Praveen Kumar Rajbhar – Don’t Fall in Love with Your Own Ideas

<p><strong>BIO: </strong>Praveen Kumar Rajbhar is an entrepreneur, founder, and CEO SkillingYou, an employability Skills Focused EdTech startup in rural India.</p><p><strong>STORY: </strong>When Praveen started his first startup, he spent money to hire many people, buy a lot of gadgets, and rent a huge office space. The business collapsed in less than two years.</p><p><strong>LEARNING: </strong>Get the right mentor to guide you on how to make your startup a success. You don’t need a big team to be successful. Get on-time and accurate financial statements every month.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><blockquote class="ql-align-center"><strong>“Having the right mentor will help you create a great company.”</strong></blockquote><blockquote class="ql-align-center">Praveen Kumar Rajbhar</blockquote><p>&nbsp;</p><h2>Guest profile</h2><p><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/praveenkumarrajbhar/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong>Praveen Kumar Rajbhar</strong></a> is an entrepreneur, founder, and CEO <a href="https://www.skillingyou.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">SkillingYou</a>, an employability Skills Focused EdTech startup in rural India. It’s one of the top 100 promising startups ranked by Google and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and is being incubated by Google, EdStart, Agora, and TiE.</p><p>Praveen has worked for over 13 years in corporates such as Axis Bank, Home Credit, Amway, SBI Cards, and AU Bank.</p><h2>Worst investment ever</h2><p>Praveen left his corporate job and started his first startup. Instead of controlling his expenses, Praveen hired more people than he needed, bought unnecessary gadgets, and rented colossal office space. In total, Praveen spent over $60,000 to run the startup. Being the family’s only breadwinner, he was soon in a lot of debt. The business collapsed in under two years.</p><h2>Lessons learned</h2><ul><li>Make sure that you understand your product before testing your market.</li><li>People are your biggest strength as a founder and CEO. So sur