Thread by @dhimant

1/ Thread on revenues:
A better way to increase the chances of success for your early-stage startup? Start making revenues.
The best way? Start making profits.
Achieving either will indicate that you are moving towards product-market fit and hence becoming viable.

2/ Very few startups need to be in a "market leader" mode right from the beginning. In fact, most early startups can exist side-by-side with competition and yet thrive. And hence, the need to focus on revenue in addition to market share.

3/ At @thebetterindia's early stage, we experimented with numerous revenue models from the beginning: paid newsletters, corporate retainers, consulting services, sponsorships and many more. Each one of them allowed us to reinvest the earnings for growth, right from day one.

4/ We didn't say, "Let's build this, let's grow our readership and we'll *later* figure out how to monetize it".

Instead, we said, "While we build this, how do we get money in & keep costs super-low?" That was our lifebuoy.

5/ Once you've gone past this stage successfully, hyper-growth and market leadership become an achievable goal. Because you no longer have to worry about the fundamentals of your business. And that is usually the right time to raise capital for growth and market leadership.