admin –An interview with Sid Khattri the CEO and Co-Founder of Vertoe
We sat down with Sid Khattria, the CEO and Co-Founder of Vertoe, to discuss how he manages to stay motivated as he continues to grow his business. His company came out of Techstars a NYC accelerator in the winter of 2018 and has since grown to a leader in the short-term storage space with a presence in 50 major cities and over 600 locations and here’s what he’s learned.
- How do you stay positive when the business world throws you a curveball?
The COVID crisis is truly unprecedented and no one could have planned for this. Our industry that’s reliant on travelers is definitely hard hit. Thankfully, we raised some money right before COVID hit at the turn of the year, so we are well-positioned to ride through this crisis. While revenues have plummeted and it’s very challenging overall, it’s also a blessing in disguise for us to focus on some positive things like accelerating our product improvement roadmap, figuring out other short term storage opportunities that are non-travel related and further do research and analysis of our customer and market more rigorously. It sure is not the plan we had for this year but we are staying focused on doing productive things and innovating to come out stronger.
- Why is it important for an entrepreneur to stay positive?
Founders tend to be eternal optimists and I personally think it’s a must-have mindset for entrepreneurship. Unless you believe that you can create new things that improve the world and have the will to turn your vision into reality, entrepreneurship is not cut out for you. This road is full of setbacks and failures and you need to be resilient to survive and thrive.
- How do you combat negative thoughts?
Mental well being is very important for a founder. For me, the key is to have some mechanisms that help you stay positive and focused. This starts from doing simple things like exercising, meditating, spending time with family and pursuing a hobby that helps you take your mind off of things.
- What is your motivation for continuing on your entrepreneurial journey?
The main motivation is to create a stellar product that improves people’s lives. There is nothing more gratifying than that.
- How do you believe staying positive impacts the trajectory of your business?
Staying positive is key. Given the current crisis, it’s very easy to become demotivated and start assuming this is how it’s going to be forever. If we value this time, stay positive, and work on improving things that help us become stronger as a business, we will experience faster growth as we come out of the crisis. This would be a significant improvement in our business trajectory long term.
- What advice would you give to other entrepreneurs on staying positive?
The world sure is grim today but just like every other crisis, this one will go away too and there will be an unprecedented growth opportunity. A lot of great businesses were born in crisis and there is so much opportunity now to innovate and improve the world. Settle into a productive routine, focus on your wellbeing consciously and strengthen your foundation as a human being and if you see a problem, solve it!
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