Present Address

A mission driven and community powered startup studio in Goa, building businesses to heal the mind, body and the earth.

Future Address

A living community in Goa with people that create a symbiotic ecosystem, with the goal of fostering impactful business & living in alignment with our values.

Dream Address

Share our principles and learnings to spread our sustainable living communities.

Our method of bringing our values to life and practicing them every single day

Conscious
Capitalism

We want to measure things the right way - creating operational goals and measuring successes based on 3 Ps.
People:
Team members, Vendors, Consultants, Startups, Advisors.
Planet:
Working for environmental and ecological benefit.
Profit:
Generating profits enough for sustainable growth.

Cooperative
Model

We want to organise things the smart way - collaboratively and ethically, while caring for others.

Distributive Decision - making:
We all have equal say in all matters of policy and business

Wealth Sharing:
We follow a need based compensation model and compensate all our stakeholders fairly.

Education and Training:
We believe in educating and training members so that they can contribute constantly and grow.

Care for Community:
We source and invest locally to ensure sustainable development.

Teal Organisation
System

We want to do things the holistic way - treating organisations as living entities, to realise their full potential.

Self Management :
Systems where people have high autonomy, coordination, accountability, & distributed power/control.

Wholeness :
Environment for people to reclaim their inner wholeness, where they fully express themselves.

Evolutionary Purpose :
Strategies based on what the world demands, with agile practices that sense & respond.

The values we live by at build3

We have written these values in how a build3 team member plan, works and behaves, these are not just fancy aspirational words we have written, we use our values EVERY SINGLE DAY. They help us in making personal and business decisions, we use values in:

  • Making key decisions in our projects when we are at a crossroad. 
  • Selecting and providing feedback to team members, founders, vendors, investors, and other stakeholders.
  • Planning our tasks and prioritizing them.

How we plan - 

  • Consider all stakeholders:
  • Think from a 360 degree perspective. Think about all stakeholders and their needs, collect data where applicable and possible; Be a design thinker. 
  • Logic and data back the best ideas: 
  • Disagreement is good, disagreement leads to discussion, leads to bringing together ideas, leads to better solutions, leads to personal learning and growth. It is our responsibility to bring our A-game to discussions that we are a part of, we must argue our point with passion AND with data, we must be open to other people’s potentially superior ideas and that's how we will truly deliver world class outcomes AND achieve the best version of ourselves (ref: ray dalio’s principles for life and work)
  • Goal thinking vs task: 
  • Understand the big picture (or goal) and then create a series of tasks to achieve the foal, vs getting caught up in the tasks and realize later that they are not helping you achieve your goals. Always ask  yourself before undertaking any major new activity, “whats the goal of this activity?” and you will find that your tasks will automatically get aligned

How we work - 

  • Consumer is the king: 
  • We at build3 are responsible for raising the consumer's awareness of their rights through education,product labelling, appropriate and helpful marketing communication, full details of contents and composition and promotion of safe usage and disposal of their products and services.
  • Documenting is religion: Write everything down
  • Literally (Verbal conversations leave a lot of ambiguity, and just plain forgetfulness which leads to inefficiency.
  • Written communications help with audits, recall, clarity, and is just good professionalism. DO IT!) 
  • Focused thinking and working: True single threading, plan well (use 6 pagers)
  • We want to measure things the right way: Creating operational goals and measuring successes based on 3 Ps. 
  • People: People are the lifeblood of our society, treating everyone fairly and respectfully. 
  • Planet: Working for environmental and ecological benefit. 
  • Profit: Generating profits enough for sustainable growth.
  • Focus on your core, outsource the rest: 
  • Outsource almost everything, retain only our special sauce or where external vendors are not world class/culturally aligned (it is our responsibility to find the best partner possible for each area where we control strategy, kpis and accountability)
  • Join for common cause (our stakeholders will have alignment of purpose and values prioritized vs presence of all required skills, 'wants to do it' vs 'can do it' - ideally both!)
  • Collaborate and Learn: 
  • Almost everything is better together, lean on your peers, lean on friends, lean on professionals outside the organization to improve your understanding and approach. You will need humility, to do so well. You will crush it if you do it with sincerity. Don’t think of the world in purely transactional terms or in win-lose terms, share freely and ask freely, good stuff happens to those that do.
  • Be passionate about creating world class outcomes for your customers (Output is a muscle, flex it gloriously!!):
  •  Always be shipping, create frequent output. Don't talk about creating output or worse - procrastinate, if you do - you have no place here. A wise man once said - the quantity of input doesn't matter, the quality of output does.



  • Think from a first principle perspective: 
  • Don't just bring your old ideas and replicate them here. Challenge yourself to think of the best new ideas based on your experience, be innovative, be creative, explore (it's not ok to say, this is how it always happens or happens at XYZ, make the argument of why this method/approach is best for us, now).
  • The power of why: 
  • Be straightforward. Explain your reasons to your colleagues, to your customers, to anybody that asks :) It's your job (hat tip to simon sinek)
  • Focus during meetings: 
  • People have important things to say, let's not disrespect them and keep our phones and gadgets away during meetings (yes even remote ones!)
  • Tech is your friend, hug it out: 
  • Use tech to improve the customer experience, and internal operations efficiency from day 1 (data and consistency improves outcomes for all stakeholders). Tech is not a magic bullet in and of itself, if you have a stated objective and passion to achieve it, tech will enable you to do it faster, more often, and with more consistency. 
  • Be cool, be teal: Honoring our first community, our team, using teal organizational principles in our daily work lives - we treat organisations as living entities, to realise their full potential.
  • Self Management : You are free to create impact, do so responsibly (and collaboratively). Systems where people have high autonomy, coordination, accountability, & distributed power/control.
  • Wholeness : Environment for people to reclaim their inner wholeness, where they fully express themselves.
  • Evolutionary Purpose :Strategies based on what the world demands, with agile practices that sense & respond.
  • Distributed authority ftw: We have a distributed decision making and management operating system vs top-down, hierarchical. You probably have not experienced this model elsewhere and it will be disorienting at first.  (Read: teal management, reinventing organizations, holacracy)
  • Self manage, do amazing: While there will be high levels of freedom to choose what you do and how you go about it, you will also be held accountable. We trust you, you should trust yourself, and fully commit yourself to doing amazing work… you don’t need a manager to tell you what to do (you’re expected to manage yourself). Open yourself, take in what's going on around you, and pursue what feels like it will create the best darn value for our mission and its stakeholders (keeping in mind your personal super powers!!! If you’re the Flash, don't try to destroy buildings, leave that to the Hulk - oh sh!t, did I just crossover from dc to marvel?! Hey, it felt right :p)
  • Distribute everything - especially authority + wealth:
  • Wherever possible we will distribute ownership to maximize alignment as well as distribution of value creation (and consequently contribute to reducing the wealth divide). (Read: Employee owned companies and cooperatives, eg John Lewis partnership. Manusra cooperative coffee).

How we behave - 

  • Relationships and conflict - be loving not warring ♥ 
  • While it is possible to change other people, that is not our place to do. We must look inwards and take responsibility to change ourselves. We take ownership of our thoughts, beliefs, words and actions. We don’t spread rumors. We don’t talk behind someone’s back. We don’t blame problems. 
  • Be empathetic, be a teacher: 
  • Truly care for and support your team in their learning journey and their day to day execution (help people learn and be socratic when a teaching opportunity presents itself.
  • Respect:
  • We behold human right values: Grounded in the human right principles proclaimed in the Constitution of India that “all persons are born free and equal in dignity and rights”, we at build3 are committed to providing services by advancing human dignity and respecting human rights.We are committed to eliminating child labour, human trafficking and forced labor from our supply chain.
  • Strength in diversity, strength from security: 
  • Be sensitive and accepting of different beliefs, backgrounds and practices - our diversity is our strength. Feeling safe and secure in one’s own skin is important to flourish individually and as a team, a safe environment unleashes one's true potential. It is our combined responsibility to create that environment for our peers and ourselves.
  • Curiosity is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G: 
  • Don't pretend to know, ask questions... the truly wise ask questions, don't be proud and pretend to know the answers. (Anybody can ask a question of anybody and should expect an answer.)
  • Conscientiously towards our minds:
  • Non violent communications, providing experienced based ideas, vs providing solutions 
  • Meditate, its like yoga for the mind 
  • Maximize good vibes: We aim for a work environment where we all feel enthused to come in to work everyday (politics and pettiness have no place here, don't create artificial stress for yourself and others. 
  • People who reflect and learn are critical: We believe in second chances, but not thirds 
  • Ethics and Integrity: We are bound to operate from a foundation of integrity and ethical conduct, respecting our fellow beings through our employees, business partners, suppliers and customers.We don’t encourage practices  that  are  abusive,  corrupt,  or  anti-competition.
  • Conscientiously towards our body:
  • Take breaks when you need them, practice regular fitness.
  • It's important to show self love: We aren’t going to be good at anything if we aren’t in good shape... be good to yourselves! Be mindful of your eating, exercise, meditation and other practices. (our policies will support you!).
  • Conscientiously towards our stakeholders:
  • People are the lifeblood of our organization and this world, lets treat each other warmly and fairly.
  • Sherpa nature when helping founders or when working with colleagues.
  • Conscientiously towards our planet:
  • We procure locally to reduce carbon due to unnecessary travel and packaging. 
  • Be regenerative: Lets operate in a green, healthy, natural... Nature friendly... Low, zero carbon, regenerative way (Read: donut economics). Be considerate of people and the planet and they will be considerate to you. Find harmony.
  • Conscientiously towards our goal:
  • Purpose AND Profit (not OR): In the long run, there are no trade- offs between purpose and profits. If we focus on purpose, profits will follow.
  • At build3, we will give thrust to innovate and invest in products, technologies and processes that promote the wellbeing of society. This must be a continuous cycle, which leads to layer upon layer of improvement. 
  • Be radically transparent: 
  • Be transparent with practically everything. If our learnings can help others grow and create impact, they didn’t steal your mojo, they multiplied it! (Read: google open sourcing its big data technologies within 2 years of discovery, or tesla open sourcing its patents). If sharing information can empower more people or get them on the same page so it doesn’t always feel like you’re swimming against the tide, would it be a wonderful world? Lets live in this world.

What influenced us:

  • 1 year of running build3
  • VC’s life’s experiences and the people that he has had the pleasure of being surrounded by thus far :)
  • A world of three zeros - Professor Mumhammad Yusuf
  • How google works - Eric Shmidt & Jonathan Rosenberg
  • Principles: Life and Work - Ray Dalio
  • Donut Economics - Kate Raworth
  • Geek Heresy - Kentaro Toyama
  • Reinventing Organizations - Frederic Laloux
  • a. Teal management, reinventing organizations, holacracy
  • b. Employee owned companies and cooperatives, e.g. John Lewis partnership. Manusra cooperative coffee
  • Work rules! - Laszlo Bock
build3 \ ˈbild-3`\- “A creative, conscientious, community empowered startup studio. They hope to bring about a positive change for the mind, body and earth"

Our Vision

Our Vision

Our Values

Our Values

Our People

Our People

Our guide to the process

Our selection process is broken down into three major stages that span over a period of six to twelve weeks. At each stage, we will work with you to make sure that value is derived by all involved. These stages typically involve some of the following activities - clarifying vision and values, developing strategy, devising product market fit strategies, building business plans and financial models.We recognize that different founders are at different stages of their startup lifecycle, we commit to adjust to your requirements and pace. We’re ready when you’re ready.

Stage 1 : Discover

In this stage, we aim to identify (with a high level of probability) that there will be  a mutual fit between our goals , your idea and approach. In order to do that, we request you to articulate the idea by filling up this form. We also request that you read our partnership approach and terms. It serves to  share our thought process and working terms with you. 

Timelines? Once we get your application form, and we at build3 feel that your goals align with ours we’ll schedule a meeting with you. We’ll typically get back to you within 2 working days from the date we receive your application. 

Stage 2 : Establish Fit

During this stage of the process, we are looking to dive deeper into topics that are deemed to be current opportunities or challenges by you, through these discussions we will populate our above mentioned 4C framework. We will probably meet with you 2-3 times (in-person/ online) to understand your journey, business plan, challenges and deep dive where relevant, showcasing what value we can provide through your startup journey. Due to our uncommon approach, we have found that founders want to discuss details of our partnership, we typically schedule a conversation to focus on our working relationship (financial and operational) at this stage. 

If a strong fit is felt between the frontline build3 team members and the founder(s)we will request you to create a business plan & financial model, followed by a meeting with the rest of our team and share on the terms (of course post due diligence) and create a validation budget with an action plan to start building your idea.

Timelines? In our experience, this stage usually closes in 4-6 weeks. But it all depends on how fast you can drive this.

Stage 3 :Build 

This stage is where we truly start working together as a team, it typically lasts for 12 months. During this stage we provide the first 10% of our commitment immediately and the remaining 90% after ~2 months. At that point we do a reality check to ensure our partnership is progressing well both from an achievement (execution of mutually agreed goals, and market acceptance of our product/service) and compatibility perspective. During this stage process we will provide the first 10% of our commitment immediately and the remaining 90% after 2 months, once we have proven we can work together AND achieve goals mutually agreed upon (execution and business model validation oriented)up to 10% of your capital requirements. The idea is to check 1) if we can work together and 2) if the market wants what we are selling. Post validation, we get into some serious building!

Timelines? Validation is a 6-8 week process post which building is our lifetime partnership ❤

Discover

1-2 Days

What you do

Articulate your idea, fill the form, read the agreement and if our goals align, we schedule a meeting.

What We do

We want to understand your vision and find a mutual fit between your idea of impact and our goals.

Establish Fit

2-3 Weeks

What You do

Let's meet (in-person/ online) a few times to understand your journey, business plan, challenges, deep dive into build3, create project work and tangible goals.

What We do

We want to understand you and the startup on factors of capability, compatibility with us, commitment and commercial viability.

Build

1 Month

What you do

Shake on the terms and create a validation budget with an action plan to start building your idea. Post validation, we get into some serious building!

What We do

We want to understand mutual fit related to values and team compatibility, as we work together on one or two key projects.

Scale up

1 Year to infinity & beyond!

What We do Together

Build together hand in glove for the next 1-1.5 years to launch a sustainable and strong startup! We will nurture and become the true co-founding team - in it for life!

Start Building!