Ketan Kapoor of Mettl on connecting the dots looking backwards

Hindsight isn’t just a luxury, as many believe. For founders, hindsight or the ability to look back at the events and learn from them with blunt honesty, is priceless. Just ask the second-time founders such as Ketan Kapoor, the co-founder of Mettl, who sold his startup to Mercer after a long, slow burn. Mettl is a SaaS platform for online assessment. 

“If I start something again, I will not raise money for the first three years, not because I can afford it, but because I can run it that way,” Ketan tells me in this conversation. 

“The more you can push it out (the funding), the more you can set up a business, which looks solid and sustainable.”

There’s too much focus on the ongoing entrepreneurial journeys. Don’t get me wrong. It’s absolutely needed to keep bringing learnings from the journey as it evolves. What needs to be unlocked more is a goldmine of candid insights from founders after they have completed their entrepreneurial journeys. 

“There are moments in every entrepreneur’s journey when you just want to be alone and want to cry, and not share anything with even your family or co-founders.”

This quote from Steve Jobs captures the amazing power of hindsight well:

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something—your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”

Listen to this conversation with Ketan Kapoor of Mettl to learn from his entrepreneurial journey that offers honest insights about building, failing and finding an exit for founders, employees and investors. 

Ketan is now preparing to become an entrepreneur again, and is looking to apply all the learnings from the Mettl journey.