IAM1049- Growth Master Builds and Grows Products

Avishek Kataria is an ex-entrepreneur and a growth master. He co-founded one of India's first organic cotton t-shirt brands. Avishek has headed growth for 2 digital products – a SAAS product and an e-commerce product and has achieved significant growth for both products. He also promotes inclusive and collaborative leadership practices through my platform Idea Toasters. His way is to build and grow products that take things a few miles forward in the evolution process.

• CEO Hack: Book- Principles by Ray Dalio (ii) Providing better customer experience
• CEO Nugget: Do proper research before you start any company
• CEO Defined: Higher responsibility

Website: http://ideatoasters.com/

Personal Website – http://avishekkataria.com/
Idea Toasters – http://ideatoasters.com/
Blogs for Your Story – https://yourstory.com/author/avishek-kataria
Linkedin Profile – https://www.linkedin.com/in/avishek-kataria-3a626151/

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00:25 – Intro

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

00:54 – Gresham Harkless

Hello, Hello, Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Avishak Kataria of Idiots, Idiots Holsters. Avishak, it's great to have you on the show.

01:05 – Avishek Kataria

Hey, hi, Grish. I'm excited to be on your show. I've been following your podcast and it's a great initiative. I like the way it promotes collaborative learning and doing, and so I'm glad to be part of it.

01:15 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. You know, collaboration is definitely, you know, what we try to do as much as possible. And you're doing so many awesome things. I know you definitely know so much about collaboration. So what I wanted to do was just read a little bit more about Avishak before we jumped into the podcast. And he is an ex-entrepreneur and a growth master. He co-founded 1 of India's first organic cotton t-shirt brands, and he has headed growth for 2 digital products, a SaaS product, and an e-commerce product, and has achieved significant growth in both of these products.

He also promotes inclusive and collaborative leadership practices through his platform, Idea Toasters. This is why he's built to grow products that make things a few miles forward in the evolution process. Abhishek, it's great to have you on the show. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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02:00 – Avishek Kataria

Sure, sure, I'm always happy to speak to those in your community.

02:03 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Well, let's do it then. So to kind of kick everything off, I wanted to start everything by hearing how you guys started what I like to call your CEO story.

02:12 – Avishek Kataria

So, yeah, so I just go back where how my whole transition happened, like, because I'm an ex-entrepreneur and that transition into a goal of a growth master. Okay, and I've been heading growth teams for digital products. So my journey as a growth master has been interesting, I'm an engineer, and I was working as a software developer. Somehow I felt I was not leveraging my complete skill set. That's when me and my friend thought of starting up something. So I left my job and I launched my first venture. It was 1 of India's first organic cotton T-shirt bags.

I was way back in 2014 when there was not a lot of awareness of the organic lifestyle. But somehow it didn't work out because I think we spent a lot on inventory and then we were not left with a lot of capital for sustenance and growth. But then we came up with another innovative idea, which was more of an incentive-based video advertising application, which was the first of its kind in India and we have a patent also for it. We launched the MVP for it. We actually clocked in some decent numbers with MVP.

We were in discussion with a few investors on getting the seed funding and all. Unfortunately, because of a family emergency, we had to shut it down. And that's when I was in a phase of my career where I was not sure what I should do next because I was enjoying the whole journey of starting up and being my own boss kind of a thing. But then I realized what I just reflected back and what was it that made me so interested in working on these startups. So I realized that the reason that I like to work and my passion and energy is in developing and growing products that take the world a step ahead.

So that's when I started finding companies that would actually align to my why, align to the things that I want to do. And I started working on those companies. So one of the companies where I headed the growth team and marketing was a real estate CRM, which was one of a new SaaS product. Their whole mission was to simplify sales and marketing for real estate companies. And for that, I actually established a complete marketing engine from scratch, established the whole product marketing and messaging and we have really achieved significant growth within terms of a number of leads we were getting per month in terms of number of traction, the number of website users we're getting per month.

Later I actually headed an e-commerce product where users can actually register for their endurance sports events like running events or cycling events. And here at EventGENI our mission was to actually enable a lifestyle of fitness, get more people into running, get more people into fitness. So here we were on a very great growth path like you're talking in around 5x growth per quarter. This was pre-COVID and then COVID happened and because it was more of a physical event kind of a platform then we have to actually put it into a hybrid net mode.

So recently I have joined a very very interesting product which is in 2, a no-code data pipeline software. And here I'm managing growth and our whole mission is to simplify data analysis and database management for all kinds of people, including the people who are not into data science professionals and all. And adding to this on a parallel note, I also have a mission to which I'm very attached, which is to create and spread awareness of inclusive and collaborative leadership. I think that's very important in the society.

So that is because 80% of the time people spend on their work life and for people to have a better life, the work-life needs to be good. And for that, the leadership practice, better leadership practice needs to be in place. So to do that, I've actually started a content company platform called Idea Posters. So there are 2 things that I work on. 1 is I've figured out I work on growth for this report. And second I have a mission to spread awareness of inclusive and collaborative leadership.

05:45 – Gresham Harkless

Nice. Well, I definitely appreciate that and you sharing that with us. And I love that you were able to find your zone, so to speak, and you understood that where you wanted to work and working with the different companies are able to help that come about in so many different ways. And I definitely see how, you know, those 2 things can definitely overlap as far as like, you know, the growth concept and understanding those, you know, principles related to being able to grow companies, but also how important it is from a leadership standpoint, to even grow the awareness, the understanding of all of those practices on how leaders and teams and organizations could definitely be a lot more, you know, progressive and really, you know, hit the goals that they're ultimately hoping to hit. So I love that you're able to kind of collaborate on both of those.

06:26 – Avishek Kataria

True, yeah, that's true. I think that's the thing. Let's see how it gets merged in the future.

06:31 – Gresham Harkless

So. Mm-hmm, Yeah, absolutely. But I feel like that's part of the DNA of startups as a whole is just kind of seeing where it's going to go, where it's going to pivot, and how it manifests itself as the world is as a whole too. So I know you touched a little bit on ideas toasters and what you're doing there. Could you drill down a little bit more? Tell us a little bit more about that and what we can find when we go there.

06:51 – Avishek Kataria

Sure, sure. So idea, dozers, I started. So I just see what I believe that work is an expression of an individual and everybody should get the freedom to express themselves at work. Okay, and no matter what level you are in the company, you should have the freedom to express your work in the way you want. And that's where you'll get better results from everyone. That's where you get better output and higher productivity. So IdeaLosters is a content platform where we write content on different types of leadership, different types of topics related to leadership, and where we promote concepts like design thinking.

We have a lot of content on empathy. We share how to actually implement brainstorming sessions within organizations during your meetings. On the other side, we also have a community platform where anyone who wants to share anything they do their expert feel, which is more of a coming blog. If someone is into marketing, they wants to share something about what they feel about marketing, they can share it. So on 1 side, it's a free platform, anyone can share their ideas. And the second side, there's our own core content, where we share leadership practices that actually promote collaborative leadership.

And we have, if you ask me, they have 4 key principles that we follow with respect to leadership, which 1 is, that there should be proper goal setting because that's where everything if everybody's clear of goal setting, 80% of work, I think, already done because I believe everyone is talented, they just need to know the right path and right direction. Second is openness and transparency because if people are scared of you as a manager, then they'll actually not share the things that you need to know. They'll not share the problems that are there in the company.

So for you to be aware of everything, you have to have that openness nature and transparent nature within the organization. Third I expressed earlier also that people should have their own way of expressing their work. You have to give people the freedom to express their work in their own style and let so if you have a proper goal setting but then they can work and they can express in their own style and that within to align to that goal. And third is where we have collective mindset and decision making because if you have everybody working, like then that instead, if you're taking a decision, delegating everything, that's just 1 mind working.

But if you have everybody collaborating on a particular idea or particular project that is like 10 minds working. So you should leverage all the 10 minds that you have or even strategy and not just for just execution part.

09:08 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, that's absolutely huge. I appreciate you breaking each of those down. And to me, like, you know, when I hear each of those different kinds of pillars or those, you know, ways that you approach leadership, especially that collaborative leadership practices that you talked about. To me, it speaks to like the environment of, as you said, you know, having the transparency and knowing that you're creating an environment by which people can come up with ideas, but also making sure that everybody's going, you know, along the same paths.

And like, there's so many different aspects of that, that builds up into the environment that I think we sometimes forget, it's not only affects us individually, but it affects the team, it affects the people and the clients, I should say, of the people that are served by whatever organization. So I think it creates that domino effect and that ripple effect that sometimes we forget when we're looking at you know leadership especially.

09:54 – Avishek Kataria

True, true. Yeah, I think that's true.

09:57 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome, Awesome, Awesome. So I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce. This could be for yourself personally, or the business, or a combination of both, but what do you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique?

10:07 – Avishek Kataria

So I have read a very interesting book called Principles by Ray Dalio. He's the founder of Bridgewater Association. And he said like, whenever you find, whenever if something has worked for you, you create a framework around it, you get a principle around it. And then whenever you are in a similar situation, you use that so you don't have to use, you don't have to think again for the same kind of a pattern. So you have a list of your principles. So I think 1 of the CSR is to make your own principles, make your own frameworks, and what has worked for you.

And I think I would share 1 of the framework that I have personally that I follow. I think that would be very helpful for your listeners, which I call a product success formula, which is my own personal product success formula. So there are a lot of things which are involved in making a product successful and it varies for different types of products. But there are 3 core factors that are the base of any successful product. Like if you don't have 1 of those factors, then you're probably the chances of your product being successful is very, very low.

So The 3 factors that I say are 1 is the value. So what value does it offer to the customer? And in the value, you also need to answer questions like, does that value have a need? Do people have a need for that value? How many people have also user size that has a need for that value and well, people will pay for that particular value? So at the end of the value, it's not only about the value, it's whether there's a market for that value. Second is messaging because once, okay, you have a product that delivers great value, But are people able to understand and relate to you based on your messaging?

Are they able to understand that, yes, this product actually satisfies a need for me and it actually delivers a certain value that I require? 1 of the greatest examples where a successful product failed because of bad messaging is Microsoft Zoom. Microsoft Zoom, which was launched around in 2000 was an equally good product as iPod. But iPod with the messaging was like 1 lakh songs in your pocket. Microsoft Zoom messaging was basic. It's a high-tech MP3 player. And that was 1 of the reason, the biggest reason for this failure. And third I would say is experience, which is customer experience or product experience.

It is like because your value and messaging will get your customers on board, but then to build a sustainable business, you need to retain your customers and that will only happen through experience. And if you provide a better experience, you actually create a base of loyal fans who will become your product advocates and will create a network effect of growth. So that's why I like There is a stat which says that companies that focus on customer experience, actually are 60% more profitable, which is there on HubSpot. So, that's where there are 3 core factors that people should focus on product success formula. This is 1 of the frameworks that I follow, which is value messaging and experience.

12:47 – Gresham Harkless

Appreciate that. And so I wanted to switch gears a little bit. And I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. And this could be like the book from Ray Dalio, but it could be an Apple book or a habit that you have. But what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

13:00 – Avishek Kataria

I think as I discussed earlier, 1 of the key things, 1 of the key parts to success of any organization is goal setting. And when I say goal setting, it is across an organization, across teams, across individuals. And companies like Google and Intel follow a very specific goal-setting mechanism or framework called OKR. So I think people should read about OKR if they're aware of OKR. It's a very powerful bullsetting tool. And I think 1 more thing I would believe is you have to spend extra time at work to become successful. I say spend extra time but not at work but getting better at your work and keeping updated with your work ethic.

13:38 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome, Awesome, Awesome. So I wanted to ask you now for what I call a CEO nugget. So this could be a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. It might be something you would tell a client or if you have to do a time machine, you might tell your younger business self.

13:51 – Avishek Kataria

So I think here I would reflect back on the biggest lesson that I learned from my first data failure, which was to do proper research before you start any project or before you start any company. Like Because we actually invested a lot without actually doing the proper research on the understanding of consumers. So I think research is important before you start any or before you put resources on a particular project.

14:13 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome, awesome, Awesome. Well, Avishak, I wanted to ask you now my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on the show. So Abhishek, what does being a CEO mean to you?

14:24 – Avishek Kataria

I think CEO is the 1 word that comes to me with the word CEO is responsibility and with CEO it's a higher responsibility. And when we talk about responsibility, responsibility across different parts and different domains, the responsibility of business goals, of revenue, of salaries, of employee wellbeing, client relationship, market perception, there's a lot of responsibility. And CEO is an act of, it's a challenging act of balancing all the responsibilities. But you're on a very thin line and you have to balance and make sure everything is working well and that's when you become successful.

14:54 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome, Awesome, Awesome. Well, Avishak, truly appreciate that definition and I appreciate your time even more. What I wanted to do was just pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you can let our readers and listeners know. And of course, how best they could get ahold of you and find out about all the awesome things you're just working on.

15:10 – Avishek Kataria

Sure, sure. I think this 1 last piece of advice I would like to give is, to make sure, I think there's a book, as I'll start with Why by Simon Sinek. So understand, know your why, what is your passion? And then you figure out your career choices rather than just going after any career choice. And it's not necessary that you need it because that's what I've learned. It's not necessary that you need to start something to follow your passion. If you know your why you can either start something or you can also find a product or a company that aligns with your why.

So that's how you can follow your present. That's how you can have a more satisfied and fulfilling work life. And I think you should go after a satisfying fulfilling work life. That's why you should know your wife. And yeah, you can connect me and LinkedIn, it's LinkedIn, you can just search Abhishek Kattare, and you'll find me on LinkedIn. Also, you can contact me, you can just go to AbhishekKattare.com and you'll find my email ID and everything.

15:58 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Abhishek. We will have the links and information in the show notes. I love that last note in that extra, you know, hack as well too of, of, you know, Simon Sinek starting with why because I think it's so important, you know, as we have talked about within an organization to understand like where you're going, but it's even more important, I think, to understand our why as individuals, to know how we can make certain decisions. So I appreciate you for sharing that with us and reminding us of that. And I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

16:24 – Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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