Stoa Digest #11: In Hindsight,
It all works out.
Highlight of the Week
Cohort 2 had their second to last Case Weekend(and will now probably hate us for reminding them of that tiny fact) this past weekend.
We had the founders of Sportz Village come and present us with a rather unique problem statement.
If your company’s Mission was to get a 100mn people playing sport in the country - and then suddenly COVID hit, and even being in the vicinity of another human being was now a hazard, how would you continue on the path of this mission?
In the true spirit of sportsmanship, you don’t give up when the going gets rough, you just learn that the tougher the going, the better you get.
Sportz Village had a large network of trainers & coaches that would otherwise be on sports fields around the country, suddenly cooped up at home, with the need to find an alternative way to keep people playing.
And our fellows had to navigate how it is they would keep employees optimistic and on-board with a change in the business model of something that never seemed like it would happen.
Sports. On a screen.
In third position, running a very close competition with the other teams were:
Shonik Agarwal, Abdul Poonawala, Achyut Todi, Animesh Mishra, Payal Kakrania & Nicaia.
In second position we had Ratnadeep Deshmane, Siddish Iragamreddy, Vedaang Prasad, Swapnil Agarwal, Rahul Ranganathan and Suraj Desai
And at the top of the podium we had Kiran P. , Dilip Pitchika, Pravin Kadam, Kshitij Kuthiala and Vignesh Ganesh!!
Might we also add, Vignesh is a man you can DEPEND ON!! Given that he raged at the Meetup, and then came back to hustle on their team presentation & proceed to win!!
Let’s Rewind: Last Week at Stoa 📆
Content Marketing:
If you’re reading this, and thinking you like reading it, it is very highly possible that you can write ‘Content’.
The internet allowed us this & democratised distribution of created content.
With content, you can buy the attention of your audience on any of the social media you’re using - Twitter, Instagram, Substack, Facebook if leveraged correctly.
As a brand, using them to create value, for both yourself and the people consuming the content you create, builds you an audience, fanbase & community.
A decade ago, for the first time, we(from India) built a product, that went global.
Enter: Wingify.
They changed the game by infusing their Content Marketing strategy with Case Studies.
The tea was never the same, post.
The leads that come to you through your content marketing are extremely sharp ones - you now know you hold their interest.
“An ad can do one thing, content can do a lot”
Figure out who your audience is, and then serve them a cuppa tea they will never forget.
Pro tip for your personal brand: “Do things you enjoy doing, and the audience will want to partake in your enjoyment. Be a thought leader at 17 and find yourself struggling to find things to be validated for.”
Growth Hacking:
Your best route going about tapping into consumers when creating a product is to tap into what their pain point.
Fun fact: Did you know Pokemon Go took 19 days to reach 50mn users.
For context: Facebook took 3 years, The internet took 7 years & Air travel took 68 years.
The power of Growth Hacking lies in using a referral program to promote people to talk about your product.
In the UK, ‘smol’ - a detergent brand - took a completely new route & tried to solve a problem nobody in the Household Goods space had particularly targeted.
For something like laundry, that is a non-regular buy when it comes to grocery shopping, this would require planning for the purchase & remembering to put it on your list of supplies.
Who they solved for were households with families - offering to keep the first delivery of their product to their consumers’ LETTERBOXES free.
All this took was a subscription from their target customers - mothers/wives/caretakers who were tasked with handling the laundry of the household and would find this a suitable model to subscribe to.
Once a customer signs up for their first subscription, they automatically got added to their subscriber list, and are provided the option to cancel whenever they please, but the next month when the scheduled time rolled around, their consumers didn't have to purchase laundry detergent because it was delivered to them already, thanks to entered details on how frequently they purchase detergent.
Talk about preemptive measures. Simple idea? GREAT execution?
You bet. How many laundry detergent companies do you know that target a problem so specific, and so well?
It solved for the friction created with regard to bringing users onboard to try their product.
B2B Sales:
Something we also covered was Sales Operations with a focus on B2B operations & understanding how these roles need to function & can be planned within a process.
If anything brings a business revenue, it is customers.
These come most prominently from a salesperson(we know, we know, they usually get a bad rap on the designation, because we focus on this role only being held by individuals who badger us for products we have 0 interest in using).
A salesperson needs to know what data to use, to be able to capture their users & then put a process in place to be able to prove the viability of your product to them.
When looking at Business 2 Business (B2B) sales, your employee needs to be able to decipher who they can pitch to, and where the potential revenue will come from, and then pursuing this market like a moth to a flame - convincing them to work & purchase your product because they see that you solve a problem for them.
Armed with these three sessions, we hope you have some really good thoughts for market understanding now.
Get These Done, Please ☑️
Dear Cohort 2 fellows, My SnapShot is something we think you could draw immense value from, when it comes to assessing yourself through the last 5 months, and your next & final month at Stoa.
We understand that it was incorporated a tad late, but we believe you have to invest in your own growth more than us having to plant you in an environment to do so.
We’d love for you to have a look at My Snapshot and fill your assessments out - the sooner, the better!
Same goes for Cohort 3 - you guys are one third of the way through your Stoa journey. If you haven’t already, there has never been a better time than now!
Birthday Parttaaayy! 🥳 🎂
It’s Dakshayani’s birthday today!
You’re right, we have been missing her in our sessions, so drop in & feel free to wish her today!
Manjiri Godbole - 26th August, Thursday
Payal Kakrania - 27th August, Friday
Suraj Peri- 28th August, Saturday
Sarabjit Singh - 29th August, Sunday
Can you imagine what it would be like if we all lived in close proximity, we’d have a whole extended weekend’s worth of birthday ragers. Whew!
Community Buzz 🐝
If you’ve ever had the need for an AdBlocker - the woah-man to go to is Siyara.
Fellows Rocket🚀Shipping🚢 Content
🔗 On Linked In
🐦Tweeple
For Stoans by Stoans ✍🏼📚⏯
Books 📚
Watchtime 🎥
Blogs & Resources 🤓
Weekend Binges
Meme Wars 🥲
This week’s shiny new winner of Best Meme goes to …………
🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁
To end, we’ll leave you with this: 🎧
Surabhi from our Careers Team curated you this playlist to get you through good ol’ Hump Day.
NOT to be heard before Wednesday.