Ajay Yadav sees every day as a new opportunity to make positive co-living experiences easier to find. He’s guided Roomi through its debut in New York and expansion to San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, and Philadelphia, with other markets and services launching in 2016. Ajay also serves as a Lean Startup Machine mentor, advising early-stage startups during crucial growth points. He loves working with people who are also passionate about building a better world, and he strives to lead by example. Before Roomi, Ajay studied computer science at NYIT and helped to launch two other startups. Follow him @yadavajay.
Who is your hero? (In business, life, or both.)
My dad. He taught me persistence. When I was young, our family went through a long period of financial struggle, but my dad had a vision for our future that he never gave up on. Our family of five was living in a studio apartment, unable to afford pretty much anything. We slept on the floor or shared beds. But he was resilient and resourceful during those lean years. He always came home happy. He told me that one day his hard work was going to give us a better life. It took him eight years to become a millionaire. I’m so much stronger today than I could imagine being if it were not for his example.
What’s the single best piece of business advice that helped shape who you are as an entrepreneur today, and why?
A startup demands a lot from you. And as your startup expands, each stakeholder of your business and personal life will bring different (and sometimes conflicting) expectations and goals. Managing expectations upfront will keep everyone happier in the long run.
Even if everyone deserves your attention, you just can’t be or do everything. The key to preventing disappointment is to be honest and responsible in both commitments and communication. I only pitch or agree to something that I know I can deliver, whether with my customers, investors, employees, advisors, girlfriend or family. If we promise our customers that we have a great product that solves a genuine need, then we better do it. When fundraising, we only propose goals that we’re confident about attaining, so as not to risk disappointing investors with unmet milestones. Having clear roles and paths for Roomi employees helps them achieve and grow as a symbiotic team. Finding balance for friends and loved ones is perhaps toughest at the beginning, when the company is at its leanest. But informing them about my mix of responsibilities and time constraints at various stages along Roomi’s growth has helped them prepare for my absence at social events or late hours at the office.
What’s the biggest mistake you ever made in your business, and what did you learn from it that others can learn from too?
Not gaining enough advice about early-stage company development. Looking back, it’s clear to me that I didn’t price the first round of funding correctly. Raising funds is always challenging, but raising them as a solo-founder was even more so. It took me nine months to get my first offer, and since it took so long, I needed the money. Because of that desperation, I took the deal I was offered, giving away much more than I should have in the first round.
Now I understand that people invested in Roomi because they believed in our mission and vision, and they would have invested in it for less if I had been given solid negotiating advice or held out longer for a better deal. My advice to other founders would be to go after great advisors right away and wait for the fundraising deal that feels right for both you, your company and eventually your other investors. Similarly, deals are structured in a way that can be confusing or overwhelming for people just entering this world. Investing in great legal advice from the start may feel expensive at the time, but it could be invaluable down the road.
What do you do during the first hour of your business day and why?
I read my emails and news notifications and sort the items that need my immediate attention and those that can wait. There’s always way more on my plate than I can tackle in a day, so I prioritize the three most important things to do that day. As a founder, my goals are often really long-term, relating to the overarching mission and vision of the company. However, accomplishing those three tasks gives me the feeling that I’m personally getting something done each day, and it ensures that the top needs of the company are always addressed in a timely way. Then I can begin chipping away at the at the hundreds of other things that compete for your attention as a founder.
What’s your best financial/cash-flow related tip for entrepreneurs just getting started?
One of the best pieces of advice I received was to stay lean as you develop your product or service, and ensure to test all features so that you don’t spend money in areas where it’s not doing any good. But what’s helped Roomi stay lean was extending that even further by being frugal with everything, including salaries. You can always pay yourself and your employees more money later, but if you start higher right away, you may get into trouble down the road.
When you raise that first round of funding, you really still have little insight into how your business will evolve as it grows. However, during your first six to eight months after getting your initial funding, you’ll figure out how to spend the money with strategies and testing etc. Reserving some money during that realization phase means that you’ll have money to execute your strategies and meet your milestones. But if you spend too quickly, you’ll have nothing left to accomplish those goals. And when investors ask you what you’ve done with the previous funding, you’ll have little to show for it.
Quick: What’s ONE thing you recommend ALL aspiring or current entrepreneurs do right now to take their biz to the next level?
It’s crucial to have an overarching long-term strategy and a sense of who you are as a company so that you have a strong foundation upon which to build. But don’t wait until you plan every detail, and don’t try to do everything all at once. When you’re passionate about your product and market, it’s easy to come up with tons of ideas and dive in on many different projects, but don’t get swept away. Make a list and prioritize what is going to help you achieve your short-term goals while contributing to the long-term ones. Choose those few things that are really going to elevate your business — something that will take your company from Point A to Point B, not Point A to Point Z — and do them really well. As you keep tackling each step, the way to Point Z will become clearer.
What’s your definition of success? How will you know when you’ve finally “succeeded” in your business?
Success to me is when we’ve really solved the problem for our customers and impacted their lives for the better.
When we began having those moments, it was incredibly powerful and humbling. Helping that first set of customers made me feel that we really did it; we took this idea, built it into an actual solution and made a difference for those two people. It was really rewarding. Then, seeing people using Roomi every day, getting feedback that they were actually finding what they’d been looking for, made me want to reach more people and discover better ways of adding value.
It’s always important to celebrate those moments of success and then move the marker, so that we keep innovating and expanding. I want to become a resource for new audiences and solve more challenges through additional services.
