Ep533: Mohan Belani – Fail Fast and Move On Even Faster

Andrew Stotz 00:02
Hello fellow risk takers and welcome to my worst investment ever stories of loss to keep you winning. In our community. We know that to win in investing, you must take risk. But to win big, you've got to reduce it. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm on a mission to help 1 million people reduce risk in their lives. To reduce risk in your life, go to my worst investment ever.com today and take the risk reduction assessment I've created from the lessons I've learned from more than 500 guests, fellow risk takers, this is your worst podcast host Andrew Stotz from a Stotz Academy, and I'm here with featured guest Mohan Balani Mohan. Are you ready to join the mission?

Mohan Belani 00:41
Absolutely. Andrew, thanks for having me.

Andrew Stotz 00:43
It's great to have you. And we're practically neighbors in different countries. Yeah, we just, you know, you know, we're close enough when we're talking about is this weather affecting you. So, I'll introduce you to the audience. Mohan is the co founder and CEO of e 27. A startup in tech eco system platform focused on helping startup founders build and grow their companies. He believes that startups can make the world a better place. And in order for Southeast Asia's tech ecosystem to be relevant, it needs to be driven by sustainable and impactful companies solving problems at scale. He's invested in over 25, early stage funds in startups across Asia Pacific and us and enjoys working with founders and helping them alleviate the challenges of building great companies, specifically, around the areas of talent funding and market access. Wow. Mohan? Take a moment and help us understand the value that you bring to this world.

Mohan Belani 01:50
Yeah, thanks. Thanks, again, Andrew, for having me. I mean, I was lucky that I spent a year in Silicon Valley. And one of the key things I observed over there was that big problems needed to be solved by a small nimble team that could innovate quickly move fast, change direction, and try things that have never been done. Right. And if you look at Southeast Asia, so when I was in the valley, there was in 2006 2007, you know, imaginable with no grab, no food delivery services, everything was still pretty backward from a tech standpoint. And what what what made me realize is that if we wanted this entire region to get alleviated the people on the on the Global Map, and to solve some of the biggest problems we had, it had to be done by startup companies that were small, nimble and fast, not the government, not the big corporate startup companies. So how can I then play a role right in helping these companies solve some of these biggest problems? And that's why I decided to dedicate myself to this to this company, and to early stage companies specifically?

Andrew Stotz 02:57
And how do companies come to you? Or, you know, how do they come into your area focus with the 27.

Mohan Belani 03:04
So a lot of the interactions that organizations have with us is through our media portal, where sometimes we will cover them, depending on certain milestones they've achieved. Sometimes they will contribute content, pre COVID, a large part of the interaction would be from the conferences, we run the Echelon conference, the founders dreams, adventure con events. And these days, I think it's really more of a platform play, right? Because in the last few years, we've had to cover the entire business to be able to allow service in a more scalable manner, without the need for the offline events.

Andrew Stotz 03:40
And I'm just curious, you know, when you looked at, you know, you've looked at a lot of startups, and particularly in Asia, what do you think is the biggest challenge that these startups are facing these days?

Mohan Belani 03:51
So it's an Asian companies. I mean, the challenges have been evolving very significantly in the last five years, but specifically, today, right? You know, you've got merit of founders who've had years of experiences in corporate companies in established startups elsewhere, you've also got more and more sophisticated group of investors. So starting up right, has become a lot more competitive, a lot more challenging. And the expectations from startups are also a lot higher and more significant, right, which makes starting up not as easy or as straightforward as it was before. But it also gives a certain credibility, a certain sense to startup founders, right that if they go and pursue a particular idea, or if there's a problem out there that they itching to solve it better, Jolly will be a good problem, you know, worth their time and worth the investors putting in the money to the companies and what employees leaving the current roles for the founders. So startups have now turned from like a fed or something that you do maybe as a side thing, or after school, to something really, really serious, right where top executives from logic, some of the largest, most well known companies are willing to leave their jobs, you know, risky role and build companies to solve some of the problems they're passionate about.

Andrew Stotz 05:11
You know, one of the things about markets like the US is it's such a huge market, a single market, you know, 50 states, but still the same system of everything. When you look at Asia, you know, one of the challenges, I'm sure, great startups in like Malaysia, or Indonesia face or Thailand faces, you know, do we stay focused on our country? Or do we try to go regional? Or do we try to go global or whatever? I'm just curious, what is that for the American listener, let's say who's listening to this podcast, and they know the American ecosystem. But in Asia, what's different about it, about what a founder is going to go through, you know, in Asia because of so many different countries and stuff?

Mohan Belani 05:54
Yeah. I mean, that's a really good question is very relevant now. Especially since the rise of web three, right. So if you think about it, I think, in the past, the focus would have always been to build locally and be the dominant player locally, that was very relevant for countries like Indonesia, you know, so if you look at most of the Indonesian unicorns, they have very deep seated home ground advantage locally, they typically expand deeply into the tier two, tier three, tier four cities. So not necessarily just focusing on the tier one cities, and they have hyper localize features for the product segments that exists in their local markets. Now, as web three companies have come out, the mindset has started to shift where you're actually building for a global audience from day one. So if you look at the some of the popular web three companies like xe, infinity, y GG that are based in Philippines, they have global audiences right from the start, you know, so it kind of also depends on the product that you're building for. If you're building for a FinTech solution, where you're solving for a specific use case, locally, then it kind of makes sense to, to focus on a local market. But I think more and more right, entrepreneurs in this region have a global mindset. They want to be able to get users from around the world for their service. And they're not just purely looking at investing locally. And investors too, are pushing boundaries to think that way. Investors also expecting founders, by the time they hit the arrow, they at least have a global plan, or they've actually already branched out of their of their local markets.

Andrew Stotz 07:34
And one last question for me about, you know, your whole areas like, obviously, you know, startups, many of them get funded initially by angel investors and friends and family, but when they start to rise up to getting to be bigger, and they go beyond that, where are they raising money from? Is it coming from government funds? Is it coming from corporates investing? Is it coming from investment funds? Just curious, like, what's your experience in that area?

Mohan Belani 08:02
Yeah, so the fundraise, again, depending on the stage, but it started to shift with some of the angels where they've gotten, you know, syndicate networks, made up of maybe alumni of the crabs in the coccyx region. So syndicate networks, one of the main areas that startups raise fund on a daily basis, even for us 27, we just launched a syndicate network ourselves, and are currently syndicated investment right now. So that's one of the new ways that founders are starting to raise capital from because you get to tap on not just funds, but you know, the knowledge base, the relationships and the know how from, you know, actual operators and founders in the space. And again, subsequently

Andrew Stotz 08:46
that extends the length of time or the amount of angel funding that you're getting also, I guess, compared to getting their funding from friends and family as an example. Yep. Okay. So

Mohan Belani 08:56
yeah. And then subsequently, do you have to tap on the early stage VCs? There are there are prevalent in the entire ecosystem, right? And there are a significant number of them. Now regionally, a lot of them invest cross regionally, you've got some that are hyper local. So a lot of the Indonesian VCs are quite local. In the Philippines, you now have a few new investors focused on capital, as an example, that exclusively invest in local companies. And I think that's very good for an ecosystem to have a dedicated investor base that is supporting the local ecosystem.

Andrew Stotz 09:32
Well, thanks for that update. I mean, it's great to get a little bit of your knowledge in this area. I know I have a lot of friends and there's plenty of listeners here that are so interested in the startup space, but now it's time to share your worst investment ever. And since no one goes into their worst investment thinking it will be tell us a bit about the circumstances leading up to and then tell us your story.

Mohan Belani 09:55
Yeah, so my no when I was thinking about this question, right thing, the natural tendency would Put a pin to think about maybe financial mistakes that I did wrong. stocks that I bought, or companies are invested in. But when I was reflecting, you know, backwards, what I realized was that my worst mistakes revolved around not evolving my psyche, and my mental state in a manner that was allowing me to go forward, and to grow, and to be where I needed to be, like 12 months ago. And it required a mental shift in terms of mindset. But it also I feel required a habit to like a habitual shift in the way I was doing things on a day to day basis. And I think this primarily happened in, in the days of like, in the years, maybe around 2013 to 2015, in that period, where on some level, I was, mentally and emotionally satisfied with the status quo, without really investing in myself my capabilities and my mindset, to allow me to go to the next level. And I think that shift really only happened around 2016. So in that sense, I think the My worst investment, right, if I summarize, right, would have been to not invest in my own personal self, my own future and my own mental state to allow me to grow to the next level.

Andrew Stotz 11:23
So Mohan how about if we go back in time, and we think about yourself at that moment, and we think about the obstacles that you faced at that time, to going to the I mean, it's, it's when we look back, we think about it, but as you were sitting in that space, and let's just imagine a time that you were kind of stuck. Yeah. Why were you stuck? And also thinking about our listeners? I know, plenty of listeners feel sometimes, like they're stuck. Maybe you can explain like, how did it feel at that time? Or what were the constraints that were keeping you stuck?

Mohan Belani 11:53
Yeah. So there are a few things, I'll break them down in, in a few ways, right? I think on one level, there is the, you know, the hunger for, for innovating or doing more, right. And sometimes when you reach a certain state of maybe success, right? You feel like it's going to stay with you for a while, and there's no need to push hard anymore. So I think that that desire to continue to be successful to grow, that desire to push myself wasn't there, and that had to be fixed, right? The second thing was the mental state, right. And when I say mental state, what I actually mean is that you have to be surrounding yourself with the right people, people that I really allow, that can allow you are able to help you grow to the next level. So I believe people that are better than you maybe have done it before. And that comes with a certain level of attitude. And also, I think, an ego check. Right? You know, if you're the smartest person in the room, then you're in the wrong room. Right. So that mental state, I think, is something I wish I had developed a bit better. And the last part would be systems, you know, what are the system, the habits, the processes that you can put in place to get there. And I think at that stage of my life, I probably didn't want to get bogged down by structure, I just wanted to live too much of a carefree and fun life. But I realized the importance of system and structure, right? Whether it was, you know, spending, my weekly efforts, doing journaling, or planning out my week very clearly to look at what are the top few things I need to achieve and, and really assessing my life on a yearly and quarterly basis. Those are some of the things that I do now very, very actively. So those kind of habits, those kind of systems and processes, they take time to implement, you know, you have to firstly, you know, read up and talk to enough people to understand, but you also have to put them into practice, which takes time. So these three things have to come together. And like I said, in that few years that I have my life, I felt that I didn't have that. And maybe my value at that stage in life was to realize that maybe time wasn't that important to me, as opposed to it is now. So from that standpoint, I think I wasted those important years.

Andrew Stotz 14:17
And one last question I have about that time is Was there a particular wake up call? Like, you know, I don't know, some friend called you out, or you realize that you let some people down or something like that, that that kind of made you wake up and think Holy crap, I need to change this.

Mohan Belani 14:33
Yeah. So there were many things, right. They were multiple factors. In fact, that came together. The first part is that the company that I was running really wasn't doing well. And then we had to let go of a significant number of people. Right. But that was a simple or I would say a simpler problem. That the second issue really was that I was actually from a lifestyle standpoint, leading a very unhealthy and unsafe sustainable life. You know, anyway, it was everything from you know, not exercising, not eating cleanly. No smoking too much, not sleeping well. And I read a book, thank you for not sorry. Thank you for how to find the title of the book soon. But that book really made me realize that my mental state was at a lower level than most other people around. And if I wanted to be, you know, delivering the best for my organization for my investors, for my employees, even for myself, there was a significant amount of change and fixes I make. Right. So everything from quitting smoking, leading a healthier lifestyle, and really focusing on the things in there were more important. And putting my time right to the areas that were critical important, was the shift I had to make.

Andrew Stotz 16:01
Right. So how would you summarize the lessons that you learned from this?

Mohan Belani 16:06
Yeah, so just for everyone's sake, read the book that I was mentioning about was the Alan Carr's easy way to stop smoking, very cliched smoking book, but very, very powerful. Right. And the first thing you have to the only way it will work is if you're ready to do it. Sorry, could you repeat the last question again?

Andrew Stotz 16:25
So how would you summarize the lessons that you learned from this experience?

Mohan Belani 16:29
Yeah. So from a lesson standpoint, I think sometimes you need a bit of a jolt, right and external feedback to get you moving. But the very first thing I felt like I people need to do I need to do better, right is to not rest of my laurels. You don't change is constant, right? If you want to continue to remain relevant, if you want to continue to grow. And if you want to continue to be a relevant contributor to society, you need to be constantly adapting and evolving. And the moment you feel that, oh, I've done it all, I think this is it, or I'm really good at wherever I am. I think that's a detriment. And the other big thing that for me was realizing that the true currency of life is not money. Money is important. Yes, it does bring a certain amount happiness, comfort and stability, the true currencies, life is tight. Right. Right. And yeah.

Andrew Stotz 17:29
You know, I, maybe I'll share a couple things that I thought about it, you know, it's just, it's interesting that somebody else has mentioned this book to me, and I'm not a smoker, but there was something about this book that they highlighted, was really good. And I just curious about how that particular book helped you.

Mohan Belani 17:47
Yeah. So the beauty of the book is that firstly, the author himself is an extremely heavy smoker. But the beauty of the book was that he was able to communicate with you, the reader, and in a language that you could completely relate to. And it was a psychological rewiring of how you have your relationship with a cigarette. You know, it wasn't like a health book, right? Or Smoking kills his battery? No, it was really going through the fundamental root. And making people realize psychologically, that what they were suffering from was a nicotine addiction. And they needed to break that relationship or that habit, with cigarettes. And until a person who's actually smoked for a long time, you can converse or have a conversation about a nonsmoker with this, because it's very hard for him to understand.

Andrew Stotz 18:50
Yeah. So maybe I'll share some thoughts that I have based upon what you've talked about. I think the first thing is, I think for all the listeners out there, it's really critical to take care of your health. Because sometimes people get caught up in drinking and smoking and staying out, they not getting enough sleep, not getting exercise, getting overweight, eating unhealthy food. And it's amazing how these things can move fast for you. And when you're young, your body can kind of compensate for it. But as you start to get older, it's key. And without that, then you've got nothing. So that's the first thing that I think I you remind me to stay focused on keeping good health. The second thing is, you talked about systems and habits also. And I think that that's a way of really start to build your life around. Good habits. Of course, The Power of Habit is great book, atomic habits, and it's a great book. But the point is trying to build some good habits into your life. Like you mentioned before we turn on the recorder that you're going to go for a run in the afternoon. Yeah. You know from smoking and maybe Living an unhealthy life to having a habit of going out and exercising. It's amazing. I think a lot of people that are caught up in a very busy life, have lost touch with how much value, good health, good exercise and good sleep and good eating can add to your productivity and to your sense of well being. Because when you are feeling not that strong, now it goes back to that first point that you made, which is that, you know, you start getting comfortable and you start missing, what's really going on around you. And I think that awareness, you start to really get so that I think a lot of what I'm taking from what you talked about is the idea of take care of yourself and be aware of what's going on with your ego, what's going on with your drive and all of that stuff. Yeah.

Mohan Belani 20:51
entitled to add to the to add to that, right, like, it's one thing to have the desire to change, or to do something positive, like someone might wake up tomorrow and say, oh, I want to be healthier, right? Or I want to be I want to start exercising, it's really important right to build the systems and processes to support that. Right. And, and for me, the systems and processes that have worked, have typically been to be invest in equipment that are high quality, right, that allow me to enjoy the experience. So I'm the kind of person that will be willing to spend $250 On a good quality pair of shoes, good running shirt and shorts. Because it's part of the experience for me. I want to feel amazing while I'm doing right. The second thing is coming up with a system. That makes sense. Right? For some people, you know, we were discussing earlier, running in the morning makes sense. I'm an evening runner. So what I literally do is every Sunday, I plan out over the week, when am I going to do my runs, when am I going to let's say go to the gym schedule into the calendar, like the way I was scheduled, let's say this call with you, and commit to it. And it's open and visible to everyone the team. So if I'm going for a run later and say six, right, it's like I'm going for a meeting and I commit to that right. And finding people to do it with is tremendously help. Whether it's a buddy, whether it is joining an exercise or running club, whether it means someone to maybe give you personal training. It really, it's a next level of commitment, because now someone else's indicates

Andrew Stotz 22:36
lots of golden advice there. And I'm going to take part of that advice. You know, normally on Sundays, I take my mom out to buffet breakfasts, and we go to like a hotel in a nice place. And it's a special time and we enjoy it. And I always bring my planner to kind of say before I have breakfast, I'm just going to sit there and map out my weekend. So I take 10 minutes, but I never fill in my exercise. I'm always filling in. Okay, my meeting my calls my this my that. But starting from this Sunday, and I challenge the listeners also starting from this weekend, start to pre plan when you're going to do your exercise. And that I think is a great habit and system to bring into your life. So I appreciate that. Yeah, so let me out there works. Yeah, yeah, definitely. So now, I want to go into the mind of a young person right now, who's struggling at this point, that kind of where you were before you moved into a better place? And ask you this question that based upon what you learned from this story, and what you continue to learn what what action would you recommend that person to take to avoid suffering the same fate?

Mohan Belani 23:51
You know, sometimes you have to go through the downs, right to appreciate the UPS, right? If we, there was a term that I used to use in D 27. A lot, right, which is, don't avoid failure. Just learn to deal with it and handle it better. Right. And I think if whatever actions that you're doing is going to result in you failing, it's better that it happens quicker, and you realize it faster, and then figure a way out around it. And then bounce back earlier. So I actually don't encourage people to avoid the aspect of failure. I would encourage them that Okay, once you've paid that state when you're down, figure out skills and tricks to very quickly bounce back. And there are a few things that worked well for me right? At that point in time, right. One is having honest, transparent conversations with my team and my stakeholders. Right? to It was like, You're psychologically right. The problem wouldn't be getting solved if I kept harping on it or feeling down about it or even whining about at some point, right. I had to give myself that time to get upset. But then later on should plan and take actions. Right. And the third thing is that I felt that talking to people, especially people that were within my social circle that were at a similar stage, right? Like, like, like, there's no point talking to someone who's maybe a bit too senior or in a different stages in life, right? Because then they will be recounting stuff from too long ago. But people who've had similar problems, you start to realize, right, that your, your challenges and your problems are not unique. And you don't start to feel so bad about yourself. And you start to get a sense of how different people solve their problems in their own unique ways. And then you realize, actually, it's very doable. It's not as bad as it seems. Right? You know, there's a happiness Happiness shared is happiness, double sadness, share the sadness half. And when you share your problems and your burdens with people, it feels like actually, it's a lot easier to get them fixed.

Andrew Stotz 25:58
Great advice. So for the listeners out there, and viewers also make sure that you share when you are in a difficult position, because as Mohan says, You don't have to go down deep into trouble. Try to get that awareness so that you can get out. So what is a resource that you'd recommend for our listeners?

Mohan Belani 26:15
Ah, okay. So there was a book that I read a while back, I can't remember how it was recommended, but it's actually a very old book. And it was deemed too ahead of his time when he was first published, which was way back in 1938, by Napoleon Hill. And the name of the book is called Outwitting the Devil. It's a fictional conversation between a person and a supposedly supposedly devil, right? And then the book doesn't make clear whether is the physical incarnation of the devil or is it his mental state, right. But it talks about principles of life that humans should follow and do any really revolves around purpose creation, how to continue to move forward, how to master yourself in your own destiny. And mind you, right, this book was written like, like, like, way before the World War, right. So it was really a book that took time, from a quality standpoint, and I think that book that really helped me rethink a lot of my own purpose. And what is it that what's

Andrew Stotz 27:28
great advice, one of the challenges of this podcast for me is, and I know, for my listeners, is that we get so many great book recommendations and try to get through them. But this is one I've heard about before. And I just haven't, and I've heard that it's good on the audible like a download. So I'm gonna, I'm going to get it and take your advice there. And I challenge all the listeners to do that. So last question, what's your number one goal for the next 12 months?

Mohan Belani 27:55
Okay. So I guess, a couple of years ago, when COVID hit, the main goal was really to survive and hopefully come out stronger, right. And I'm very glad to share that on even on a professional and personal level that has happened, I think for me this year. The goals really have got to do on the professional side, with letting go of a lot of the things that I've been heavily involved in, and starting to do new things, right, to really change the dynamic of the company or bring it forward. Right. And I think sometimes if you're in firefighting mode for too long, you just start to lose sense of where the fire actually is. You know, and I think that's, that's, that's something that has happened to me for quite a while. And now I want to take a step back, look at new opportunities, explore new things, partly also, because it's a lot of fun. But also, I think the timing is right. On a personal level. I think I want to ideally be ready for a state right, where I'm going into the next phase of my life I may attend for the next year, I go into the next phase of my life in the best possible physical, mental and emotional state. Possible. Right. So in investing in my, my personal health, my mental health, my physical state, so that I can tackle the challenges of the next 10 to 20 years of my life, as best as I can is something that I'm very, very focused on. So that involves really exercising regularly, eating as clean as I can, like I get it, I get a meal plan, and even investing in a lot of the relationships that I've collected over the last few years.

Andrew Stotz 29:40
Fantastic. And that's great. Really great advice for everybody is to invest in yourself and in the next phase of your development. So I love it. So listeners there you have it another story of loss to keep you winning. If you haven't yet taken the risk reduction assessment, I challenge you to go to my worst investment ever dot com right now and start building wealth the easy way by reducing risk. As we conclude Mohan, I want to thank you again for joining our mission. And on behalf of a Stotz Academy, I hereby award you alumni status for turning your worst investment ever into your best teaching moment. Do you have any parting words for the audience?

Mohan Belani 30:22
My parting words for everyone is the faster you realize that time is the ultimate currency. And everyone has the same amount. I think the better quality of life. I will hope you eat.

Andrew Stotz 30:34
Boom. And that's a wrap on another great story to help us create, grow and protect our well fellow risk takers. This is your worst podcast hose Andrew Stotz thanking you for joining our mission. And I'll see you on the upside.