I believe, I can fly...

Belief in the idea- a magical potion that will keep up going when everything else doesn't seem to stack-up!

So you have been thinking about a business idea. You have put it on excel, you have probably made some business projections, scenario analysis- worst case and best case. You have bounced off the idea with some of your friends and they have “theoretically” supported it. You have spoken about the idea with a friend who you think could be a potential customer profile and she mentions that she would be keen to use the product or service.

Or

You have been moon-lighting and writing a software code. Now you think is the time when the code needs to see the daylight. You want to jump in full time.

Independent of whichever approach you follow, the entrepreneurial journey will go through the best and the worst of times. Even the most successful start-ups and legendary founders have seen phases that are near-death for their businesses.

On the right is screen grab of an interesting conversation on twitter between Ashlee Vance (twitter profile mentions him as a book author and scribe for Bloomberg Businessweek) and the visionary Elon Musk.

If Elon Musk could get in to a situation like this…

A start-up goes through many twists and turns and events could test the resilience of the best of entrepreneurs.

Some of these events could be external for e.g. dotcom bust, the twin towers, the financial crisis of 2008 or the latest Covid impact. All the ones that are classified as Black Swan!

Some of these could be internal as well…the excel sheet calculations will be way off. In most of the cases trying to project a 5-year business plan for a yet to be tested or a new business model is difficult and at best a mental math exercise. And it could go wrong- in 11 cases out of 10!

The software code doesn’t seem easily scalable. The funds that you had put in seem to have dried up. Moreover, there is no clear visibility of where the money will come from.

And suddenly you find yourself in a Murphy region (if things could go wrong, they will). And an extension- if things could never go wrong, they already have!

If there is on single attribute that can provide sanity in the above chaos and give you the energy to get out of the bed everyday and reach your office or workstation- is the BELIEF in the idea.

Engineering + MBA + Working in a bank + Selling groceries. What do you call that?

Somewhere during 2010 when I seriously started thinking about entrepreneurship, I was sold out on the digital economy. I was extremely bullish about e-commerce business and it seemed like an idea for the future. I used to mention, there will be a time when everything will be delivered online, except the babies of course!

The category thought came in later though. For some reason, selling groceries online seemed like an idea for a category that was waiting to get disrupted. There were no successful models even in the US. On the contrary, there was a start-up that was designated as a spectacular failure!

For groceries, empirical evidence showed that almost 60-70% of the grocery buying is repeat month on month. Many items are branded so there is an assurance of quality. And grocery buying is a chore that is disguised as a family outing. Additionally, I believed that it will be of immense value to working women.

My bullishness on the e-commerce space and the strong belief in the category helped me continue on the journey when…

…most of the people said that given the ubiquitous presence of local kirana (mom & pop stores) delivering on a phone call, there was no market for online groceries. With the benefit of hindsight they couldn’t have been more wrong. The following image2 in The Times of India, shows the projections- almost 800,000 orders per day among the top 3 players!

The belief helped me continue when…most of the people discouraged me from quitting a job with a large MNC and getting in to “selling groceries”. It was an extension of the philosophy that was in one of famous movies 3 Idiots. Engineering + MBA + Working in a Bank. The character of Rancho mentions that if one had to work in a bank what is the need for an Engineering degree and uses a moniker of an animal that is considered extremely low on intelligence.

While I had already replicated the above career combination, in the eyes of some, I was going to enhance that moniker by adding “Selling groceries”. The unsaid view was I could have actually avoided all three career choices and saved time and money and still done what I was “aspiring” to do! To them, it didn’t matter if the effort was to be a part of the digital revolution.

…it was the same belief that made me continue when one VC after another “passed the opportunity”. Incidentally, I had a very different connotation of the word Pass. It was more on the lines of passed with flying colours. When the first Angel used the word pass, it took me some time to realise that he meant NO! I realised pass had another meaning- letting it go without any action or interest.

…it was the same belief that made me reach out to the top management of many retail chains for a round of strategic investment, when none of them were willing to buy in to the idea of using their megastores to fulfill orders locally.

One after the other were rejecting the proposal or at least going silent after the discussion. Eventually, two groups evinced interest- one sent a team for review and seemed keen to invest. For various reasons none of the discussions moved to a stage that could have been favorable.

…and finally (this borders on desperation), I sent an unsolicited mail to the director of one of the largest retail chains in India. That was the only large retail chain that I hadn’t been able to meet. Needless to say, I never got any response to that mail.

Space rockets can land and can be reused!

It is extremely important to believe in the idea, for continuing along the entrepreneurial journey.

DO NOT under any circumstance embark on any idea that you do not strongly believe in. Even if that idea is in a sector that is the most funded one for now or any other motivation that seems attractive at the moment.

When the euphoria or the funding wave subsides, you do not want to stand exposed holding an idea that you don’t believe in and suddenly “doesn’t seem as strong”.

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