Startup Mantra # 1: Never believe your own PR. The beginning of the end occurs when you start believing. PR is only for others to consume!

Startup Mantra # 2: Loyalty and Competence aren’t fungible. Startups that grow up learn this fast. Or, is it the other way around?!

Startup Mantra # 3: Who else loves you besides yourself?

Startup Culture # 4: Do you want to own 100% of a 1cr company or 1% of a 100cr company?

Startup Mantra # 5: Are you selling combs to the bald?

Startup Mantra # 6: Will you buy your own stuff?

Startup Mantra # 7: Two poor guys don’t equal 1 rich guy

Startup Mantra # 8: If the roof in office leaks, do you carry a bucket to work

Startup Mantra # 9: Think Big, In small steps.

Startup Mantra # 10: Speed is an awesome advantage

Startup Mantra # 11: Valuation is money in the mirror; Do you know how to extract value out of it?

Startup Mantra # 12: One doesn’t learn swimming reading books but only by being in the water. A market is known only by being in it, not through reports.

Startup Mantra # 13: A feature isn’t a product, a product isn’t a business, a business isn’t a company and a company isn’t an organization. Each is a log-scale evolution

Startup Mantra # 14: Be confident,, not arrogant. The former allows for humility and learning.

Startup Mantra # 15: An app isn’t a solution. It is a tool to solve a problem. Do you know what the problem is?

Startup Mantra # 16: Personalities are displayed when there’s real money on the table

Startup Mantra # 17: It takes a village to raise a child (African proverb). A startup too – outreach to different experiences, capabilities, competencies, knowledge, expertise…

Startup Mantra # 18: Founder must have Dharma-Sankata “Am I the right CEO for this company?”

Startup Mantra # 19: Business isn’t done on a spreadsheet, done between people. Developing, building and nurturing relationships matter

Startup Mantra # 20: Understand that technology by itself is only about 20% of the solution. The balance is sales, marketing, partnerships, customer experience, support, operations, people and cash management. Invest in learning the 80%

Startup Mantra # 21: Nothing happens till sales happen!

Startup Mantra #22: Go deep into a market then go wide – geo, product etc.

Startup Mantra # 23: Blaming everything and everyone except oneself is a very red flag

Startup Mantra #24: Company culture flows from the top. Bottlenecks are at the top of every bottle!

Startup Mantra # 25: Hope is not a strategy! “We will do viral marketing and then there will be customers and world peace!” Sorry.

Startup Mantra #25: If the chemistry isn’t right, the arithmetic will never work

Startup Mantra # 26: What’s good for the founder isn’t necessarily good for the startup but what’s good for the startup is almost always good for the founder

Startup Mantra # 27: Using jargon shows a muddled mind; Buzzword compliance isn’t necessary!

Startup Mantra # 28: Hiring someone by offering more money will also see the someone leave for even more money!

Startup Mantra # 29: The boss, the work and the culture are the main reasons for people to leave. Money isn’t the solution.

Startup Mantra # 30: Funding follows a team and market opportunity. Not the other way around!

Courtesy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanjayanandaram