Entrepreneurship Pains Pleasures Abhishek Jain

Entrepreneurship:
Pains and Pleasures
A simple way to start a non-simple company
Abhishek Jain
www.abhishekjain.org
Saturday, July 25, 2009

Entrepreneurship

 It is all about hard work
 Perseverance pays in the end
 You should have it in you
 Concentrate on the ideas
 It is essential to keep your focus right
 Entrepreneurs must develop knowledge optimization initiatives
to leverage key learnings

Entrepreneurship: Pains and Pleasures 2

My View on the above slide

THE ABOVE SLIDE WAS $%^@#


Motivation

 Why am I lecturing here?
 Why should I spend my time to teach you?
 Dr S Chandrashekar used to travel 100 miles to take a class of
physics for 2 students
 T D Lee; C N Yang-Won
 Self satisfaction
 Please utilize your time with me


Myself

 Abhishek Jain – M Tech Aerodynamics, IIT Bombay
 Company – Zeus Numerix Private Limited (
www.zeusnumerix.com)
 Incubated in Society for Innovation & Entrepreneurship (SINE)
 Chief of Marketing
 Moderately successful
 First company in India to make engineering analysis and design
software


Lockheed Martin India Innovation Growth Medal

 Received in FICCI, Given by Dr T Ramasami Secretary DST,
standing Dr Ray Johnson LM CTO


Entrepreneurship

 It is all about hard work
 Who doesn’t know it
 Perseverance pays in the end
 Wow what an information; ever read Panchtantra?
 You should have it in you
 What??
 Concentrate on the ideas
 Where???
 It is essential to keep your focus right
 When??? Is it??


What is it All About

 “To carry his load without resting, not to be bothered by heat
or cold and always be content: these three things we can learn
from a donkey” – Indian proverb


I Would Say

 As from the above slide, I don’t intend to sermonize
 10 min bore; 80min lecture and 30min Q&A
 My Introduction
 Bad, weird Examples
 Some Anecdotes; they are funny but believe me they are true
 Few things we thing just don’t matter, but they do
 Unfortunately, I am a male, so the language is male; implies
his = her in presentation
 Lets have some quiz also
 Everything you already know, just trying to drive home the
point and mind you experience matters


What I Say

 Is not a professional advice, just what I learnt from doing
something in these years. This is not an official view of my
company or IITB or SINE. These are purely my views and by no
means entirely correct
 Is general advice in funny unpolished language; remember I
am not an MBA
 Doesn’t suit you; stop me in between, you are investing time
to listen to me; I will change track if possible
 Ask questions; No questions means ALL CLEAR or ALL CLEAR
 Comes from experience not books


What I Wish To say

 Why not be an entrepreneur
 What you gain
 How we did it
 Essentials
 Idea
 Core Team
 Initial Money
 Marketing
 HR
 Execution
 General Gyan


Entrepreneur: Why Not

 Soch lo yeah rasta khatron se bhara hai; Ek Krantikari ke liye
uski party uska sab kuch hai; Uskee jindagi mein na khushi, na
sukh na pyaar na parivar
 Legend of Bhagat Singh
 Company is like revolutionary party
 You live it; emotional attachment
 You love it like your child & 8/10 lost
 You feel like you are jailed
 You don’t have Khatra of life (Risk)


Entrepreneur: Why Not

 Spend a lot of time in business
 Miss out on social life
 You can see your friends enjoying life
 Friends are able to spend money; you are not; No parties
 Parents pressurize you to join a stable job and give them time
 Friends have girlfriends; yours, if any by God’s grace, has run
away or warning to do so
 Arrange marriage: Girls father doesn’t understand your job
 Hobbies get a back seat
 This work-life-balance and all that management gyan does not
work (Please read article below)
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Work-life_Imbalance/articleshow/2949519.cms


Why Do It
 You can make your country/parents proud
 “What is the penance you did to get a son like that”
Thiruvalluvar, Tamil
 You can become Bill Gates or Narayanmurthy
 Not all can get jobs; some have to create them
 Don’t have to say “YES SIR” to a foolish boss
 You become famous
 You don’t suffer for someone else’s mistakes
 Its so great to have your dreams come true
 You don’t have to make a resume
 You can marry a film actress

Doesn’t necessarily mean opening a company for profit


Are You Afraid

 After all its not that difficult
 Mere mortals like us do it
 Even if you fail it is a great learning experience and that too
usually on somebody else’s money
 You become a lot more confident and can look towards life in
very different way
 People rush to recruit you
 Companies provide a red carpet for you


So what is it

BRASSTACKS


Law

 Do you know which ministry controls the companies?
 Who is the minister?
 Where will you register your company?
 Ask always
 Which side of law you are?
 Money; is it accounted for properly?
 Are the Directors of the company aware of accounts
 Necessary registrations
 Proprietary or private limited registration
 Sales and service tax registration
 CA audit


Idea

 Start with an idea and change it as per environment
 All great ideas don’t mean great success
 Average idea doesn’t mean you can’t be successful
 Getting married to idea can be fatal (not always)
 Each company has its own DNA; make your own
 Apple, SONY, Google – We Innovate
 Microsoft, IBM – Customer is King
 McDonalds – Time is Money
 Go Air, Indigo – Economy
 Kingfisher, Taj Hotel – You are a Maharaja


Core Team

 Most important part of the company
 Should have complimentary characteristics
 “If two partners agree on all the things then one of
them is not needed”
 Business partner must not be friend or relative or father-
in-law (unless he gives money) just for the sake of it
 Business in friendship is OK but no friendship in business
 Stockdale Paradox; Every great company faces adversity*;
Core team must be psychologically strong
 Charismatic* people do not matter. How many state
toppers have companies? Domain knowledge is a must

Entrepreneurship: Pains and Pleasures * Jim Collins; Good to Great 19

India Inc: Core Team

CMO
Chairman

CEO

 We had a Chairman, CEO, CMO
 One had vision; other translated it on ground and one
propagated that it was actually being done


India: Core Team 2
Chairman
+CEO+CMO

 One man was great; others followed him
 Could not guard secrets; attrition was high
 Did help in getting India Inc team win


Initial Money

 Call it bootstrapping, begging, borrowing etc; word does not
matter; get it
 Don’t get money from illegal sources (yeah father in-law
money is OK) or tough men
 Use the resources judicially; try to do many of your works
yourselves (even if you have to make tea, clean the place
occasionally)
 Get an angel investor or soft loan like SINE IITB gives
 Core members usually get very low to zero salaries in the
starting


Marketing

 Most important job that people hate to do
 You don’t get your meal if you don’t market
 Everybody in the company should be marketing
 “Coherent speech” by all members is a problem
 Marketing DOES NOT mean speak more, but LISTEN more
 What is clients need?
 Within how much (time/money/efforts) he wants to fulfil his
need?
 Why am I a better match for Customer?
 Cost is not always a factor? Don’t harp it too much
 Take the projects; you have nothing to lose


Marketing

 Know your customer; remember energy is limited
 Shri Mithun Chakraborty movies
 Jumbo king vada pav center
 Micro-credit – ICICI, Grameen Bank
 Modern Babas/Sadhus or fortune teller parrot
 Is need hurting the customer; if it does not, there is no
urgency to buy
 How many promises we are making to the customer
 Treat your marketing people with respect; they are anyway
cursed a lot by customers
 Coca Cola advertisement in Saudi Arabia


Networking

 Are you a part of TiE, India angel networks, etc etc
 Do you have membership of FICCI, CII or other trade
associations
 Are you regularly visiting trade fairs and writing white papers
 Are you seen, do people come to say you hello
 Remember only two things – Shock and Awe
 HITCH – Will smith to his client


Human Resource

 You don’t win a game without good players
 10 Mohan Bagan strikers don’t make a Pele
 What is the incentive for him to play for you?
 Remember you are not giving them good salary
 Doesn’t mean you throw away the stock
 Motivation and fear of losing can be a big problem
 Do they feel part of the company
 Do they feel they do a favor by remaining in company
 Retention strategies can be a challenge
 Communicate to them properly
 Freedom within limits is essential
 Take out time to explain decisions


Execution

 Ready, Fire, Aim (In search of Excellence)
 Thinking is such a waste of time
 There is no auspicious time to start work
 Too much discussion is not necessary
 Employees must have freedom to make mistakes and so
should you
 Impatience is good
 Some targets need to be set
 Take the technological challenge


Competition

 Know who is you competitor
 Who was the competitor of RASNA – TEA
 Track their movements
 Learn from them
 Compare time and price
 Be ethical and non-manipulative
 Don’t be negligent of small players in your field; remember as
a startup you are killing a giant
 Be open to ideas of competition


How We Did It

 We had an intellectual property
 Some Professors and Students came together
 Support from SINE for seed loan, registration etc
 Better mix of people
 Could attract talent because work we did was unique in India
 Got customers due to contacts of our professors
 Delivered accurate solutions though sometimes late
 Said no to propositions that were lucrative but outside your
philosophy
 The team – Prof Banerjee, Prof Shevare, Basant Gupta, Irshad
Khan


Unsolicited Advice: Manage Time

 Aapne hamko 5 minute diya aur hamne 4.30 min mein khatam
kar diya. ½ minute ka profit. Yeah hai business
 Guru; Abhishek Bacchan’s dialogue in Arbitration Scene
 Make a list of activities you will not do
 Watch Saas Bahu serials; cricket!
 Work that can be delegated like maintaining files
 Going to disco
 Devote some time for others; Do some social work
 Regularly call your family and friends


Unsolicited Advice: Maintain Sanity

 Attend parties and ask friends that you can’t contribute; eat as
if you contributed most
 Go to Jinalay/Temple/Mosque/Church/Gurudwara/Synagogue
if you are a theist or do some Yoga
 Sleep properly; don’t bring tension at home, it anyways
doesn’t solve the problem excepting combing
 Beware of intoxications like drinking/smoking
 If you are short tempered or with high BP or have a lot of self
pride then do a job, entrepreneurship is not for you
 Exercise is a must


Read, Read, Read …..

 All great men were great readers; Gandhi, Bose, Dhirubhai,
Narayanmurthy …..
 Just reading business does not help; diversify
 Most important ideas come from very different subject –
Genetic Algorithms in design
 Know your surroundings – Newspapers are a good medium for
the same; Pokharan could affect my company
 Reading removes a lot of tension – (Auto)biographies are very
good


Read Some Books

 Mahanayak – Viswas Patil
 Why men don’t listen women can’t read maps – Allan &
Barbara Pease
 Foods that fight pain – Dr Neal Barnard
 I Dare – Kiran Bedi
 Wings of fire – HE Dr APJ Abdul Kalam
 Straight from the Gut – Jack Welch
 Crossing the Chasm – Geoffrey Moore (For start-ups)
 In search of excellence – Thomas Peterson
 Built to last – Jim Collins
 Good to Great – Jim Collins
 Maverick – Ricardo Semler
 Scientific American Magazine

I Wish

 Open your company; its now or never
 You have no responsibilities, so take the plunge
 Don’t worry about future job; they are plenty for brilliant
people like you
 Request your college to open an entity like SINE
 Narayanmurthy has 2 ears, 2 legs, one nose; do you feel
deficient; Steve Jobs had cancer you don’t
 Companies are like babies; they die if parents divorce or don’t
care about environment; choose good partners
 When India becomes developed country in 2020 you be part
of development rather than an impediment


Abhishek Jain
abhishekjain29@gmail.com

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Entrepreneurship Pains Pleasures Abhishek Jain

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