What I Learned from the Reliance–Microsoft Program That Changed How I Build
Between December 2014 and May 2015, I was part of the Health Vectors team, one of the startups in the first cohort of the Reliance–Microsoft JioGenNext Startup Accelerator Program. Back then, most participants were early founders with more ideas than structure. We had ambition and drive but were still learning how to turn all that energy into repeatable systems.
Those six months at JioGenNext changed that. It was the first time I saw startup building treated like a science. It wasn’t just an accelerator. It was a bootcamp in clarity, conviction, and consistency.
The real magic came from the mentors. They didn’t teach from theory. They shared lessons from experience, from building, failing, and helping others build better. Here are the nine lessons that shaped how I build, think, and lead today.
John Kuruvilla
Lesson 1: Five Slides, Five Minutes — Learning to Communicate with Clarity
At Health Vectors, we once walked into a pitch session with 45 slides. We were proud of it. We thought we were prepared.
Then John looked at the deck and said, “You’ve got five minutes. That’s five slides. If you can’t explain what you do in the first minute, you’re not ready.”
We froze and then scrambled.
With twenty minutes to go before our presentation, we cut it down to five slides: problem, pain, solution, traction, and next step.
That exercise forced us to think hard about what actually mattered.
John wasn’t just teaching presentation skills; he was teaching focus. He told us later,
Clarity isn’t about what you add. It’s about what you remove.
It’s a principle I’ve applied ever since in storytelling, marketing, and even product design. Clarity always wins over complexity.
Lesson 2: Let the Customer Talk — Sales Is About Listening
In another session, John arranged a sales call for us with three decision-makers from a large healthcare chain.
We gave it everything we had, a passionate, detailed, hour-long pitch.
Afterward, John asked, “So, do you think you’ll get a second meeting?”
Subhasish smiled. “Yes, they seemed interested.”
John shook his head. “No, you won’t.”
Then he explained why.
You spoke for fifty minutes. They spoke for ten. That’s not a conversation, that’s a lecture.
He was right. We were trying to impress, not understand.
John said, “Sales isn’t about convincing. It’s about helping.”
That was one of the most important lessons I ever learned. The best salespeople don’t push. They listen. They ask questions. They make customers feel heard.
Since that day, every sales call I’ve run starts with curiosity, not slides.
Lesson 3: Price the Pain, Not the Effort
A few weeks later, John sat with us to review a major deal we were about to close. We had priced the solution based on the time, people, and technology it took to build.
Halfway through our explanation, he stopped us.
“You’re pricing your sweat,” he said, “not the customer’s pain.”
It hit me immediately.
John explained that value isn’t defined by what you put in. It’s defined by what the customer gets out. If your solution solves a million-dollar problem, pricing it based on your cost of effort is underselling your value.
He said something I still quote often:
If you undervalue what you build, you’ll keep building small.
That lesson changed how I think about pricing, negotiation, and value creation.
Subhasish Sircar
Lesson 4: Ask, Build, and Connect — The Science and Soul of Startups
Working with Subhasish, our founder at Health Vectors, was like studying engineering, leadership, and philosophy at the same time.
He had decades of experience and brought scientific discipline to startup chaos and human warmth to every conversation.
Ask for Help Without Hesitation
Subhasish once said, “The hardest thing in this world is asking for help, and the simplest thing that moves you forward.”
He was right. Most founders hesitate to ask. We’re trained to be self-reliant. But startups grow through networks, not isolation.
He taught me that asking isn’t weakness. It’s awareness. The ability to seek help is one of the most underrated skills in entrepreneurship.
Build with Science
He used to say, “If you want people to believe, show them the science.”
Every claim we made at Health Vectors had to be backed by data. He didn’t believe in fluff or buzzwords, only in proof.
That discipline built credibility and trust with investors and customers alike.
Use Networks Wisely
Once, we wanted to connect with Anuranjita Kumar, then a senior leader at Citibank and author of Can I Have It All?
Subhasish had read her book and suggested we meet her. We walked into Citibank’s office, politely asked for an autograph, and waited patiently.
She met us, signed the book, and smiled.
As we walked out, Subhasish said, “Now she knows my face. The next time I reach out, it won’t be cold.”
That small moment was a masterclass in networking, simple, respectful, and effective.
He taught me that genuine curiosity and humility open more doors than any pitch.
Amit Mishra
Lesson 5: The Founder Is Always the Best Salesperson
Amit Mishra, founder of Interview Mocha (now iMocha), said something that every founder should hear at least once.
The founder has to be the best salesperson in the company.
He didn’t just mean closing deals. He meant selling the vision to your team, the belief to investors, and the trust to customers.
Amit built his company from scratch, patiently and purposefully. Watching him operate made me realize that selling is less about persuasion and more about conviction.
He said, “You can’t expect others to believe unless you believe first.”
Since then, I’ve seen that the most successful founders are always their own chief storytellers.
Lesson 6: Go All In — The Art of Investing in Relationships
Amit also shared stories from his enterprise sales days at IBM.
Whenever he met clients, he gave it his all. He made customers feel valued and respected.
He told us,
Don’t be penny-wise where belief is required.
He explained that trust comes from generosity of time, energy, and intent.
He laughed as he recalled how he’d sometimes max out his credit card to make sure a client meeting was done right. “If you’re going all the way to meet them,” he said, “don’t hold back.”
The point wasn’t money. It was mindset. You can’t build meaningful relationships halfway.
That approach taught me that founders don’t just build products. They build belief systems, one relationship at a time.
Prasanna Krishnamoorthy
Lesson 7: Build Less, Validate Faster
Prasanna brought structure wherever there was chaos.
He introduced a framework that became one of the most practical lessons I’ve ever learned.
He asked us to list every product epic and feature, then rate each one on two scales: customer value (A to F) and effort or cost (A to F).
When we sorted them, we found that the features rated high in value and low in effort were what truly mattered. Those became our MVP.
He said,
An MVP isn’t a smaller product. It’s a hypothesis you need to test fast and fail faster.
That line rewired how I think about product development.
Instead of chasing perfection, we built smaller, testable releases. Six-week experiments that validated assumptions faster.
It was the beginning of building with intention, not intuition.
Lesson 8: Find Your Top 3 Growth Channels
Prasanna also introduced us to the Bullseye Framework from Traction by Gabriel Weinberg and Justin Mares.
He didn’t just tell us about it. He made us run it.
We picked six growth channels, designed quick 15-day experiments for each, tracked the data, and repeated the process until patterns appeared.
It was tedious at first, but within weeks we discovered our top three channels, the ones that consistently drove growth.
He said, “You don’t scale by guessing. You scale by narrowing your aim.”
That experiment taught me that growth isn’t luck. It’s discipline.
Dhruvil Sanghvi and Manisha Raisinghani
Lesson 9: Build Small, Think Big — Lessons from the LogiNext Story
During one of the cohort reviews, Dhruvil and Manisha, founders of LogiNext, shared how they won a major logistics client.
They started with a small proof of value. Their team worked closely with a few vehicles from the client’s fleet, installing GPS trackers and collecting operational data.
That small experiment uncovered a bottleneck where trucks were getting delayed at a specific border crossing. That single insight helped the client save time and money and built long-term trust.
Dhruvil said,
Our customers’ problems aren’t in boardrooms. They’re on the roads.
That story became one of my favorite lessons.
It reminded me that great execution isn’t about scale. It’s about empathy and action.
You can start small and still think like a large company if you care deeply enough to solve one real problem well.
The Thread That Tied It All Together
Looking back, each mentor gave me something different.
- John Kuruvilla taught me clarity.
- Subhasish Sircar taught me depth.
- Amit Mishra taught me conviction.
- Prasanna Krishnamoorthy taught me structure.
- Dhruvil Sanghvi and Manisha Raisinghani taught me scrappiness.
Together, they shaped how I build with curiosity, courage, and consistency.
Build small but think big.
Listen more than you talk.
Price for value, not effort.
Ask for help.
Go all in.
And always build with science and sincerity.
When I joined the JioGenNext Startup Accelerator, I thought I was learning how to build a product. When I left, I realized I had learned how to build principles.
And those principles still guide me today.
Ten years later, I’m applying those same lessons at NoirDove, where we help B2B tech, SaaS, and services companies design growth engines that actually compound.
If you’re a founder or GTM leader building your own growth engine, I’d love for you to follow our journey. We share stories, playbooks, and experiments that turn strategy into repeatable systems.
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