Let me fail

Startup ecosystem and economies are evolutionary and can not be planned.  So if you have an idea and if you are ready to bet your life against it then please do not waste time in discussing pros and cons of the idea, start your venture. ( if you have no experience in managing businesses please meet a mentor who can help you in planning the cash flow without which you will not survive in the wilderness for long)  People may discourage you, you can ignore it. The ecosystem is continuously changing and new realities are emerging everyday.  It means things that are not true today may become a realities tomorrow.  You are always building something for the future and not for the past or present systems. The new reality of the future will decide whether your venture will be successful or not. There are thousands of parameters that are responsible for the ecosystem and so the system is chaotic like the weather system. Big changes can happen which will either help or destroy your venture. There is no way anybody can predict what will happen tomorrow.

I agree that the culture of people may not change fast enough, but new generation of youngsters are arriving at the market everyday. We are a young country and people in the age group of 20 to 30 are big spenders. They are the people whom you should target for because they are always hungry for new things.

Here are the steps involved

1.) You have an great idea that can change this world
2.) You are ready to bet your life against it. It does not matter what you are going to loose in your life, you want to prove that your idea will work.
3.) Meet a mentor and ask him whether he can help you with the cash flow
4.) Start your venture and work on your idea.
5.) There are two possible outcomes
5-a) You have suffered enough and you cannot go ahead like this then wind up the business. (And may be write your story )
5-b) You were able to convince an investor and he/she is ready to bet his/her money against your venture then go ahead.

Magnitude'14

The following text is excerpted from the short lecture I gave on the subject of entrepreneurship in Magnitude'14 organised by Institute of Management in Kerala and Technopark TBI. 

Entrepreneurship is all about understanding your capabilities and then taking risks. No qualification or  experiences  prepare you for that. I will use a metaphor here. It is like  living in wilderness, A wild place where new species will emerges to threaten you everyday, where your goal post will get shifted every time you aim on it. No qualification or experience will prepare you for that. You have to start living and fighting for your life. You will stop assuming and always wait for the unexpected.

World is changing faster than you think. In coming few years the new entrepreneurship will bring a lot of things. It may disrupt education, so colleges and universities as we know today may cease to exist. Examinations may change. Recruitment may change.  Companies may stop looking at your resumes. Currency system may change, there may be only a few banks. Commerce may shift to on-line and  you may not see many shops in a busy junction. 

All these changes will be brought by entrepreneurs. They will go for a mass destruction and  then creation of new economic structures. So the question is on which side you wants to be. Do you want to get destroyed and suffer or do you want to be an entrepreneur and go and start smashing all old systems? 

If you want to be an entrepreneur then this is the right time, do not wait. Do not think twice. You have to start now. Take a plunge.  Go and start living in wilderness. You are in your prime age, if you start fighting now then you may become a good fighter when you ages. Otherwise go and become an employee, search for safe haven. You will destroy your capabilities to take risk. You will have to get married, you will soon have children to raise and may never even visit a risky wild place in your life.

Focus on solutions and not on tools

Having a knife is no proof that you can make a curry.  A kitchen knife set, cutting boards, vegetables or meat in the fridge, spices and mixer-grinder may be the tools that we need to make a curry. If you ask me to come for dinner since you have all this in your house, I will think twice. Making a tasty curry is an art in itself. And one who knows how to make one may need some of these tools.

Why am I discussing about  curry now? Because having a Engineering or MBA Degree only means that at the most you have   learned how to use a set of tools. It does not means that you know how to create a profitable business.

I am not saying  that you should not have degrees. But it is important to see the difference between solutions and tools. If you are a startup then you need to train yourself in using the tools, if your education is giving you an opportunity to do that then it is good. Your academic projects are meant for improving your skills in using these tools. Please do that passionately. 

Your academic projects are meant for improving your skills in using these tools and not for finding solutions for the pain points in the society. The solution for the pain point may require that you use some of the lessons that you had learned in your college. It may or may not need those tools.  At the end of your academic years you have to change from somebody proficient in using tools to somebody who focus on solutions. This needs a bit of unlearning and a lot of thinking on out of the box solutions. 

The projects that I did not do, the products that I did not make

Did you see my yesterday's post about polyhouse farming?

"I am planning to do a project in Polyhouse farming. Yesterday I had  met a team who are equally excited about this as I am"

Wait a minute. You were talking about several other projects and products earlier. What happened to all of that?  Why should we trust you now?

The answer is simple. They are not done. Not because I was not excited about it. It is because I did not meet the right team.  Some of them had not even started. Some had started and then got stuck because the team members lost their interest in the project.

Well, you could have done it by yourself. Why are you blaming others?

May be or may be not. But why should I get stuck with one project or product?  There could be entrepreneurs who are determined to do one thing and they may proceed with that what ever may be the obstacles on their way. But my argument is this. If you cannot find few people who can work with you then either the idea is not good or  you are yet to meet the right team. Keep searching.

It is all about Money

When I was planning to resign my job after 12 years as a Scientist in ISRO to become and entrepreneur, I had a dilemma. I have an employee mindset and had no experience in entrepreneurship. Unless I align with some good entrepreneur I will fail. I spend a few months studying the different possibilities and finally decided to talk to a friend of mine, a born entrepreneur. After the first meeting with him I never had to look back on my decision to resign.

It took me a few years to overcome my employee mindset. What lesson did I learn? Quite a lot. Let us discuss one important point in this post, the way both handle  money. For an employe, especially a Govt employee, you almost know your future, It is a well written script from your date of joining until  your death. When you get an increment you know what to buy next. You are going to be short of money always though you get a fat salary. Have you ever heard any salaried employee getting rich?

An entrepreneur knows that his income is not predictable.  He may be making money but he does not know how much he will make next month. He has no control on his income, it could be more or less or even be zero. An entrepreneur can never live like an employee. To survive he has to control  his expenditure. If he can learn the art of financial planning then he can sure become a rich person.

I am not discussing about opportunities in investing in this post because theoretically at least both an employee and an entrepreneur do have equal opportunities to make money by doing this.

How can I become a successful entrepreneur?

During NRK Snagamam 2013, somebody asked this question to Gokulam Gopalan 

"Gopaletta, Can you give us some tips to become a successful entrepreneur? "

 He said he dos not have an answer to this question.

In a private talk just after the meeting he asked me " How can I tell anybody how to become successful?  I selected  my own path"

Stop searching for tips to become a successful entrepreneur. Stop reading books to find ways to become successful.  Stop asking this question.

You need to find your own path in your entrepreneurial journey. There are no shortcuts, there are no tips. You cannot copy it from others because you are you and not him.

The books, or the mentor can only tell you about the opportunities. It is only 1%, the 99% is you. You have to study yourself, see what you can and cannot.

Who is my enemy?

People do ask me this question. "What is my interest in working for the ecosystem for startups?". What am I looking for? What return am I expecting? I know this is a question that is being asked to everybody who promotes the ecosystem.

An ecosystem is an open system unlike a company where you can reap the benefits directly. Working for an ecosystem do not offer any returns directly. The benefits are indirect. That is why you do not have to consider anybody as a competitor here. All who work in one way or other way are supporting the ecosystem. You have an opportunity to meet many people. You may meet people with same or complementing goals. It gives a good chance to meet your future team mates with whom you may associate to form a company.

There are no "us" or " others" here. The only "others" are people who are trying to destroy the ecosystem. It is a simple rule, if you " do" something to promote it then you are friends of the ecosystem. If you do not "do" anything and then try to block people who are trying to do something then you are the "others". For me it does not matter who you are or how much you hate me, as I would like to work with you and build the ecosystem.

Who are the enemies of the system? Let us have an analogy with our natural forests and hills. It does not matter who are trying help the forest ecosystem. But if you are going there to destroy it, litter the place with plastics and other things, or you do not want others to enjoy it as the way you had, then you are the number one enemy of any nature lovers. Let us try to love the nature and let us feel happy that others come there and enjoy it too. It is the same philosophy that we need follow when we are building startup ecosystem.

We have to spend money to build It. Why should I spend my money unless I have some direct benefits? I want to bring another analogy here. To buy a quality product or service one has to spend a little bit more money.  Are you a loser in this case? By spending the extra money you are making sure that the business that provides you the quality product or service can survive. You are making sure that you will get a chance to enjoy it in future. Yes, others who had not promoted it also may enjoy it, but let us feel happy that it was our effort that made it survive at the first place. e.

So why are you here? Are you happy that your enemy is also here? Are you happy that you may not get any benefit at all?