31 / Running a business for 10 years
And the things that we are most proud of
In 2020, we are entering the 10th year of running NFN Labs. Here are 10 decisions we took, that helped us easily sustain for a decade with an amazing team & enjoy every moment of it.
Bootstrapping the business - This was our goal from day 1 for NFN Labs. We were excited about building something from scratch and reinvesting everything to make it better. The alignment of founders is very important in such a scenario. In the last 10 years, never have we felt the need to get external funding. We like the fact that we are answerable to ourselves for all the decisions we take, to make this a fun ride.
Building our own products - Once we were aligned on how to run the business, the one thing we always wanted to do was “Show, don’t tell”. Before we got our first partner to work with, we built our own products on different platforms. The first app we submitted to the App Store was rejected (the last app was featured in the App Store by Apple). Learning the nuances of each platform on web, iOS, Android by building our own products acted as our showcase to the world. Most of these app got featured in top websites, journals and blogs almost like a showcase which said “Hey if we can build world class products for ourselves, we can build it for you as well”. Today we have our own products on all major platforms from web to mobile to watch to TV.
Hiring for attitude - Assertive, ability to communicate your thoughts, keen on exploring solutions, open minded about possibilities in addition to the core skill is always what we looked for. The skill by itself is not enough. You might be the best designer or developer in the world, but if you behave like a jackass with the team, we don’t need you. We looked for team members who believed they are good at something, believed they can become better over time and make others better along the way.
No hierarchy - No CEO, CTO, COO, no senior/junior roles, no preferential treatment because of past glories, no micro-management, no best performer of the month :) Everyone who is part of the team is equally accountable. All we cared and will care about is – can we build something awesome together with all our capabilities. Everything else is immaterial.
Ship consistently - This singular motto has done wonders in the last 10 years. You make things together, learn from mistakes or friction points, make them better, repeat. I guess by now people who work (or have worked) with us know that if we say we are taking up a project it means it is going to go LIVE on the date which was mutually discussed. We like that feeling and trust.
Focus on alignment - Most folks don’t lack motivation, they want more clarity. That’s why communication, assertiveness and looking at the future with an open minded approach is so important. Once there is alignment on today and the future it makes life so simple for everyone involved to make it happen. Weekly catchup with teams, talking about the next step(s), or aligning if we stray away - has been super crucial for a small team like ours.
Calm working week and more breaks - We don’t like the word ‘grind’, there are no rewards for working 12 hours a day. There is no check-in/check-out time, there is no minimum 9 hours of work. In fact we work 4 days a week. The 5th day is for alignment where we all just catch up on how the 4 days went and where we can improve. We keep questioning how to do build systems and processes that helps us to reuse things that we have already built. Every month there has been a team lunch/dinner or game time at work. Every quarter there has to be resort scenes. Every year in Jan we have to fly down to a location outside of Chennai for 3-4 days. We even took a whole week off for the entire team during this pandemic because we desperately needed a break. Stay at home vacation of course :) The point I'm trying to make is - we did all this since we started and we seem to be doing absolutely fine after 10 years.
Staying smol - Our decision to stay small helps us to make all these things possible. Since the last 10 years we grew from a team of 4 to 30 max and kept it between 25 and 30. With design and development tightly knit - it shows on the work we produce. Staying small also helps to make very quick decisions and align everyone super quickly or manoeuvre easily.
More NOs unless it’s a HELL YES! - Because we know exactly how we want to continue working, we want to only work with partners who understand us and why we work like this. Of course our commitment is first on the quality of our work and deliverables but we decided long time back that we will continue our style of working and our rules are the same for everyone. Here are some basic things: If we can't put the work on our website - we can’t work together. If you don’t like the fact that we work 4 days a week, we can’t work together. If you keep negotiating on price without looking at our outcomes and quality of work, we can’t work together. Like they say “If you think good design and development is expensive, try bad design or development”. And when we move out of all this we get to work with amazing people and partners where we both say “HELL YES! Let’s build this!”
You are more than your work - We don’t say things like “You are part of the NFN family” (I even cringed while typing that). We firmly believe you are not defined by your work. There is so much more to you, so much to explore, so much to enjoy. And what you do at work is only a portion of you, which we want you to enjoy. We wanted to create a level playing environment which allows you to become a better version of you. When each one feels they have become better - we all win anyways and go on to do more awesome things in our areas of interest.
Here’s looking forward to the next 10 years!
Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others - Jack Welch
Hope you enjoyed this quick read. If you like to read more such posts do subscribe. I write about bootstrapping businesses, design, cool products and service, side projects and everything that i find interesting related to startups and shipping things.