DARE - Because Entrepreneurs Do

Sanjay anandaram
Fouding Partner, Jumpstartup Venture Fund

Sanjay Anandaram is a founding Partner of JumpStartUp Venture Fund, one of the earliest early stage VC funds set up in 2000. He mentors and occasionally invests in startups and advises VC funds.

Mentorship has not yet taken off in India on a big scale. Why is that so?
It’s a function of the state of maturity of the entire entrepreneur eco system. Traditionally in India, entrepreneurs have been hesitant to seek a base, since as a culture we are very hesitant to go out and tell others about our weaknesses. It’s still somewhat like going to a shrink. Such an attitude is evident to a variety of things, including entrepreneurship. At the end of the day, one needs to have a DNA for wanting to share, wanting to bounce of ideas, wanting to have a discussion and a dialog in a very open manner about oneself, one’s business, colleagues and so on. How many companies do you know that even have a board of advisors? How many entrepreneurs do you know who have a Board of Directors? These are fundamental things. So, I believe it’s all a function of the state of maturity of the entire ecosystem, of how entrepreneurs mature or market conditions mature.

How can mentorship be made more effective and professional?
You can have some kind of a structured engagement program. It depends upon the engagement model; it depends upon on the company - the kind of the company, the stage and the kind of mentorship that it needs. Many a time, it’s just the CEO who needs to be coached. In some other cases, the mentoring can be in relation to very strategic issues about the business. In some other cases, it’s got to do with tactical and operational matters. You need to see whether it is a very young company or a young entrepreneur. Typically what I’ve found is that mentors/advisors, get in to some kind of a structured arrangement with entrepreneurs. It means that there is a certain number of hours or certain model that is established directly between the mentor and the mentee and that’s the way they work.

For example, TiE-Bangalore conducts mentorship programs every month. Mentees or those who want to get mentored send in a brief about their business, about themselves, about the kind of issues that they are coping with and so on. Mentors are assigned to them and they go through the process of being mentored on a monthly basis. Besides that, NASSCOM had recently drawn up a mentorship program in Bangalore, with five or six companies to mentor them and take them to the next stage. There are many people who are doing it both formally as well as informally as well. Increasingly, more and more people are entering entrepreneurship and clearly they need more and more mentors.

How far have VCs or PE firms been successful in mentoring their investees?
There is clearly no one size that fits all. Traditionally, the problem in India has been that we don’t have enough early stage investors. So when one is starting off, he doesn’t find too many investors willing to invest at the zero stage; and that is the stage when you need the most mentoring. Once you raise the money from the investors, they generally come on board and you have access to them to figure out what you want to do. So, yes; there is a lot of mentoring going on from VCs and PE firms. For example, there’s Red Bus, with whom I am involved. I was a mentor to them when they had no money. Now that they’ve acquired investment from Seed Fund both Seed Fund and I spend a significant amount of time not just as investors, but also as active mentors. So it depends.