Ground Realities Of Moving To The US As An India-Based Founder

This episode discusses the ground realities and daily challenges of moving to the US to build your startup as an India-based founder. We cover everything from the first 90 days, logistics & compliance issues, acquiring early US customers, evolving the product roadmap from Indian to US customers, setting PMF goals & KPIs, relationship-building & other US GTM tips.

Joining me for this discussion is Prashant Mahajan, an accomplished product leader and founder with more than a decade of experience in product management. His most recent adventure was as the Founder of Zeda, a venture-backed startup in the space of AI-powered product management tools. Before this, Prashant was a product leader at Branch, Tokopedia, and Paytm.

TIME STAMPS:

(1:47) Bittersweet thoughts at the end of a startup journey

(4:42) How does an India-based founder figure out the correct timing for the US move?

(9:17) Day-to-day challenges of a US-India founder, dealing with loneliness

(15:36) Acquiring early US customers

(19:27) Evolving the product roadmap as GTM shifts from India to the US

(23:55) How to set PMF goals & KPIs while moving to the US as an India-based founder

(26:53) What stopped working for Zeda?

(35:33) When should founders pivot? Or even quit?

(41:05) Relationship-building advice for US-India founders

Connect with Prashant - https://www.linkedin.com/in/prashantmahajan31/ and follow him on X - @Pmahajan3105

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Check out "An Operator's Blog" (https://operator.blog/) for weekly posts on Startups, Investing, and Life.

I am a venture investor focused on the US-India corridor. Feel free to reach out on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/soumitrasharma5/) and follow me on X (@soumitra_sharma).