Furkat Kasimov on Why Most Businesses Fail (And What to Do Instead) | S2 Ep. 182

Summary

Founder's Story: Furkat Kasimov on Why Most Businesses Fail (And What to Do Instead) | S2 Ep. 182

Released on March 8, 2025 by IBH Media

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In this compelling episode of Founder's Story, host Daniel sits down with Furkat Kasimov, a seasoned serial entrepreneur with over two decades of experience and the author of the insightful book, "Don't Do This: A Guide to Business Survival." Kasimov shares his extensive knowledge on why most businesses fail and offers actionable strategies to foster sustained growth and success.

Early Beginnings and Entrepreneurial Drive

Daniel opens the conversation by delving into Kasimov's motivations for embarking on an entrepreneurial journey two decades ago. Kasimov reflects:

"I always wanted to do some sort of business because I believed that I have the skills necessary to build something. I tried many, many different things. Unfortunately, a lot of them failed. I include a lot of my past failures into this book."
– Furkat Kasimov [02:56]

Kasimov's candid acknowledgment of his numerous ventures—both successful and unsuccessful—sets the stage for a discussion rooted in real-world experience and resilience.

The Crucial Role of Learning from Others

When asked about the key differences between failure and success, Kasimov emphasizes the importance of learning from others' mistakes:

"For a lot of startups, one thing that makes a big difference is to learn from other people's mistakes... you can learn from other people's mistakes. So do that. That's much better."
– Furkat Kasimov [04:01]

He advocates for entrepreneurs to study the journeys of seasoned business leaders to avoid common pitfalls, thereby accelerating their path to success.

Overcoming Communication Barriers

One of the standout challenges Kasimov highlights is poor communication within teams. He shares a transformative strategy employed in his own businesses:

"One trick that I learned from him is to ask my team member, can you please explain to me what I just told you? And it was just astonishing to me to learn that I believe I communicated A, but that person understood B..."
– Furkat Kasimov [06:08]

By implementing this technique, Kasimov was able to bridge communication gaps, ensuring that team members were aligned and misunderstandings were minimized.

The Fallacy of Generic Business Advice

Kasimov is critical of one-size-fits-all business advice, suggesting that execution trumps generic strategies:

"I don't necessarily believe that a lot of the generic advice makes sense, because even if you don't diversify... just watch the basket. So my advice is don't necessarily look at the generic advice. See what works for your business."
– Furkat Kasimov [07:35]

He encourages entrepreneurs to tailor strategies to their unique business contexts rather than adhering to clichéd recommendations.

Vision as the North Star

A recurring theme in Kasimov's success is the establishment of a clear vision or "North Star" for his businesses:

"Having a North Star, having that vision where you're going is really helpful because everything you do has to get you closer to that vision."
– Furkat Kasimov [09:08]

He asserts that a well-defined long-term vision provides direction and purpose, enabling businesses to navigate challenges more effectively.

Achieving Product-Market Fit Through Design Partners

Kasimov underscores the importance of product-market fit and the role of design partners in refining offerings:

"Maybe they're offering something that their customers don't want... by enlisting help of design partners... they will help you improve your product so, or your service so it fits their needs."
– Furkat Kasimov [10:16]

Engaging directly with customers to co-create solutions ensures that products or services resonate with the target market, enhancing the likelihood of success.

Customer-Centric Pricing and Problem-Solving

Delving into pricing strategies, Kasimov advocates for direct customer engagement to determine appropriate pricing points:

"Interview potential customers, ask them, what is your problem? How can I help you? What do you need help with? If I do something for you that solves your problem, how much would you pay for that?"
– Furkat Kasimov [12:53]

This approach ensures that pricing is aligned with the value perceived by customers, fostering both satisfaction and profitability.

Philanthropic Endeavors and Writing "Don't Do This"

Kasimov's decision to author "Don't Do This" stems from a desire to give back to the entrepreneurial community:

"I have discovered so many minefields on this road to the gold... I wanted to give this map so other startups can avoid these minefields and just have a better journey."
– Furkat Kasimov [14:00]

He envisions the book as a resource to aid startups in navigating challenges, with profits reinvested as an angel investor to support emerging businesses and foster job growth.

Embracing AI as a Digital Worker

In the realm of technological advancements, Kasimov shares his insights on leveraging AI in business operations:

"AI is here to help you. It's a digital worker... having an AI to get creative, to improve your efficiency is going to help your business."
– Furkat Kasimov [16:36]

Currently developing an AI-driven marketing company, Kasimov views AI not as a replacement but as an enhancement to human capabilities, offering creative solutions and boosting operational efficiency.

Final Thoughts and Takeaways

As the conversation wraps up, Daniel reflects on the actionable strategies discussed, emphasizing the value of Kasimov's experiences and insights. Kasimov encourages listeners to explore his book for a deeper understanding and to leverage the shared knowledge to build resilient and thriving businesses.

"If you buy the book, you like it, give it to your friend so you know they can learn from it as well and just spread it."
– Furkat Kasimov [21:37]

Kasimov's blend of practical advice, personal anecdotes, and forward-thinking perspectives offers invaluable guidance for entrepreneurs aiming to navigate the complex landscape of business ownership successfully.

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Key Takeaways:

• Learn from Others: Avoid repeating mistakes by studying the experiences of established entrepreneurs.
• Effective Communication: Implement strategies to ensure clear and mutual understanding within teams.
• Tailored Strategies: Customize business approaches instead of relying on generic advice.
• Clear Vision: Establish a long-term vision to guide business decisions and growth.
• Customer Engagement: Use design partners and direct customer feedback to achieve product-market fit and set appropriate pricing.
• Philanthropic Goals: Share knowledge through writing and reinvest profits to support the entrepreneurial ecosystem.
• Leverage AI: Utilize AI as a tool to enhance creativity and efficiency in business operations.

For entrepreneurs seeking to build sustainable and successful businesses, Furkat Kasimov's insights provide a roadmap filled with practical strategies and wisdom gleaned from years of hands-on experience.

Transcript

[Daniel]

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[Dan]

Hey everyone, welcome back to Founder Story. Today we have Furkat, Kazimov and Firkat. You are a serial entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience and I can't wait to extract 20 years of experience today into this conversation because I'm sure we're going to learn a ton and we love when the audience can take some really good practical strategies away. I know you are the author of a book called don't do this A guide to business survival, which is, I love that businesses, as we know, do not survive most of the time. So the fact that you are helping them says a lot about you. So let's start off with going back in your history. So why did you, 20 years ago, become an entrepreneur?

[Firkat Kazimov]

Thank you for having me, Dan. Well, many years ago, I always wanted to do some sort of business because I believed that I have the skills necessary to build something. And, you know, I knew that I'm not a scientist. I knew that I'm not going to be a doctor, but I knew that business is something that I really like and I'm really good at. So I tried many, many different things. Unfortunately, a lot of them failed. And I include a lot of my past failures into this book. And I think this is true of a lot of businesses. Many entrepreneurs try one thing that fails, they try another one until they succeed at something. So I had a lot of success, but I also had a lot of failure.

[Dan]

I can relate. I have half a dozen to maybe 10 failures in my lifetime where ideas just never went to fruition. So when, when you go look at failure to success, what is something that makes the difference?

[Firkat Kazimov]

I think for a lot of startups, one thing that makes a big difference is to learn from other people's mistakes, because that journey is not something new. Many people have built companies, they already made mistakes, and you can learn from them. You don't have to repeat them. You can learn from other people's mistakes. So do that. That's much better.

[Dan]

Isn't it amazing how entrepreneurs can sometimes be stubborn? Even though they find out the mistakes of others, yet they still continue in that path? So you, over the last 20 years, what has helped you break down the barrier of understanding? I'm going to learn from other people. Was it a mentor? Was it books that you read? What was it for you that really broke it down where you were, like, comfortable enough to say, okay, I need help, and this is okay?

[Firkat Kazimov]

Well, it starts out from looking inside and saying, you know, I'm not good at everything. I don't understand everything. So let me learn from somebody who's done this. Maybe it's an advisor, maybe it's a consultant. Maybe it's another entrepreneur who gives a lecture or does an interview or a podcast and shares their experience. And to me, it's not necessarily that I'm not going to have the same mistakes, but if I learn how they dealt with it, how they dealt with those difficulties, maybe my experience is not going to be as difficult because I Will know how somebody else dealt with it. And I can deal with it too. You see, business mistakes is not something that you can necessarily avoid. No matter how smart you are, how good you are, these mistakes will happen. It's how you come up against those challenges. That's what makes a difference.

[Dan]

So what is a challenge for you that you overcame that looking back, you're like, wow, I did it.

[Firkat Kazimov]

I think one of the most common challenges that a lot of companies have is, is bad communication with the team members. And one of the things we did is we hired a communications coach to help us work around those differences. And one trick that I learned from him is to ask my team member, can you please explain to me what I just told you? And it was just astonishing to me to learn that I believe I communicated A, but that person understood B, So there's a big disconnect. So just asking that person to communicate back what they understood made a whole lot of difference and avoided a lot of mistakes that were happening.

[Dan]

It's very hard to see the mistakes that you're making right from the outside. I'm with you. It's really great and super beneficial to have somebody see see those, because how we think we're doing the right way, but when somebody else watches, it's amazing what they see. There's so much advice out there. So many people that have had success or that act like they had success, maybe they did not, because anyone online can say or teach anything. What is some advice that you hear that you're like, I don't really like this vice advice. Or it's just something you. Not. You don't agree with.

[Firkat Kazimov]

I think a lot of advice out there is very generic. And they. They would be like, well, you have to, you know, have a differentiating strategy. I don't necessarily agree with that. It's possible that two companies pursue exactly the same strategy, and one just has better execution than the other one. So I don't necessarily believe that a lot of the generic advice makes sense, because even if you don't diversify, even if you just have one revenue stream, you get criticized. Well, you have all of your eggs in one basket. Well, that's fine. Just watch the basket. So my advice is don't necessarily look at the generic advice. See what works for your business.

[Dan]

Sounds like it's not a one size fits all, because it's very dependent on the person and the business that they're in. Maybe the industry. There's a lot of factors involved. So thank you for sharing that. I really like That I really, really like that answer because it is so true. Most advice is very generic or general. And it really, and there's many people that have done against that advice that have success and there's people that haven't had success that follow that advice. So when you, when you see a company starting out and maybe they hit three, four, five, six years, what did they do in order to sustain and grow for that long?

[Firkat Kazimov]

Well, one of my companies has been in business for 14 years and I think one of the most important things is to actually have a vision, to have a plan. Many companies start without a business plan and the problem was that is they don't think through what does this company look like in five years, what is our vision? And they just work day to day. They have a lot of grind, they have a lot of problems they're solving, but they don't have that North Star. So having a North Star, having, having that vision where you're going is really helpful because everything you do has to get you closer to that vision.

[Dan]

What do you tell startups when they're, they're like, I'm solving this problem, I think this is my customer, but I don't know how to come up with that North Star. Is there something, an exercise or something that you find works in order for people to do that? Because I agree with you, I, I think a lot of people start, but it can be hard for some people to come up with a clear vision.

[Firkat Kazimov]

What you're probably referring to is that a lot of companies struggle to get a product market fit, meaning what they're offering is not really getting that attention from their potential customers. So maybe they're offering something that their customers don't want. Their customers might want something else. And the problem was that is that sometimes you have to tweak your product. You would have to go to some potential customers and say, hey, do you want to become my design partner? Come help me build something that makes sense for you and that will probably make sense to other companies like you. So by enlisting help of design partners, maybe you give them your product for free or you give them a very good discount, they will help you improve your product so, or your service so it fits their needs. And then others are going to say, well, that company is using it, I do the same thing as that company, maybe I should be using it too. So having design partners I think is very important.

[Dan]

I'm curious when you digging into that and I appreciate that the go to market strategy, when you're looking at creating a service and creating a good price point. How, what do you do or what have you done in the past? Because I think a lot of people like you, you were talking earlier about they figure out something that they can solve, but they don't really have the service or product yet because they don't really even know what people like, how much they'll pay, or what exactly is it. How do you formulate or have you. How have you formulated that in the past?

[Firkat Kazimov]

So one of the things I've done is I called a lot of potential customers and I said, tell me about your problems. And it was surprising to me how many CEOs or big executives at very large Fortune 500 companies would accept that call. And they would just spend an hour telling me about their problems. And to me, what that told me is that they're struggling. If somebody comes in and fixes this, it's going to be a good business for somebody. And I think if you don't know yet, go and interview potential customers, ask them, what is your problem? How can I help you? What do you need help with? If I do something for you that solves your problem, how much would you pay for that?

[Dan]

Thank you for sharing that. That is something that even I have struggled with. Even today, there are products or services that we offer, and I think. I don't know if my price is right. I don't know if it's even solving the exact problem. I love the idea. It's so simple to call people, get on the phone and talk to people, even though we're trying to think about what they're thinking, but that's such an easy and simple a strategy that you don't have to spend money on. So thank you for sharing that. You, you've got this success of decades of experience. You're looking at, you know, you've solved problems, you've helped maybe thousands of people. You've. You've made money for yourself. You're. You're having a comfortable life, and then all of a sudden you think, I need to write a book. And I, I'm currently writing a book myself, and sometimes I want to quit writing this book, but I know I have to push through it. So what do you hope? We've talked to a lot of people that have written books. What do you hope to get out of writing a book? And how do you see this benefiting you besides a monetary value?

[Firkat Kazimov]

Well, that's a great question. See, for the last 20 years, I have discovered so many minefields on this road to the gold. At the end of the rainbow. And I know how to get to the gold at the end of the rainbow by starting a business, growing a business, scaling a business. And I wanted to give this map so other startups can avoid these minefields and just have a better journey. To me, if I can do something for small businesses, for startups or for medium businesses that can solve their problems, help them survive. Like if more small businesses survive, hire people, I think we'll have job growth, the society will be better off. And to me, whatever money I make from the book, I'm just going to invest it as an angel investor back to those startups. So it's just having this ecosystem keep going, growing so other companies succeed and people get jobs and the society will be better off. That's the idea.

[Dan]

Hey, that's the first time I've ever heard of that. So that's, that's very creative. I really like that idea of the giving back. My last question for you is around AI. What are you currently doing? Or what are maybe the companies that you're helping, what are they doing when it comes to leveraging AI to benefit them in business?

[Firkat Kazimov]

Well, I'm currently building a company in stealth mode that is going to use AI to help companies with marketing and it's in the development stage right now. I have the architecture ready, I have, you know, some of the designs ready just being developed as we speak. I think what companies need to understand is that AI is here to help you. It's a digital worker. And don't be afraid to invite AI to your meetings and ask AI questions. What would you do? You're going to get very surprising answers that maybe your team members cannot come up with. And sometimes those are good suggestions, sometimes they're not, but they're just your team member just like everybody else. So having an AI to get creative, to improve your efficiency is going to help your business.

[Daniel]

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[Firkat Kazimov]

I think it's important that everybody realizes that and treats AI just like they would treat an outside consultant and invite them to your meeting table and have have somebody there, you know, who would write a question to AI or ask AI and then everybody listens to the response and says, well that's interesting. You know, we didn't think of that.

[Dan]

I got to say most, whether it's chat, gbt, Claude, Gemini, any of those, way smarter than I am, way better ideas than I come up with. So yes, they are the greatest digital employees that I've ever had. So I am really appreciative of your time. By the way, I can't read.

[Daniel]

I can't.

[Dan]

I can't wait to read the book. I hope a lot of people buy this book so you can then reinvest into other companies. On top of the impact that you're having, I can tell you're passionate about that. So if people want to find the book, they want to get in touch with you, they want to find out more information.

[Firkat Kazimov]

How can they do so well this is very easy. All they have to do is they have to go to don't do it AI and there is a link there to Amazon and some of the other platforms where they can buy the ebook or the paper pack version of it. And I just want to tell everybody that if you buy the book, you like it, give it to your friend so you know they can learn from it as well and just spread it.

[Dan]

Don't do this AI Best URL Love the book website by the way. I can tell that you know what you are doing when it comes to branding and marketing and business building and scaling and over 20 years of experience. But Firkat, this has been great. Thank you so much for joining us today. All the takeaways. I know I'm going to go implement some stuff right now, things that we talked about and I'm really inspired to now go and help others as well. So thank you for joining us today on Founder Story.

[Firkat Kazimov]

Thank you Dan. Thank you for having me.

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