First Principles: Ameet Mehta
Ameet offers valuable insights into the challenges and rewards of being a founder and provides tips for aspiring entrepreneurs.
Ameet Mehta
Ameet Mehta is the Founder and CEO of First Principles. He started his first business when he was 13 years old and has never looked back. Ameet's mission is to help scale private companies to $100M+ in ARR.
He is a frequent keynote speaker and guest lecturer on entrepreneurship, and his work has been featured in publications. In addition, Ameet enjoys spending time with his family and traveling to new cities around the country when he's not working on his businesses.
What motivated you to become an entrepreneur?
The answer to this goes long back to my childhood – when I was 13yo. One evening my mother came home from her work.
She usually came tired and stressed out, but there was more gloom on her face that day. Something was different. She looked exhausted and helpless. I sensed it and asked her about it while giving her a tight hug. Immediately after that, she broke into tears.
After a couple of minutes and a lot of insistence, she told me it was her manager.
She was being rude and mean to my mother all the time. Being on her team, my mother always felt that her work was taken for granted, and she felt no recognition for her contributions.
My mother wanted to file a complaint against their boss but couldn't; she was her manager. This created a weird sense of helplessness for her, and she couldn't do anything to escape this situation.
That day I promised myself that I would create an organization where people don't ever feel such a dose of helplessness and lack of helplessness. In this place, people can have uncomfortable conversations with their managers.
How have you overcome challenges in your entrepreneurial journey?
When you have a great team, challenges are very few and rare.
So one thing you can do to future-proof yourself from these challenges is to hire smart people and try your best to keep them in the organization.
However, you will still come across problems that you've never anticipated. One of the first things I do when I encounter an issue is approach my colleagues and pick their insights.
Apart from that, I have realized that the startup community is very close and supportive. Reach out to founders who you think are a few steps ahead of you. That's the best way to get through these challenges. Trust me; these people are very approachable.
I have received a positive response 90% of the time when I'm specific about my problems. Leverage Twitter DMs to seek help.
What advice would you give to aspiring entrepreneurs?
Don't fall for the trap of fundraising. Your goal is to create something that solves a problem for a group of people, not something that raises funds. Something suitable for investors is rarely good for the customers. Raise funds when you think you need to, not out of FOMO.
It's not a business if you're not profitable. If your CAC is too high compared to your LTV - you're probably building the wrong product.
You may not become profitable from day 1. You will have to burn some cash to get there. Be mindful of how and where you want to spend that cash. This is even more relevant if you have raised a seed. For nearly every startup that fails, the proximate cause is running out of money.
Your first five (paying) customers and hires dictate your company's success. Talk to them every week and try to understand how you can make things better for them.
What do you believe are the critical ingredients for a successful small business?
- A close connection with customers and an intimate understanding of their problems.
- Teammates are more like friends than colleagues
- Great customer support
What are your plans for the future?
We start two and acquire one business a year while creating $100mm in Enterprise value every year.
What impact do you hope to make?
To provide FirstPrinciples employees a place to become 1% better daily.
If you could have a superpower, what would it be?
It is being able to read minds.
How many sick days have you taken in the past year?
Zero!
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