Most organizations fear that the great pandemic of 2020 will slow down economic growth and cause a global recession. While the chances of a recession are sky high, this is something that shouldn’t concern entrepreneurs. A few successful companies such as Whatsapp, Groupon, Venmo, and Uber started during the 2008 recession. And, needless to say they are all giants now. Life without these products almost seems impossible.
The COVID-19 pandemic has opened similar doors. This is a situation that most of us haven’t been prepared for. And, if as an entrepreneur you are able to crack the correct solution to the many problems that we face today, your startup will get the breakthrough that you have always imagined.
In today’s blog, we are going to see about one such company that made use of the pandemic to launch its product and the timing could have never been more perfect.
Meetaide is a scheduling and productivity tool that helps particularly sales and other client-facing roles to schedule and prepare for meetings better. Eventually helping users save time, stay productive and close deals faster.
Shanmuganathan Ganapathy, Co-founder of Meetaide, answers questions on challenges faced, planning and successfully releasing their product during COVID 19.
1. What was the biggest challenge in releasing your product?
Meeting deadlines for feature releases. We are working from home and maintaining the same pace to release features was quite challenging initially. But, difficult times demand a lot of changes and our team, quickly adapted to the new normal.
2. Why did you choose this time to release it?
With every office enforcing work from home, the need for a scheduling app has increased. Meetaide helps its users increase productivity.
3. It is easier for a team that has worked together to work remotely, because a lot of things are established. But when you are starting up a lot of things are new. How did you manage that?
Yes it was really hard to manage a team remotely. Our major challenge was when it came to especially hiring remote resources and interns. We need to spend quality time onboarding them and helping them understand the product. But, this also changed our perspective on how we search for resources, we now look for candidates who have experience in working remotely.
We hired 3 new resources during the COVID 19 pandemic. We have an incubation set up where the candidates are given full access to our product and work culture. They are included in our calls so that they get an idea of what we do and how we do things at Meetaide. At the end of the week, if we have a common understanding, we go about it.
4. What about funding?
We are bootstrapped right now. We are in conversation with a few seed and angel investors and are very hopeful.
5. How long have you been working on this idea and do you think, things would have been different, if you had released it during normal times? If so, how.
We had this as a pet project for a while. But, Covid-19 opened a bigger and wider market need for scheduling. So maybe during normal times we would have had to push it a little harder.
6. What would you like to quote for startups that are striving to start?
Post Covid-19 remote working would be a norm, prepare your team and business for it. There is no right time to start up a company, your gut tells you when you should. Follow your heart.
We from Crayon’d wish the team at Meetaide great success.
It is never easy to follow your entrepreneurial dreams and this pandemic has made the entire endeavor a lot harder. But that does not mean that you’d need to postpone or give up.
Tapping into the enterprising spirit to solve problems during this pandemic is advantageous for you as well as the economy.
The recession is just one hurdle in the long race toward victory.
Cheer yourself up.
For an aspiring entrepreneur, the right time to start up is now. You might have your own doubts about needing the right talent and oversight.
That is quite unnecessary, as you can build an MVP without any technical skills or hire a digital product agency.
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