How to Bootstrap & be lean during times of uncertainty

This Monday at our Entrepreneur's Connect, we spoke with Kiran Samra the founder of Lokafy, to talk about how she bootstrapped her business from the ground up, from a side hustle, to profit, to making her business in such demand that VC's couldn't say 'No' to.

In summary, when she told her story, you could hear the passion in her voice in how she built her business as a solo female founder while on maternity leave, how she eventually quit her well paying and stable consulting job to focus on building her vision of a business focused on facilitating connections with people around the world through walking tours. Eventually, she grew from a business with activities in Toronto and Paris to being in 100 cities, and after a few years, she eventually grew to the point where she needed VC financing in order to continue scaling to meet demand.

After hearing Kiran talk on Monday, I've digested her story into some take away tips:

Started from a side hustle

Kiran started her passion project while on maternity. Her break gave her time and space to think of a brand new idea to fuel her passion to connecting with people in her town and abroad. Gradually she decreased the days of work on her corporate job, and then eventually went full-time on her business two years after starting her passion project. Kiran was able to start a business while not being stressed about salary and sustaining herself since she was on maternity.

So many being on EI and CERB isn't such a bad idea, as it let's you work on your passion projects and test your ideas out, right?

Lean testing of your startup idea and getting feedback

Kiran started her startup with the realization that for many, making connections with locals were the most important aspect of a memorable travel experience.

Kiran tested her ideas and theories on craigslist (btw, is craigslist still a thing?), asking people for stories about their favorite places in Toronto. Kiran started her business with a base in Toronto and Paris, where she found about 30 locals from each city through Craigslist who were very passionate about their town and were excited about giving walking tours around their town.

Her first customers became her 'evangelist' users and provided hour long feedback on the tours. Although it wasn't driving revenue at the time, feedback was necessary to continue shaping the success of her business.

Giving it away for free

Kiran offered her service for free during her first year after launch. Even though she didn't drive revenue, Kiran received encouragement for her business to continue building as customers and walking tours continued to flow. In addition, Kiran was able to use free marketing services such as Craigslist to build revenue and traction for her business.

Making a great video

There is no great product or service without an awesome video to drive media attention. Check out the video she created in her second year of business on the Lokafy homepage.

Going Full-time on your passion project

Although she started her business as a passion project while on Maternity, she began focusing on her business fulltime in the third year in order to fully focus on the success of her business.

Building a Lean Team

Even though Kiran is a solo female founder, she couldn't build her company on her own.

Kiran hired students and interns from UofT and Angelist, in order to build out technology for her business. Also, building a remote team is essential in times like covid times.

Setting unachievable and unrealistic goals for your team

Kiran set unrealistic goals for her team. The first summer she went full-time on her business, her goal for her team was to focus on 'Project 50 to 500' to go from 50 to 500 walking tours that summer. Her team failed miserably, and ended up only holding 75 tours that summer. #fail

Our goal that summer was 'Project 50-500'

However, through her team's grand efforts that summer, she was able to build partnerships that would drive significant revenue for her tours. Her next unrealistic goal was to build out her business from two cities to having walking tours across 100 cities, with a lokafyer (or local) in each city.

Having revenue that VC's can't say no to

Kiran's revenue was exploding; her business was growing so quickly that she needed to automate processes to continue scaling. VC financing was going to be the only way to scale quickly enough to meet demand. She had no contacts in the VC network, and merely filled out an application on Extreme Ventures. Kiran knew she had built a business the VC's couldn't say 'No' to, so they didn't.

I didn't even try to get VC funding until my business was profitable. I wanted the VC's to think, of course we need to invest in her'.

Agility

Even in times when there is no travel and no tours, Kiran shared about her next project, about the virtual experience that her team is working on to bring tours from cities around the world to the safety of your home.

Passion

Kiran spoke easily for 20 minutes and she could easily speak an entire hour about her business. It's quite evident from anyone hearing her speak that she has a great passion about her business and to continue growing it post pandemic.

Thanks for sharing your story with the Ingrwth Community Kiran! Your passion has no bounds. I know your business will continue to succeed post-pandemic.