E-Boot Camp at IWSB
The event held on December 4, 2010 was a union of young and experienced
entrepreneurial minds resplendent with innovation and inspiration
By R. Sreenivasan
IWSB campus not only wore a festive look but also had many eager learners from various institutions and corporate who were there to listen, interact, participate, and share their ideas along with seeking opinions and advise on their ideas. It was an amazing day for the budding entrepreneurial aspirants for sure, but the dozen wisened entrepreneurs and investors, who took time off to spend their precious time to be at the event, were left inspired by the eagerness of the students and entrepreneurial aspirants. There were three panel discussions and interactions followed by my session on “Think Big, Start Small”, that focused on breaking the myths about ‘starting a business with sophisticated ideas and big money’.
The first of the panel discussion had three eminent personalities – Girish Batra (Alum IIM-A), Founder, NetAmbit; Vivek Agarwal (Alum IIM-C), Founder, Liquid and eGurucool; and Gagan Kumar (Alum IIM-B), Partner, Accel India – representing the world of ‘investors’. The session was moderated by Girish Batra.
The second panel had Shantanu Prakash (Alum IIM-A), Founder, Educomp; Gautam Puri (Alum IIM-B),
Co-founder, Career Launcher; R. Sreenivasan (Alum IIM-B), Co-founder, Career Launcher and Director IWSB.
The third panel had Vivek Bihani (Alum IIM-B), Co-founder, Magic Software and Founder, InSync advisors and Arindam Lahiri (Alum IIM-L), Co-founder, Career Launcher and Director, IWSB.
First panel discussion on “Opportunities –
discovering one”
How do you create an Idea? How do you think about being an entrepreneur? What is the motivation of
becoming one?
Gagan said that he is only a facilitator. Girish and Vivek have created business. But, why become an entrepreneur in the first place? It might be because it is a fashion these days to say ‘I want to be an entrepreneur’! He also said, “I was at IIM-B a couple of weeks ago at an entrepreneurial event. You need to evaluate first why you want to set up an enterprise. It is going to be a grind. 70 lakh new people join Facebook every month. The initial motivation here is
paying off dividends now. You can join a corporate, enjoy life and a 9am-6pm job; the only thing here is that you should be convinced that you want to do that job. It is all about enjoying what you do. You always need to be prepared for a number of
challenges.”
Vivek felt that this was the basic question. It cannot be over emphasized. “Lot of start-ups do not succeed. Those who succeed are the happiest people in the world,” he said and added, “You have got to select a problem to solve. And if you do, you will succeed. Instead of wondering what next, it is worth taking a risk or two.”
Girish’s view on the challenge he had taken in 1999 is that he had been searching for happiness. He said, “Many a times our actions are determined by what we do. Right now we are 4000 people strong, and we may be 7000 people strong pretty soon. It feels good when you are able to give back to the society.”
What do you think makes an Idea succeed?
Answering the above question, Gagan said, “Team, market size of the idea, customer tracking, scalability, certain differentiating factors, investments… There are so many things that in unison lead to success. No idea is bad. It may not be fundable initially but if the idea can make some segment happy about using the product or service, I am sure the Idea will achieve success eventually.”
Vivek explained his point of view thus, “As Gagan rightly mentioned, there are no bad ideas. When I started eGurucool, we prepared a vision of what we wanted to do. We spoke to investment bankers. We were discouraged from raising funds, since everyone asked for documentation of idea and plan. Our concern was that if we document the idea, someone might copy it, which was a stupid thought, we realised later. There were 75 companies that were working on the same idea as ours; we just executed it in a better way.” Vivek also added, “If you are the only one working on an idea, then, perhaps the idea may not be potential enough. Initially when Google was willing to sell its idea to Yahoo, Yahoo thought the idea was much more expensive than it’s worth! You can try out a few ideas on campus; collect small funds and create small businesses; you could sell ice creams, t-shirts etc. This will help you learning a lot.”
“Execution is the key to success,” said Girish, “It is a lot about being practical or pragmatic. The ability to learn quickly is the key. Name of the game is execution. When you are investing in an idea where there are already a few players present, find gaps – inventive product, unmatchable service etc. Take opinions from people who have experience in your domain and do not be hesitant while sharing the idea. The real success is in execution and not in just the idea. Good execution can make even a mundane idea succeed but bad execution can kill even a brilliant idea. There will be many challenges and the journey will be bumpy. You will not have all the support systems you need. Being aware and trying to mitigate the challenges at an early stage will lead you to success.”
During the question-answer session that followed, the answer to the question ‘Does being introvert not help in setting up a business?’ given by the panel was very intriguing – If you are an introvert having innovative ideas for which you are willing to work hard enough, find someone who will front-end your interactions with external world. The reason behind this would be that good networking and interacting with potential customers and investors propels your idea towards success in the
outside world.
For complete article, visit: http://iwsb1.wordpress.com/2010/12/09/e-bootcamp-iwsb-eurekas-wows-and-tete-a-tetes-with-entrepreneurs-and-investors/
— The writer is the director at Indus World School of Business, Greater Noida |