Goutham Bandaru of Founders' Book: Equipping startups with tools

Goutham Bandaru is the founder of Founders' Book - the world's largest collection of tools and resources for first-time founders and early-stage startups to turn their pony idea into a unicorn. The idea is not to build a unicorn on day one, but to spark the habit of watching the space, experimenting and collaboration that may lead to building a unicorn.

Why did you decide to start your own business?

Motivated and inspired by my own struggle of spending hours to find resources and ending up nowhere or information overload, I slowly realised there are many founders and startups that suffer from the mighty knowledge gap that in turn affect their confidence.

Let's accept this, we as founders are judged on many fronts. From business knowledge to tech capabilities, working with a team and being mentorable in the traditional startup world. But startups and their landscape are evolving faster than we are as a human race. We now have jobs that have never existed 5 years ago, and no-code tools are accessible to the consumer level, not just for legacy businesses. We have to educate and upskill ourselves to foresee how future problem solving would look like.

What has been the most rewarding aspect of running your business(es)?

An opportunity to work with people who bring diverse skill sets. You also get this experience by being an employee, but taking the shoes of the founder takes it to next level. Also working with external partners, learning a lot from other founders and their experiences is very motivating.

A big one - the freedom to be creative, talk and do what is right for you and your passion.

What are your top 3 frustrations with managing money for your business and what would a better future look like?

• Transparency: What it means is no hidden fees or transaction fees on every purchase. Especially on SaaS spend. A monthly fee would be very fair to me at least.

• Unification: A service that is dedicated to SME's and startups that works especially for them. Traditional banks are expensive, old and fit for biggies. A small business owner/founder-friendly finance management tool (Bank) to make things very easy and to save on costs and time.

• Better Customisation: Big banks can't allow us to create and customise spend/income categories outside what they provide. I would love to see a change there. Even PFM tools don't do this too.

Anything else you'd like us to mention?

We are happy to provide a 30% discount on the Founders' Book. Please use the coupon code "FounderFriends30"

Thanks so much for sharing your insights with us and for the discount code Goutham!