My biggest entrepreneurial lesson in 5 years!

In the last five years of building my ed-tech startup, I learned one hard truth.

Sales and customer service never leave your job as a founder.

We first launched our platform on 25 Oct 2020. Due to bugs, we relaunched it on 2 Nov. Once the product was live, I realized something very important. No matter how good the product is, it is your responsibility to take it to the right people.

In the first two months, I focused heavily on marketing by partnering with the right creators and influencers on the platform. This helped us grow organically. By mid Jan 2021, we crossed 1,500 plus users and subscriptions were increasing.

But there was a problem.

Less than 10 percent of registered users were converting to paid users.

At that time, ed-tech was still new for many people. A lot of users were unsure whether online learning would actually help them achieve what they were aiming for. Building trust became more important than selling features.

That is when I stepped into sales.

I personally called every registered user. I listened to what they wanted, explained how our platform could help them learn from their favourite creators, and built confidence in the value of the product before talking about features. Selling came naturally because I truly believed in what we had built.

It was not easy.

It was stressful.

It was not something I enjoyed.

But it brought revenue.

That is when I learned a hard fact.

If you want to keep doing what you love, you must first get good at what you do not enjoy.

Later, I hired a sales person so I could focus on other areas. This continued for years, including when we started our offline centre, where selling premium courses required deeper trust and persuasion.

Along with sales, I was deeply involved in customer service. We ensured most issues were resolved within a few hours, sometimes within the same day. Feedback from users directly shaped our product decisions.

We once had a payment issue where a small percentage of users faced subscription confirmation problems after payment. Even though fixing it technically was not possible due to budget limits, we made sure every affected user was resolved manually and immediately. Service and ethics always came first.

Looking back today, I feel proud. Not just of what we built, but of how we treated people while building it.

Entrepreneurship did not just build a company. It helped in building me.