Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Swapna Kulkarni, Founder of Lens & Ladder, located in Long Beach, CA, USA.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

We provide insights and solutions to grow Climate Tech businesses. Our customers are innovators who have invented breakthrough technology and need help to commercialize it and build a successful business out of it. We work with individual innovators and government agencies to help commercialize technology coming out of National Labs.

Tell us about yourself

Passion backed by action is me in a nutshell. If I find a gap in an area I feel passionate about, you will find me spring into action and do my part to offer a solution. When launching Lens & Ladder to help climate tech businesses flourish and do my part to save our planet or when I launched one of my previous learning experience design start-ups to bring STEM education to 25K+ underserved students, it is always rooted in my deep desire to make a difference.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

Lens & Ladder was a result of wanting to offer a solution to a pain point I discovered in commercializing brilliant innovation so it can impact our society and our planet. It was just an idea driven by a lofty mission. It took a lot of effort, persistence, and creativity to turn it into a viable business model.

Once you start a business, the cash flow needs can pull you away from your original mission. Our most significant achievement as a business is building partnerships and finding work to sustain us while staying true to our mission, vision, and values.

What's one of the hardest things that comes with being a business owner?

Staying relentless in your effort and motivation, especially during the early days, and managing your time, so you are not just getting tied up in busy work is the hardest thing in being a business owner. When running your own business, you are not only doing the work your clients are paying you to do but also working very long hours to find the work. No one is paying you to do that part.

You must constantly balance optimism with realism and not give up during the early years. You need to go above and beyond but do not let it consume you and affect other areas of your personal life like health, relationships, etc.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

  1. While it is tempting to jump to the WHAT and HOW of your business, focus on the WHY. Having a strong WHY and using it as a north star to make all your business decisions will keep you on your path to success.
  2. Don't only think of goals and a vision for your business but for you as a whole person. Think of what kind of lifestyle you want, how many hours of work you can sustain, what you value most, and your priorities. This will help you get centered in the chaos when going gets tough, which it will inevitably do. This is the most significant difference from my experience between crash and burns or coming out shining through the testing fires of entrepreneurship. Many things will be entirely out of your control, but clarity on vision and values will help you make the most of things you can control.
  3. It is essential to constantly zoom in and out between the big picture and small detail because the preference for just one over the other is a sure-shot way to derail yourself and your business. A balance between the two will reduce undue anxiety and give you room to make mistakes as you learn and move forward. Remember, you must be having fun taking on this challenge and continuing the arduous journey as an entrepreneur in every stage of starting, establishing, and growing. Seek partnerships and help from others to indeed zoom in and out on your perspective, as we can't always have the best view of our business when we are so close to it.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://www.lensandladder.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/swapnakulkarni/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

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