Method to the Madness
Prashanthi Reddy
Strategic Leadership | Digital Transformation | IT R&D |Emerging Technologies | Innovation | Investor Relations | CustomerX Design | Member of Forbes Technology Council
Sometimes I feel there's so much going on in the startup eco-system. Greater deal of ideas, rapid speed, disruptive products/pace, and you wonder where is this all going….
Every startup conference or event you go to, the format is pretty much the same – Design thinking, IOT, workbench, maker mela, bunch of panel discussions, funding /investor talks, motivational/inspirational talks, how to sustain, Dream big, Mobile disruptive product, and ofcourse accelerators/incubators …. You pretty much get to talk this language in your sleep, with your family/friends too.
Well, the speed that India is embracing in startups growth/innovation (especially emerging technology space) is commendable. Its highly inspiring to those at the middle level watching this happen (can be disruptive to their minds as well – in a positive way for sure).
Some of these observations that playing on my mind, to which I have no answers but wanted to share it here…not sure if we will have solutions to it. But there sure is method and madness to it (like the Bangalore traffic – there is no solution to it, there is madness ..there is method… eventually, everything gets done).
Case1: Most often startup pitch always include team introductions – Today, I was attending a startup pitch session and one of the product team introduced his team as follows –‘ I and my brother are the founders of this company and we both are drop outs from this B-School’ and laughs it out. Hmm, didn’t give me a good impression. He has a great product, but what left me thinking was why couldn’t they complete their education before wasting 2 B-School Seats, could this have been useful to someone else? .. … this is not one of its kind case.. there are so many youngsters, quitting education and dreaming to be Steve Jobs. Sure, nothing wrong. But do you have the Steve Jobs in you before you throw away your education seat? Or should we look at changing the Indian education system that is more affordable/reachable so that even if you throw it away..it doesn’t make much of a difference.
Case 2: I met another startup who was education centric – trying to solve too many issues in this domain – according to recent statistics, education system in India alone is $30M. Well, there are so many startups in this area working on issues that are worth looking into. But education startup is not an easy bet in India, this industry is wide and vast on par with education expenses of Indian population. Very less support compared to other high ticketed technology startup products in the market.
Case 3: Healthcare is another area that has less support. One of the startups is trying to solve the basic enablement of healthcare services (nothing fancy high-end problems), great cause but another struggling space.
These are some of the cases I could highlight. The bigger problem we should be looking into is - there are so many cross functional startups - be it education, healthcare or emerging technologies (take an example of SEO solutions - there are tons of startups), wouldn't it be great if these startups come together, group themselves into specific problem areas and look at solving it together to make a bigger impact? – (there you go! a startup idea right here :) ...).
Starting at solving a simple basic problem and then contributing towards simplifying the entire ecosystem is key. In Richard Branson’s words, ‘Complexity is your enemy. Any fool can make something complicated. It is hard to make something simple’.
Tackling code complexity (Optimize CODE for NFRs) before layoffs can save 50-100% of jobs. The most brilliant cost-cutting measure you're not considering.
9 年Speed and Big Talks are moving of body parts (except the brain).. they are not of any end business value.. watch on the startup success rate....
Tedx Speaker | IIMB GS10K | Wharton EAP. Passionate about Entrepreneurship & Creatorship, Building Early Stage Startups as Mentor, Advisor, Angel Investor | Growth Strategy, Expansion, Execution, Engagement - Core Skill
9 年Investors don't find simple ideas worth funding or people with simple ideas don't find it worth pursing or simple ideas get killed on the coffee table itself by friends /family's opinion stating someone must have already thought about it...too many assumptions exists on simple ideas
Strategic Hiring | GCC | Talent Management | Recruitment Operations | Hiring Governance
9 年Good one Prashanthi Reddy
WW Sales Excellence & Operations @ Microsoft | Sales Strategy | Business Planning | Cloud Solution Sales | Project Portfolio Management I AI 2.0 Enthusiast | Conscious Capitalist l Global Citizen
9 年I guess statistics need to relooked. The education space must be more than $30M ( a typical IIT academy would be easily more than $30M :-))..Otherwise, the article is good with a different perspective.
Building Excellence through new ways of working
9 年Good one PR...Even i take the similar example of yours in both case 1 and case 2. Whenever I visit colleges for guest talks, I ensure to say that for every Steve Jobs and Bill Gates who dropped out, there are hundreds of drop outs who haven't really made it anywhere near decent success. And we all should accept this fact gracefully and move ahead with our plans. Again for case 2 of your example, I quote the same as yours - trying to solve too many issues. Whenever I do workshops for Product Managers to help them prune their products, the tendency for the product management team is to try to add as many features as possible to make it robust which actually backfires many times as market and audience may or may not be ready for so many problem solving statements. I like the way you have categorized the current issues with start ups and coming from a pro like you is really helpful.