Founders, Are things not going your way? How do you handle these situations in your startup?

It happens all the time. But the key is discipline and not let emotions drive your decisions. It's very well known but we see it happening all the time. Stick to the initial testing framework you set to yourself (it applies to anything and everything business related).

I think one of the best ways of managing this is to generally track your progress. Being able to look back at your journey and see how far you've come, even if you haven't reached your personal measure of success yet, is key.

when you start out, most founding teams are aligned with conquering the universe and becoming huge. But after time you start to learn that their ambition may not be the same as it once was (or maybe never was). Its especially prevalant when you start getting success and things become comfier, and they dont want to go back out into the cold anf hustle again.

I try not to panic because it doesn't help. Take a quick break, come back, sit down and strategize. Thats the overall structure. The specifics are too varied depending on the situation.

I usually follow a rule of 3: Give three attempts , if it does not succeed, then move on or pivot. So far this approach has been proven quite effective, if not for achieving success, but at least not to be stuck on any failure. And given my sysadmin background, its a habit to always keep a plan B and C ready just in case. This has also been proven very helpful in consulting with clients as they know I will have multiple solutions which they can choose from. Last but not the least, having survived two recession in IT (2008 and 2020 onwards), I have learnt to be content with the benefits of the experience, success or failure are just the results. And yeah, being financially independent before taking any major leap. Like when I left my full time well paid job and started solo in 2017, I had already planned enough savings, so I can live my usual life for atleast a year without being paid. I continue to maintain that till date. That takes away a lot of stress.

I try to find the root of the problem and iterate from there. Basically keep hustling! Resilience is in my opinion one key trait of founders/entrepreneurs.

"Those who search for excuses, find excuses. Those who search for solutions, find solutions." - I think it's the best mindset to actually solve problems. I try to not take problems to heart, but always think about a solution, or at least, if there is no solution, find ways to get around them.

Depends on what the problem is of course. Sometimes all you need to do is take a break, like going on a walk. This can help you focus on other things so when you come back to your problem, it's in a new frame of mind. I also don't believe in refusing to kill a project. If something isn't going well, you've pivoted, put out fires, tried different things, etc, and nothing changes and it's still "failing" it may be time to move onto something new. You're not giving up, you're just trying a different project.

I launched my first product, Tales Factory a few days ago and so far the response has been overwhelming. It's an AI-powered storybook generator and right now there's been 500 user signups and 1000 storybooks generated.

Very interesting, but you mean business not going your way? Can I ask you, what about when the problems are between co-founders? Apparently this is one of the big reasons for startup breakups