Thread by @warikoo

From "5 months of cash" to $2Mn, in 18 months

A thread...

Oct 2019
I decided to step down as the CEO of my startup nearbuy.

It had turned profitable after 4 years of massive highs and lows.
But I felt my time was up.
I had been in it for 9+ years now.

I trusted my cofounders more than I trusted my own merit to lead the company forward.

So it was an easy decision to place my baby into their hands, and seek a new path for my life.

But there were 2 problems:
1. I had invested all of my life savings into nearbuy (and a few other startups)
2. I had drawn less than market salary all these years

While I was "rich" on paper, I did not have actual money.

But that didn't bother me much, because a new income stream had begun to show up - corporate talks.

Due to my presence on LinkedIn and my experience as a founder, a lot of companies used to seek my time to address their teams.

So I started charging for my time.

That paid the bills, while leaving me with a lot of time to figure what I wanted to do next.

One of which was my content game, that I had started in 2015/16.

In Jan 2020, I began looking for a team to help me with it.
In Mar 2020, a team of 6 was in place.

And then...

23rd March 2020, the national lockdown was announced.

I recall watching the PM live and my heart sinking.
My only income stream had gone to zero, instantly!

At the age of 39, I was jobless, clueless, directionless and staring at 5 months of cash in the bank.

That week was hard.
It is one thing to be in this position when young.

It is another to find yourself such at 39, with 2 kids and a family to support.
I could not let my decisions affect anyone beyond me!

For those who think I am really big today on social media, here is who I was at the end of March 2020

Followers, as of 29 March 2020
Instagram: 14,596
LinkedIn: 765,078
YouTube: 7,517
Twitter: 16,675

April 2020
I adopted my "worst-case-scenario" mental model, that had helped me so often in life.

Vividly imagine the worst thing that can happen.
And then ask, how are you going to deal with it - emotionally, physically, socially, financially, mentally, psychologically.

My worst case scenario was that I will not able to find an income stream in the next 3 months. Which meant we would have 2 months of cash left to take a decision.

I asked Ruchi what she thought we should do.
We both agreed on the solution.

1. Sell the house we were living in (we had bought this house in mid 2019). That would give us Rs. 50L in cash
2. Move to the mountains
3. Home school our kids

It sounds crazy. But I cannot over-emphasize how liberating it is to live life knowing money can never win over you!

With the worst-case sorted, I had 3 months to figure a new "career" at the age of 39.

Did I want to start up again? Yes
Did I want to raise money for it? Ideally not
Did I want to work for a company? Last choice

I started exploring!

I spoke to 100s of people - across the world - on new ideas, trends, opportunities.

But there was one thing I did consistently - keep creating content.
I had built this team of 6 awesome folks and we stayed true to our inputs.

Ship out content every single day!

16th April 2020
I am speaking with a dear friend of mine, telling her how all corporate talks are over.

People are scared of COVID and what it entails. Motivating and inspiring employees is the last thing on their mind.

She listened and then said...

"Such talks are not going to happen anytime soon. But people still need them. Why don't you go directly to people? Conduct these talks online. Share what you know. Am sure someone will be interested."

That triggered a reaction.
What she was saying is true.

I was such a "in-real-life" person that I did not know if I could replicate the same energy and enthusiasm online.
And will people pay for it?

But I had to find out.

April 22, 2020
I signed up for @Razorpay and created my first ever online talk, for April 30th

Because I did not even know if people will want to pay, I chose a "pay whatever you want" pricing.

Since LinkedIn was my only big platform then, that's where I shared it.

I expected 50-100 people.
Who pays for webinars? Even if it is "pay what you want".
They are mostly free!

In 3 days I had 900+ registrations.
50% of them paid Re.1
But the rest were generous.
The avg. came to Rs. 187

I had actually made MORE than what I would make usually.

The page is still live. And serves as a reminder to me, of how far along have I come.
pages.razorpay.com/warikoo-planni…

Enthused by the reaction, I made an schedule for 13 such "conferences" for the months of May and June.

All "pay what you want".

April 30, 2020:
I took a Pro account of @Zoom and was super nervous for my first online talk.

So far, I had never charged the audience. I had charged the company.
Now, I felt responsible for EVERY SINGLE PERSON on the webinar.
They had paid to hear me talk about something.

I was worried that they will not like what I had to share.

I remember feeling the same way I had felt as a kid, stepping onto the stage for the first time.
Legs trembling, heart beat racing, hands sweaty.

The webinar started, I looked at the camera pinhole and went in my zone.

The next 90mins flew by.
I enjoyed myself a lot.

But did they?

I immediately sent an anonymous feedback form.
To know where could I get better.
How?

And people generously shared.
All of you helped me improve!
Those who were disappointed, I offered an immediate refund.

The next 3 months, I conducted 13 such sessions.
All promoted on LinkedIn, because that's all I had.

4,700+ participants attended these sessions.
And as crazy as it sounds, I earned ~20L from these (still pay what you want!)

The peaks are when I posted about them on LinkedIn

I then launched my first cohort-based-course: an 8-session course conducted every weekend, across a month.

It was around the only thing I knew - how to startup.
And it was called "The Future Founders Conference"

It was a priced event at Rs.999
400+ people signed up for it.

For the next 1 month, we had a lot of fun, learning together, answering questions, exploring ideas.

But it was a drain on my time.
And it was not scalable.

I had recorded all of these sessions.
So I had an idea - would anyone be interested in recorded content?

I floated the recordings as a course, titled it "Complete Guide to Starting Up" and released it in the universe.
Priced it at Rs. 1,499

Now, I was selling even when I wasn't working.
I was no longer renting my time!

@Naval would be so proud of me.

By Aug 2020, I had 9 months of money in the bank, but the income was not stable and still unpredictable.

My recordings had done well. And I now had to take some risk.

I decided to invest half of my savings into high-quality production of multiple courses.

Found a great partner in Ayush @AyushkWadhwa
A team of 5 locked ourselves up for a week, shooting for 8 hours every day, non-stop.

We recorded 26 hours of content in that week.
Which totaled 7 courses in all.

While Ayush and team worked on the video for the next 2 months, I kept running these live classes, to build up a corpus.

Did everything possible to reduce spending.
Even took the home loan moratorium announced by the government.

I was betting on myself!

In Oct 2020, I was introduced to Insane Marketers by @VaibhavSisinty, the OG of LinkedIn Marketing :)

I liked the team and felt they could be good partners in marketing these courses to a much wider audience.

Which I when I also took a conscious call.

My content would never speak about my courses.
My content will always be free and would serve only one purpose.
To add value.

Hopefully through that, generate trust.

So when people saw my ads and they most certainly do not know me, if they looked me up, they would see value.

By this time, our content game had also started to shape up

As of 26 October 2020
Instagram: 54,795
LinkedIn: 878,105
YouTube: 34,326
Twitter: 44,614

And I had the belief that this "content -> trust" engine would work.

By Oct 2020, I had earned Rs 36L, which after deductions and expenses gave me 12 months of run way.

We now knew, the probability of selling our house was down from say 90% to 30% :)

In Nov 2020, we began to promote the course online.

The key was to be super slow, scale profitably from Day 1 and run an ethical company.

That meant
1. 100% refund when asked - no questions asked
2. Do not lose money, ever!
3. Keep collecting feedback and improving the product

It also meant running a very different kind of business, from what I was used to.

1. No cofounders
2. No external funding
3. No ESOPs - instead profit sharing
4. No building everything internally - work with partners
5. No fast growth - be slow and deliberate

2021 became the year of testing waters.

We had all components in place
1. A paid-promotion-engine that reached out to millions
2. A free-content-engine that generated trust
3. A universe of technology tools that helped us scale
4. A lean team that was incentivized correctly

In 2021, we have served
1,14,972 students
generating Rs. 7.8Cr of sales (after refunds)
with a refund rate of 3.58%
and a course completion rate of 43% on average (with 81% going through 75% of the content)

All of this takes 3 hours of my time, per month

Together with brand campaigns, affiliate income, corporate talks and B2B courses, the company hit revenue of Rs. 12.68Cr with a profit of Rs. 3.9Cr between Jan-Dec 2021

All under the hood.

The reason I share this today on 31st Dec 2021, is for 3 reasons

1. Acknowledge all those who have helped make this happen
@Razorpay @Zoom @owledmedia @AyushkWadhwa @ConvertKit @LearnWorlds @zapier Insane Marketers and so many more that I am missing

2. Acknowledge my awesome team @waricrew who have ensured that we stayed true to our belief.

"Keep creating content that helps people make aware choices in life."

The content-trust-engine changes everything.

3. Most importantly, remind you that if I can at 40 completely reinvent myself, then nothing is stopping you at the age of 20/25 or beyond to do the same.

I am not the smartest person or the most hard working I know.

What works for me, is that I am free from the world!

I do not care what people think of me.
I can laugh at myself before people laugh at me.
I can admit my mistakes before people point them out.
I own up to my failures.

And if you can too, then NOBODY can touch you!
Least of all, a setback.

I apologize for this long thread and evident portions of humblebrag.

Look beyond the numbers. They are just that.
Numbers.

May 2022 be YOUR year.
When you live it on your terms.
Not caring what the world thinks of you.

May it be the year you fall in love with yourself.
And see yourself for what you always were.
Worthy!

Thank you for your support and love. I do not take any of it lightly.

My last request for the year - I wrote my first book specifically for those who do not read often or have never read.

It is hard-hitting, but easy to read.
Has no start or finish.
Open any page and there is something to take away.

It would mean the world to me if you gifted this book to someone you think can benefit from it.

My aim is to through this book, spread the joy of reading.
Thank you for your support :)

amzn.to/3lMhJf9