Nuseir Yassin, Founder & CEO, Nas Company, 0
Talent Hack
When building a technology company, the hardest thing is probably not coding; it is hiring talent. Hiring is expensive, especially if you hire talented people in America or Silicon Valley, since it will cost you half a million dollars. Next, how can we find talented people before they go to California or the next Sundar Pichai before they enter America? By the way, I’m fully convinced that the next Sundar is also actually based in India, which is why I’m excited about this talent hack. The easiest way is to start doing it in Bangalore, as the city has enough density.
Marketing Hack
I believe that every technology person should build in one city and sell in another city. Startups in India should not just build and sell in India but sell in America as well. Only a handful of startups are doing this. One of them is InMobi, which is based in Bangalore but has about 400 million users in and out of India. By that, I mean it is not solely due to developing startups but also the content. Speaking from my experience, we also create content in India, Dubai, Singapore etc., and the people who watch it are in America. This makes getting that 10x value increase quickly attainable. 10 views in Asia are the same as one view in America. This indicates that the market there is ripe, and there's a lot of money to be created there. You needn’t necessarily have to be based there, and that's the big idea.
Office Hack
Location matters. You can sell anywhere through the internet, but when it comes to your office, the location matters. Not many will agree, but in my opinion, remote work doesn't work. It's not as effective as we think it is, speaking from my experience. Another debatable opinion is that there are only six cities in the world where your office should be headquartered. The six cities are San Francisco, New York, London, Tel Aviv, Singapore and Bangalore. The truth of the matter is the ecosystem is a real deal. We may not be able to measure it or see it. But the density of talent and startups is a real thing. Most billion-dollar startups in the world are built by the same group of people who constantly go about building unicorns and happen to live in those six cities. Now, how
do you measure if a city is good for tech or not? I suggest you go to a coffee shop and listen to what people are saying. If you hear them talking about raising money for AI or tech engineering, most likely, that's a city you want to be in. If you want to be a technology company, you have to be part of the ecosystem.
Momentum Hack
You have to think where the momentum is and go with it. Building a startup is like surfing. You cannot control the waves, but you can learn to ride. I believe that startups should learn to ride waves. Take the most happening waves that exist in the world today. There is the AI wave, the crypto wave, and the creator economy wave. It is on those waves that I recommend you build a startup around them. Learning to ride the waves you choose to build your startup around is crucial to succeed in investments and others.
Another wave that is happening right now is what I call the India wave. Most people in the country have a growth mindset, which equates to maximum opportunities. I believe there are ample opportunities in India to build the next unicorn, especially in selling products regardless of having to sell in America.
For the right startups, you have to build the right product for the right market at the right time. Timing is half the battle when most people are already talking about AI, especially now. Therefore, the momentum is now, and the future is AI—not artificial intelligence—the future is America and India. This implies that two waves are happening right now. America is vigorously growing, and so is India. Hence, it’s crucial to consider building on these waves.
Content Hack
I think every startup, every startup, big companies, the government, agencies, and even every single human should become a content company. Speaking from my experience, I’ve come across a lot of startups that do incredible things. Yet the response is not quite progressive in their emails or with followers on their Instagram. This is not good. Creating content to tell your story should be the most important objective. Now, for a technology company, you need to ponder upon what kind of content to make. Besides, it costs you nothing to put a video on social media, which is literally free marketing compared to the mediums 20 years ago.
Make an image or a video and put it up on the internet. You can make a million views for zero dollars. When it comes to content, this is what a lot of people don’t understand, and that is the free marketing component.
Momentum Hack
You have to think where the momentum is and go with it. Building a startup is like surfing. You cannot control the waves, but you can learn to ride. I believe that startups should learn to ride waves. Take the most happening waves that exist in the world today. There is the AI wave, the crypto wave, and the creator economy wave. It is on those waves that I recommend you build a startup around them. Learning to ride the waves you choose to build your startup around is crucial to succeed in investments and others.
Creating content to tell your story should be the most important objective.
Another wave that is happening right now is what I call the India wave. Most people in the country have a growth mindset, which equates to maximum opportunities. I believe there are ample opportunities in India to build the next unicorn, especially in selling products regardless of having to sell in America.
For the right startups, you have to build the right product for the right market at the right time. Timing is half the battle when most people are already talking about AI, especially now. Therefore, the momentum is now, and the future is AI—not artificial intelligence—the future is America and India. This implies that two waves are happening right now. America is vigorously growing, and so is India. Hence, it’s crucial to consider building on these waves.
Content Hack
I think every startup, every startup, big companies, the government, agencies, and even every single human should become a content company. Speaking from my experience, I’ve come across a lot of startups that do incredible things. Yet the response is not quite progressive in their emails or with followers on their Instagram. This is not good. Creating content to tell your story should be the most important objective. Now, for a technology company, you need to ponder upon what kind of content to make. Besides, it costs you nothing to put a video on social media, which is literally free marketing compared to the mediums 20 years ago.
Make an image or a video and put it up on the internet. You can make a million views for zero dollars. When it comes to content, this is what a lot of people don’t understand, and that is the free marketing component.