Building a Feature vs Creating a Product | Simran Singh - E30

Funds and Founders: Untold Journeys Behind Their Breakthroughs

Simran Singh narrates his entrepreneurial journey from his college days at Duke University to co-founding Zogo, a financial education platform which was eventually acquired by Peak Six. He elaborates on the challenges of early-stage startups, the pivoting of Zogo, and decision-making processes related to product development and market targeting. Simran also introduces his new venture, SwayStack, while providing valuable insights on growth, partnerships, and maintaining an entrepreneurial mindset. Additionally, the episode explores influential books like 'Poor Charlie's Almanac' by Charlie Munger, favorite tools and tech stacks like Notion, JIRA, GitHub, Figma, Google Drive, AWS, and Dynalist, and shares advice on resilience, support systems, and customer engagement. The conversation wraps up with anticipation of the next guest's insights into the role of mentors or advisors. If you’re looking for the motivation and insight needed to build a successful startup, this episode is for you.

Key Takeaways:

• How will you know when to invest in an initial MVP?

• Calculating market size to predict scalability

• How working with private equity can be beneficial to your long term vision

Key Timestamps:

(00:00) - Introduction

(01:31) - Simran’s Indian Family Influence

(04:40) - Challenges and Learnings from Zogo

(14:39) - Navigating Early MVPs

(29:25) - Balancing Risk and Stability

(35:50) - Zogo's Business Development Strategy

(36:23) - Sales and Marketing

(38:36) - Total Addressable Market (TAM)

(46:50) - Acquisition by Private Equity

(55:27) - Post-Acquisition Reflections and New Ventures

(59:12) - Rapid Fire Questions and Resources

(01:07:40) - Final Thoughts

Key Topics Discussed:

Funds and Founders, Austin Texas, Abhinav Sinha, entrepreneurs, startups, venture capital

Mentions:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/esimran/

Check out the Funds & Founders Community:

Reach out to Abhi at [e-mail]

Website: fundsandfounderspodcast.com