Mine did! Two actually.
Funny how we take our ears for granted. 2 funny looking things sticking out from the sides of our heads. Input jacks for the noise that surrounds us, as we lead busy lives.
However, this isn’t a commentary on the human body. This is in fact how I used my ears to make one of the most important decisions of our lives: Re-thinking our Startup.
It all began with me reading startup related headlines since 2014. NotStaleFood gets 1 cr seed funding (who are these guys??) Ourecommerceisunique.com established in 2014 gets 20cr Series A (what is that?!!) . 2months later, NotStaleFood (hot food tech) gets 50cr funding. What??!!! Here I am: calling clients for overdue training bills of 30k!!!! My brain started to get hot hearing these noises. Boy if these guys who came in yesterday can get this kind of free money, why can’t I?). Then friends, gurus, newspapers, blogs, podcasts everybody started screaming together. STARTUP! NOW! START UP NOW! And I used my ears. I heard them. I did.
We launched a video-based soft sills training startup. Wow, my 3rd child was born. Very special! My favourite. It even had its own nickname: Ed-Tech we all called it. “Video is the future” everybody told me. “Soft skills are the future, Edtech is the future”, they said. “The opportunity is now! Go for it you all.” I heard. And we did go for it. Full steam ahead. Got a team, launched the prototype. Started sending out the deck (we old fashionedly used to call it presentation till I was pulled up at a high profile concall). Mugged up the investor jargon. I heard everybody and then some magic happened.
It started with my very first fund raising pitch. Full of my product, my company, my startup, I launched into the pitch. Till I was interrupted by the investor: “Low barrier to entry”, she said softly. (Luckily I didn’t need to Google that!!) I was stopped in my tracks. And for the first time in 4 months since my startup launch, I listened. Like someone had applied the handbrake on me driving at 90 kmph. And what did my ears teach me?
- Insight, not advice: Keep talking to people, friends, investors, experts about your idea. I don’t understand `stealth mode’. Hell if it’s that easy to copy, it will get copied anyways, patent be damned. This is a cruel world. The more you listen, the more you get to know about the shortcomings of your own product. Remember, you are looking for insight…you are looking for experience…you are not looking for advice. Advice is cheap…hell, its free most of the time…insight..on the other hand has to be earned and appreciated because it is someone’s else’s costly experience that’s helping you save time and money….for free.
- Your child has failed: How many of us have thought about…If only my dad/mom/uncle whoever had not forced me into engineering? I wish I had become an artist instead! I wish…I wish… Our parent’s generation generally could not understand the uniqueness of each child. That everyone is different. What worked for them may not work for us. But we are living in a different world now. Our children may be failures in studies. Hopefully not. but it’s a reality. Maybe their interests lie elsewhere. The same with a startup. It’s your baby your child. But we need to accept our startup’s weaknesses. Maybe your child is not ready yet to grow up. Maybe it needs more nurturing (traction, better UX, whatever). The truth hurts, but better before the money is onboard and before the angry calls start. I listened to some of the top investors telling me why my idea was great…but it was incomplete. What all it needed- to become a complete fundable idea. I listened, and I appreciated what I heard.
- People are for you, not against: Not everyone has an agenda. There are a lot of helpful investors and experienced people out there who can give you the magic mantras , not just money. In fact getting the initial round is not that tough. But if you can have a conversation with an investor without discussing `exit’ and `valuation’, trust me, you need to latch on and get mentorship from them. It’s just a question of talking to as many people about your idea as possible. Leave your ego behind. in fact, put it to sleep temporarily. In Hindi: `suno sabki…`karo apni’
- Buy low-sell high: worked for the Neanderthals, worked in the middle ages, worked for our forefathers, will still work when are gone. No free lunches, everything has price, etc. etc. prototype is bullshit.. App downloads and web visits are just milestones. How many people are paying you higher than your costs? That’s what matters. Sooner or later, the numbers will catch up with us and we would have left our pants behind.
In our corporate Listening skill workshops, we start by telling participants to choose `listening’ over `hearing’. Well, I can tell you at FPOnline, we experienced it first hand. We have gone back to the drawing board, looking for the right direction to pivot, trying to figure out revenue models, and not just looking for a better deck.
So young founder: Stop pitching…start listening! Remember: SILENT has the same alphabets as LISTEN.
asha chaudhry
nice. really nice.
there are so many points that resonate!
building a community, i’ve come across thousands of rodinhooders who just want to help another rodinhooder without any agenda at all 🙂
yes, i agree. LISTENING is important!
looking fwd to your next one prashant 🙂
Prashant Sharma
Thanks Asha. Listening is the one we give least preference to out of the 4 communication skills : Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening. But its actually the most important.
Prajyot Mainkar
Hi Prashant,
Very nice insights especially liked the quote “I don’t understand `stealth mode’”. Recollecting my similar approach way back in 2005/06 where i thought copying ideas was one reason i never shared the ideas with others. But then, over few months of time i realized, its hampering the idea somewhere. If shared with right people, early feedback is bound to arrive.
Prashant Sharma
Thanks Prajyot. For sharing your similar experiences.
Rameshwar V
Hi Prashant,
I too did not know that this world calls a presentation, a deck. I learnt.
I agree with the point that we need to talk our idea with as many people as possible and listen out to their views. I have refined, modified, extended, etc. my idea before I went about working for the launch of myhealthcircles.com.
I am extremely surprised and astonished if someone says that they have not changed their website from the first day.
I know for sure that the way we execute our ideas will also change with time.
Thanks for a good post.
Prashant Sharma
Thanks Rameshwar for writing in. Wish you all the best at myhealthcircles.
Alok Rodinhood Kejriwal
Excellent!
Just to add a recent article I wrote in the ET on this:
Startup Highway on your Mind? Watch out for these 5 accident spots!
Fancy stepping out of your dreadful, unsatisfying salaried job that’s sputtering at 58 kms an hour (takes you 58 years to make boss) and fantasizing of getting into the F1 zone of starting up where you could be rich & famous and your own boss in less than 3 years?
Well dream on, and pay critical attention to these 5 ‘accident spots’ on your Startup Highway that could get you in serious trouble:
1. “Finding a problem for a solution – not a solution for a problem!”
I was once a Jury Chair for a rather prominent startup competition that was being recorded for National Television. My fellow jury members were very distinguished and we had an entire panel of IIT professors as tech advisors on the side. This was serious stuff.
One of the most passionate presentations was made by a man (in a suit) who described how he had created a complex ‘sms’ alarm system to wake up people when intruders stepped into their homes. His solution would cost Rs. 7 lacs. Mr. Suit spoke non-stop for 28 minutes about how triggers all over the house would be invoked to spot the intruders. He had complex charts (that looked like rocket designs) to show off.
Some of us tried to question him. A jury member said, “But I sleep with my phone ringer off.” The man shot back, “No, you will set your phone ringer on after you install my security system.”
When it was my turn, I smiled at him and asked, “Why can’t I keep two dogs in my house?”
The man looked at me, shattered and bitterly angry. He refused to answer my question and walked off the stage.
Lesson 1: While starting up, don’t go around looking for a problem to ‘fit’ your so-called solution. Most probably, the problem does not exist!
2. “Worrying that people will steal your idea”
Many interesting ideas pop up in the minds of several people across the world at the same time. It’s as if God sprinkles the world with ideas every morning!
Having said so, many people hold on to these ideas in their minds, as if they have found the Kohinoor! They refuse to ‘share and discuss’ the idea with people around them because of the insane fear of their idea getting stolen.
Unfortunately, in the startup world, ideas are worth only 1% of the real value of a great company. The rest of the 99% value comes from execution, and only execution.
Now consider the rather contrarian case of Facebook and the so-called ‘idea theft’ by Mr. Zuckerberg (those who haven’t heard, please go and watch the movie, ‘The Social Network’). So, Zucky Baba stole an idea. Hmmmm. Ok. Sniff Sniff for the Winklevoss Twins. But guess what? The manner in which Facebook has been ‘executed’ in the past 7 years beats any other social network that has existed, even before Facebook – like Orkut (owned by Google!) and hi5! No one executed like Zucky and that’s why he has won.
Lesson 2: The minute you get a great idea, share it and start building it! If people steal (copy) it, feel proud! It means you have a valuable idea!
3. “Starting Up is the fastest way to get RICH”
Quite the contrary! I can assert that starting up is the fastest way of getting poor. 99 people out of 100 who start up typically lose years of salaries, job promotions, relevance of being out there in the professional job market and of course, the ‘reputation’ of being unsuccessful amidst friends and relatives.
The reason is very simple. Starting up is like replicating 22 years of education. When you start up, you go back to Grade 1. I mean who would pay you to be studying in Grade 1? Later on, only the awesomeness, great application and favorable stars get you noticed as you inch up the grades and have a VC or Angel finance you in bits and pieces. Typically there is only one student who tops the school. And she is the one who walks away with the scholarship.
Lesson 3: Yoda, the Guru of Star Wars tells Anakin the Jedi-in-making, “Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose”. Yoda was most definitely speaking for startup entrepreneurs!
4. “Building to Sell – not Selling to Build”
I am a Marwari Dinosaur of the Internet. Been around since 1998 and have seen many moons and suns go by. One of the most common blunders I have seen being committed by entrepreneurs is starting up a company with the sole intention of selling it to someone else!
In fact, a slide in most funding pitches mentions ‘Exit Plan’ and that is where most entrepreneurs let their imaginations go wild on speculating who will buy them out!
Think of real businesses around you. McDonald’s sells burgers to build its business. Mercedes sells cars. Bose sells music systems… These companies sell things to MAKE their business valuable! They don’t sell themselves as the value proposition!
Lesson 4: Building a business to sell out is perverted. It’s like growing up for someone else. If you are a startup, build to create a great business that will sell great products and services. It will sell itself.
5. “Starting up is an Adventure – not a boring dull job”
People who burn out at their jobs typically take ‘exotic’ vacations here and there. Some enjoy standing on icebergs while their nose freezes; others like to swim in underwater cages getting clicked with thumbs up signs (while they are actually worried about the shark near their leg). Once the vacation is over, they come back to their 9 hour-day at work, staring at spreadsheets like zombies.
Many people think starting up is an adrenaline-pumping adventure that will leave the drudgery of their job behind. Unfortunately, that is never the case. Starting up is tedious, taxing, draining and hopelessly lonely. The loneliness kills. An entrepreneur has to do 10 times more boring things than most salaried employees ever do (like packing parcels).
Lesson 5: Don’t start up for a thrill. Go Ostrich-riding instead! Start up as if you are switching careers and plan for a 20-25 year innings in which you may see some fun…
*****
Prashant Sharma
Thanks Alok. Great article. I had caught it when it first came out. A spot on reality check. In fact, at some point, I stopped pitching for funds and instead would ask investors straight off: tell me what can go wrong? where are the blind spots? what have we missed?
Entrepreneurial success I guess is not just doing the right things: its also by avoiding doing wrong things.