“As first-generation immigrants from India, my family’s always been pretty entrepreneurial and working on businesses. So while I wasn't one of those people who’s constantly been reading about startups, I was surrounded by business. My first job was stacking shelves at Coles. I did that for a few years, then started tutoring. Later, I worked at a bookstore—that was probably one of the best jobs, I got paid to sit there and read. Growing up, my parents had a party shop, so I helped with that on weekends. I didn’t realize it at the time, but all these jobs helped me learn a lot of the business rules. A small business is definitely different from a startup, but what doesn’t change is that you have to make your customers happy. Like when I was delivering goods for the party shop, I was the customer service rep: I had to set up the AV, mics, lighting, and smoke machines. I quickly learned how to talk to customers—there’s a certain nuance to working and empathizing with them. Or at Coles, there's a difference of 90 seconds between saying a product is in Aisle 4 versus walking them there and chatting with them, but to a customer, that means the world. I think that philosophy’s true for a lot of startup tools, like Paul Graham's idea of “do things that don't scale.” Another tool I have as a tech founder today is writing: I discovered that if I’m struggling with something, like big decisions or imposter syndrome, I’ve found it helpful to write. Oftentimes, writing can make things seem smaller or give them the right frame of reference. I don't recall anyone specifically saying I should write, I just got it from different sources and I thought, I'll try it. And it stuck, because I got value out of it. I think those are the best things: when you decide to do something because you can feel the why, rather than somebody telling you to do it.”
StackGo is a SaaS startup providing a simpler and faster way for B2B software vendors to integrate to SaaS platforms.