Starting a Startup in India:Myth vs Reality

As I sit in this dinghy 2 BHK apartment of mine in JP Nagar working on scaling up customer base for my startup I reminisce through the last 13 years of my life.I mean just like everyone else I was a normal kid from a small town who had absolutely no idea about the technology business let alone technology startups.I caught this startup fever 2 to 3 years down the line and I could never let go of my fascination till I succumbed to starting my own.Anyway I was recently part of Stanford University's Ignite program at full waiver(without which I'd have never been able to do Ignite so a big vote of thanks to Stanford GSB )and met a diverse group of people from different age groups and there I witnessed different notions of what startups are like from my classmates. Again I wasn't anew to this experience.As a guest speaker at various B-Schools and Technology Schools across the nation I've seen and heard the same sentiments from young students with a lot of passion in their belly and an unbeatable adrenaline rush.But it hurts me to the core to see not many realize what entrepreneurship is all about.

I've been to umpteen startup conferences here and around the globe and what distinguishes startup conferences happening here in India is the fact that no one really has an idea about what startup conferences should be like.I am a huge fan of Paul Graham a Silicon valley veteran who has done fantastic stuff for startups in the valley.If only the Indian technology and business diaspora could read this one blog about startups they would have an idea about what it is like to build a startup.From my experience I could help clear some misconceptions people in India have about startups.

I remember Dustin Moskovitz  at a startup school lecture talk about what the media portrays about startups that allure the young generation as opposed to reality.Some of these pictures have been taken from the same slide which would show a dramatic difference between assumptions and reality.

Myth

Reality

So from the above pics I bet its way too clear that building a startup is a way too complex process.The thing is we're all wired to succumb to a mental condition called 'The grass always looks greener inside the  septic tank' syndrome sooner or later.And then we have self declared heroes like the famous Rahul Yadav who project a very incorrect image about entrepreneurship(met 2 IIM A dudes a week back who were bonkers over him).Even movies like 'The Social Network' which showed building an enterprise is something really jazzy and glamorous are far from reality.

I guess I'll recount my experiences as an entrepreneur which might help people realize what entrepreneurship is actually and especially when its a country like India it can be a real pain in the a**.Anyways so I started my journey in 2012 end of the year.Was going through some personal issues and decided to take some time off my professional life in the form of some kinda sabbatical before I could make up my mind to join the corporate again.Anyway I had all sorts of fancy notions about entrepreneurship in my mind and like most of the crowd that I have met I too had a fancy picture about being an entrepreneur-million dollar deals,billion dollar valuations,luxury cruises across the Caribbean,supermodels and stuff.Anyway what the last 3 years have taught me is nothing short of a lifetime.Let me unwrap it for you guys to see and understand all that sort of glitters is not gold.If I am able to touch your lives even by an ounce like our very own friend Rahul Yadav and you can identify the merits and demerits of entrepreneurship I bet spending 2 hours on my mac writing this piece of shit would turn out to be a worthy endeavor.

Lesson#1-No one gives a shit about your idea

Might sound rude but no one would want to even piss on your idea no matter how good it is.Unless you have a working MVP or a working prototype and a customer validation process done on the product with paying customers or an ever expanding customer/user base you might wanna pivot/trash your idea forever.Execution is the real challenging part where 90 percent people fail.Having a full fledged working product that could be used by users who have paid for the product and have invested faith in your product besides money is a big certification of how good your product is and nothing can take away that credibility from you.When I started 2 years back I had 1 paper idea which could not go beyond paper and mock diagrams.The next one could not go beyond a badly coded prototype and the current one is the one I released with the help of my co-founder who wrote the entire code.

Edit#1-look at this brilliant answer by Erin Parker on how she developed and launched her own product despite of being a non-techie and which is what I hear every now and then from people in the startup community who are predominantly non-techies looking for a technical co-founder.

https://www.quora.com/I-am-24-years-old-and-just-started-learning-coding-I-want-to-be-a-programmer-Am-I-too-late-in-the-game/answer/Erin-Parker

Lesson#2-Find a co-founder ASAP

For all those smart a**** who talk about Drew Houston as a single founder-should perhaps know he was made to hire a co-founder by YC before he stepped in.History says it all -Jobs and Wozniak,Gates and Allen,Hewlett and Packard etc were all great entrepreneurial pairs that went onto start successful companies.I realized it pretty late but now I know you just can't have a startup without co-founder/s.Besides the work that you share on a complementary basis you need someone to speak to,someone who could correct you when you turn omnipotent and a real pain in the ass.I remember my class 8th teacher Mr Baptist telling my parents in a parent teacher meeting that 'This boy is supremely over confident of himself.It might lead to his downfall" and now I know he was cent percent correct when I see individually I wasn't going anywhere because of supreme overconfidence.It was the dawn of realization and an never ending process that led to the discovery of my co-founder and with him on board though we are still 2 people the journey has become manageable.

Lesson#3-Investors live in a different planet

I guess it could be called a classical paradoxical situation or as Shaheed Kapoor rightly describes as 'Chutzpah' in the movie 'Haider'. Investors want to invest in companies that have shown outstanding growth but if you've shown outstanding growth why would you need investors.Almost every investor that I have met over the last 9 months have given various answers from a straight "no" to "seems interesting but our ticket size is 1.5M USD and a growth rate of 30%" to "I can invest 100000 USD for 35% of your company".It also has to do with factors like whether you belong to an IIT/IIM/Stanford/Harvard/Wharton umbrella or not.So while crazy buffoon ideas get funded owing to the above reason 2 guys with an awesome product (Our product Talentpegs apparently happens to be India's first job distribution and resume aggregation service)who apparently have a first mover advantage and loads of dreams in their eyes  wouldn't even get an audience most of the times or receive the usual rejection.So the notion that investors would flock to an individual with an idea written over a tissue paper and write a check for a million dollars happens only with Larry Page/Elon Musk not with anyone else.So get real and don't waste time looking for investors.If you have a great product sooner or later they would appear out of nowhere.

Edit#2-Now its ridiculous to see products like these getting funded and despite of a superior product like Talentpegs we are getting rejections at every instant.

https://www.iamwire.com/2015/07/hiring-platform-zenradius-raises-seed-funding-traxcnlabs/119847

Lesson#4-Focus on growth not valuation

A lot of startups start focusing on something called 'Valuation'.Let me say it once and for all-valuation is a trash component.It really doesn't mean anything initially as you are a startup without any assets(real estate,IP which is not there most of the times etc).So no matter you apply any method that you've either taught yourself by taking finance courses in Coursera or Udacity or by merely watching Shark Tank you could never attach a precise value to your startup and it is an unnecessary task aimed at pleasing the Gods of investment land yearning for a 10X return who would eventually trash the number you're quoting and it would lead to a deadlock.So screw it and focus on exponential growth and how fast you can achieve it.Growth makes you cash rich and helps you reinvest it back into making your services state of the art and hiring the best talent across the country.As of now we are focusing on that as I am seriously done with investors and valuation-atypical waste of time.

Lesson#5-Do you really want to be an entrepreneur?

Before you take the plunge ask yourself seriously-Do I really wanna be an entrepreneur.Why do you wanna do it?If it's money as most young people I meet tend to tell me consider this following diagram shown by Dustin which shows you can make a lot even as an employee and can lead a comfortable life.

Is it flexibility because if it is consider this apt quote by Phil Libin

So flexibility is out.What's left? Is it the maximum amount of impact you wish to have on the customers with your creation? If it is do go through the following picture which shows even as an employee you can have a great impact as follows

So apart from this what could be the best reason to be an entrepreneur-believe me every other reason other than the ones in the following picture are crap so screw them.

Lesson#6-Its a lonely journey mostly so be prepared

Every morning when I get up its a bright day and every evening post 8PM all hell breaks loose.You start getting these weird thoughts about where exactly your life is going?When you see your friends post snaps of a recent vacation they had in a plush resort in Spain with their families you wanna leave everything to have the same life.But believe me these thoughts are natural and your steel like ambition and an equally formidable resolve would help you steer through such moments and focus on your job.So if you are assuming how Sean Parker could run companies in the day and date supermodels in the evening you need to realize he is Sean Parker and you are not him.You need to spend lonely hours with your co-founder for the next 5 to 10 years of your life creating an entity which might or might not exist at all.You might not have any social life at all.Even at social gatherings I have observed the strange look people give you when you tell them you are an entrepreneur.As a software engineer I remember getting  a lot of respect from the same folks.You might also end up in a situation where no girl would wanna date you or marry you as you aren't earning anything initially.

Be prepared for such eventualities.

Lesson#7-It pays to be well read and curious

I know not many people in our country are fond of reading but believe me it really pays if you know stuff.I have always been a voracious reader and now after so many years when I talk to people I feel I have a comprehensive picture of things and you can really cast an impression on the people you meet with your knowledge and experience.There are many good books written by some extraordinary people that could teach you a thing or two about how the world works that could be really useful for your business.So start reading stuff.I know its a lot to ask for but its essential.You can even watch some great movies and documentaries that could teach you a lot about business.'Wall Street' still happens to be one of my favorite movies.Your thirst for knowledge and curiosity would definitely take you places.

Some of the best books I have read till date are as follows:-

• The lean startup
• The goal
• What the CEO wants you to know
• Start something that matters
• Good to great
• The world is flat
• Imagining India
• Dreaming in code
• Zero to one
• Startup:A silicon valley adventure
• Guanxi
• The inmates are running the asylum
• Hackers and painters
• Who says elephants can't dance
• The idea factory
• The case of the bonsai manager
• Just for fun
• Steve Jobs:The exclusive biography
• How I lost my virginity
• Simply fly
• The Big Short
• Liar's Poker
• Four steps to the epiphany
• The black swan
• Fooled by randomness
• Outliers
• Blink
• Only the paranoid survive
• Maverick
• Business @ the speed of thought
• The road ahead
• The google story
• The information
• The business of software
• Kane and Abel
• Thinking fast and slow
• The post American dream
• The innovators
• The Maruti story
• Tubes
• Founders at work
• Dark pools
• Code
• The difference between God and Larry Ellison
• Shipping greatness
• Managing humans
• Ripped and torn
• Direct from Dell
• In the plex
• The passionate programmer
• Connect the dots
• Straight from the gut
• The high performance entrepreneur
• Atlas shrugged
• Crossing the chasm
• The innovator's dilemma
• Rework
• The blue ocean strategy
• Delivering happiness
• The undercover economist
• The fortune at the bottom of the pyramid
• The essential Drucker
• It happened in India
• Made in Japan
• The cathedral and the bazaar
• Clouds to code
• Execution
• One click
• My years with General Motors
• The snowball
• My life and work
• The polyster prince
• Hackers
• Freakonomics
• Venture deals
• How to build a billion dollar app
• Games Indians play
• The art of war
• On strategy
• Elon Musk:Tesla.SpaceX and the quest for a fantastic future

Lesson#8-Be humble

Its quite difficult to be humble but trust me it is essential to be humble when it comes to being an entrepreneur.Its another thing to be vocal about issues and being arrogant about things.There is a very famous dialogue in the movie 'The Social Network' where Marilyn Delpy tells Mark Zuckerberg towards the end,"You're not an asshole, Mark. You're just trying so hard to be."-And our very own Rahul Yadav seems to fall in this category.Rahul Yadav is a retard who has a tendency to wage a war with everyone who doesn't go by his thought process.The fact that he has created a not-so-disruptive product like housing has pushed him to a state where he thinks he is Christ all mighty and whatever he says are the 10 commandments.But trust me he is nothing but a prick.It always pays to respect people be it in professional capacity or personal.Look at people like Jack Dorsey,Tracy Chou,Ruchi Sanghvi,Robin Lee,Aaron Levie,Arjun Ranadive etc who have made a name for themselves in Silicon Valley minus any kind of theatrics Rahul Yadav indulges in.So if you are an entrepreneur it is essential for you to be humble no matter how much you successful you get.Respect is a 2 way street-you pay respect to get some.I remember my Stanford Ignite mentor Ajay Goel emphasizing on the fact that an entrepreneur does not have enemies.Everyone is an ally which is true.You need the support of fellow entrepreneurs,investors and all brilliant people when it comes to running your business.In small towns like Indore I have seen that people who run local businesses seems to be friends with everyone else so that during crises they could get necessary help from some fellow businessman in their circle. Same holds true for Marwari community as well where members of Marwari circle periodically help fellow businessmen in times of need and the favor is returned when the circumstances change.Its alright to have ideological differences but we are here not to wage a war but to run a business.Hope Rahul Yadav imbibes a thing or two from the aforementioned.

Lesson#9- Rejection/failure is a part and parcel of entrepreneurship

Well unlike a job where your performance would be evaluated on a 5 star system and you might end up getting decent performance reviews for your accomplishments or receive some flak for your screw ups.In entrepreneurship you would keep on failing and getting rejected repeatedly.Trust me this is natural and perfectly normal but what isn't normal is to make the same mistake twice.You need to get up fast and rectify your mistake.As 37 Signals talk about in their cult book 'Rework' it is equally important to be successful as it is imperative to fail but the idea is to fail fast and learn from it.Eric Ries wrote an entire book on it for the benefit of the startup community.So get ready to face rejection and failure as many times as possible.

Lesson#10-There isn't any finance guy initially

Well as a startup founder and as also a guy with almost no one on board it is really important that you get your hands dirty with some basic finance that can help you understand stuff about valuation(pre and post),shares,unit economics,NPV,EBITDA etc.If you know these concepts you would be in a better position when you talk to people going ahead.There are amazing courses for finance buffs and taking some of these courses could take you a long way.

Lesson#11-Leverage the power of startup communities

I would say being a member of OCC/Headstart/TiE in the last 3 years have had hidden advantages that I initially did not realize.These are some really awesome communities where posting a problem or a need could lead you to so many solutions from experts who are either part of the industry or are themselves entrepreneurs.I have been posting my issues and surprisingly every time I end up connecting with individuals who are more than happy to resolve any problem I have had without any expectations.Long live the power of crowdsourcing.Its essential for entrepreneurs to connect with these ecosystems where you can get necessary help in terms of everything.These channels are as effective as quora and stackoverflow.

Lesson#12-You're on your own

In this country no one really gives a shit about you let alone your startup or your product.In your entrepreneurial journey you'd meet all kinds of strange characters.I still meet them but meeting them in itself is a big learning experience of who not to meet as you go ahead.If you are expecting support from accelerators or incubators let me tell you the ones that are there in India are from prehistoric times.There is an incubator based out of Bangalore located inside one of India's top management colleges and once they select you they expect you to mandatorily use their space even if you don't want and keep paying them 6K every month and in return they might help you connect with the right people but what they fail to realize is that you might not have a market in the next one year or so.I've had horrible experiences with 2 leading accelerators or whatever they claim to be.These are filled with people who are extremely superficial and fake.Its filled with bureaucracy and red tape to the core.The 'bhai-bhatijawaad' that we've heard all our lives is actually a living reality even inside these entities which are supposed to promote entrepreneurship.In the first call itself they would tell you how you could approach them anytime for help even if you're not shortlisted for their program but once you do they would never respond back.I was so pissed with this one individual hailing from an accelerator in Delhi who completely ignored me till I went to twitter and posted my sentiments and he pinged me on twitter asking me to back off.My question to him and people like him is-Why lie?Say it right in the face that they can't help.Anyway we are Indians and we just can't help but make false promises and assurances. So all that talk about helping startups is pure bullshit.No one helps any startups out here.Anyway it wasn't very different from the corporate utopia where I spent more than a decade of my life so I wasn't very surprised.

Lesson#13-Beware of false entities

Most of the times if and when you wish to raise funds you'd find people emailing you posing as investors or HNIs(High Net Worth Individuals). Only after some time you'd realize most of these people are either posing as investors or are brokers who want to take a part of the money if at all you are able to raise money.You need to be careful of the first group.Do a comprehensive background check before you share company related data with them.These pricks have an ulterior motive. Angellist is a good resource to find out information about individuals who claim to be investors.

Lesson#14-Get used to sales and marketing

It seems like a crazy idea to post stuff on social media,use tools like socialpilot and agilecrm to understand consumer behavior.What's even more frustrating is to make cold calls to random people to sell them your idea.I felt the same way a week back but with every call that I have made and have been able to speak with potential customers I have learnt a lot about what they want and what we have.Before you actually scale up and have a dedicated marketing and sales team you must do marketing and sales yourself as it is essential to understand customer perspective and your selling points as opposed to what the market is offering.

Lesson#15-Faster shipping cycles

Ensure you ship every now and then.Developing a technology product happens in iterations.No one gets it right the first time.But the idea is to realize it and ensure continual pushes after running frameworks like A/B Testing to get as close to what customers are looking for.

Lesson#16-Use free tools as much as possible

Blake Mycoskie in his book 'Start something that matters' talks about using free resources on the web as much as possible.There are so many valuable resources and tools that are lying there waiting to be utilized.Most of the tools are open source.Some of the free resources are as follows:-

• Lifehacker.com
• sethgodin.typepad.com
• gutenberg.org
• librivox.org
• nextbigwhat.com
• wired.com
• businessinsider.com
• techcrunch.com
• yourstory.com
• huffingtonpost.com
• newyorker.com
• entrepreneur.com
• fortune.com
• forbes.com
• citeseer.com
• startupclass.samaltman.com/courses/lec01/
• paulgraham.com
• norvig.com
• gladwell.typepad.com
• joelonsoftware.com
• news.ycombinator.com/
• stackoverflow.com
• quora.com
• codinghorror.com
• slideshare.com
• ocw.mit.edu/
• poetsandquants.com/
• coursera.com
• udacity.com
• code.org
• codeacademy.com
• blakemasters.com/peter-thiels-cs183-startup

Some of the tools that I have used over the years are as follows:-

• Lighshot
• Todoist
• Pencil
• Sublimetext
• Editplus
• Quicktime
• socialpost
• surveymonkey
• pocket
• compete.com & quantcast.com
• spyfu.com
• kayak.com
• doodle.com
• istockphoto.com
• footagefirm.com
• freeconferencecall.com
• legalzoom.com
• weebly.com
• 99designs.com

List of people who really matter

1.Paul Graham
2.Peter Thiel
3.Peter Norvig
4.Marc Andersson
5.Ben Horowitz
6,Mike Moritz
7.Seth Godin
8.Kara Swisher
9.Andrew Bosworth
10.Sramana Mitra
11.Elon Musk
12.Max Levchin
13.Jack Dorsey
14.Dustin Moskovitz
15.Evan Williams
16.Biz Stone
17.Vinod Khosla
18.Andy Rubin
19.Dick Costolo
20.Reid Hoffman
21.Jeff Weiner
22.Jessica Livingston
23.Paul Buchheit
24.Ashton Kutcher(invested millions on tech startups)
25.Travis Kalanick
26.Sheryl Sandberg
27.Marissa Mayer
28.Adam D'Angelo
29.Tracy Chou(The smartest female engineer in the valley)
30.Mark Pincus
31.Kevin Systrom
32.David Karp
33.Dennis Crowley
35.Eric Schmidt
36.Jeff Bezos
37.Tim Cook
38.Jony Ive

List of some really good movies

1.August
2.startup.com
3.Pirates of Silicon Valley
4.Indie Game:The Movie
5.Rocket Singh
6.The Social Network
7.Lord of War
8.Wall Street
9.Wall Street 2
10.Wolf of Wall Street
11.Godfather P1,P2,P3
12.Middle Men
13.Runner Runner

Lesson#17 You won't have a glamorous office

Much against the what the youngsters think a startup offices don't look like this at all

But the startup CEO's office looks like this

Lesson#18 Be shameless and learn as much as you can

Its surprising yet true that a vegetable vendor knows far more economics than a startup entrepreneur.Everywhere around us there are people who do business effectively.It could be a guy fixing punctures for bicycles.It could even be the milkman who tends to give you discounts from time to time.Even a saree shop guy knows what price to quote to the customer which would be a win-win situation for us all.Marwaris and Gujaratis are breed of people in our own country who have been doing business for ages.Every other successful business man in India belongs to either of these 2 clans.So a lot my gyaan that I have is also a constant interaction with such individuals on a frequent basis.There is no shame in learning from anyone even if that guy is someone you wouldn't wish to talk.An entrepreneur is shameless.Shame won't take you anywhere but shamelessness would enable you to make observations you wouldn't normally make by being decent.So shed off any inhibitions and reservations you have about people and see the change it brings to your life and business.

Lesson#19 Fire fast

Sam Altman and many others in the business stress on the importance to fire people fast if they don't align themselves to what the organization wants to achieve.I initially thought it was preposterous but now I get the logic.Initially in a startup there are lots of things to do.If you have people who act as an obstacle towards achieving your goals you might end up losing precious time so its always good to fire them fast and do the necessary damage control before things can't be fixed at all.

Lesson#20 Have entrepreneurial company than be with people with jobs

I know its quite a strong statement to make but trust me when you hang out with people who do jobs you would always find them bickering about something or the other.They almost crib and fret on a constant basis rather than do something to change the status quo.Being with such people is utterly demotivating and there isn't any fun derived out of that.But if you hang out with entrepreneurs you would find issues you could talk about that you tend to face on a daily basis.In the last 2 years I have stopped going out with the previously mentioned group of people.They unnecessary complicate life and so they should be amputated from your life before they cause any more damage.At the same time I have met some amazing entrepreneurs who are ready to help you at the drop of a hat and you tend to learn a lot from their experiences.

 These are some of the stuff I think should help people realize building an organization from scratch is not an easy deal.Its a lot of pain and personal sacrifice that is involved.It might seem like a crazy idea but if you oscillate at a frequency entrepreneurs oscillate every eon spent building an organization is worth it.I have deep respect for people like Narayan Murthy,Azeem Premji,Shiv Nadar,Kishore Biyani,Gautam Adani,Ronnie Screwvala who were able to build billion dollar organizations in a place like India and at a time when our country had anything but entrepreneurial friendly policies.Its not easy to do business in India as we have a genetic defect of pulling people down.V.Raghunathan terms it as individual gain but collective loss mentality as per game theory.

Anyway I hope people see entrepreneurship in the right way and take it as a career option after due consideration.

Its not an easy decision to make given the fact that there is a lot of societal and family pressure as it happens every time an individual turns rogue in our country.Refusing to accept the status quo is considered blasphemy.So obviously its not an easy task and as Frank Underwood would say to a budding entrepreneur,"There’s no better way to overpower a trickle of doubt than with a flood of naked truth."So my friends think twice before taking the plunge.Life's not going to be the same again for you and your family.