Anna Degtereva NO is only the beginning of a conversation: goal achievement
From 'NO' to 'YES': Lessons from a Tech Startup Mentor
Hello! I'm Anna D Koa, founder and CEO of the Happy Farm Business Accelerator. I'm also an investor and mentor for early-stage tech startups worldwide. My goal here is to help you navigate through the challenges and hurdles of building an ecosystem, a venture fund, or an accelerator.
Understanding the Journey
First and foremost, it's vital to understand that embarking on a tech startup venture is not always smooth sailing. There are plenty of highs and lows, victories and setbacks. But remember, every adversity brings opportunities for growth and learning.
In my time in the tech arena, I’ve learned some vital lessons, which I'd like to share with you. What I'd like you to take away from this piece are four key lessons. Each one is a small tile in the mosaic of startup success:
1. Tenacity
2. Identifying Key People
3. The Importance of Timing and Mood
4. Flexibility and Patience
Lesson 1: Embrace Tenacity
No matter the field, tenacity is key. It's about perseverance, determination, and never giving up. A prime example of this is my experience while working as a translator. Eager for change and thirsty for new challenges, I set my sights on becoming a human resources manager. Even though the position didn't exist in my company at the time, I kept pushing for it - showing up, sending my resume, again and again, proving my commitment to such an extent that my sheer tenacity was impossible to ignore.
Lesson 2: Identify Key People
Highlighting the right people to influence or get support from is crucial in shaping your path in the tech world. My experience with garnering sponsorships for my company is a case in point. I spoke to numerous managers who didn’t see the value in my product. But it was when I found the decision maker - the person who realized my product was worth sponsoring - that I experienced a shift in the company’s response. Finding a way to the key decision maker can sometimes be the key to shifting a 'no' to a 'yes'.
Lesson 3: Let Timing and Mood Guide You
Right time, right mood, right words. These crucial elements should guide your approach to decision-makers. Being sensitive to circumstances is fundamental, whether it's adapting your work hours to suit your client's schedule or refining your product presentation to emphasize its value for the prospect's specific needs. Getting this bit right involves understanding your product, your prospect, and their specific context better.
Lesson 4: Be Flexible and Patient
Last, but certainly not least, is the importance of flexibility and patience. As children, we instinctively understand that we may not always get what we want immediately. We go back to our parents' time and time again, until they finally relent. Convert this childhood lesson into a professional strategy. Keep trying, fine-tuning your approach as necessary, until you get that coveted 'YES'.
Conclusion
Launching and running tech startups is challenging for sure, but with tenacity, the ability to identify key people, an understanding of mood and timing, and a healthy dose of flexibility and patience, you can transform the many NOs into emphatic YESes.
Contact Me
Want to learn more or need advice? Feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn. I’m always happy to hear from like-minded individuals and provide my input on your journey.
This article has been adapted from a speech given by Anna D Koa.
Video Transcription
Good morning to everyone. I'm happy to see you guys and I'm happy to be part of this conference. My name is Anna D Koa. I am CEO and founder of Happy Farm Business Accelerator.Uh I'm an investor and I work with uh early uh stage tech start ups from all over the world. Also, I help them uh as a mentor and expert. And lots of guys call me and say, hey, Anna, can you help us and tell how to build ecosystem, how to build a venture fund, uh or accelerator, how to set up all processes. So I also help uh people build a system in different regions. Uh Today, we will talk about no situation about our challenges about our life. Uh And uh how we, what we can do with this and how we can work with this. No. And if you talk about my way in tech work, of course, it was not easy. It was challenge, it was like uh lots of up and downs, uh lots of cheers, happy moments, drama to uh some days, I was so excited and some days I was absolutely frustrated. But what we can do with this situation, we just need to adapt and we need to uh figure it out what we uh what kind of approach we can uh use for this difficult. Do not say, you know, guys, I don't like this situation.
I don't like this life. Take it back to the kitchen. We need. OK. Yeah, I see. It's a challenge. It's a difficult. OK? I need my positive energy. I need my, all my thoughts and uh I can create something what I have to do with this difficult situation and these problems. OK. Uh I have for you guys, four interesting stories from my life. I hope this story is, is interesting. Um And my lessons that I learned how to work with now and uh how to be positive and how to open doors if I dream about something. So it will be for uh stories and uh lessons that I learned. First lesson. It's about tenacity. Second lesson, it's about key people in our life. Uh Lesson number three, it's about right time, right, mood and right words and lesson number four. It's about flexibility and about patience. So let's get started with the first story about tenacity. Um I finished university and I started to work as a translator in a small uh company in Ukraine. And every day I did the same job I translated lots of tech documentation from German to Russian and honestly day by day, same routine and uh it was so exhausted, not any perspective. And I realized that all my life will be like that. And I hate this job.
And I thought, OK, what I can do how I can change my future, what I actually want. And I think I want to be human resources manager. I want, I want to work in big amazing company. Uh have this experience how to manage processes, how to make decisions, how to be top manager. But this moment in our country in my city was just a few companies in 2003. And I decided, OK, I can create a plan and I can be part of this company. I create my, my resume and I start to send my resume every day to this company, every day, my resume and my cover letter like hi guys. How are you? Is everything good? It's me again. Let's talk. Let's see each other. I have lots of energy. I can be like a great teammate. Please invite me, please. Please. Please, please, please please look pay, pay attention to my resume every day, six months, zero answer like zero. After six months, I was so mad and I was so angry like because like it's like it's nothing. And I think what I can do and I think, ok, I give up, I have to stop this nonsense. If these guys don't respond, it's OK. And these guys called me and said, why did you stop? And I said, guys really seriously, you didn't respond to me and say, OK, come to our company, we want to see you. Let's talk. And I said, OK, and this day when I had the interview, I remember it's a big, beautiful company and it's like a red carpet.
And I'm like a Hollywood star. This is this reception smiling faces and I am so happy, so excited. And I'm like, OK, this is a application form. You came to like fill out this application form. I said, OK, let's fill out this application form. What is this? OK, question like what salary do you want? Uh And I think, OK, how much I want to like receive from this company? Probably 300 bucks, maybe it's too much. I think, I don't know. I was confused a little bit. And then second question, can you please explain to us why we have to pay you this amount of money? And yes, I also agree with these guys. It's too much. And uh actually I am the person who want to pay for this experience for this uh uh new type of job for me because I'm like a student. I don't know anything how to do this job. And of course, I have to pay these guys. And then uh in an interview, this guy said, you know, we want to invite you to be an assistant and translator and said, no, no, no, no, no, I don't need this job. I want to be part of human resources department, please. Uh I am ready and I, I cannot work without money. Just please invite me because I want to be part of this company. He said, you know, we don't have like any position right now and actually we don't know how to like how to help you.
Let us think about this and we will call you after two weeks like again, like no messages, like no call anything. And I was, I was, I just cry what I have to do. I'm a girl. I cried and I was upset. And then they called me and said, you know, we can offer you only 80 bucks. And I said great. It works for me. 80 bucks. It's ok. And I said to my mom, mom, I'm so happy. I got the job. I will be part of this company. And my mom said, what about salary? And I said like, ok, it's 80 bucks. And mom said, are you kidding me? This guy trick you, you right now like on like 250 it's like it will be 80. Are you insane? But I didn't listen because for me, I see this opportunity, I see that this work can change my life completely. And um at the end of the story, what I want to uh tell first, tenacity cannot be ignored if you really have this passion. If you really love this idea, if you really dream about this. You have to knock on this door again and again and one day this door will be opened. And second point that I want to share with you this tenacity and this effort that you, that you do every day to try to achieve your goal will be rewarded.
It's always like this after I think one year and a half, probably two years, my salary was 1500 bucks. So it's a good progress if they compare 80 bucks that they start with this new salary and it was a great position. So just try, don't give up and uh do this again and again and again and again. My second story. It's about my entrepreneur, real life and keep people. So I decided after that, I decided that I am ready to be entrepreneur. I decided that I can establish my company and be founder. Of course, my mom again uh like made her comment that it was silly. It was stupid idea, left this well paid job and start something new. And I said, ok, mom, this is just only your opinion, but I have to try. So and then this like my entrepreneurial life, I start with this sponsorship. And uh my job was like as a CEO and founder to um find this money. And I work with a different type of sponsors. I choose a company because I thought I don't need to sponsor just for one season. I want to find a partner, strategical partner, at least for 57 years. It will be good. So I start work. I prepare my presentation, my speech, my my emails and start to uh work with uh like famous company like like one of big four, I send them lots of uh materials messages. And I work with 13 different top managers from this company.
And all these guys told me like, no, we don't like we don't like your product. It's not for us. No. And I said, OK, I already received this so she knows what I can do with this. And I say, OK, only one guy right now didn't tell me no, this is general manager. And I think, ok, if this guy will tell me no, at this point, I will leave these guys forever, but I have to try. So I check my presentation again because I think I need to count all these feedbacks. So I restructure everything ip everything and my presentation was perfect. My speech was perfect. I sent in the mail and he said, yes, let's see, like let's talk. And it was the day I opened this door in this meeting room and I saw these certain people who already told me no and their reaction, you know, like you again, oh my God, she's stupid. We already told you that we don't need your product. And I think, OK, right now, I don't want to focus on them. I have to focus on this guy only on him. And I made my presentation. I was perfect. I was, it was brilliant. And this guy said, oh my God, this product is amazing. Everything is a perfect guy. What's wrong with you? It's, it's a good company. It's a good project. We have to support them and they said, he said yes. And they think, OK, right now I have to celebrate my victory. It's good.
Of course, I understand that I need somehow like build this relationship with these guys who already told me no, but it will be in the future. What I want to tell you guys at the end of this story as a conclusion that you have to remember that sometimes people who like tell us no, it's not people who have this power to tell us yes. And sometimes we like uh we are wrong when we take this. No uh as a response. No, it's not like this. You have to find your decision maker, key person who really know what company needs. He knows what kind of strategy this company has. And this person, if you will be very prepared, like always, not always. But if you, if it's really, it will be great presentation, you will be confident you p everything and you, you will know that this product like fits this company and their strategy, it will work. You just need to find this uh decision maker and this door will be open. My story number three, wait a second. My story number three, about right time, right mood and right moods. So it's also interesting experience. I had my team just two people and I two girls. And we try to sell also our product and uh um our strategy, we work with the top managers of different companies and we sell and buy one. So every day, like 100 calls again and again and again and again and this know that. No, no, no and no.
And you know, when you have uh enthusiasm, it's good. But after, I don't know, one month or one month and a half, when you every day receive 100 plus noes, your enthusiasm goes down and you like feel that no, I don't have right now energy. I don't have this passion and you start to be like a little bit like hesitate, I think probably this product really bad. I don't know, probably this guy is like, right? But II I talked to my team and I said, OK, guys, let's clarify what kind of, no we have because it's like, yes, I, I got it. It's, it's lots of nos but what kind of no. And when I work with this, no, with all this database because we had all these responses. I realized that this some part of this. No, it's not, no, like it's not about us about our product. This is not like some kind of. No, no, I'm busy right now. No. Uh, I'm, I'm in the middle of something. No, I'm right now. Like, want to go to the restroom or bathroom or toilet or no. You know, I have fight with my husband this morning and my kids, like, I don't know, like, like, like at school I have some kind of problems or no, I don't like your product or no, I don't like your company or I don't like your presentation or I don't like your speech or no, my boss is an idiot.
So when we clarify this, we understand that it's different type of notes and some of these notes, it's really about product and presentation, but some of this, no, it's about dr timing because I give you an example. Uh if you call someone in California Bay area, uh Friday 5:45 p.m. and you want to talk, honestly, it's a bad idea because in Bay Area, people after 2 p.m. hiking and spend time with their family and friends. And also if you find, try to call someone for example and communicate or negotiate Monday, I don't know, 9 a.m. And uh this person in the middle of board meeting, of course, it's all also a bad idea. So my point is please think about right timing uh and uh um situation when you can talk to person and it, and it will be like really uh uh acceptable time. Don't do these mistakes And second idea when we talk about your product, your offer, you have to polish everything. You have to structure everything. You have to um check uh all websites, social media, what this company about, what this company goes, what these top managers usually uh tell us about their goals, needs strategy, everything, especially this um information right now, it's not a secret, it's everywhere publicly.
So you can like watch this, listen this on youtube and uh even choose tone of voice, how you vote, how, how do you communicate with these guys? And after that, it will be much, much, much easier. The summary of this story, right, time and mood and uh right words uh uh that you can receive 10 nos 20 nos 100 nos but it's not the reason to be upset. You just need to restructure your materials, polish everything. Think how, how to uh be more creative and how to explain and deliver your idea much better. How do you think everyday start ups work? How these guys work with investor? Can you imagine these guys teach every day, send presentation like do this and do this not only like by email, they do this speech and to receive not only knows like different type of comments. No, we don't like your product. We don't believe your product is a bullshit and, and it's really difficult and these guys, I mean founders every day polish everything and send this information and pitch tech again and raise money at the end. So you have to understand that uh it's this is our work like uh as we like every day, we have to do something. This is uh part of this work uh work on our materials on our database, on our numbers.
Think about everything, how we can uh uh improve this, how we can rephrase everything, how we can explain this in a different way and at them, everything will be good. And uh my last story about uh patient flexibility, I thought um what uh what will will be great example for this type of nose and for this type of negotiation. And I thought about my daughter about our kids and I look at her and I think she is a great achiever. If she like really want something, she really achieve this. And I think how she usually communi communicate with me or with my husband. So if she like wants something, she don't like talk to me directly like immediately. No, she absorb me. She looked at me when I'm relaxed, I'm in the living room. I drink my tea, watch something or listen to music. And she said, mom look like like more tea. And I said, no, everything is good. She said, maybe you want some piece of cookies or chocolate. I said, OK, probably, yes, probably I want. And she said like mama, how was your day? And I said everything is good. The show my day was amazing. And she said you are so good mom. You are so amazing. I love you. So, so, so, so, so much. You are the best mom ever. And do you know what mom? May you please go to Veronica uh tomorrow for sleepover?
And I usually say like, ok, yes, because I'm in a good mood. And even for example, if I would say no, she will come back with this idea after two hours or next day. But I always like 99% kids can receive what they want. So it's a great idea to think about uh uh this point then and how to approach your clients, how to communicate um how to find this uh perfect time, tone of voice, everything and talk to them and also be flexible, be patient back to this again again and again. So please uh I don't know, find your internal kids in yourself and just try to be uh optimist, try to be positive, try to do this again and again and again, with the positive energy, not with the bad energy. And uh as I said, like um it's always work your nose that you receive today will be yes, that you will receive tomorrow. So uh as a short summary that uh I share with you today. Tenacity is number one, your tenacity, your passion. Uh Second key people in our lives that we have to focus on them. Number three, it's about perfect timing, right mood and right words. And number four, it's about patience and flexibility. Thank you so much guys for your time and for your attention. I'm happy to share with you my experience. You can find me on linkedin and knock on my door and I always happy to help you. Just tell me what kind of help do you need?
Uh Thank you so much uh uh human tech uh network for this opportunity to be speaker today. So please text me and uh yes and uh let's link up. Thank you so much. Have a good day and um yeah, everything will be great. Thanks. Bye.