No Shortcuts: Rare Insights From 15 Successful Start-up Founders : Rare Insights From 15 Successful Startup Founders

There is scepticism regarding the role of values in business. Values are at best implemented as checklists and codes of conduct and not as a fundamental way of enhancing stakeholder well-being, including employees, customers, vendors and the larger ecosystem. Organizations take note of values only when instances of ethical malpractices surface—be it financial, gender-based, intellectual property and so on. Values bring out the best in individuals, teams and the organization by establishing a strong foundation for actions and interactions. Right from improving the effectiveness of day-to-day meetings to creating a culture of creativity and innovation, values form the substratum for every aspect and functioning of the organization. This book establishes a strong rationale for instilling values in business organizations by demonstrating how values are the foundation for excellence, productivity, creativity, quality and for creating a stress-free work environment. By presenting experiences, challenges, inspirations and conflicts regarding values, the book will help employees at all levels strengthen their conviction regarding values at the workplace. Addressing managers at all levels and the leadership, the book pragmatically discusses how to build and nurture a values-based culture in the organization. The authors examine the subject of values from the point of view of each individual’s personal journey, and finally delve into the crucial topic of values-based leadership, which is indispensable for a culture of values **Ranked 100th among 190 countries for ease of doing business, India is not the choicest place for start-ups. Only a handful of founders have been able to beat the odds.** What’s in their journey that can be dissected and emulated? This curiosity led Nistha Tripathi to pursue these founders, who rose from humble beginnings yet made a dent in the Indian start-up universe, including a couple of founders from the Silicon Valley. This book is a record of her 18-month odyssey. In her incisive one-on-one interviews with 15 ambitious founders from India, including Girish Mathrubootham, Nithin Kamath, Jaydeep Barman, Gaurav Munjal and Tarun Mehta among others, Nistha uncovers the decisions and insights that led these start-up founders to find their unique roadmap to success. One thing underlined all the stories―the founders’ belief in **‘No Shortcuts’**. Read the never-heard stories of Freshworks, Faasos, Unacademy, Zerodha, Slideshare, Pulse, Aspiring Minds, Madhouse/Morpheus, Akosha, Ather Energy, Instablogs, Greyb, LikeaLittle, Wingify and Fashiate. Foreword / by Rehan Yar Khan -- Introduction -- Ideation, validation and pivoting -- Girish Mathrubootham : freshworks -- Nithin Kamath : zerodha -- Paras chopra : visual website optimizer (wingify) -- Nikhil rasiwasia : fashiate -- Traction and virality -- Gaurav Munjal, Roman Saini and Hemesh Singh : unacademy -- Prasanna Sankar : likealittle -- Nandini and Ankit Maheshwari : instablogs -- Business model and fundraising -- Tarun Mehta: ather energy -- Amit Ranjan: slideshare -- Ankit Gupta: pulse -- Ankur Singla: akosha -- Sales and marketing -- Varun Aggarwal: aspiring minds -- Deepak Syal and Chakshu Kalra: greyb -- People, operations and customer service -- Jaydeep Barman: faasos -- Sameer Guglani: madhouse -- About the author Cover Contents Foreword Preface Acknowledgements Notes to the Readers Introduction: Values Are Real Chapter 1 The Power of Values Chapter 2 Confusion over Nomenclature Chapter 3 Cake, Not the Icing Chapter 4 Creativity and Innovation Chapter 5 5 and 5 Become 50 Chapter 6 Path to Well-Being Chapter 7 Embracing Diversity Chapter 8 Busting the Myths Chapter 9 Symphony, Not an Organization Chapter 10 Building the Citadel Chapter 11 Walking the Talk Chapter 12 Personal Journey Conclusion: An Unshakeable Faith in Values Bibliography About the Authors Discovers the art behind building a successful startup through in-depth interviews of 15 exemplary founders that bring out the lesser known details of what worked and what did not. A must-have for ensuring success for the organization and all its stakeholders, by making values part of the very DNA of the organization