What I Want to Build
03 Jul 2012
Yesterday, on the way home my wife I spoke about a successful friend we know. He did not have big ambitions but is extremely wealthy and lives a very comfortable life. We concluded that the reason he could achieve this is because he knew what he wanted. He was clear and focused on what was important to him and what he wanted from his business and personal life.
I started thinking…
Do I want to build a big company with $50-$100M in revenue, lots of employees and take it public?
OR
Do I want to build an insanely profitable, small business ($5-$10M), have fewer people and have an amazing work-life balance? Note: $5-$10M might seem like a small number if you are in the US/UK but is a very very good target for an Indian company (operating fully from India) in the SaaS space.
Somehow I feel I am leaning towards the latter. Small, intimate businesses excite me. I prefer to concentrate on a few things. I am hands-on. I love product design and user-experience. I rather have fewer customers paying more than a lot of customers paying little. You don’t need a whole lot of capital, but what you require is an insanely awesome product(s). I am up for that challenge. I don’t believe in push-sales so doing away with a sales team is fine. They key is to generate traffic through inbound marketing and have a touch-free sales process. I envision a team that manages and teaches clients but never sells to them.
Big exits and payouts are hot in the tech world, but it’s something the whole world is chasing. I am happy if my business remains small, hugely profitable, popular and it gives me the time and flexibility to explore my other goals & passions.
My measure of a successful person is whether or not he has TIME.
Time to spend time with the family.
Time to go on a holiday.
Time to not work on a given day.
Time to meet friends.
Time to work from anywhere.
Time to read a book in the middle of the day.
…You know what I mean.
Life is short so you better know what you are up to.