Launching a startup requires navigating a sea of complexities. Markets are unpredictable, with disruptive developments occurring at inopportune times. Finances can also be unpredictable, with irregular funding leading to cash flow challenges. Unraveling these complexities is critical to building and scaling a startup.
Swapnil Shinde, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer at Zeni, has successfully navigated the startup seas on several occasions. Zeni, an AI bookkeeping platform, is the third startup Shinde has launched. It’s an innovative platform that leverages AI and automation to supercharge startup finances for speed and reliability. His first two startups — Dhingana and Mezi — both had successful exits.
Shinde’s experience has taught him that pursuing simplicity is the key to overcoming complexity.
“To minimize complexity, startup founders must constantly pursue simplicity,” Shinde shares. “A commitment to keep it simple will reduce the resources needed to move the business forward. Simplicity resolves complexity, giving startups the clarity they need to build teams, momentum, and market share.”
Leveraging simplicity to grow your startup
The KISS — Keep It Simple, Stupid — method is well known in the business world because it provides all types of businesses with a winning mantra. It is especially valuable for startups because it leverages simplicity to address the key challenge most startups face.
For example, startups often struggle to make progress with limited resources. A commitment to simplicity helps them focus on the essentials and avoid unnecessary effort and costs.
Startups should strive to create and maintain simplicity in as many areas as possible to stay committed to the KISS approach.
“Startups should simplify their products, their customer onboarding, their hiring, and their burn rate, to name just a few key processes,” Shinde said in a recent interview with TechRound. “Whenever founders come face-to-face with complex problems, they must ensure their solution adds to simplicity and empowers simpler outputs.”
Shinde believes startup founders can focus on the following four key areas as they pursue simplicity.
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Don’t overthink your organization
Simplifying organizations by flattening the hierarchy and removing bottlenecks allows it to run faster.
“Simplification also typically leads to leaner teams that get more done with less,” Shinde shared with TechRound. “By staying focused on simplicity, organizations become more efficient and agile.”
Zeni helps simplify organizations by leveraging the power of Fractional CFOs. With Zeni’s Fractional CFO service, startups can easily access the expertise they need to tackle tough financial decisions with clarity. It’s an innovative service that allows startups to stay simple while staying ahead of the game.
Keep your ICP simple
Startups face several challenges as they seek to build their customer base. Evolving consumer preferences and economic fluctuations can make customers a moving target. In addition, startups often try to steal market share from established companies with more resources and stronger brand recognition.
“Establishing a simple ideal customer profile (ICP) is one way to navigate customer acquisition challenges with more agility,” Shinde told TechRound. “Companies with a simple ICP have an easier time developing and communicating their value proposition. Consequently, they have a better chance of delivering a message that resonates with the customers who are most likely to convert. When ICPs are complex, they add friction to the sales process and slow growth.”
To keep the ICP simple, companies must consider issues like company size and complexity, industry, pain points, and decision-makers. For example, a CIO at an enterprise-level software company will be a much more complicated ICP than the founder of a seed-stage startup. Simplifying the ICP reduces the number of pain points and the number of decision-makers who must be convinced.
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Make your sales pitch simple
Startups operate at a disadvantage when it comes to sales. They have very little brand awareness to boost their credibility and must compete with brands with a long history and a loyal customer base. As a result, an impactful sales pitch is extremely important.
“A simple sales pitch helps prospects to quickly understand the value of the product or service without feeling overwhelmed by jargon or unnecessary details,” Shinde explained to TechRound. “A simple pitch can also communicate confidence, which helps to position a startup as an authority in its industry that can offer valuable expertise.”
“Successfully building or scaling a business requires an increased dependence on negotiating strong agreements,” says Jim Camp Jr., owner of Camp Negotiations and author of “Lead From No: A Systematic Approach to Leadership Negotiation.” “Owners must recognize it’s not enough to focus their efforts on deals leading to increased sales and revenue,” he adds, “they must also realize the foundation for growth is strong team alignment. The leader-follower agreement cannot be taken for granted. A team’s trust, respect, and cohesion first requires effective internal leadership negotiations where all parties, regardless of their position, feel comfortable collaborating and saying ‘no.’ When it comes to solving the problems associated with seizing new business opportunities, ‘what’s’ right is more important than ‘who’s’ right.”
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Create a simple product
For a startup to win customers, it needs to offer a better product than the others currently on the market. One way to provide something better is to provide something more simple.
Customer views toward digital products provide an excellent illustration of the value of a simple product by revealing the importance of good user experience (UX). Simplicity is the cornerstone of UX, ensuring consumers have a frictionless experience finding and buying products. Statistics show that 90 percent of consumers will stop using an app if the UX is poor.
“Startups that offer simpler products offer a seamless, frustration-free experience,” Shinde told TechRound. “By reducing issues with UX, regardless of the type of product or service being offered, startups can satisfy customers faster and increase the speed of the decision-making process.”
Initially, operating with a commitment to simplicity may require more effort and discipline. It demands startups slow down, carefully consider the ramifications of decisions, and focus on keeping things simple. But in the long run, simplicity is a launchpad that empowers organizations to scale faster with less effort and more stable success.
