BIO: Praveen Kumar Rajbhar is an entrepreneur, founder, and CEO SkillingYou, an employability Skills Focused EdTech startup in rural India.
STORY: When Praveen started his first startup, he spent money to hire many people, buy a lot of gadgets, and rent a huge office space. The business collapsed in less than two years.
LEARNING: Get the right mentor to guide you on how to make your startup a success. You don’t need a big team to be successful. Get on-time and accurate financial statements every month.
“Having the right mentor will help you create a great company.”
Praveen Kumar Rajbhar
Guest profile
Praveen Kumar Rajbhar is an entrepreneur, founder, and CEO SkillingYou, an employability Skills Focused EdTech startup in rural India. It’s one of the top 100 promising startups ranked by Google and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and is being incubated by Google, EdStart, Agora, and TiE.
Praveen has worked for over 13 years in corporates such as Axis Bank, Home Credit, Amway, SBI Cards, and AU Bank.
Worst investment ever
Praveen left his corporate job and started his first startup. Instead of controlling his expenses, Praveen hired more people than he needed, bought unnecessary gadgets, and rented colossal office space. In total, Praveen spent over $60,000 to run the startup. Being the family’s only breadwinner, he was soon in a lot of debt. The business collapsed in under two years.
Lessons learned
- Make sure that you understand your product before testing your market.
- People are your biggest strength as a founder and CEO. So surround yourself with the right mentors if you want to run a successful startup, don’t play it all alone.
- Work with a mentor in your industry or who has walked the path you want.
- Practical learning will give you strength and maturity, and you’ll know what not to do next.
- You can run a successful business with a small team.
Andrew’s takeaways
- A startup is a lifestyle.
- If you have a startup and are trying to grow it into something big, make sure you close your financial books monthly and have on-time and accurate financial statements.
- People want to help and are okay with sharing their experience and knowledge, so reach out.
Actionable advice
Before starting a startup, know your “why” because it will be a challenging journey, so you must understand why you want to do it. If you can’t do it for five years, don’t do it for five minutes.
Praveen’s recommendations
Praveen recommends checking out the My Worst Investment Ever website to learn what successful people did wrong and learn from their mistakes.
No.1 goal for the next 12 months
Praveen’s number one goal for the next 12 months is to impact one million students with essential employability skills that will help them get a job.
Parting words
“Just love whatever you’re doing. Never give up; it’s going to be a beautiful world tomorrow for you.”
Praveen Kumar Rajbhar
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