STFU #36 - When Trishanku got stuck and Yamraj took a hard call - Gatekeepers blocking Startups to grow

Trishanku, an ancestor of Rama, wanted to go to Heaven with his entire physical body - he questioned why only ‘souls’ went to heaven. After getting rejected by multiple experts (Sage Vashistha, his sons, etc), he approached?sage Viswamitra to send him to heaven as is, in physical form. Vishwamitra agreed and after performing some strong ‘havan’,?Trishanku started rising towards to heaven. But upon his arrival in heaven, the Devas (led by Indra) blocked Trishanku’s entrance and kicked him back, refusing him entry (citing various reasons)! Trishanku began falling back to earth.

This made Vishwamitra very angry. So he used his powers again to prevent Trishanku’s fall, causing him to stay in the middle of the sky.

Between this tussle between Vishwamitra and Indra, Trishanku got stuck. But then, he got a special heaven made for himself, along with Devas and Indra of his own - that was called Trishanku's Heaven - a replica of heaven, but below it. Like many leaders, the copycat heaven made the original heaven-owners, the Devas very insecure, as now they had competition! This nudged them to go and settle with Vishwamitra. Eventually, it was decided that Trishanku’s heaven would continue to exist in its form, but without interference in the main heaven - and never supersede the command of Indra!

Folklore says that in the quest to keep him suspended in the air, a long pole was put from earth by Vishwamitra - the pole eventually turned into a coconut tree and Trishanku’s head became its fruit. The fibre around the coconut is Trishanku’s beard. When you take it off, you see his eyes peering at you! (see it the next time you peel off a coconut!)

The mighty Yamraj’s Decision-making principles

Did you know that Yamraj, the God of death and our first ancestor, is supposed to be the ultimate decision-maker of what happens to us after death?

Principles: He is assisted by?Chitragupta, who maintains a record of each of our individual deeds, good and bad - and after a complete audit of our records, Yamraj (and his team) weighs the virtues and vices of yours, and then passes a judgement - on where our soul is to be sent - Svarga or Naraka (apparently, there are 28 different types of narakas!)

And dont worry, the stay in Svarga or Naraka is generally described as temporary. Yamraj is fine if you do some good deeds and come back again for a revised judgement!?

Here is one such judgment made by the Darth Vader of death -?

A famous monk and Robber died on the same day and went to the Yamalok. Yamraj was to decide where each of them would go, based on the deeds. The robber was conscious of his sins and politely accepted whatever judgement was passed for him. The monk was fairly assertive about his good deeds - his lifetime of penance and devotion to the god made him clearly ‘deserve’ heaven.

Based on the two points of view, Yamraj decided that ‘the robber has to serve the monk’.?

Upon hearing this, the Monk got very angry. “He is a sinner and unholy soul. He should not touch me, as my religion will get corrupted”

Being the judgemental god, Yamraj ‘judged’ him again. He said, “While the Robber’s soul has become humble, the monk’s nature still has an ego. Even after death, you are still not humble. Hence you are incomplete!”?

As a result, he decided that the monk would instead serve the Robber.?

In spite of playing well throughout, the monk’s ego got him bowled out and he lost the match!

Yamrajs and Trishankus in Startups

In the startup world, we have both the Yamrajs and Trishankus existing around us. If Yamraj’s decision-making principles made you feel like a fund-raising pitch to a VC, you are not alone! If Trishanku’s heaven made you feel like a copied model from the industry leader and claimed it to be the ‘next disruptor’, you are not the first one to think that.

But this is not about embarrassing you with your (or my) secret thoughts. It is about Gatekeepers and how they exist in the startup community. As you grow your startup, there will be moments when you know you are helpless - and there is no choice but to go through the Gatekeeper - either figure out a way to appease the gatekeeper or get blocked by him.

In FMCG, Quick commerce and marketplaces are gatekeepers, where the assortment is decided by the channel owners, which they ‘claim’ are customer-driven. Amazon, for instance, can grow democratically when you sell as a brand directly but acts as a strong gatekeeper with its own seller. Similarly, Modern Trade partners act as strong gatekeepers, before you even get an opportunity to talk to your customers.

The current hyperactive world is full of platforms and gatekeepers. Nobody?can hope to own them all at once.?

But the gatekeepers had their day. Now there are simply too many gates to keep.

A lot of online brands are moving into offline, due to limitations in online channels. Gatekeepers like Google and Facebook prevent easy cost-effective scalable access to customers. Some brands also start their direct-to-customer channel (DTC)?to directly get customers to your brand instead of depending upon marketplaces.

For True Elements, we have had gatekeepers, not just during fundraising, but also while expanding penetration. For a long time, we did not enter the Modern Trade channel due to the Gatekeepers. We started our D2C to fight the gatekeepers and then partnered with them with all humility. While being the monks also, sometimes our ego became the bottleneck, which we learned the hard way.?

In summary, while Gatekeepers will get stronger by the day, one has to figure out the ways to work with them as well as around them.?When Gatekeepers block you from reaching ‘heaven’, you might need to make your own heaven, just to challenge the gatekeepers.?

On the other hand, there will always be Yamrajs judging you to be an egoistic saint or a humble robber, however oxymoronic it might sound.

As Entrepreneurs, building heaven with humility is probably going to be the ‘best of both worlds’, and you might not need to sell your ‘soul’ to enter heaven as well, pun intended!

To the child in you!

Incidentally, both the stories are sourced from texts for children - one from Sudha Murthy and the other one from Panchatantra. As we grow up, we forget the one in us who built us and made us what we are today is the curious, naive, playful child, and not some rational being. Unfortunately, the ‘ego’ prevents us from recalling that child as we learn bigger stories.?

Keep the curiosity to learn, the naivety in us to absorb without judging, and the playfulness to not take everything too seriously and keep playing!

To the playful child in us,

Happy Children’s Day!

To the curious child who is growing up,

STFU!

References: Trishanku?1?and?2,?Coconut Story,?Yamraj’s decision,?Yama Images:?Yamraj,?Trishanku Sudha Murthy | Books: Hidden Potential, Hit Makers