The Startup Chat With Steli And Hiten

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 Ho

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 l

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

In today’s episode of The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about how to stop your customers from churning during COVID-19. During a crisis like the COVID pandemic, it is to be expected that a lot of your customers will cancel their service with you. However, there are some things you can do to reduce the rate at which your customers cancel. In this episode, Steli and Hiten talk about why you should always be working hard to improve your retention, what you shouldn’t be doing during this crisis, what to do to stop churn in this crisis and much more. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:00 About the topic of today’s episode 00:27 Why this topic was chosen. 01:10 Why churn is to be expected. 01:24 Why you should always be working hard to improve your retention. 01:34 What you shouldn’t be doing during this crisis. 03:00 Why you shouldn’t be lazy about trying to stop churn. 03:21 What to do to stop churn in this crisis. 04:10 The importance of talking to your customers. 05:43 Some practical ideas to help you stop churn

In today’s episode of The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about how to instill a sense of urgency in your business. In the startup world, the most successful CEOs tend to be the ones that maintain a sense of urgency in order in their business. They react quickly to market changes, develop new products all the time or add new features to existing ones. And having this sense of urgency is key to the success of their startup. In this week’s episode, Steli and Hiten talk about the meaning of a sense of urgency, how to react in times of crisis, what makes a CEO good at maintaining intensity at all times and much more. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:00 About today’s topic. 00:45 Why this topic was chosen. 01:52 Why Steli knows how to act during a crisis. 02:35 What Steli does during a crisis. 03:22 What Steli struggles with. 04:05 What makes a CEO good at maintaining intensity at all times. 05:06 The meaning of a sense of urgency. 06:25 How to react in times of crisis. 06:55 Why the sales department is an area of

In today’s episode of The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about how to be a good wartime CEO. In times of crisis, companies need strong leadership to make some tough decisions that will help them get through this crisis. However, there is a tendency for some CEOs to use the crisis as an excuse to behave badly towards employees and everyone around them. 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. 00:40 Why this topic was chosen. 01:13 The concept of a wartime CEO. 02:55 Why there’s no such thing as a peacetime CEO. 03:57 How people think about wartime or peacetime in business. 05:07 How your business is always under attack. 05:23 The idea of wartime versus peacetime really means. 06:30 Why context really matters when deciding how to lead. 09:05 The right way to think about this concept. 10:09 How speed is the m

Today on The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about how to notice your own bias. As humans, it’s natural for us to have biases in different ways. However, not noticing these biases can be detrimental to us and cause us to make bad decisions in business and in life in general.  In today’s episode of the show, Steli and Hiten talk about the importance of noticing your own biases, examples of how people can be biased, how people can be irrational during uncertainty and much more. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:00 About today’s topic 00:36 Why this topic was chosen. 01:31 The importance of noticing your own bias. 02:32 Examples of how people can be biased. 04:16 How people can be irrational during uncertainty. 05:09 How every prediction can be right at some point. 06:34 How people don’t like to uncertain. 08:40 Examples of how people can be irrational. 09:13 How people can be unhelpful with their bias. 10:04 How biases can be a defense mechanism against being wrong. 3 Key Points: Noticing one’s bias is sort of a s

In today’s episode of The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about how to negotiate with yourself. Sometimes, we talk ourselves out of doing something that’s good for us or we know we should do. This is a common habit that a lot of founders have, and is known as self negotiation. Tts a sabotaging tactic that keeps us from changing our habits or procrastinating. In this episode, Steli and Hiten talk about why self negotiation is a very interesting concept, when to negotiate with yourself, what negotiating with yourself can look like and much more. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:00 About the topic of today’s episode 00:31 Why this topic was chosen. 01:06 Why this is a very interesting concept. 02:28 Why the biggest impact that we can make is mostly inward and not outward. 03:27 How a lot of people negotiate. 03:49 When to negotiate with yourself.  04:38 Things Hiten does when he negotiates with himself. 05:40 What negotiating with yourself can look like. 08:47 Hiten’s thought process for figuring out what the righ

In today’s episode of The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about how to maintain mental health during a global pandemic. Due to the current coronavirus crisis, a lot of companies are struggling, and this is going to affect so many founders mental health. So it’s important to know how to cope with the current climate an avoid harming your mental health In this week’s episode, Steli and Hiten talk about how this current crisis can affect your mental health, what Hiten is currently doing to take care of his and his family’s mental health, how Steli is coping with in the current crisis and much more.  Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:00 About today’s topic. 00:23 Why this topic was chosen. 01:39 How this current crisis can affect your mental health. 03:48 What Hiten is currently doing to take care of his and his family’s mental health. 04:49 Why Hiten was consuming a lot of content about the crisis early on. 07:22 How everyone has their own wy of dealing with this crisis. 09:13 The importance of knowing when to cope

In today’s episode of The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about how to do product management during the COVID-19 crisis. The current crisis is causing a lot of disruption for many companies, and one area in particular that most companies will be affected is in their product development roadmap. In today’s episode, Steli and Hiten talk about how product development will be affected by this crisis, how this crisis has affected Hiten’s roadmap, if changing your roadmap is a good idea right now and much more.  Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:00 About today’s topic. 00:29 Why this topic was chosen. 01:19 Questions some companies are having right now. 03:02 How this crisis has affected Hiten’s roadmap. 03:42 How this crisis is affecting Google’s Chrome. 05:08 How most companies still work from offices. 06:10 How most companies don’t know how to do product development properly. 07:51 If changing your roadmap is a good idea right now. 08:15 How product launches are going to be very tricky right now. 09:00 Products tha

Today on The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about what we have learned from each other in 500 episodes. After 500 episodes of the podcast, Steli and Hiten dive into what they’ve learned from hosting the podcast over the last 5 years. In today’s episode of the show, Steli and Hiten talk about the very first episode of the show, what Hiten has learned from doing the podcast, why the podcast was started and much more. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:00 About today’s topic 00:12 Why this topic was chosen. 01:15 About the first episode of the show. 02:11 What Hiten has learned from doing the podcast. 03:50 How friendships should be natural. 04:56 The importance of friendships. 06:11 Why the podcast was started. 07:03 What the podcast has allowed the guys to do. 07:40 The nature of Steli and Hiten’s friendship. 09:14 A real gift of the podcast. 3 Key Points: It’s been a wild ride.We don’t talk about our personal lives as much as other things.To me friendship should be natural. [0:00:01] Steli Efti: Hey everybody, t

In today’s episode of The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about how to sell in the current climate. In the current environment, making sales right now is extremely difficult. A lot of sales people will be working from home and that in itself can be very tricky. Also, many businesses are going to be struggling financially and this will hinder your ability to sell your product or service.  In this episode, Steli and Hiten talk about what to do right now if you work in sales, how working from home can be tricky for sales people, tips to help you cope when working from home and much more. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:00 About the topic of today’s episode 00:12 Why this topic was chosen. 01:26 What to do right now if you work in sales. 01:59 The nature of sales. 02:38 How working from home can be tricky for sales people. 03:11 Tips to help you cope when working from home.  05:04 The importance of authenticity when working from home. 05:32 Why you should focus on what you can control. 05:58 Why speed matters a lo

In today’s episode of The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about marketing during the COVID-19 crisis. Due to the current coronavirus crisis, a lot of companies are sending out a bunch of emails to their customers, updating them about how they are handling the situation amongst other things. However, while it may be necessary to do so for some companies, it may not be the case for yours, and if so sending an email out might not be the best thing to do right now.  In this week’s episode, Steli and Hiten talk about how some brands are reacting to the situations, how some brands are using the opportunity to send emails to their customers, what type of marketing is working at the moment and much more.  Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:00 About today’s topic. 00:15 Why this topic was chosen. 00:59 How some brands are reacting to the situations. 02:12 How some brands are using the opportunity to send emails to their customers. 03:16 Brands that should be contacting their customers. 04:20 How FYI is handling the situat

In today’s episode of The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about daring to WFH without losing your mind during the COVID-19 crisis. With the Coronavirus epidemic going on, a lot of companies are being making their teams to work from home. This will inevitably lead to some challenges especially if a company culture and the way it has been set up is not designed for remote work. In today’s episode, Steli and Hiten talk about how there’s been an increase in remote working since the virus broke out, the biggest issues about working from home, why your company culture and how your team is set up matters now more than ever and much more.  Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:00 About today’s topic. 00:21 why this topic was chosen. 01:12 How there’s been an increase in remote working. 02:15 One of the biggest issues about working from home. 02:52 The biggest concern companies have about WFH. 04:08 Hiten big tip for companies dealing with the current situation. 05:10 How Hiten’s team is handling the current situation. 06:19

Today on The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about whether you should be the face of your company. Being the “face” of a startup can be very intimidating for some founders, which is why a lot of prefer to not approach marketing this way. However, being a public CEO or founder can be a very effective way to market a startup. In today’s episode of the show, Steli and Hiten talk about what made them become the face of their companies, examples of companies whose founders are the face of the brands, how to approach this if you’re starting a business today and much more. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:00 About today’s topic 00:12 Why this topic was chosen. 01:55 What made Hiten be the face of his brands. 04:37 How Steli became the face of his brands. 06:11 How Steli created videos in the early days of Close. 06:31 How Steli stumbled in public speaking. 07:01 Example of companies with public faces. 08:17 How to approach this if you’re starting a business today. 08:33 Why you shouldn’t make it complicated. 09:33 Why

In today’s episode of The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about how to give presentations to your team. Internal presentations are very common in the startup world. And while these presentations can be very boring and packed with data, it doesn’t have to be. Learning how to make your presentations exciting will help a long way in communicating your message to your team. In this episode, Steli and Hiten talk about some mistakes people make when they give internal presentations, examples of good presentations, how to improve your presentations and much more. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:00 About the topic of today’s episode 00:29 Why this topic was chosen. 01:23 A big trend in internal communications. 03:20 How to present your data. 03:56 Why your presentations should have context. 04:27 How internal presentations are similar to speaking at conferences.  05:00 An example of how to create good presentations. 07:14 How to improve your presentations. 07:45 How the best presentations have stories in them. 09:10 W

In today’s episode of The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about how to deal with rejection. Rejection is very common. If there’s one thing that is going to happen to you as a founder is that you’re going to be rejected a lot, and this hurts. But just because you’re likely to be rejected when you ask for something shouldn’t stop you from asking. How you deal with rejection can determine if you’ll be successful or not. In this week’s episode, Steli and Hiten talk about how nobody likes being rejected, coping mechanisms that you can use to deal with rejection, the problem with rejection and much more.  Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:00 About today’s topic. 00:23 Why this topic was chosen. 01:08 How Steli doesn’t like to be rejected. 03:13 How Hiten deals with rejection. 04:30 The problem with rejection. 04:50 Why rejection is just an idea. 06:01 Why you need to ask all the time. 07:43 Why your decisions matter. 08:24 Why you shouldn’t put your self worth in someone else hands. 11:00 Tips to help you deal with re

In today’s episode of The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about daring to be different in all that you do, for your future happiness. In a world where most people seem to be doing the same things, being different can be a good thing. It can help you stand out from your competition and lead to you being very successful in future. In today’s episode, Steli and Hiten talk about What it means to be different, why being different takes courage, how being different pays off in future and much more.  Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:00 About today’s topic. 00:33 why this topic was chosen. 00:43 Steli’s initial thought on Hiten’s tweet. 01:39 What prompted Hiten’s tweet. 03:00 Why being different takes courage. 05:46 Why Hiten used to word “dare”. 05:05 What it means to be different. 08:39 How being different pays off in future. 09:07 Why Hiten chose the phrase “future happiness”. 10:34 How being different helps you express yourself better. 3 Key Points: It’s ok to be different.Being different takes courage.Different m

Today on The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about business Intelligence for startups. Handling all the data that you interact with at your startup can be a challenge, and it gets even more complicated as your business grows. It’s important to be on top of your data as things can easily get out of hand for your startup if you don’t. In today’s episode of the show, Steli and Hiten talk about what business intelligence means, questions to answer when you do business intelligence, tools that can help you do business intelligence better and much more. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:00 About today’s topic 00:20 Why this topic was chosen. 03:06 What business intelligence means. 03:48 How you’re always doing business intelligence. 05:12 Questions to answer when you do data intelligence. 06:32 How some companies handle business intelligence 06:43 Why doing data intelligence can be tricky. 08:01 The right way to handle business intelligence. 08:33 Concerns to have when doing business intelligence. 09:14 Tools that can

In today’s episode of The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about 100 ways to count your blessings. Being grateful for the things in your life is key to being happy in your life. The life of an entrepreneur can be super stressful sometimes and we tend to dwell on the things we don’t, which tends to increase our stress levels, versus being grateful for the things we do have.  So in this episode, Steli and Hiten talk about why you should be thankful for what you’ve got, why you should appreciate the people around you, the importance of counting your small blessings and much more. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:00 About the topic of today’s episode 00:13 Why this topic was chosen. 02:18 Why you should be thankful for what you’ve got. 02:47 Why you should appreciate the people around you. 04:23 When to have a moment of gratitude. 04:53 Why you should write down what you’re grateful for.  05:49 The importance of being grateful with somebody else. 06:05 Why you need to find something to be grateful for when you’re fe