Founder's Story - Furkat Kasimov on Why Most Businesses Fail (And What to Do Instead) | S2 Ep. 182

Episode Date: March 8, 2025

Daniel sits down with serial entrepreneur Furkat Kasimov, who brings over 20 years of experience building technology businesses. Furkat shares the hard-earned lessons from his career—from early failures to scaling companies—and provides practical advice for startups and established businesses. He also dives into his approach to learning from others, the importance of effective communication, and how to leverage AI for business growth.Key Discussion PointsEarly Entrepreneurial JourneyMotivation to Start: Furkat always believed he had the skills to build something meaningful.Acknowledged that while he wasn’t cut out for careers in science or medicine, his passion and talent for business drove him to entrepreneurship.Learning from Failure: Emphasized that failures are an inherent part of the entrepreneurial journey.Shared that his book includes many examples of past failures, encouraging others to learn from the mistakes of others rather than repeating them.Overcoming ChallengesThe Power of Learning: Highlighted the value of learning from mentors, advisors, and even competitors’ missteps.Believes that acknowledging one’s limitations and seeking external guidance is crucial for growth.Improving Communication: Shared a practical tip: asking team members to repeat back instructions to ensure clarity and prevent miscommunication.Noted that good communication can prevent a multitude of mistakes within a business.Navigating Business AdviceGeneric vs. Tailored Advice: Criticized generic business advice such as the need for a differentiating strategy, stressing that execution often matters more than the strategy itself.Encouraged entrepreneurs to evaluate advice critically and adapt strategies that suit their unique business models.Sustaining and Growing a BusinessVision and Planning: Stressed the importance of having a clear vision or "North Star" to guide long-term strategy.Shared insights on how companies can sustain growth over years by planning and continuously revisiting their business model.Customer Feedback and Product Fit: Recommended interviewing potential customers to understand their problems and refine product offerings.Explained the value of working with design partners to achieve product-market fit.The Role of AI in BusinessEmbracing AI as a Digital Worker: Described his current venture (in stealth mode) that leverages AI to enhance marketing strategies.Urged businesses to treat AI as an integral team member—one that offers creative solutions and efficient support during meetings and strategy sessions.Practical AI Integration: Suggested using AI to brainstorm ideas and streamline operations, comparing it to an external consultant that can provide fresh insights.Writing Don't Do This: A Guide to Business SurvivalPurpose Behind the Book: Furkat’s goal is to provide a roadmap for startups to navigate common pitfalls and enhance their chances of success.He plans to reinvest any earnings from the book as an angel investor, further supporting the startup ecosystem.Personal Motivation: Shared his own struggles and the determination required to push through challenges—paralleling his journey with the broader struggles of many entrepreneurs.Practical Takeaways for EntrepreneursLearn from Mistakes: Absorb lessons from both your own failures and the experiences of others.Communicate Clearly: Use simple techniques like asking for feedback to ensure your message is understood correctly.Focus on Vision: Establish a clear long-term goal to guide your daily operations and strategic decisions.Engage with Customers: Regularly interview potential and current customers to refine your product and business model.Embrace AI: Integrate AI tools into your workflow as a means to enhance creativity and efficiency.Give Back: Consider reinvesting success into your community to foster broader growth and opportunity.Resources & LinksFind Furkat’s Book: Visit don't do this.ai for more details.Our Sponsors:* Check out Avocado Green Mattress: https://avocadogreenmattress.com* Check out CoinFlip and use my code FOUNDERS for a great deal: https://coinflip.tech* Check out Indeed: https://indeed.com/FOUNDERSSTORY* Check out Kinsta: https://kinsta.com* Check out Rosetta Stone and use my code TODAY for a great deal: https://www.rosettastone.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

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Mm. Hey everyone, welcome back to Founder's Story. Today we have Furcat Kazimov. And Furcat, you are a serial entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience. I can't wait to extract 20 years of experience today into this conversation because I'm sure we're going to learn a ton and we love when the audience can take some really good practical strategies away. I know you are the author of a book called Don't Do This, a guide to business survival which is I love that. Businesses as we know do not survive most of the time so the fact that you are helping them says a lot about you. So let's start off with going back in your history. So why did you 20 years ago

become an entrepreneur? Thank you for having me Dan. Well many years ago I always wanted to do some sort of business because I believe that I have the skills necessary to build something. And you know I knew that I have the skills necessary to build something. And I knew that I'm not a scientist. I knew that I'm not gonna be a doctor, but I knew that business is something that I really like and I'm really good at. So I tried many, many different things.

Unfortunately, a lot of them failed and I include a lot of my past failures into this book and I think this is true of a lot of businesses. Many entrepreneurs try one thing that fails they try another one until they succeed at something. So I had a lot of success but I also had a lot of failure. I can relate I have half a dozen to maybe 10 failures in my lifetime or ideas just never went to fruition so when when you go look at failure to success what is something that makes the difference I think for a lot of startups one thing that makes a big difference is to learn from other people's mistakes.

Because that journey is not something new. Many people have built companies, they already made mistakes, and you can learn from them. You don't have to repeat them. You can learn from other people's mistakes. So do that. That's much better. Isn't it amazing how entrepreneurs can sometimes be stubborn, even though they find out the mistakes of others, yet they still continue in that path. So you over the last 20 years, what has helped you break down the barrier of understanding?

I'm going to learn from other people. Was it a mentor? Was it books that you read? What was it for you that really broke it down where you were comfortable enough to say, OK, I need help and this is OK? Well, it starts out from looking inside and saying, you know, I'm not good at everything. I don't understand everything. So let me learn from somebody who's done this. Maybe it's an advisor.

Maybe it's a consultant. Maybe it's another entrepreneur who gives a lecture or does an interview or a podcast and shares their experience. And to me, it's not necessarily that I'm not gonna have the same mistakes, but if I learn how they dealt with it, how they dealt with those difficulties, maybe my experience is not gonna be as difficult because I will know how somebody else dealt with it

and I can deal with it too. You see, business mistakes is not something that you can necessarily avoid. No matter how smart you are, how good you are, these mistakes will happen. It's how you come up against those challenges. That's what makes a difference. So what is a challenge for you that you overcame that looking back you're like, wow, I did it. I think one of the most common challenges that a lot of companies have is bad communication with their team members. And one of the things we did is we hired a communications coach to help us work around those differences.

And one trick that I learned from him is to ask my team member, can you please explain to me what I just told you? And it was just astonishing to me to learn that I believe I communicated A, but that person understood B. So there's a big disconnect. So just asking that person to communicate back what they understood made a whole lot of difference and avoided a lot of mistakes that were happening. It's very hard to see the mistakes that you're making,

right, from the outside. I'm with you, it's really great and super beneficial to have somebody see those. Because how, we think we're doing the right way but when somebody else watches it's amazing what they see there's so much advice out there so many people that have had success or that act like they had success maybe they did not because anyone online can say or teach anything what is some advice that you hear that you're like,

I don't really like this advice, advice, or it's just something you don't agree with? I think a lot of advice out there is very generic. And they would be like, well, you have to, you know, have a differentiating strategy. I don't necessarily agree with that. It's possible that two companies pursue exactly the same strategy, and one just has better execution than the other one. So I don't necessarily believe

that a lot of the generic advice makes sense, because even if you don't diversify, even if you just have one revenue stream, you get criticized, well, you have all of your eggs in one basket. Well, that's fine, just watch the basket. So my advice is don't necessarily look at the generic advice, see what works for your business.

Sounds like it's not a one size fits all because it's very dependent on the person and the business that they're in, maybe the industry. There's a lot of factors involved. So thank you for sharing that. I really like that. I really, really like that answer because it is so true. Most advice is very generic or general and it really, and there's many people that have done against that advice that have success and there's many people that have done

against that advice that have success and there's people that haven't had success that followed that advice. So when you see a company starting out and maybe they hit three, four, five, six years, what did they do in order to sustain and grow for that long? Well, one of my companies has been in business for 14 years. And I think one of the most important things

is to actually have a vision, to have a plan. Many companies start without a business plan. And the problem with that is they don't think through what does this company look like in five years? What is our vision? And they just work day to day, they have a lot of grind, they have a lot of problems they're solving, but they don't have that North Star. So having a North Star, having that vision where you're going is really helpful because everything you do has to get you closer to that vision. What do you tell startups when they're like, I'm solving this problem, I think this is my customer,

but I don't know how to come up with that North Star? Is there something in exercise or something that you find works in order for people to do that? I agree with you. I think a lot of people start, but it can be hard for some people to come up with a clear vision. What you're probably referring to is that a lot of companies struggle to get a product market fit, meaning what they're offering is not really getting that attention from their potential customers. So maybe they're offering something that their customers don't want. Their customers might want something else. And the problem with that is that sometimes you have to tweak your product.

You would have to go to some potential customers and say, hey, do you want to become my design partner? Come help me build something that makes sense for you. And that will probably make sense to other companies like you. So by enlisting help of design partners, maybe you give them your product for free or you give them a very good discount. They will help you improve your product or your service so it fits their needs and then others are gonna say, well, that company is using it. I do the same thing as that company.

Maybe I should be using it too. So having design partners, I think is very important. I'm curious when you digging into that and I appreciate that the go-to-market strategy when you're looking at creating a service and Creating a good price point How what do you do or what have you done in the past because I think a lot of people Like you you were talking earlier about they figure out something that they can solve

But they don't really have the service or product yet because they don't really even know what people like how much they'll pay or what exactly is it. How do you formulate there? How have you formulated that in the past? So one of the things I've done is I called a lot of potential customers and I said, tell me about your problems. And it was surprising to me how many CEOs or big executives at very large fortune 500 companies would accept that call and they would just spend an hour telling me about their problems.

And to me, what that told me is that they're struggling. If somebody comes in and fixes this, it's going to be a good business for somebody. And I think if you don't know yet, go and interview potential customers. Ask them, what is your problem? How can I help you? What do you need help with? If I do something for you that solves your problem, how much would you pay for that? Thank you for sharing that. That is something that even I have struggled with. Even today, there are products or services that we offer and I think, I don't know if my price is right. I don't know if it's even solving the exact problem. I love the idea. It's so simple to call people, get on the phone and talk to people,

even though we're trying to think about what they're thinking. But that's such an easy and simple strategy that you don't have to spend money on. So thank you for sharing that. You've got the success of decades of experience. You're looking at, you know, you've solved problems, you've helped maybe thousands of people, you've made money for yourself, you're

having a comfortable life and then all of a sudden you think, I need to write a book. And I'm currently writing a book myself and sometimes I want to quit writing this book, but I know I have to push through it. So what do you hope? We've talked to a lot of people that have written books. What do you hope to get out of writing a book? And how do you see this benefiting you besides a monetary value? Well, that's a great question. See, for the last 20 years, I have discovered so many mine fields on this road to the gold at the end of the rainbow and I know how to get to the gold at the end of the rainbow by

starting a business, growing a business, scaling a business and I wanted to give this map so other startups can avoid these mine fields and just have a better journey. To me, if I can do something for small businesses, for startups, or for medium businesses that can solve their problems, help them survive, if more small businesses survive, hire people, I think Will have job growth the society will be better off and to me whatever money I make from the book I'm just gonna invest it as an angel investor back to those startups. So it's just having this ecosystem keep going growing so other companies succeed and People get jobs and the society will be better off. That's the idea

Hey, that's the first time I've ever heard of that. So that's that's very creative I really like that idea of the giving back my last question for you is around AI What are you currently doing or what are maybe the companies that you're helping? What are they doing when it comes to leveraging AI to benefit them in business? Well, I'm currently building a company in stealth mode that is going to use AI to help companies with marketing. And it's in the development stage right now. I have the architecture ready. I have some of the designs ready,

just being developed as we speak. I think what companies need to understand is that AI is here to help you. It's a digital worker. And don't be afraid to invite AI to your meetings and ask AI questions. What would you do? You're going to get very surprising answers that maybe your team members cannot come up with.

And sometimes those are good suggestions, sometimes they're not, but they're just your team member, just like everybody else. So having an AI to get creative, to improve your efficiency is gonna help your business. I love learning a few words before traveling. It's opened up doors to new friends and unforgettable experiences, all thanks to Rosetta Stone. This isn't just any language tool. It's the leading program on desktop and mobile

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to power their website. Visit Kinsta.com to get this limited time offer for new customers on Select Plans. Don't miss out. Get started for free today. I think it's important that everybody realizes that and treats AI just like they would treat an outside consultant and invite them to your meeting table and have have somebody there you know who would write a question to AI or ask AI and then everybody listens to the response and says well that's interesting you know we didn't think of that. I gotta say most whether it's chat, GBT, Claw, Gemini, any of those way smarter than I am way better ideas than I come up with.

So yes, they are the greatest digital employees that I've ever had. So I am really appreciative of your time. By the way, I can't wait to read the book. I hope a lot of people buy this book so you can then reinvest into other companies on top of the impact that you're having. I can tell you're passionate about

that. So if people want to find the book, they want to get in touch with you, they want to find out more information. How can they do so? Well, this is very easy. All they have to do is they have to go to don't do it dot AI. And there is a link there to Amazon and some of the other platforms where they can buy the ebook or the paper pack version of it. And I just want to tell everybody that if you buy the book, you like it, give it to your friend. So you know, they can learn from it as well. And just spread it. Don't do this.ai best URL love the book website by the way

I can tell that you know what you are doing when it comes to branding and marketing and Business building and scaling and over 20 years of experience, but fur cat this has been great Thank you so much for joining us today all the takeaways I know I'm gonna go implement some stuff right now things that we talked about and I'm really inspired to now go and help others as well. So thank you for joining us today on Founder's Story. Thank you Dan, thank you for having me. What's the difference between DIY and doing it yourself? It's the difference between a part-time passion

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