When to pivot, persevere, or give up w/ Aditya Kakrania - Co-Founder of Scoar

Welcome back to Prodcast as we continue our "Why Products Fail" series. On today's episode, I spoke with Aditya Kakrania, multi-time startup founder. We talked through Aditya's first startup, Foomore, how it grew through clever growth hacks and community building but how timing and environmental issues brought Foomore to its knees. This is a great lesson in why startups need to consider the fragility of its business, especially when the business is overly reliant on a very specific market. We also talked about the important topic of knowing when to give up pivot or persevere and the importance of having a strong founding team to navigate what could be a very emotional and challenging decision. Let's get started.  Here's what we discussed: How Aditya got started in entrepreneurship and his family legacy Aditya's fascination with numbers and why he majored in finance and got his CA license (similar to CPA in the US) Why he started his current startup, Scoar and the problem he's trying to solve in helping shape career paths for aspiring professionals in India primarily The first startup that Aditya launched, starting with a food truck How Aditya and an old friend decided to disrupt the in-dining experience in India Why the best marketing to land the initial restaurants was free, focused on social proofing The undisputed importance of talking to your customers or prospective customers Why you need to understand who your "customer" actually is and how it might span wider than the initial customer you have in mind The impact that major competitors and brands can have on your success or failure How Aditya tried to fend off major competitors and extreme environmental challenges The importance of team and how personal relationships can be a hinderance, even when you think they would be an advantage The difficulty of trying to run a startup part-time How Aditya pivoted from the FoodTech space to EdTech Connect with Aditya: Aditya's LinkedIn Scoar LinkedIn Page Scoar Website