{"id":1388,"date":"2026-06-08T08:30:27","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T08:30:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakamsani.me\/blog\/2026\/06\/08\/ninety-days-that-is-all-it-takes-to-know-if-your-startup-is-real\/"},"modified":"2026-06-08T08:30:27","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T08:30:27","slug":"ninety-days-that-is-all-it-takes-to-know-if-your-startup-is-real","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakamsani.me\/blog\/2026\/06\/08\/ninety-days-that-is-all-it-takes-to-know-if-your-startup-is-real\/","title":{"rendered":"Ninety days.  That is all it takes to know if your startup is real."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ninety days.<br \/>\nThat is all it takes to know if your startup is real.<\/p>\n<p>Yes, some businesses truly need years.<br \/>\nDeep science. Hard infrastructure. Real R&#038;D.<br \/>\nBut far fewer than the founders who claim it.<\/p>\n<p>If a business cannot find its first paying customer in ninety days,<br \/>\none of two things is usually true.<br \/>\nThe cost to acquire that customer is so high it needs outside capital before it earns a dollar. That is not a business. That is a dependency on investors money.<\/p>\n<p>Or<br \/>\nthe problem is not real. An imagined problem,<br \/>\nfor a customer who does not feel enough pain to pay.<\/p>\n<p>Ninety days does not kill good startups. It reveals the ones that were never real.<\/p>\n<p>Me and my Co-Founder @Kishore Ganji have built 10+ companies from zero to multi-million dollars. No outside capital. In industries we knew nothing about when we started. <\/p>\n<p>Together we have invested in hundreds of startups.<\/p>\n<p>So before you spend years pitching experts and investors, ask the valuable question. <\/p>\n<p>Can you earn one paying customer in ninety days?<\/p>\n<p>That is the question the &#8220;Founder in Residence&#8221; program at @A Foundery is built to answer.<\/p>\n<p>There is nothing wrong with either path.<br \/>\nA startup that needs years, or one that earns its first customer in 90 days. <\/p>\n<p>You just have to know the pain, the time, and the odds before you choose.<\/p>\n<p>For me the choice was simple.<br \/>\nI could not wait years to find out if years of work would pay off.<\/p>\n<p>What about you?<\/p>\n<p>If your startup is all about the paying customer, and you do not want to wait years to learn your fate after years, you are our kind of founder.  Come build it with us. <\/p>\n<p>Apply to the 90-day program at @A Foundery.<br \/>\nLink below in comments<\/p>\n<p>| \ud835\uddde\ud835\uddff\ud835\uddf6\ud835\ude00\ud835\uddf5\ud835\uddfb\ud835\uddee \ud835\udddf\ud835\uddee\ud835\uddf8\ud835\uddee\ud835\uddfa\ud835\ude00\ud835\uddee\ud835\uddfb\ud835\uddf6 | \ud835\udde6\ud835\uddf2\ud835\uddff\ud835\uddf6\ud835\uddee\ud835\uddf9 \ud835\uddd8\ud835\uddfb\ud835\ude01\ud835\uddff\ud835\uddf2\ud835\uddfd\ud835\uddff\ud835\uddf2\ud835\uddfb\ud835\uddf2\ud835\ude02\ud835\uddff | \ud835\udddc\ud835\uddfb\ud835\ude03\ud835\uddf2\ud835\ude00\ud835\ude01\ud835\uddfc\ud835\uddff |<br \/>\n| \ud835\uddd5\ud835\ude02\ud835\uddf6\ud835\uddf9\ud835\uddf1\ud835\uddf6\ud835\uddfb\ud835\uddf4 \ud835\uddfd\ud835\uddff\ud835\uddfc\ud835\uddf3\ud835\uddf6\ud835\ude01-\ud835\uddf9\ud835\uddf2\ud835\uddf1 \ud835\ude00\ud835\ude01\ud835\uddee\ud835\uddff\ud835\ude01\ud835\ude02\ud835\uddfd \ud835\uddf3\ud835\uddee\ud835\uddf0\ud835\ude01\ud835\uddfc\ud835\uddff\ud835\ude06 &#8220;\ud835\uddd4 \ud835\uddd9\ud835\udde2\ud835\udde8\ud835\udde1\ud835\uddd7\ud835\uddd8\ud835\udde5\ud835\ude06&#8221; | I write at the intersection of AI, capital, and the future of the human job market &#8211; sharing my life lessons, reflections, and honest takes from the founder-investor&#8217;s seat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ninety days. That is all it takes to know if your startup is real. Yes, some businesses truly need years&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-linkedin-posts","wpcat-18-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakamsani.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakamsani.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakamsani.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakamsani.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakamsani.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakamsani.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1388\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakamsani.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakamsani.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakamsani.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}