Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in training and education but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Bihan Mahadewa, Founder of MetaLearn, located in San Francisco, CA, USA.

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

MetaLearn is a blockchain education company. We train anyone who wants to work in the field of web3, and we help them get jobs. We have multiple programs that mainly output blockchain engineers to web3 ecosystem. Students, existing web2 engineers, and anyone who wants to work in web3 can join different programs we have curated for them.

Tell us about yourself

I consider being lucky for finding my passion very early in life. When I was around 14, I knew that I wanted to work in tech; I wanted to build products to help people. And that starting seed idea grew massive over the period of years. Since I’ve worked in education for almost five years, I had to work in blockchain education to solve this $1B+ problem of talent shortage that I saw.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

Scaling is something I consider to be a big accomplishment. With the sector I work in, which is edTech, it’s difficult to scale several types of products. In the past, I’ve been able to prove major stakeholders wrong by scaling to 100,000 active users in 6 months or growing exponentially with organic marketing.

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

Sacrifices. Initially, at the start of building a successful endeavor, you’d have to sacrifice your personal space, time, and time with your family. You are a single person with a vision of working 100h per week with no expectation of support whatsoever from anyone. Going through that tough time will change you; to be who you have to be to become a successful entrepreneur.

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

  1. Everyone will tell you to work hard, but you'll never work hard if you're not deeply passionate about what you do. First, find that industry where you have a burning desire to make a change.
  2. When you are building a startup, there are a lot of distractions. Like building press kits, designing a fancy website, or getting social media followers. 95% of startups should lead with revenue in mind because the moment you get solid MRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue), your life becomes 10x easier.
  3. Start now. Start from where you are with what you have. Stop imagining fancy Steve Jobs launches or a perfect product. Ship shitty products that get shit done for your customers.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://metalearn.so/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/bihanmahadewa
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bihanmahadewa/

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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