From Startup To Service Business. How To Survive As A Startup If Running Out Of Money - I Will Not Promote

Hi Everyone,

Sharing my journey here since as entrepreneurs very few people understand our challenges and sharing my story so that others feel relevant and get a lot of value

I started my business journey as an edtech marketplace where mentors and mentees can connect with each other in tech since I am a senior data engineer so I only knew about tech but after developing the product I came to know about sales and marketing is a totally different game. I did not knew about concepts of traffic, getting leads, CPL, CPM, digital marketing and this thing hit me initially since I developed the product but with no validation at all. So the first thing while developing an online business is demand validation and this is where I struggled initially. I was able to succesfully create supply of mentors with over 50 mentors listed on my platform but when it came to getting qualified leads, this is where I learned funnel, talking to people, attracting leads via free webinars, free strategy calls developing trust into the community. So in september 2025 our first sales happened for mentors but for marketplace we came to one important conclusion that product needs a lot of traffic and time to grow so instead of dying as a business I need to setup something else to survive as a business, develop cashflow and hire employees

So in dec 2025 developed a lot of free stuff for the community including free career courses, free career roadmaps, free career tech strategy calls since if you add value to your potential customers life before even getting paid you develop trust as a business as well as poid leads as well. Started with meta ads for Full Stack AI Enabled Data Analytics and Engineering program and did 2x ROI. Then we can came to know that after talking to more than 500 people that they want internships as well as placement support so did partnership with RTO for internship and then hired career mentors and recruiters inhouse to develop placement support. So right now making small progress and did 6x ROI for our recent program in Sep 2026.

Now the most important and essential skill as a business owner is repetetion instead of trying 5 different ideas so the goal of next year is to do atleast 10 cohorts of data analytics program instead of trying something new. Keen to network with people in the same phase.

So the lesson of the day is that we need to repeat and focus on sales and have a thick skin to listen to rejections and stick to your mission long enough. I hear "NO" from people every day but the most important lesson for a business owner is that keep moving since 99.9% of the people do not have the courage to stay consistent. So if you are a early stage business owner if you focus on 5 things your chances of success increase by 1000%

• Focus on selling everything else is noise
• Talk to as many people as you can everyday. You must have a thick skin to hear "NOs" everyday.
• Focus on maximum distribution since if you are under $1M then literally no one knows about you.
• Getting traffic if you have an online business should be your priority
• Repeat your sales cycle 10 times for the same product or service before trying anything new
• Start with a service business and then reinvest in product

Happy to network with like minded investors and startup founders in Sydney/Australia and open to coffee chats so that we can learn from each other. I am still very early as a founder and this is my first business but sticking long enough to see it through. I am doing my 9 to 5 job as a senior data engineer and then 5 to 9 following my mission for the past 2 years.