Founder's Backpack: Veekshith C Rai, co-founder, Finly.oi, analytics startup for business expenses

PODCASTS I LISTEN TO:
* Planet Money: A creative and entertaining way of explaining the American economy and fallout of the financial crisis
* Freakonomics: Covers really interesting topics in economics that are rarely discussed.
* Masters of Scale: Reid Hoffman chats with famous founders
* The SaaS Revolution Show: Insights from the greatest SaaS minds across the world
* Recode Decode: How tech and media's key players are changing the world with big ideas
PEOPLE I FOLLOW ON SOCIAL MEDIA:
Satya Nadella -- CEO, Microsoft Corp
Barack Obama -- 44th US president
Bill Gates-- founder, Microsoft Corp
Peter Diamandis --chairman, X Prize Foundation
FAVOURITE BOOKS:
I prefer reading classics to modern authors and my favourites are
* 1984 by George Orwell
* The Foundation Series by Isaac Asimov
* Crime & Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
* Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
FAVOURITE MOVIES:
* Donny Darko
* Ghost in the Shell
* Mulholland Drive
* Batman: The Dark Knight
* Goodfellas
WHEN THINGS ARE TOUGH...
When it gets tough I just listen to music, read a book and use this app called Insight Timer to meditate.
So in November 2015, we started the company. But as a product company with little resources, we realised we could not cater to everyone's needs. So in July 2016, we took this decision that we were only to going built a feature if we saw a use-case for more than 50 clients.
So once, we got a request from a client that they wanted us to build a tool to integrate with their accounting system -- Marg. Now we knew only a limited number of people used the software. So we took the difficult, but tough call of saying "No." Later, when another client came for a tool to integrate with Tally, we happily obliged as we could see demand from many other clients. And that is the strategy that has helped us gain 107 corporates as clients.
BEST LESSON LEARNT:
Early on, what I learnt was that you might have a great idea. But that doesn't mean the idea can be monetized. I realised you can create a product, technology, but never a market.
The market needs to be big enough. So we started creating products based on its market potential. I know some startups work on an idea -- and then go about trying to find a market for it. That is not our way.