview you just know will take off the moment it hits YouTube.
Upload day comes, and we go live… Crickets. 🦗
How could my instincts be so wrong?
I remembered Alok Kanojia MD MPH from Jay Clouse podcast, saying when a video flops, just walk away. But this one? It bugged me.
Dave "Laundromat Millionaire" Menz's story was phenomenal. I knew it had potential. So, I went back and started tweaking the title. Here's my first attempt:
“$1.8M/Year... Are Laundromats Worth the Hype?”
Nothing. Still crickets. 🦗
I tried this:
“Are Laundromats Worth It? (The TRUTH)”
Still… nothing.
Finally, I thought I’d focus more on Dave’s story:
“Turned Little Savings Into $1.8M/Year Business... HOW?!”
Nope. Still no traction!
I finally took Dr. K’s advice and stepped away. While packing for my trip to VidSummit, with my time away from screens, something finally clicked.
The night before my flight, I tried one last title:
“Forget Self-Serve Laundromats! (This is the Future)”
CTR shot past 7%. 📈 VPH (views per hour) started climbing: 60, 120, 300, 1,000, 3,000... At one point, passing 10,000 views per hour! All this within days.
A video stuck at 50K for two weeks is now sitting pretty at over 1,000,000 views!
That’s the power of the right title on YouTube, and here’s how you can replicate this one.
If you’ve got a video challenging a traditional way something is done, give this formula a try:
“Forget [Traditional Way]! (This is the Future)”
or
“Forget [Traditional Way]! ([X] is the Future)”
Found this useful? Had a similar experience with a title change? Let me know in the comments.
#youtube#thumbnail#title
