Rajesh Kumar, CEO & Founder Inkoniq, a UX & App development agency that he launched in 2011. Some of his past roles have invovled Sr. Product Manager – Key Experiences, AOL, Senior Technical Support Engineer – Member Services, Netscape, Technical Support Engineer, Wipro, and Corporate Trainer, Aptech Computer Education.

Rajesh aims to share the highs and lows of his Startup journey, as well as his experiences with UX and App building. RSVP’s are mandatory.

Rajesh Kumar’s session – “My Startup Journey – INKONIQ” was a simple, clear and crisp articulation of the essence – the learnings from its four year journey. Here are the Lounge47 key takeaways:

1. Follow your passion and listen to your subconscious mind- it will tell you what is right. Remember, that not all ideas are unicorns or horses

2. Think through your passion and idea before you launch. E.g. Passion around launching a restaurant may translate into hassle when running it everyday

3. Do not sail two boats. Focus on one idea and execute well. Crawl before you can run. Pick a few things and do them very well

4. Entrepreneurs need to learn how to make money and bootstrap

5. Building a team is key. a) Invest in relationships b) Build trust c) Stick to your core competencies d) collaborate on the skills you do not have e) Convey a ‘sense of purpose’ even if not overtly f) Hire through team networks

6. Startups hit the “Product or Service” dilemma and one competes for bandwidth with the other. Product could encapsulate learnings from services

7. Be in touch with trends and execute the idea that rides the trend

8. Even when the business stabilizes, think like a Startup – revisit and re-imagine how you do things, always correcting and perfecting what you do.
Be hardworking and detailed. In summary – Success comes to those that sweat.