Interview with Akshay Murthy
Akshay is a Senior at Tesla Stem High School and is the founder and CEO of his marketing business, AKM Studios. AKM Studios is a marketing and design agency that caters to various clients and small businesses by offering branding, promotional, advertising, social media, and website services. His clients have ranged from social media influencers to athletes (In the NBA and NFL), corporations, startups, and much more. I had previously invented a founder of a non-profit and now wanted input from someone who makes money off their business.
1. What was the hardest part of getting your business on its feet?
The hardest part was to make sure that my team members and I were passionate about our idea, and were willing to put the time and effort into advancing the business. One of the tougher aspects was identifying our true target market and ensuring that the problem we were trying to solve was needed in the market, and was something that people wouldn’t be able to live without. In addition, establishing a solid business model and revenue streams before marketing our company was one of the tougher aspects into getting our business up and running.
2. Did you have any hardships along the way, if so, how did you get through them?
Yes, we had many hardships along the way. In regards to our team, we often were in disagreement about various components about our product and we got frustrated with the work allocation between each member and the commitment., We had to make sure that everyone on the team was completing their tasks on time in order to further advance the business. In addition, we often found that the problem we were trying to solve wasn’t our true passion, which led us to “pivoting” a multitude of times, and thereby resetting our progress. In order to get through these various hardships, we made sure to ask ourselves “why?” to dig deeper into the problems we hoped to solve. We took a step back and looked at the big picture, instead of just focusing on a money-making venture. We also looked to the helped of various mentors to help us guide us through these challenges.
3. What was the hardest decision you made in the last 6-12 months regarding your business?
Our hardest decision we made in the past 6-12 months was completely pivoting our business to solely focus on the problem we want to solve. We also came in contact with multiple school district officials and clients who were interested in our product, so we had to start our development and marketing. My team and I dedicated many months into actually creating and delivering a working product, and later on, pitching it to very established individuals. Our decision to follow through with our company and start the actual development phase from the prototyping was a big accomplishment.
4. Do you have any concerns for the future of your business now?
Yes, there are many concerns for the future of our business as my 3 co-founders are currently in college. I have taken on a bigger role in the company in order to advance our mission and market it to the public and acquire more clients. In addition, we are also concerned about how we are going to pitch our product to school district officials since school districts are very tight on funding and the implementation of technology can be a challenge. Lastly, with the college application process coming up and other work becoming busier, it’s a challenge to find time to sit down and actually work on the company itself.
5. What tips do you have to manage your time for young entrepreneur’s business not to fail and for them to be doing well academically?
Some tips would be to prioritize your tasks. Engineering 3 gives you the ability to set your own flexible schedule so that you can work on your business with complete focus. Personally, since I am very passionate about entrepreneurship and business, I found myself working on the company when I had free time. I believe that this is the best strategy for making sure that you and your business succeed. In terms of time management, it’s important to focus on the big things first. For example, if you need to come up with your business model and lay down the basics of your company, its important to those first before jumping into creating a marketing plan or a website. If you do the latter, you will find yourself making poor business choices and you will be spending a lot of time later trying to fix those big components. Lastly, if you have parties scheduled for the weekend and you are able to skip them, it’s best to work on your startup instead of partying. This will have many benefits that are not apparent at the beginning, but it will truly show how dedicated you are towards building your business.
6. Do you recommend any books to help other aspiring entrepreneurs build their business?
Some books I would recommend would be “The Lean Startup” by Eric Ries as well as “Crushing It” by Gary Vaynerchuck, and “Rework”. It's one thing to read a book about entrepreneurship, but its another thing to actually do it. Make sure you are actually practicing what you are reading on a daily basis.
7. Lastly, do you have anything to say to the newer more inexperienced entrepreneurs?
You grow by doing. If you are not passionate about what you are doing, you will fail. If you treat engineering 3 like just any other “class”, you are not going to learn anything. You need to develop a CEO mindset and think outside the box. Classroom thinking and entrepreneur thinking are two different things, which is why you see a lot of entrepreneurs who have dropped out of high school or more frequently, college. If your first idea seems like a failure, step back and think why that is. Always reflect on your mistakes and see how you can grow from them. Personally, I was impatient in the progression of my company and I often got frustrated when things weren’t happening quickly. However, I realized that it's important to stay calm and trust the process because you can’t rush entrepreneurship. Lastly, attend every single networking or pitching event possible. This class provides you with the opportunity to do so. If you are aspiring to become an entrepreneur, this is the opportunity to grow and build connections.
Talking with Akshay really established the point that if you never do, you'll never know. He talks about taking a different approach when thinking about problems and to act upon what you learn. It's important to use everything you learn to your advantage in order to be successful.
1. What was the hardest part of getting your business on its feet?
The hardest part was to make sure that my team members and I were passionate about our idea, and were willing to put the time and effort into advancing the business. One of the tougher aspects was identifying our true target market and ensuring that the problem we were trying to solve was needed in the market, and was something that people wouldn’t be able to live without. In addition, establishing a solid business model and revenue streams before marketing our company was one of the tougher aspects into getting our business up and running.
2. Did you have any hardships along the way, if so, how did you get through them?
Yes, we had many hardships along the way. In regards to our team, we often were in disagreement about various components about our product and we got frustrated with the work allocation between each member and the commitment., We had to make sure that everyone on the team was completing their tasks on time in order to further advance the business. In addition, we often found that the problem we were trying to solve wasn’t our true passion, which led us to “pivoting” a multitude of times, and thereby resetting our progress. In order to get through these various hardships, we made sure to ask ourselves “why?” to dig deeper into the problems we hoped to solve. We took a step back and looked at the big picture, instead of just focusing on a money-making venture. We also looked to the helped of various mentors to help us guide us through these challenges.
3. What was the hardest decision you made in the last 6-12 months regarding your business?
Our hardest decision we made in the past 6-12 months was completely pivoting our business to solely focus on the problem we want to solve. We also came in contact with multiple school district officials and clients who were interested in our product, so we had to start our development and marketing. My team and I dedicated many months into actually creating and delivering a working product, and later on, pitching it to very established individuals. Our decision to follow through with our company and start the actual development phase from the prototyping was a big accomplishment.
4. Do you have any concerns for the future of your business now?
Yes, there are many concerns for the future of our business as my 3 co-founders are currently in college. I have taken on a bigger role in the company in order to advance our mission and market it to the public and acquire more clients. In addition, we are also concerned about how we are going to pitch our product to school district officials since school districts are very tight on funding and the implementation of technology can be a challenge. Lastly, with the college application process coming up and other work becoming busier, it’s a challenge to find time to sit down and actually work on the company itself.
5. What tips do you have to manage your time for young entrepreneur’s business not to fail and for them to be doing well academically?
Some tips would be to prioritize your tasks. Engineering 3 gives you the ability to set your own flexible schedule so that you can work on your business with complete focus. Personally, since I am very passionate about entrepreneurship and business, I found myself working on the company when I had free time. I believe that this is the best strategy for making sure that you and your business succeed. In terms of time management, it’s important to focus on the big things first. For example, if you need to come up with your business model and lay down the basics of your company, its important to those first before jumping into creating a marketing plan or a website. If you do the latter, you will find yourself making poor business choices and you will be spending a lot of time later trying to fix those big components. Lastly, if you have parties scheduled for the weekend and you are able to skip them, it’s best to work on your startup instead of partying. This will have many benefits that are not apparent at the beginning, but it will truly show how dedicated you are towards building your business.
6. Do you recommend any books to help other aspiring entrepreneurs build their business?
Some books I would recommend would be “The Lean Startup” by Eric Ries as well as “Crushing It” by Gary Vaynerchuck, and “Rework”. It's one thing to read a book about entrepreneurship, but its another thing to actually do it. Make sure you are actually practicing what you are reading on a daily basis.
7. Lastly, do you have anything to say to the newer more inexperienced entrepreneurs?
You grow by doing. If you are not passionate about what you are doing, you will fail. If you treat engineering 3 like just any other “class”, you are not going to learn anything. You need to develop a CEO mindset and think outside the box. Classroom thinking and entrepreneur thinking are two different things, which is why you see a lot of entrepreneurs who have dropped out of high school or more frequently, college. If your first idea seems like a failure, step back and think why that is. Always reflect on your mistakes and see how you can grow from them. Personally, I was impatient in the progression of my company and I often got frustrated when things weren’t happening quickly. However, I realized that it's important to stay calm and trust the process because you can’t rush entrepreneurship. Lastly, attend every single networking or pitching event possible. This class provides you with the opportunity to do so. If you are aspiring to become an entrepreneur, this is the opportunity to grow and build connections.
Talking with Akshay really established the point that if you never do, you'll never know. He talks about taking a different approach when thinking about problems and to act upon what you learn. It's important to use everything you learn to your advantage in order to be successful.
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