When Experience Isn’t Enough to Build the Next Business

I was talking to my friend Pankaj Bhimani, who has built B2B companies in corporate apparel and cloud telephony. Now he is building 58Miles, a D2C travel accessories brand. And he reminded me of something every founder eventually learns: experience is not enough when you start a new business.

The first curve was product. He wanted to design his own bags but had never worked with materials, ergonomics, or manufacturing. Every mistake meant months of correction. What he thought would take a season stretched into three years.

The second curve was distribution. Moving from B2B contracts to online sales meant learning an entirely new language: funnels, conversions, digital marketing. As Pankaj put it: “That’s a steep learning curve I’m still on.”

At one point, he wondered if it would have been easier to be an expert in either bags or consumer branding. But then he smiled and said: “If I were from the bag industry, I would have followed the traditional way. Not knowing the rules gave me the freedom to imagine differently.”

That is the founder’s dilemma. Experience gives you the courage to start, but inexperience gives you the imagination to see what insiders miss.

And in the end, that is the founder’s path. The curve is steep. The mistakes are costly. But that is the fun of it. You take what you know, learn what you do not, and keep going until the story bends your way.