"Have you heard the story of the entrepreneur who had an innovative idea, built a beautiful website, and assumed the world would beat a path to his door? It’s a sadly common tale, but it’s not very entertaining. Most people prefer the one about the other trail blazer who had a remarkable idea, built a good website, had fantastic PR and..."

"Just keep Walking. The advice helped a lot. Success, failures, funding, no-funding, there is only one direction. Forward. You have to keep walking on it. Startups are like journey of crossing a desert. Once you are started you can’t afford to go back."

PR might sound like a scary word, with expensive connotations, especially if you are a startup or solopreneur. However, if you are short on money but big on passion for what you do, and willing to dedicate some precious time and effort to it, then there’s no reason why you can’t get some PR for your business DIY style!

"It’s definitely a challenge managing two startups. But our trick is to not make them mutually exclusive (i.e. we are using development resources from Digital Purpose to build Shareneeds). In addition, both startups share many similar values since the people behind both are the same. I would also recommend practicing patience and perseverance."

Shama, you have been described by Entrepreneur Magazine as "Zen Master of Marketing", it's a pleasure to have you with us on InspiredStartups.com! Among your many achievements are founder, technology entrepreneur, best-selling author… Given all your experience I'm sure our startup community will be excited to hear your entrepreneurial wisdom!"

"Working as a startup is as challenging as it is exciting. Even if you have a good product, there’s no guarantee that anyone will even know it exists.There are many ways to promote your brand and expand your reach online without spending a fortune. You just have to know..."

"You hear a lot of 'gurus' hyping up the opportunity, encouraging people to create online startups and they will focus on developing a service or store, but having the idea and implementing it is the easy part. It’s getting visibility which is the most difficult!"

"Short answer for growth hacking: Use exit surveys on your website or web app. Why did people leave and what was frustrating for them. Long answer: growing a business is a long term endeavour. You need to bake the growth of the product into everything: Engineering, Finance not just Marketing and Sales."