But we are not nearly where we’d like to be.

Lets also have a bit of background here. We must humbly acknowledge that certain things existed even before we all arrived at the scene. There is nothing new under the sun says Solomon who was apparently one of the wisest man to roam the earth and he possibly could have been true. A report by the committee on National Enterprises clocks the number of Small and Medium enterprises in India at 32 Million. Yep, you read that right, its 32 million! 40% of the gross manufacturing GDP is a contribution of this sector of the industry. One of every ten Indian is employed by an SME. If you thought startups became fashionable in the past three years, we would be very misguided. That said, there is a sudden trend and confidence emerging that India too can build world-class companies. That sentiment is a recent one.

Though it was the camp at Proto.in, that initiated some of the key initiatives to drive this change, its no doubt that today there are several entities – all very key elements who have started to play a role in shaping this landscape. The purpose of this series is hopefully to point out some of the obvious things that we are going to have to work towards – so that we dont contend ourselves thinking that we’ve arrived.

I’ve thought about it, mulled it, discussed, debated and fought over it, but simplistically it comes down to this. Startups need two very crucial elements that we need to build in order to nurture them.

a) Media Focus
b) Capital

I’d also add a third component of Mentorship/Networks, but I am going to presume for a second that that onus can be laid upon the entrepreneur as there are several means and ways to compensate for that (linkedin, included) for now.

Media Focus:
Let me be very very honest here. There are several attempts by everyone involved in this space trying to get some coverage in the media, but there is a serious issue with the focus here. ET’s Ideas competition included, the focus somehow seems very much on the initiative than on the entrepreneurs. This goes for the Proto.in camp as well – while sometimes its nice to rest on our laurels, we have to constantly remind ourselves that we are just a mere platform and our success is when the companies we help succeed. We have got to do better in this. I know we can.

There are shows on television which as of now seem to be doing a better job at this than what most of the “showcase” events have managed to do, and its quite sad that thats the level of comparison we are at. Rest assured that there are also going to be equally enough efforts from the media to want to sensationalize it, and even make an emotional outcry out of entrepreneurs, dreams, hopes and dreams smashed, and its sooner or later meant to happen, but one of the things seriously lacking is the media network and lack of focus for startups.

Things we ought to do in this space:

a) There is a serious need for a authoritative blog that covers startups, and the emerging verticals.

b) There is also a need for a firm to start analysing the emerging market, as the value chains shift, and to help companies position themselves based on that. Such a company could almost become “the” means to start categorizing and analysing, comparing startups systematically.

c) We need more journalists who could write about entrepreneurship and startups with a solid understanding. There are very few right now (like Snigdha Sengupta) who can do such analysis as of now.

d) Everyone has this question. Every platform, Bplan Competition, Entrepreneurship summit seems to showcase 10-15 companies. What really happens to these companies after that? Do they get funded, attract clients, sign on anyone significant, strike any key alliances? There is space for a “Startup Tracker” to be in place. This will be crucial for the Media to start reporting indepth stories, and also for raising funds in the future (More on that in the upcoming series)

e) Events such as TiECon, Proto.in, Headstart have to put their heads together and figure out how to a) Get the startups coverage on national media b) Get coverage on overseas media – For Example. When PlasticLogic launched at DEMO, The Hindu Chennai edition had a coverage of what they presented the next day. Needless to say that company received enough backorders for their product, including bagging the order from Amazon and Sony within the next three months. If these native platforms are not able to offer that level of coverage, make no mistake, DEMO/TC50 will make its way to India to deliver that value.

There are projected plans to bring the employment rate in India to below 2%. In a global economy where countries are struggling to stabilize their unemployment rates, we are actually talking about almost making it disappear. SMEs will piay a significant part in it, and since Employment is a key value proposition of any government and referring to my previous article on who really owns a company, You can rest assured that the government will get involved and play its part to help. But the initial organizing of this sector has to be driven by all those who are claiming credits already. And clearly there is lots of work to do. Its time to get to work – and not stop at empty promises.

Thats the nightmare of everyone in the creative class.

So the bottomline is that we have to strive to be better than the best, and in most times, we are our own enemies – as we try to overdo what we have accomplished in the past. The bigger nightmare is to build one great success followed up with a disaster and have people talking about the second one, more than the first.

With this as a background, one of the biggest dilemmas that entrepreneurs have to deal with, over and over again, is as to how to deal with people. Every one of us, if we have a tint of visionary streak in what we are trying to do, will come across a point when some of those who work alongside with us, dont see us eye-to-eye on what we are trying to accomplish. When that point in time arrives, is it going to be the people, or the cause that you are going to align yourself with? Thats the question.

I have wrecked my head over this dilemma. Most achievements are a matter of the team coming together right? In which case, shouldnt the vision be easy to compromise to accomodate those who have stood by us? Yet, it is also deceiving that if the vision can accomodate the team, then there also is scope for loads of mediocrity to creep in – and thats not one that a visionary can afford to have.

One could argue both ways on this, but I’ve come to the conclusion as such: For most of us, its not the glory in the act, nor the money, but the satisfaction of getting something done that was once deemed impossible – atleast for me it is. So the question to ask, when you are placed in the bridge of having to make a choice between taking that investment money or going bootstrap mode, or letting go of the partner or team lead, or even having to ask a close friend to step down are all a factor of what you really want to accomplish and where your passion lies. If your passion is in making a difference, then dont settle for us – whatever the cost. Because without it, and the vision that is birthed by it, we are just ghosts with no life nor grip on existence.

Whoever sold you the romanticism that being an entrepreneur meant being your own boss, was clearly lying. You really never escape the chain of command and reporting structure so easily – not in a civilized society. So Its no wonder that things don’t span out as they say. As an employee you might be accountable to your boss, but as an entrepreneur you are accountable to all of your clients, stakeholders and employees. And every one of them holds you responsible to have the answers and do your best – that’s no different from being an employee times ten. Think about it.

So here’s two things you must know. It is crucial to understand this because this sets the context to understand a whole lot of things that happen through the course of the company.

1. The day you incorporate your company, you no longer own it. You want to own something, keep it a proprietory firm or under a partnership (wouldn’t recommend it, as the stats are as high as 99% of partnerships ending in breakups). It might not be a bad idea to keep it as a family business, but there as well its joint ownership.

2. The Day you agreed on a termsheet and took money from your investors, you made up your mind that you were going to sell your company for a good price someday. Investors invest looking for returns and that returns are never going to happen without an exit; And an exit means a sale. Read that line a few times, it helps to get it into your head. You have in all means sold your company when you take investment. Period.

So the obvious question arises. Why on earth would anyone want to be an entrepreneur despite all these gory truths. Well, a couple of reasons. a) You still do have the capacity and capability to build something from scratch, scale it and make money in the process – You are still one of the major stakeholders in the firm. and b) What you want to do to create this value (be it money or impact or fame) is all left to you – atleast in the beginning.

The intent for writing this article is for one thing. I see and come across enough entrepreneurs who want to own more than 50% of the company. Thats almost the sure way to kill the company and strangle some relationships, because it shows that you haven’t gotten the first thing about a corporation right – you cant own it. And the only way to scale it is to give up control, bring in the right people, and yet have enough of a leeway to make a decent exit – note how the stake you hold is towards a better return, rather than control.

And in all this does the obvious question remain. Who does own a corporate? They say it becomes an entity of its own, can own assets, can incur liabilities, can attract investments and is a being of its own shielding its board and management from most liabilities. Who then owns it? The answer to that is probably the most shocking. The Government. The Government is what owns a corporate – actually every corporate. The rules of the land, enable and provide the space for passionate, enthusiastic and enterprising individuals to spot an opportunity, exploit it, create jobs, add value, attract investment, grow the company, expand, create a board to make their own decisions and directions for the entity, make an exit, or even take it public. But at the end of the day, when and if it does shut down and incurs a loss, the losses go away with the fading memory of the company. And thats the shield that a government provides towards the entrepreneur – probably the best of freedom for an individual to create wealth and value the fast track way.

As far as the govt is concerned, creating jobs is one of its prime mandates. And corporations are instruments towards that cause.

In the light of that, look at the bailouts. You might see a slightly different picture.

About two years ago, while blogs were being touted as the biggest thing to ever hit the planet, apart from all those mystery meteors in the sci-fi movies, what was interesting was to note the number of readers that blogs usually have. Its perhaps the reason why I never took too much interest in this blog – as I created it as a corner for my own thoughts than to make a living out of it. That made a difference.

In the world of unlimited creativity, the problem is the matching up with the respective constraints. Take the matter of politicians, Blogs, Television Shows, a New Product, Opinions and Perspectives All of them – if they are in a democratic context – dont have an entry barrrier to come into this world. But once they do, they need to fight for survival.

Election times are up, and the curious side of me always is after the number of “independent politicians” who usually get a vote. I wonder who that one vote was – was it himself, his wife, or someone in his family? If that is the case, was he so lonely with his ideologies that he couldnt garner more than a vote? Then think about it, its not so different from keeping a blog and never seeing that counter go more than one. The situation is pretty much the same.

I believe, this is the fundamental reason for terrorism. And I believe terrorism is more prone to happen in a democratic scenario than in any other form of government, cause democracy demands that you make your way to the top, that you fight to have your voice heard, and do whatever stunts you need to pull to make that happen. If there is someone who unfortunately is in a minority and doesnt have the patience and forebearance to tolerate time, she ends up become a terrorist to make a statement – all to simply catch that attention.

I dont have any answers here, but a lot of questions, and the hope of this post was to get you to think and perhaps discuss this – please refrain from “Life is like that” comments. Its crucial to understand this, because there is a lesson in strategy and marketing here. How DO underdogs really take on the golliaths, if people would never pay attention to little Davids? Perhaps the answer is in the question itself. Do we really need miracles and just the sheer luck of having the right timing to make it happen?

Satisfaction = Reality – Expectations. (Thanks!)

And they would be right.

I remember a call from my dad’s friend about a year ago, to come over to his house to check out his new computer that his Son had gotten for him. His children live in the US and they had gotten their parents a computer so as to take advantage of Skype, Webcams and all those cost effective ways of communicating, which would mean more long hours and detailed conversations amongst themselves. His complaint was that the computer sales guy sold him a slower computer when he marketed it as the fastest computer available in the market.

A little bit of clicking around, and lo and behold, it was a duo core, bloated with RAM, hard disk space and a nifty 19″ monitor, bundled with the entire multi-media suite. All was right here except for the expectations.

When I did mention that, this does seem like a fast computer, his simple question was as to why it takes so long to “turn on”. His comparison: “I push the button on my TV and its on, in about five seconds max. I doubt its as fast as they claim these computers are”

This certainly is a serious case of expectations set wrong, but I believe is also an insight. If we are serious about the next one billion, then we need to address this. The reason why India has more cellphone users than computer users, is also because mobile phones in a way did give people the “instant on” reaction that they were expecting – which might not last for long, now that we are getting more complicated OSes into mobile phones and also taking it down the same route as PCs.

Technologists often quote that the mobile phone is the New PC. I think that entire ideology is wrong. PCs have to become what Mobile phones were, and hopefully are still. We are still far away from computing becoming a utility. If it has to evade every household, it has to become what the television is. Thats the expectation we need to satisfy.

   There was a fantastic booklet a few years ago by a
   guy called Peter Brooke.  He’s a theater director,
   if you ever come across it.  He wrote a book called
   “The Empty Space.”  And he asked himself this
   question.  He was concerned most theater and is –
   loose entertainment — it’s not invigorating.  It’s
   like a passing time.

   His thing is theater as a vibrant,
   social and cultural force.  So, he also analyzed
   what goes wrong with the theater.  So, he asked
   himself this question.  He said, What is the heart
   of the theater?  What is it?  What is this thing we
   are talking about?  And to get to it, he started
   the process of subtraction.  He said, “What can you
   take away from it and still have it?”
  
   And he said, well, you can take away
   the stage.  Take away the script.  You can take
   away the lighting.  See what’s going on, you take
   away the curtains, and you can take away the
   building.  You can take away all the crew, and you
   can certainly take away the director.  All of that
   is very easy.  Take it all out.
  
   The only thing you cannot remove from
   theater is an actor in a space and somebody
   watching.  That’s the heart of it.  And if either
   of those parts is missing, there is no theater.
   You need a performer and an audience.  Theater is
   that relationship.
  
   And he said you should never add
   anything to that relationship unless it improves
   it.  If it gets in the way, if it encumbers it, if
   it makes it more difficult, you shouldn’t have it.
   And that’s his problem with theater.  Everything is
   a distraction from the main business.

More than once, and whenever you do find yourself trying to redefine an industry, change the way a system works, or maybe even build an ecosystem, these words are good to turn to. Define the basics of what makes that system work, and see how it can be re-tuned, rebuilt and made to work better. You have to go back to the basics, if you want to redefine.

When I am at home, and during weekends, I manage my Calendar on my Nokia Handset with an hour reminder. When I am in Office, I use Outlook’s calendar to manage schedules. The biggest issue is the first few meetings on Monday mornings – there are times when something comes up and there is no way for me to check my schedule.

So here’s the solution I’ve gone with.

Using Google calendar exclusively to manage my entire data. I found to my pleasant surprise that Google has a small app that can syncronize your outlook calendars with Gcalendar.

Secondly, after trying a host of free, opensource and cant-seem-to-get-it-to-work apps, I found CalSyncS60 which works like a charm with my Nokia Phone to do a two-way sync with my schedule in Google Calendar.

As of now, life seems to be in order. The fine line between, work and personal line is blurred forever, but it should atleast save me from breaking people’s hearts by forgetting scheduled meets and keep me on time. That’s a fair tradeoff.

i have almost come to believe that that is one of the primary reasons why once someone is fairly successful in this country as an entrepreneur, they run off to become a VC, and then become directors in a few companies and are never heard from again in the startup circles. Apparently they “graduate”. And this is somehow seen as the norm.

There is a certain thrill, passion, grit and energy in working with Startups. And if you do fall addicted to it, there is also more than enough means and ways to create wealth in this phase of creativity and corporate development.

But you are going to have to make a decision about staying put, sinking your heels deeper and committing to this space. As someone rightly said “My life never makes sense in the windshield. It only makes sense in the rear view”. Working with Entrepreneurs, working with Startups, and being an entrepreneur is also a lifestyle choice.

LESSON: MAKE THAT SACRIFICE. GROW WITH THE ORGANIZATION

Scenario: In the last three business plans that I have had the priviledge to look at and to give feedbacks on, it seems that the average entrepreneur wants a salary of around 2 Lakhs a month, seems to be hiring an office attendant or a secretary in the first year, is travelling extensively, starts a marketing budget even before the product is ready, claims a steady income stream, is absolutely immune to market changes, and can solidly break even in 3 years. And oh, they give a 4x return in the fourth year.

You cannot demand a salary that runs in the lakhs. You cant because If I were investing, I wouldn’t know if there is even an incentive for the entrepreneur to slog to make this company succeed anymore. Given the current employment situation, I would even have a slight doubt as to whether the guy lost his job and is getting self-employed with a raise. But I do understand if you would want to live comfortably. This is what I would suggest.

Take a pay cut in the first two years – till your product development is ready. Just so you get a number, You get paid at the same level as your Indian Lead Software Engineer (I have to specific about the indian part, since some folks also have high paid outsourced engineers). That should put you at around 40K a month. Once that is set, and once your product development is done, and your marketing and sales efforts start, align your salary so that a base of 40K and a incentive component from the sales defines what your take home package is. That will assure me as an investor that you are willing to take a paycut to keep costs low and burn things slowly to get through the initial phases and even as the company makes money you arent raising costs, but defining your salary from what is coming in. If you are a company that sells products that sells in the millions, or have several product packages, it would be wise to even define slabs, that define the percentage.

You do that, and all of a sudden I see a real entrepreneur, who could really use with some financial support, and the halo over the head glows and a lot more people just might be willing to seriously consider your financial proposition.

In my book, entrepreneurs are those unsung heroes who get set to transform the way – hopefully for the better.

That’s quite a long topic, if we step into that world, and let me narrow it down to the aspect of understanding your end users. Time and time again, we hear phrases such as “Understand your customer” “The Customer is always right” “User-centric design” which in most cases is defined as keeping the customer, and his demands at the centre of the equation and coming up with solutions around them. Do Customers, and users… and most of all humans know of what they really need?

I think this is a crucial question to ask, because analyzing needs and the capacity for a user to pay for a service defines sustainability and in some cases survival for companies – and in this economic situation, for a whole lot of them. So what do users want? Men or Women, as they might be.

I think we have kind of oversimplified the equation at most times asking direct questions about a product. If you get into the details of a product asking questions such as “Imagine if you had an ipod, but better and cheaper, would you get it?”, the obvious answer would be a yes. What one needs to understand, especially an innovator or an entrepreneur is to understand the intangibles. How would buying that product do in terms of the pride, and show-off calibre of that person. A lot usually tends to matter. Long story short, I’d strongly recommend not to ask direct questions. The answers are always in-between the lines. If you interpret it right, you win, otherwise not. But you get better at it over time. Thats the good part.

There is a reason why I am writing this. There was a recent study that I came across that was asked to a group of single men and women as to what is it that they look for in potential spouses. The answers were all tabulated, and then they were observed over a couple of sessions of speed dates. Most of the time, the kind of people that we are “attracted” to, arent the ones that we define as our perfect spouses. And the eerie thing is that, when they did the same survey right after a date, depending of whether a candidate liked a person who didnt match their previous opinion, the answers would sway totally on the other direction. Come back to them after four more weeks and you’d get their old answers back – as the infactuation wears off.

In Summary, we arent capable of knowing what we want. Thats why B2C businesses have such a hard time understanding what their customers are looking for, what ticks, what doesnt, and what makes it all worse.

B2B businesses in that sense are slightly easier, since businesses do tend to have measured and analyzed every process in terms of metrics – either as costs, expenditures, manpower, transactions, or revenue and its all about making a number rise and one go down, and thats easier to measure and deal with.

Do keep that in the back of your head, if you are ideating. As much as customers are king, and their word is final, in most times they also don’t know what they want. You would have to do a little match-making on their behalf. And with time, you’ll get really good at it, if you like doing such things – and that’s the thrill of building a product that clicks.