Entrepreneurship Summit takeaway: Getting sacked need not be bad always.
Recession is the best time to start your dream venture. That was the key takeaway for participants at the Entreprenuership Summit (E-summit) ’09 held at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, on Saturday.
With close to 1,000 delegates, the E-Summit is India’s largest social networking forum for venture capitalist, academicians, entrepreneurs, students and working professionals. This year, some of the panelists who soothed the nerves of budding entrepreneurs in the backdrop of the global recession were legends like Kanwal Rekhi, MD, Inventus Capital, Vinnie Vyas of Crossover Advisors and also entrepreneurs like Arvind Singhal, chairman, Technopak, and Vishal Gondal of Indiagames, among others.
Students also learnt that one can’t rely on their job lifelong and getting sacked might not be that bad either. “I always wanted to do something on my own, but after my management studies I got busy with a job. It was only after I got sacked that I thought of setting up my own company,” said Arvind Singhal, Chairman, Technopak.
Rekhi said that he believes in backing an entrepreneur rather than a business plan or an idea, as ideas and markets always change. Rekhi was laid off thrice during initial stage of his career.
A key observation made by the panelists was that an entrepreneur needs to have a mentor who can make him aware of the pitfalls. “One needs to have a mentor. Else, we can’t get it right without him,” observed Jayprakash Gupta, founder, The Loot store. Gupta started The Loot store in 1998 and has so far set up 90 stores across over 40 cities in India.
Another advice on team building came from Alok Kerjiwal, founder, Contest2wini, an online gaming portal. “Team building is a very important aspect for a successful venture. It’s important to have the right set of people to begin your venture with. Don’t even start if you don’t have a couple of anchors with you,” said Kejriwal.
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Addressing the budding entrepreneurs, Singhal pointed that while one does need a dream, its success cannot be defined on the parameters of how much money one makes. “These days I have seen entrepreneurs like to talk about valuations first than on creating value,” he added.
A word of caution from the panelists was that entrepreneurship is not a bed of roses. The highs are too high and the lows are too low in being an entrepreneur. “In 2000, we were almost bankrupt. But at that time, we took a bet on a new technology platform that is Mobile platforms and no one believed us then,” said Vishal Gondal of Indiagames, when asked what challenges he faced as an entrepreneur.
Ganesh K, founder and CEO, TutorVista.com, suggested that during a slowdown, start-ups need to have focus on the revenue and the cost side. “On the revenue side, the company has the opportunity to come up with a new set of products and tools and have small ticket prices.
This is important as clients would plan to cut on all excess expenditure. On the cost side, a company should take decision to cut costs in one go. If you decide to cut 5 per cent of employees now and then some later, then it sends wrong signal to employees. Do whatever you plan to but it has to be in a single decision.”
Rekhi added that he would bet on an entrepreneur who has failed once rather than a first-timer, as they are twice motivated and also know what not to do.