Letter to Stakeholders – C4E’s August 2024
It’s 2nd Oct 2024, and this piece is ready to leave our drafts. Last month, C and I sat down to review where we are at C4E with a 1-hour calendar block. It went on for 4 with still some to go. The point is, a LOT was happening. As we build C4E, this August Review is an attempt at putting our thoughts to the best test (writing), taking an honest look at where we stand, and finding partners, friends, collaborators along the way.
How to read this?
Well, I’d recommend grabbing a coffee / chai / glass of nimbu paani; it’s a long read. Or, if you’ve stumbled upon this during a 5-minute break, start with the TL;DR. It will either tell you all that you need to know or push you to extend your break. However, if you already know us and want to jump to the part where we seek help, scroll to the end. Or, search for “#help” and you’ll find it.
1/ The TL;DR
We are on a mission to build a people-first business where each person at C4E gets to work on things they want to work on.
Right now, we work as a communication business and we did almost 4 crores last year. This year we wanted to do 40 and expand our work in other business lines.
As we cross the 6-month mark, we are FAR from it. We will probably not even do the 4 we did last year but we retain the twinkle in our eyes, hopes in our hearts and spring in our step as we continue to march on.
This letter is our attempt to share our progress (or lack thereof) with people who have helped us, invested in us and continue to root for us.
Here are the highlights…
1/ In the last one month, we lost two of our clients. It took away almost 30% of our business. #loss. And this means that we are now in war-time. Been in peace-time for a while now.
2/ We added a couple of new clients as well. Just that these are not on retainer. Both are from the financial industry. In fact, we see financial services as a possible extension space for us. Thanks to Naman (of Referns fame) who opened our eyes about where the money seems to be!
3/ Team remains good – tight-knit, respect-first, time-first, freedom-first. So that’s a #win🟢.
If you are busy and all, you can stop reading here. If you are keen to read more, read on!
2/ The Too Long Part
I read this one in Netflix’s culture book…
“If you want to build a ship, don’t
drum up the people to gather wood,
divide the work, and give orders.
Instead, teach them to yearn for the
vast and endless sea.”
And then while writing I remembered these lines…
“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go farther, you must go together.”
When you marry the two, you probably arrive at what I want C4E to be – a place where great people come together to build great lives for themselves and everyone else. And as a collective in this increasingly individualistic world! In fact, each thing at C4E is inspired by the people-first approach!
When we started this year, we wanted to do 10X of what we did in the last. We knew it was ambitious, we did the math and heard all the rationale against it. But I continue to believe that we’re that bunch who believes people do create magic. This 10X is our attempt at creating magic. We probably will fail, considering how the last few weeks have been – we lost a couple of clients, we lost sight of the grand plan and some clients did not pay us on time (and that is almost a death knell for a company our size).
Like most things, some bits were a result of our mistakes and some bits were things we couldn’t control. So a lot of my time and energy is going into putting the house in order. You know, survival and maintenance taking priority over building for the future!
We are into, what we call, the eco mode. I am hoping this ends soon but I am ready for the long haul. Just that our lofty goals do not change. Our eyes are still on disproportionate growth. We continue to try and find our Mahabharat. I don’t know when I will find it. #help me find?
And thus, this report.
Thus, this thinking.
Thus, this plan for action.
Now the question is, what do we do. And how do we do this.
Here’s a chart of what we could grow into.
Lemme elaborate.
Today, C4E is a communications agency. We make money by offering services like brand strategy, social media, website design, marketing collaterals and more. We give more than 100% to what we do, are heavily indexed on reliability as a tenet, and make this promise to all our clients.
And yet, this business is not our identity. C4E is a playground, a space, a village to be precise, for ambitious people to come and build their dream lives. To create magic. To envision grand things and take a shot at them. I could go on and on.
But, the point is, C4E is just as much an intangible idea as it is a company. And the chart above is the closest I can get to explaining what C4E is in my head.
A holding company.
Of many ideas, investments, companies and magic.
Each owned and led by a person with a dream.
So, today when we say scale, we mean we want to increase our service lines – after all this is how we make money! As of today, these areas look like…
- A collective, a salon of creative folks – writers, designers, filmmakers and others
- Video as a service for new-age entrepreneurs and businesses
- A venture studio for online applets and SAAS tools
- A hiring platform and community for senior marketers
- An expertise in the world of modern marketing
There are a few more ideas but I will spare you the details. But each of these will help us strengthen our existing service lines or help us go wider.
Right now, all of them are at different stages. For example, our first SAAS tool for founders is 3-day-old. The video we made as a pitch has got mixed responses. And they would continue to move in different stages. Our way to keep track is a guiding principle we borrow from Anaggh sir – “If you can’t do it in 90 days, you can’t do it ever”.
Should you need more details on any of these, I would love to chat!
2.1/ The demand and supply equation
For any service-first business, we need to build the two ends of demand and supply.
Lemme talk of supply first.
Supply is people that would help us deliver with reliability. In this day and age, people are one of the largest challenges. And we try multiple things to get to more. Think of it as hiring TOFU. Here are some things to help us get noticed by more people.
2.1.1/ SoG
The idea is to scout for the smartest, most ambitious young people and put them in a room together. And give them a playground to gratify their interests (thanks to PG for introducing me to this term). This idea or cohort is not new. It has been around since before most of us found C4E. I even call this my life’s work. After all, it keeps C4E young and helps us get better people on board!
This year, the ambition is to meet 10,000 students across India and bind them into a network.
2.1.2/ An in-person boot camp for marketers
This is either a really good idea or we’re just smitten and inspired by Procedure Tech’s Rubber Duck – an intensive, in-person program for engineering graduates.
A note about Procedure. They are a tech services company. We first met them when they were looking for agencies to do their rebrand. We participated in the pitch but they chose someone else to work with. However, we continue to remain their cheerleaders and read each thing they post. I am in awe of their culture conversations and look up to them for inspiration. And this Rubber Duck is their attempt at building the supply for their team!
So, at C4E, we want to build a similar boot camp where we help marketers scale their talent! Sounds interesting?
2.1.3/ Party of 9
Think of 8 people you look up to, follow on the Internet, and have hardly any access to. It’s highly likely that they’re powerful. Intellectual. REALLY interesting. Now, imagine them in a room. At a dinner table. And you on that table.
That’s your party of 9 – curated, intimate, and exclusive. The grand ambition is to have many parties of 9 around the world. Here’s a note that explains it better. This note on Scenius does a good job as well.
The next step for us is to find someone to #help us build this. If this is your idea of people coming together, let’s talk?
2.1.4/ Superheroes at C4E
One of the epiphanies we’ve had lately is about the kind of team I want us to be. I write this with the disclaimer that I’m still not sure if people at C4E agree with this. But the thought is that we ought to be a company of superheroes. The org does not, must not, cannot depend on one person (right now, me). If it is, then we’re an individual, not an institution.
The task at hand is multifold – to make the team see the light, to communicate this to the world. And build our individual brands and networks that will converge at C4E.
So that. SoG, Party of 9, Bootcamp and Superheros.
Now, on to the demand side.
So while we are struggling to stay afloat, we remain steadfast in being picky about who we work with. We are indexed on shared respect, mutual wins, action-oriented conversations and more. And we don’t want to do things just because they’ve been done in a certain manner.
We also want “work” to be at least two of these three – mazza, revenue and / or brand. Lemme elaborate. There are three things…
1/ What we do must allow for mental orgasm – once we’re done with a project, we must feel great about how we pulled it off!
2/ Revenue – we are not the cheapest and I am sure we are not the only ones offering promises of reliability, access, accountability, never-say-die and standing by your side.
Oh, on accountability and responsibility, I read this and it has stayed with me…
“If I tell you to do something, you’re accountable but not responsible. Following a process makes you accountable, not responsible. Using judgement to opt out of the process makes you responsible. Completing assigned homework makes you accountable. Seeking out additional resources to deepen your understanding makes you responsible. Remembering your partner’s birthday makes you accountable. Consistently finding ways to make them feel appreciated makes you responsible. Taking out the trash when told makes you accountable. Noticing it needs to be done and doing it makes you responsible.”
The promises we make are a reflection of our culture. And that’s why all this conversation around accountability and responsibility. We’re yet to find out how a culture of hard work and high performance can co-exist within a setup that’s also human-first.
3/ Build brand C4E – one of the projects we did (for a leading insurance company) was drab but it allowed us to say that we work with them. This nomenclature itself made us sit in rooms that we would otherwise not be able to get to!
So that.
Now, we don’t do traditional BD – you know, forcing people to make cold calls, sending creepy messages on Linkedin. And we would never resort to it. Rather, we build things like CSS, ITFOOT and others. We do things like a Marketer’s Anthology and more.
We also want to get into new business lines and offer services that may be needed tomorrow – you know, where the puck is gonna be.
That’s it to be honest. I know this is not enough and I need to do more to get more. Maybe in next month’s letter, I will have more to share.
2.2 The continuity bit!
C4E has evolved from being SG’s fiefdom to an org. And the transition will not be complete till I become replaceable. And two key steps in that direction would be…
a/ find people who run C4E better than I do
b/ build a board of directors that will ensure that people who run C4E are efficient, reliable and committed.
The board would also be the set of people that the leadership at C4E would report to.
So I have started to put together a board of advisors. If we were a bigger company, we would call them the board of directors. We have three people that have agreed to be the board members and this report would be the first one to land in their mailboxes. Right now, these three are my connections. As we scale this, we would add independent people too.
3/ Business and Revenue
July and August were tough months. We’ve got 3 months’ worth of salaries stuck with one of our big clients. And we have no way out except to wait. These are mostly structural delays that don’t worry us as much as the others.
I’ve wanted to have a year’s worth of money in the bank. And thus, each loss, each delay, burns a hole in our pocket. There may be no solution to this but it’s important to do this check-in of where we are at.
In terms of work, between July and August, we had a lot of opportunities come our way. This might just be an observation but this is the case every time. We either have multiple open pitches or none. It’s a sprint. I need to find a way to spread this better.
Of these pitches, lemme talk about some.
Some worked well for us. A leading insurance company was one of them. We had been in the flirting stage for a long time but after one campaign pitch, one round of ideation, and some conversations, we were able to open that door and walk in. As of October 2, we’re in conversation for another brief.
Some, we got closure with. When we get a no, we smile and move on to the next thing. And make sure to keep the relationship going. Last month, someone asked me at what stage the conversations typically dropped off. So far, it has either been money or competition.
- Money – most times, we don’t go ahead with it because budgets don’t align. Which is ok. We don’t want to undersell.
- Competition – One of our recent pitches didn’t go through because the team decided to go with a PR giant instead. Which is again ok. I am glad that I was in the same room as them. Some day they would be glad to be in the same room as us 🙂
Some, we didn’t hear back from. There are some people we didn’t hear back from. We could guess why but it’s not a helpful exercise. Which is again and again ok. We all know how people love ghosting.
The other thing is continuity (in this service line). Today, our DNA is reliable. Clients won’t work with us because we give them the best output, it’s because we deliver it when they need it, in a way they need it.
However, last month, Hareesh Sir pushed us to think about business impact too. Until this conversation, we had not asked ourselves this question – are we delivering business value and impact for our clients? And even if they choose to not work with us, we MUST remain their cheerleaders!
If we make a promise to be a partner to our clients, we cannot NOT think about this. Apart from introspection, we will also work on finding ways to do this.
4/ From August 2024, the Wins and Losses
Now comes the most important part! All the words, all 2566 of those prior to this part were as bland as cardboard is.
So, since Elon asked Parag, “What did you get done this week?”, we’ve been filling in a weekly sheet where we track some key metrics. I used to fill it till sometime this year and then we transitioned into Chandni filling that in. I am hopeful that we can find someone else to take on that as Chandni moves on to other roles within C4E.
From that sheet, here are some losses…
4.1/ The losses
4.1.1/ We parted ways with a client (not a major hit)
In most businesses, clients come and go. It’s BAU. In most cases, it is also nothing to fret about. You acknowledge, fix, and move on to the next thing. Especially if the decision came from you as a business. We do the same except that we want to document this particular one.
We parted ways with a client because our values didn’t align. It was not a rational decision in the traditional sense, but in our context of building a people-first organisation, it is. While we are parting, we are writing off what they owe us. Thankfully everyone from our side has been paid. I am taking a hit as a business.
This is also a brand that Pooja and KP built from scratch. Each thing (even a dot!) has come from us. If not for this, it would’ve been an easy decision.
4.1.2/ We lost a client (a 1.8L hit in our revenue)
In August, one of our engagements ended. This was from the client’s end and what we know today is that it was due to structural and budget changes within the org. No, we don’t know if they are being honest but then, why would they not be. We will try to get to the bottom of this. Will report in some subsequent letter.
Could this be a sign of impending gloom in the market? We don’t know.
Oh, and no need to be scared but we must be aware.
4.1.3/ Decoding Draupadi x Moolah
We met Meeta Gupta, the founder of Moolah for Women, a couple of months ago. A result of luck and preparation. SG, AK and CM spent 6 weeks with Meeta to see if Decoding Draupadi and Moolah could come together and build a product in the women and finance space. Apart from logical reasons, we tried this out because our energies matched. However, I count this as a loss because we weren’t able to arrive at an idea for DD x Moolah.
More than Meeta, this is a miss on our end.
The good news is that we remain friends with Meeta.
4.1.4/ Can our culture scale as we scale?
Like the Founder Mode, there’s no playbook for culture. Yes, there are hundreds of books on it but no one tells you how to do it. At C4E, I am incredibly proud of the culture we’ve been able to build but I am worried if we’d retain that when we scale to more people. Yesterday only I found it hard to respond to comments from Ahilya and Prakruti about love and work. So work needs to be done!
So, at the beginning of this year, I tried to work with someone to learn all that it would take to scale our culture. We gave it an honest shot and tried for more than 6 months but we were unable to make a headway. And we had to end it without taking it to conclusion. In fact I must admit that it failed to a point that some of us exchanged very very un-C4E-like emails. And it sucked.
While there are numerous projects that I undertake that don’t reach an endpoint, on this one, I was very bullish and thus I am very disappointed that this is not working out.
This also taught us an expensive, important and difficult truth. That while big companies can afford consultants, companies our size need doers. And nothing else. Anyone who says they will consult, help, be the bouncing boards etc etc, we need to stay away from those. #lesson.
Oh and we need to learn how to move fast. It’s that simple.
4.1.5/ Creds as a project
Our creds deck is like 2 years old. And now that we are in the war-time mode, we need all the arsenal that we can muster. Our creds is one such astra. So, we got two designers to work with us on revamping our creds. Both these folks put a lot of their time and effort but despite that, we weren’t able to close. So, a big #loss.
Oh, the silver line? We met Parth! A young designer who now works very closely with us and we hope that he’d be able to help us push our design capability!
Ok, on to highs!
4.2/ The highs
4.2.1/ The first is a promise
In 2025, C4E (any of our superheroes) will be at GFF as a panellist or a speaker. #watchMe.
Why?
Well, there’s no deep thought here.
Just two things…
A, It is a proxy, a metric for our efforts of becoming a company of superheroes. How do you know you’ve built a brand for yourself, been in the right rooms, done the important things? I’m sure many reasons come to mind. One of those is being invited to GFF as a panellist. And why GFF and why not Woodstock? Well, read on!
Because the brand is our brainchild.
Superheroes at C4E have designed the logo and visual identity. So, life would just come full circle.
Poo and KP at GFF 2022
4.2.2/ An experiment worth almost 100K views
We partnered with a short-form video content team, Punctuate Productions, and created this!
Yay, Fareen and Saloni 🙂
Organic views of 93.5K on the Instagram page of a construction equipment company. The “high” is not just the views or the video. It’s the partnership. And exploring a new service line of videos and films. And with someone new (and yet a friend). And in a line that we are not sure of.
4.2.3/ HDFC Life
We conceptualised, scripted, shot and edited a vox-pop series for HDFC Life. This was also Chandni’s first independent video production project. The video is here.
To us, the project was not just a revenue win, but a culture one. HDFC Life was a new client, and thus, an even more important first impression.
When Chandni was being entrusted with the opportunity to handle this end-to-end, we knew that it could go either way. If we fucked it up, it would’ve been a loss in the short-run but C would’ve learnt a lesson.
Glad to say it worked well!
5/ The Org
5.1/ The Cadence Conversations
Last month, one of our close friends joined a unicorn in a leadership role. And that means, we’ve got more access to learning from folks we respect. Folks who are building teams we will learn from and be inspired by. Folks who will help answer the question, how do we scale with our quirks and model? While there are many lessons, here’s one we’ve implemented – cadence conversations. Now, we’re not a unicorn. If anything, we’re far from it. We’ve also never been strict with trackers and metrics. But, despite the nature and scale of our business, we found merit in it.
And so, for the next 3 months, we’re going to host cadences across brand, BD & revenue, and organisation. And report to you at the end of this year.
And no, we don’t want to be a big company where we waste time and resources on something that would not add up. Remember the point above about being a nimble business?
Within the cadence, we also rolled out the opportunity for 1v1 conversations. I am very very stoked to say that at least 2 of us are using this as an opportunity to chat and get clarity while we are here at C4E. I encourage more of us to do it. Like all things, nothing would be enforced 😀
5.2/ Brand
5.2.1/ CSS
We hosted the 5th C4E Spotlight Session and want to host the next one on November 30.
A one-line intro about CSS – these are a series of in-person, intimate events to support musicians, performers, poets, artists and anyone who would shine bright under the spotlight. Apart from supporting them, these sessions also allow us to meet more people and give them a warm experience.
For the next one, we’re looking for ideas. Anything that brings artists together. We’ve done music, open mics, networking, poetry and storytelling, and Indie film screenings. And while we’re tempted to try these again, we want a different genre. And to give a new artist a space.
5.2.2/ Brand C4E
On this front, we’re not doing as much as we would like to. In fact, if I were to be honest, we’re not doing anything. Whatever goes out in C4E’s name is passive. There’s no strategy. Or action. And we’d like to change that.
As of today, I don’t have an answer.
But I will put a question here – if we wanted to build a brand about ourselves as a collective that’s not just focused on showcasing work but other things, how can we do that? What do we talk about? How do we not get placed beside another agency? #help
If you have any insight at all, we would love to know.
5.3/ Culture
5.3.1/ People, places, and progress
We met Naman from Refrens at a dinner sometime in August. And while we talked about everything from the diamonds of Surat to the infrastructure of Bombay to how companies are run, some things stood out for us.
One was growth. And metrics for growth. NS had a simple maths for his company – any person that joins will be making 3x their money in 3 years at Refrens. Now, as C4E, we’ve never defined such numbers. Mostly because of the fear of this being construed as, “if you don’t 3x your money in 3 years, you’re out” or “the goal is to 3x your money. The pressure and responsibility is on you”. It is REALLY easy to slip.
But, there’s merit in what NS said. The 3x is not a brand play. Or an announcement. It’s merely a metric to say that there’s an opportunity for you to grow this way at this company. And work with them to build it.
C saw a video that’s lying in our archives. The C4E growth “chart” – our take on what indicators of growth here look like if they’re not traditional designation and salary changes.
Naman’s perspective pushed us to think harder. And get more clarity in our minds.
In fact, we’re even inspired to have this as our internal metric – make 3x money in 3 years of your time with us. We will roll this out soon!
5.3.2/ The break (and a test)
It had been quite some time since we did this but we took an org-wide 5-day break from work. Some of us had plans over the long weekend and that prompted us to make it “official”.
For us, the break would mean that we’re not actively working on any of the projects. We informed all our clients the day we decided this. Won’t lie – it’s the best test of your relationship with them. Do they trust you to prepare for it? And would they subconsciously feel okay about it? Now, there was no guarantee that this would go smoothly. But, it did.
In fact, we took 3 days of ramping up as well. It was a good week for us.
That was August for us. And a little bit of July.
5.3.3/ The freedom to be
Another observation, or rather an epiphany we’ve had lately is that we’re indexed on being human-first. So much so that it can come at the cost of demanding accountability, responsibility, and high performance. No, this is not to say that we under-perform. But, for where we’re hoping to reach, I know it will take more. From each of us.
Here, we feel as strongly about these audacious goals as we do about the people. And it will be on us to figure out how these co-exist. The keyword is co-exist.
What do we need help with?
If you’re reading this and have made it to the end, I know we have your time and trust. But, if there’s one thing I’ve learned lately is to go into rooms knowing what help I need and what I can offer. Not in a transactional sense, but in a clarity of thought sense.
Plus, I would not leave the burden on you to know what we need. So, here’s a list (in no particular order)…
6.1/ Hiring
We need the next Chandni. As of yesterday. It’s our toughest hire. We need someone like a Farmer. Someone willing to pour their heart and soul into building C4E.
No, we don’t need an extraordinary person. Just that I have insanely high expectations, demand a 5-year-long horizon, and am super honest about what things could look like (which is – not so good). And I am willing to invest my 5 years in helping build that person!
So far, we haven’t found someone. Just 2 pilots that didn’t work out the way we wanted them to. And, we continue to look. To scout. And to find someone who will want to build with us.
Do you know anyone?
If not to replace C, we continue to look for more folks. And now that you have taken a close look at where we are, where we want to be, and who we want to go with, does someone come to mind? Is there a friend, relative, stranger you think we must speak to?
6.2/ Build with us
Search for #Help in this document. For each of these projects and problem statements, you could either give us a perspective or come build it with us. We’re open to and insist on both!
6.3/ Help us meet more people
We’ve spread ourselves thin. Quite deliberately. One of the things you can do is help us go even farther. For instance, if there’s someone working or building similar things, help us meet them? There would be no agenda except to learn from each other. #help
6.4/ Poke holes in my thinking
This line will tell you why.
तारीफें दिन बनाती है और ताने जिंदगी
We’re not here for the days, we’re here for life. I don’t want to stand on the laurels. Rather I want to build to the top from the trenches and lay the foundation for something epic.
And this brings me to the end.
Thank you,
Saurabh and Chandni
PS: A large part of this was written by Chandni and then SG made edits. At places, SG has used I, us, we, C, SG interchangeably and I hope that’s ok.
Over and out!