The Startup Chat With Steli And Hiten

In today’s episode of The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about optimizing your funnel no matter what type of funnel it is. When it comes to acquiring new customers online, your funnels are a crucial part of the process. Therefore, optimization is essential if you want to increase conversions and sales. In this week’s episode of The Startup Chat Steli and Hiten talk about what a funnel is, how to optimize it to increase conversions and sales and much more. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:32 What is a funnel. 02:09 How a funnel works. 02:38 Why every business has a funnel. 04:00 Why you should measure every step of your funnel. 05:01 How most founders look at their funnels. 06:07 How to analyze a funnel. 07:21 One thing that isn’t measured enough. 07:40 Why time is one of the key components in improving a funnel an entire business. 11:02 Why it’s important to figure out what percentage of people are signing up and dropping out. 3 Key Points: No matter what stage of business you are, you do have a funnel.

Today on The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about ideas, side projects, and businesses. Steli and Hiten have been in business a long time. It is fair to say that they’ve had a long history of failed side projects, and each failed business idea has taught them valuable business lessons and motivated them to continue trying. In this week’s episode, Steli and Hiten share some business ideas they’ve tried in the past that failed and talk about why they failed. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:00 About today’s topic 00:33 Hiten talks about one of his failed side projects. 01:35 The reason why this topic was chosen. 01:55 A ridiculous ideas Steli tried in the past 03:26 A ridiculous idea Hiten tried in the past 04:17 Another of Steli’s idea that failed. 07:47 An embarrassing idea of Hiten that failed. 08:38 Steli shares another failed idea of his. 10:18 Hiten shares another of his failed ideas. 3 Key Points: Just because you’ve succeeded in the past doesn’t mean you’ll succeed in future I think stackcounter.com

In today’s episode of The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about reaching $1 million in revenue in your startup. Reaching $1 million in revenue for your startup is a number that a lot of entrepreneurs aspire to reach and can seem magical for some. However, reaching this milestone is not easy and sometimes, founders who do, often take it for granted. In this week’s episode, Steli and Hiten share their thoughts on what it takes to reach a million dollars in annual recurring revenue, strategies to help you reach that milestone and much more. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:00 About today’s topic. 00:40 Why this topic was chosen. 02:32 Hiten’s point of view on reaching $1 million ARR. 03:26 Why it’s easier to reach  $1 million ARR. 05:38 The MRR of $1 million in ARR. 06:42 Why you need to be charging a lot of money in order to make your math work if you sell to enterprise. 07:04 Why, due to the time it takes to acquire one, it makes no sense to go after large enterprise customers and charge less than you need to. 0

In today’s episode of The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about inner dialogue. Inner dialogue, also known as talking to yourself or inner talk, is something a lot of us do. On many occasions, the inner dialogue is negative and strengthens any negative attitude or behavior. On the flip side, inner dialogue can also be a positive thing, one that you can use to your advantage as an entrepreneur. Tune in to this week’s episode to hear Steli and Hiten thoughts on what inner dialogue is, what conversations you’re having with yourself, how it impacts you and much more. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:31 About today’s topic. 01:20 Why inner dialogue is technical. 01:50 How inner dialogue is very common. 02:13 The reason why most of us are not aware that we do this. 02:59 What happens once you’re aware that you’re self-talking. 03:11 How Steli became self aware of his inner dialogues. 03:37 Hiten first realization of inner dialogue. 04:18 How reflecting is a form of self-talk. 05:25 How Hiten self-talk has evolved. 06

On today’s The Startup Chat we discuss cold calling. We’ll tell you what cold calling is, why you should do it, and how to do it effectively. Steli is the rock star of cold calling between the two of us. He’ll tell us how he has made cold calling work for him and his business. Cold calling is a channel that can be effective for your customer base. If you have some worries about cold calling or if you’re wondering if cold calling will work for you, then give this episode a try.   Here are today’s points: What is cold calling? Why should you cold call? The 2 questions to ask yourself about cold calling. How to learn if your competitor cold calls. How to get started. The reasons cold calling can be stressful. How to cope with cold calling anxiety. Steli: Hey, everyone, this is Steli Efti.   Hiten: And this is Hiten Shaw and the Startup Chat and today we’re actually going to talk about cold calling. One reason is, you know, one of us is an expert on this I would say and that happens to be Steli. So

In today’s episode of The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about Karma. Karma is the law of moral causation. In business, relationships are key. It is advisable to treat people the way that you want to be treated as not doing so can lead to missed opportunities and people not wanting to business with you. In this episode, Steli and Hiten share their thoughts on Karma, give examples of how to react when you haven’t been treated fairly and much more. Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:20 About the topic of today’s episode 02:37 Why this topic was chosen. 04:17 The second reason why this topic was chosen. 07:00 Hiten’s relationship with Karma. 07:58 What to do when karma hits. 09:05 About the golden rule. 10:10 Steli agrees with Hiten point of view on this issue. 11:01 An example of a situation that could lead to bad karma. 13:30 When to speak up against bad behavior. 14:58 Why public shaming of a person is a waste of energy. 3 Key Points: Treat people as you want to be treated. Karma's gonna fuck you over one wa

In today’s episode of The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about knowing who you are as an entrepreneur. As a founder, it’s important to be aware of your strengths and your weaknesses - self-awareness. Not being aware of your weaknesses, can lead to a situation when your team loses respect for you. And this can ultimately lead to the demise of your startup in extreme cases. In this episode, Steli and Hiten share their thoughts what self-awareness is, why it’s important to develop this attribute, understanding who you are and how to build a business that works for you and much more. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:33 Why this topic was chosen. 02:06 Why you need to do what works for you. 02:57 What kind of founder you need to be. 03:56 Why you should run your business like somebody else. 04:09 Understanding who you are. 04:22 The difference between understanding who you are and what you need to do to be successful. 06:40 Why you should approach sales with some level of self-awareness. 07:28 Why they're not just

In today’s episode of The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten address the whole idea of benefiting from what you’ve done in the past. Sometimes an entrepreneur will do something significant or valuable and then go on to benefit from that thing a couple years down the line. This could be from being invited to speak at conferences or be advisors to startups and so on. In this week’s episode, Steli and Hiten share their thoughts on this idea and what they think should be the right way to go about it. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:28 About today’s topic 01:16 Steli’s thought on benefiting from cool things you did in the past. 01:38 Why Steli sometimes looks down on some of these people. 02:08 An example of Steli’s previous work benefitting him in Greece 03:13 If it’s cool to live off a solid brand. 03:51 Professions where it’s common to live of past glory. 04:11 Why it may not be a good idea to be judgemental. 04:59 The only time to judge people with a glorious past. 06:00 A pattern Hiten has seen. 06:41 Why it can be di

In today’s episode of The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about team member retention in startups. The success of your startup depends on retaining skilled and talented members of your team. However, it's very common for founders to take team member for granted, and this can often lead to them leaving your startup, which could destabilize the whole business. Tune in to this week’s episode to hear Steli and Hiten thoughts on why it’s important to retain good team members, the common causes of team members leaving, how to retain them and much more. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:00 About today’s topic. 00:41 Why this topic was chosen. 01:26 Steli thoughts on how long he’d want a team member to stay. 01:49 Why some employees choose to work for Close. 02:33 Why you need to create opportunities for your employees. 02:43 Why honesty goes a long way when it comes to retaining people. 03:55 Why real trust is such a scarce commodity in today’s world. 04:34 How trust can help retain goop team members. 05:37 How distrac

In today’s episode of The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about a favorite topic of Hiten - doing business with friends. Doing business with a friend can be a tricky one. If it’s not managed properly, you could end up with ruined relationships or worse, a failed business. In to this week’s episode, Steli and Hiten share their thoughts on what you should do if you want to do business with a friend, how to manage the relationship so that you don't ruin it and much more. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:00 About today’s topic. 01:13 Hiten’s reaction when Steli suggested this topic. 02:33 A lesson Steli learned recently. 04:48 How Steli improved his business relationship with his friend. 03:53 Why you need to make time for both business and friendly relationships. 07:33 Why you have to be willing to talk. 07:45 Why friends don’t make good business partners. 08:21 The number one mistake to avoid when you do business with friends. 08:38 Why nothing should be too small to bring up. 10:36 Why discipline is so important

In today’s episode of The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about add-ons, extensions, and apps. One way to launch a saas application is by creating a chrome add-on or extension that users can use as a gateway to your main product. While this is a great strategy for launching a saas application, it also has some downsides as well. In this episode, Steli and Hiten share their thoughts on the right way to launch a saas application using this strategy, the benefits of doing this and much more. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:00 About the topic of today’s episode 00:47 Why this topic was chosen. 01:59 The benefits of using this strategy. 02:23 Why you should start with the product first. 03:10 How FYI was launched using this strategy. 03:30 What Hiten and his team learn about user behavior before launching FYI. 04:20 A fallacy about building a chrome extension. 04:54 Why you need to be in your user’s workflow to be successful. 06:19 The right way to approach this strategy. 07:03 The benefit of building on someone’s

In today’s episode of The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about how founders can stay humble once they’ve made it. After years of grinding and building your startup, it’s common for some founders to become arrogant once they’ve “made it”. Unfortunately, this can cut short all the payoff or success that you’ve worked so hard to attain. In this episode, Steli and Hiten share their thoughts staying humble once you’ve made it, how they react to their own success, tip on how to stay humble and much more. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:37 Why this topic was chosen. 01:18 Why this is all about personality types. 02:31 Why feeling successful has never been a thing for Steli. 03:23 Why staying humble is important. 03:37 One thing Steli does at events he speaks at. 04:27 Why making fun of yourself is a good thing. 05:11 Why you should remind yourself to stay humble. 05:25 Steli on getting an insane amount of praise in his inbox. 06:29 What to do to help you stay humble. 08:05 What being humble is all about. 3 Key Point

In today’s episode of The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about how to deal with a hyper-competitive market if you’re in one. Today’s startup world is super competitive. It is not uncommon for there to be hundreds, if not thousands of competitors in the market you operate. So how do you differentiate your brand from the rest and get the attention of those you want to do business with? Tune in to this week’s episode to hear Steli and Hiten thoughts about how competitive the market is, what you can do to differentiate and much more. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:22 About today’s topic. 01:25 Why this topic was chosen. 02:00 Why all markets are going to be hyper-competitive in future. 03:39 Steli’s two cents on the issue. 05:40 Why it’s important to stand for something. 06:21 The reason why Close.io became successful in the CRM space. 07:49 One way to differentiate in a hyper-competitive market. 09:40 A second way to approach differentiation in a super competitive market. 11:26 One last tip from Steli. 12:19 Wh

In today’s episode of The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about how to define your company values as a startup. All companies have core values. They are the rules of for how your startup is going to achieve your mission and vision. A startup’s core values set expectations for the company and tells your employees how to behave appropriately in every situation. Tune in to this week’s episode to hear Steli and Hiten thoughts on what core values mean, the importance of having them, how to define your core values and much more. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:00 About today’s topic. 00:43 Why this topic was chosen. 01:53 Why it’s important to define what your company’s values are. 02:43 How to define your company values. 03:00 Why you should hire people that value the same things as you. 03:32 What happens when you hire people with different values. 04:15 Why self-awareness is important. 05:30 Why your core values need to be defined. 05:39 How to approach this the very first time. 08:50 The most important value at

In today’s episode of The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about what Steli calls a beta program and Hiten calls an early access program. Before you launch a product or a new feature, it is important to test things out to catch bugs and product issues prior to launch. But how do you go about doing this in a way that provides value to you and the user who test it out for you? Tune in to this week’s episode to hear Steli and Hiten thoughts on what an early access program is, why it’s so important, how to do it properly and much more. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:00 About today’s topic. 00:46 Why Hiten calls it an early access program. 01:53 Steli’s point of view on what to call it. 02:40 Hiten gives an inside look at how his company handles their early access program. 03:53 How an early access program can be beneficial to your startup. 04:22 The 3 kinds of releases you can aspire for. 06:53 The right time to go from internal release to early access. 07:56 How to ramp up an early access program. 09:10 Why it’s

In today’s episode of The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about what founders should do when they are just starting out on their journey. Choosing an idea for a business is one of the most exciting and fundamental parts of starting a business. However, it can be one of the most difficult things to do as most founders have many ideas and struggle to choose the best one to go with. In this episode, Steli and Hiten share their thoughts on how founders can choose an idea for a business when they are just starting out, why having many ideas is a blessing, and much more. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:43 Why this topic was chosen. 01:19 How choosing what to do can be a challenge sometimes. 01:47 How to choose an idea for your business. 02:40 The first thing to do when you’re trying to decide on an idea for a business. 02:47 Why it’s important to figure out the next action you’re going to take. 04:11 What you should do after figuring out what your next action is. 05:39 Why it’s important to figure out what you’re tr

In today’s episode of The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about how founders can deal with fraud in their startups. Running a  startup difficult enough when everything is going smoothly. But when you’re a founder, sometimes things happen that if not managed properly can disrupt the flow of your business or worse. One of these situations is fraud. In this episode, Steli and Hiten share their thoughts on what fraud is, things that every founder should know about it, preventative measures you can take, what to do when fraud happens and much more. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:45 Why this topic was chosen. 01:01 How Close dealt with fraud at the early stages of the business. 02:20 Why taking preventative measures are important. 03:45 How to identify potential problems that you could run into with your product. 04:00 An example of a fraudulent situation at Close. 05:27 Measures and tools you could use to prevent fraud. 06:46 Why fraud is not exclusive to big companies. 07:43 Why you should always take an alert se

In today’s episode of The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about their reading habits and they read books. Reading is one of the most fundamental skills an entrepreneur needs to succeed in the startup world. It’s common for a lot of successful people to credit reading in some way as a factor to their success. Tune in to this week’s episode to hear Steli and Hiten talk about their own reading habits, what kind of books they read and they share tips that can help you develop a healthy reading habit. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:22 Why this topic was chosen. 01:19 A look at Steli’s reading habit. 02:20 How a book is not really a constant experience. 02:31 One thing Steli does when he reads. 02:42 Why you should give a book a second try. 05:06 Hiten’s thoughts on how the book doesn’t change but you do. 05:40 The importance of reading books purposefully. 06:23 The different types of books that Hiten reads. 07:28 A really good book on culture. 07:49 How reading purposefully makes your reading experience enjoyable.

In today’s episode of The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about how to manage your managers. Managing your manager isn’t just good for you, it’s also good for them as well. Your manager has difficult decisions to make, deadlines to meet and the objectives of their own they have to fulfill. Helping your manager manage their own workload goes a long way towards supporting them. Tune in to this week’s episode to hear Steli and Hiten thoughts on why you should manage your manager, how to do it the right way, and they share tips that can help you manage them more effectively. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:32 Why this topic was chosen. 02:15 A good example of how to manage your boss. 04:00 Why communication and following up is important. 05:29 Why everybody, regardless of seniority, should be managed. 05:45 Why every team member should develop the ability to manage. 06:22 The importance of being held accountable. 06:42 Why it’s important to focus on the outcome. 07:47 The importance of understanding the differenc

In today’s episode of The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about Startup babies. These are certain life moments that happen to people on your team, moments like when team members have babies, get married or less joyous moments like a death in the family. Moments like these impact everyone on the team and how you manage it is crucial. Tune in to this week’s episode to hear Steli and Hiten thoughts on how to manage life-changing moments when they occur in a team and much more. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:00 About today’s topic. 01:00 Hiten gives examples of life moments that can affect a team. 0:30 Why this topic was chosen. 02:20 Why teams are not one dimensional. 02:33 Why being mindful when you manage these kinds of situation is crucial. 03:15 The emotional support you can give to team members when they have a life-changing event. 03:36 Why it’s important to communicate openly and freely. 05:50 Why your company should be supportive and help team members manage these situations. 06:48 The importance of out