There is an emerging model of a lean startup which is likened to a Gazelle, swift on its feet, fast, agile and can adapt to its surroundings for survival. Building "elephants" is the old way.
There is a fundamental problem in the way that we build businesses today in India—most of them take too long to mature.
While building a stable company over a period of time is not at all a bad thing, slow growth (over long term) companies are rarely a deal that investors want to get involved in. Whatever said and done, what essentially the Silicon valley is really good at, is this—they create exits, and that is what accelerates the cycle of the entrepreneurship loop. |
| Vijay Anand |
The message is clear. In order for the entrepreneurial landscape to improve in India, we must see exits. Living proofs of young entrepreneurs who turn millionaires before they hit 30 are usually effective ways to spur more entrepreneurial efforts. But in order for that domino effect to kick in, there are a few things we must keep in mind; and especially if you are an entrepreneur, some of these might also help you build that lean, mean startup.
What You Won’t do
Six months into the life of a startup, this is probably the clarity that startups need to have. Define what you do, and most of all define what you will not do. The focus that you get, the way your mind will think with those self-determined constraints will start opening your mind to new opportunities that lie deeper. Makes the company more rooted, grounded and also a contender for survival in the long run.
Buy Vs. Build
Every time the senior management of a startup or a larger corporate organization come together to make a decision on this subject, I would bet that the judgment would rest with building it in-house. Every task is usually calculated in the kind of skill sets required, the cost of engineers, add to it a manager, and a few months time and the value of the product is arrived at. After that it’s a simple comparison of what is cheaper. What is not calculated is the distance that this side project will take you away from your core business. If there is another company that builds a product that fits into your requirement, and doesn’t cost an arm and a leg, buy. This goes a long way towards creating value all across the value chain.
Extend those APIs. Please
Oftentimes I look at opportunities as a crack in the wall. In the technology space, this is usually the time when one S-curve is weaning off, and the other begins; and there are always opportunities that emerge at that horizon. You define an opportunity as a crack because you know that you will have limits on both sides. A startup can only grow to the size of the crack to fill that gap, but that’s a great entry into the market.
It’s crucial if you are building products to build support, integration and partnerships with those around you—that’s how acquisitions are made. Every time I hear of a web company that does not even have APIs for other developers or companies to take that data and play with it, or companies that do not even publish ways and means of how a product works without covering it all under the terms of "proprietary", we are looking at dinosaurs who are about to go extinct very soon.
Think beyond Boundaries
One of the issues that startups will face time and time again is talent. This also goes back to the mindset that we need to break away from. We would gladly evangelize for outsourcing when the job comes to India, but in most cases never follow the rules ourselves. Outsourcing is not an India-only phenomenon. If you have to get a job done, and it can’t be done in India, you should outsource it to whichever region you can find talent in. Especially for a web company this is easily doable, and what you usually get as side-benefits are programmers experienced in building large-scale systems, and also an understanding into the minds of people outside your echo chamber. You will gain more than you bargain for, if you do it right.
Connect into your Clusters
Focus, Focus and Focus.
That’s the only advice I would give every startup. You have to do something well, and really, really well. The second step is to figure how someone could leverage that expertise and building relationships with them and get into a working relationship and go to the market together. Inevitably if it’s successful, they will make you an offer. In order for this to happen smoothly, the creation of new standards, processes, understanding current methodologies are very important.
And the only way you can get to understand that is by tapping into the community of associations, experts, and other entrepreneurs who have pitched their tents in the land much before you did. This goes beyond networking, but sharing of wisdom, knowledge and insights freely amongst one another—that is what happens at a cluster. Find one that’s relevant to you, even if it’s beyond geographic boundaries and try to be actively part of it.
The markets are changing. There is an increasing feeling that India has not lived up to its expectations in the startup world, not enough ground-breaking products yielded and in return a stump in the plans that are made for the future. It’s time to go back to the basics, focus on something small, be the best at it, and grow from there. If a few exits start happening, the rest will all follow.
Vijay Anand is an entrepreneur who has experience starting and building various technology startups, starting at the young age of 16. He is currently the Incubation Manager at RTBI, an incubator in IIT Madras that focuses on building rural-focused businesses. He is also the founder of Proto.in, India’s premier technology showcase event and is involved in various initiatives that are shaping up the emerging entrepreneurial scene in India. He blogs as The Startup Guy at www.vijayanand.name and tweets regularly at www.twitter.com/vijayanands.
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written by outsourcer, August 15, 2010
written by Sanjay Dwivedi, April 07, 2010
written by Sanjay Dwivedi, April 07, 2010
written by amit kumar rastogi , April 05, 2010
1 st type - market driven . no uniqueness, regional players , minor first mover advantages, value for money preposition , agreesive deliverability , import of commodity ( raw material or finished ) for trading .
2 nd type - Institutional /govt business, tenders , licences, patents , certificates and how old the company is in this sector are important . Bulk orders .
NEW ENTREPRENUES must come into the 1 st type with a mix of agressivness, uniquness in process to cut accross time lines and achieve success quickly and move onto next opportunity.
amit
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