Every conference, seminar or a meet-up contributes to your thought process. Since its tough to prepare for entrepreneurship unless you do it, it becomes important to listen to the experiences of entrepreneurs and apply the learning to your own environment. You can learn from both, successes as well as setbacks. I this blog, I list down a few of my key takeaways from a fireside chat during the recent Xooglers meet at Gurgaon (NCR) which was led by Rajesh Sawhney of Innerchef and Rahul Garg of Moglix followed by a discussion with Xooglers in the room.
It’s OK to fail
Most startups end up as failure than success. What is more important for a founder is to accept failure as a journey than as an end. As Rahul Garg says, “Move on and dig in”. It is important to introspect, learn from what did not work and move on to the next thing. The industry is more forgiving to entrepreneurial setbacks today, than it was a few years ago.
Surround yourself with Good People
Entrepreneurship could be a lonely space, especially if you are starting up after a cushy corporate job with a large company. Having smart people around could help you have a great sounding board. Also observing smart people helps you know how they work and that could be a useful guidance in your own work.
Time it right
As Rajesh Sawhney says, your business cannot be 5 steps ahead or 2 steps behind of its time. It is important to have your timing correct. Too early for the market, when users are not ready, is as dangerous as being too late. Many businesses launched too early failed while similar businesses, few years later become a roaring success. What also came out during the discussion was that India, as a market did not show signs of early adoption, but catches on fast subsequently.
Believe in yourself
Self-acceptance, Self Respect and Self Esteem all add up to help you believe in yourself and your capabilities. If 98% businesses fail; you need to believe that you are among those 2% whose businesses will succeed. Rahul Garg says “ you need to believe that you will succeed and commit to it without having a Plan B”.
Think Big or Go Home
Though this cannot necessarily be generalized, as everyone has a different vision for what they want to do, and how. But, most likely, if you are leaving your cushy job to startup, then you must consider something that can be scaled. I have not seen anything that cannot be scaled, catching the attention of investors. If not something big in terms of size and ROI, it must be something big in terms of the impact it creates on the target segment.
Know when to Flip
Businesses usually start small with founders taking baby steps. But as the business grows and scales, the fundaments of business play a role and the way it operates might need to change. You need to move from multi-tasking yourself to hiring experts for growing your business. Human resources become increasingly important and founders’ biggest worry is to find the right people for the work. Also your strategy for marketing, finance and other business areas will require tweaking.
Keep looking for the Right Talent
A growing business, traditional or new-age has always got an ever-increasing appetite for hiring good people. You may come across good people anytime and anywhere, so as founders, you need to always keep your eyes and ears open to identify the right people with right attitude and belief in what your business is all about, just so you succeed.
Rethink Organization
Businesses have a life cycle and need to evolve during different stages of it or change based on market dynamics or maybe both. Sometimes it is to ensure growth, while at times it is for survival. During such times, as a founder, you need to restructure your business to adapt to the changing business needs. A smart founder will sense this need to reorganize well in time to make a difference to the business.
Be Strong & Keep your Cool
You will always have good days and bad days. But, as a founder, you cannot afford to have a wrong day and must be careful about what you say to your team. Rahul Garg of Moglix says that “bahar se thanda aur and andar se aag lagi honi chahiye” (meaning a founder must be very calm and composed from the outside but within himself he / she must be on fire). A founder must be nervous and excited at the same time to keep pushing forward and lead the team, building their confidence.
Choose your mentors wisely
Most founders have mentors who are usually the people who you look up to. They may be from your personal or professional life. It is felt that there must be three kinds of mentors every founder must have – First, someone who serves as the sounding board, second – someone who has domain knowledge and third, someone with whom you can have conversations with and be able to confide in. This third kind of a person must be the kind with whom you may be able to speak with all such things that you may not even be able to tell your wife.
Have hard conversations at the start
Rajesh Sawhney of Innerchef (who is also the founder of GSF) feels that investors prefer to look at companies that have two co-founders, or may be three. Single founder companies don’t seem attractive to investors. Many partnerships seem to fall out with time because of various issues like one co-founder tiring out, family problems, issues related to who is making more efforts than the other or decision making. It is best that all the possible situations are discussed right in the beginning. A well-drafted shareholder agreement is a must where all such issues related to roles, decision-making process, division of responsibilities etc. are all well drafted. This must also include the unforeseen situations of co-founder exits for any reason and who takes the final call in case of a difference of opinion etc.
Make room for mistakes
We are all humans and human beings make mistakes. I think co-founders must be more forgiving and allow each other some room for making mistakes. As Rahul Garg mentioned during the fire-side chat that there must a relationship of equals where there are adult conversations with each one listening to the other, than one founder being shouted out just because he / she is not that aggressive.
Set Culture and Value Systems in the beginning
In the very initial stage of the organization, it is the responsibility of the founder(s) to set the culture that they want to nurture and define the value systems with which the company will be driven. I totally agree with that as I have seen more companies with strong value systems succeed. I have also seen that companies with a strong culture are able to create a sense of belongingness and thus differentiate themselves.
Every entrepreneur has a unique story and experience of what mattered in their success and how they overcome challenges they faced in starting up and growing their venture. These stories are real and can motivate you, guide you and even caution you while conducting your own business. Hope the above few points that I have listed as key takeaways from the recent Xoogler event at Gurgaon (NCR) are useful for you as well.
