The Hindu Business Line : ‘Get real’

Put yourself in the investor’s shoes. Ask yourself if a complete stranger would really pay to use the product/service? And will you make money out of it?

H. Vibhu

Shadow play won’t do.

Preethi J

There is an enthusiastic, young bunch of Indians with a hot idea burning their minds and a vision of success. They worship Bill Gates and Azim Premji and want to duplicate YouTube’s or Google’s company model. They dream of making $1 billion in 18 months; 90 per cent of them don’t make it through the first year as a start-up, say experts.

First, most ‘hot’ ideas are not as revolutionary as the entrepreneur imagines. “It is the brashness of youth, and optimism that makes them believe that they have what nobody else thought of,” says Rohit Agarwal of Techtribe, who counsels thousands of students and wannabe entrepreneurs in the country.

“Many think they can make something that will shock the world,” agrees Sujai Karampuri, Founder, Sloka Telecom. Old hands and investors say — Get real.

“Networking is more important at this stage. It could just be that other companies have attempted the same idea, but it failed for whatever reason — maybe they hit upon a stumbling block. You could learn from their mistakes, know if it would be an unwise route to take and avoid disappointment,” says Agarwal.

Take the example of the tablet PC or Olfactory Speakers — speakers that would emanate a smell. Neither took off the way they were predicted to. Sometimes the product is way ahead of the market and is not needed today, no matter how useful.

However, many entrepreneurs are unwilling to ‘share’ their idea, or even open themselves up to suggestions. Only 5 to 10 per cent of wannabe entrepreneurs take the plunge. Many await support, money and complain of an unsupportive ecosystem. But these are just excuses, dismiss experts.

The young uns have other issues such as ignorance and impatience. “In the real world, we don’t have access to all resources and don’t have all the time,” says Karampuri. Learn the market, realise the risks and prepare for the worst.

“We expected space would be a big hurdle to setting up our printing outsets, but it came from an unexpected quarter — electricity. I can’t believe that one of our stores, in the heart of the busiest IT hub in India’s version of Silicon Valley, had to wait for four months to get a mere 35kW sanctioned!,” shares Manish Sharma, an MBA grad from Oxford who left his fairly successful career to return to India to start photocopy shops.

Put yourself in the investor’s shoes. Ask yourself if a complete stranger would really pay to use the product/service? And will you make money out of it? Karampuri’s example may set the concept straight: Not all ‘great ideas’ have a market. Let’s say you have a great idea to make your grandmother happy, but that does not mean a company can be made out of it. What makes your grandmother happy need not make other grandmothers happy. However, an idea tha t can make all grandmothers happy is one like Hallmark, or 1800Flowers.

When’s the right time? is a question that many — especially the middle-aged executives with a family to support and tuitions to pay for — brood over.

The answer is now. Commitment to the idea and taking risks for it will be recognised and rewarded by the venture capitalists. If you hem and haw about this decision, then entrepreneurship isn’t for you. There are no rules in this game — if you have an idea and then want to change it, you could set a new path and still be a success.

When gaming firm Indiagames, Geodesic or Merittrac began, many dismissed them. The walkman, even the I-pod, says Kavita Iyer who started up an Indian social networking site for collegians called Minglebox, were dismissed in the beginning as impossible products.

Suresh Narasimha, Founder of TeliBrahma, idolises Subhash Menon of Subex Systems, who started in 1992 with a meagre Rs 20,000. Today, Subex is a global-telecom software product company listed on Indian stock exchanges.

But there have been failures too. “We never hear of the failures — of how they used up all their cash, sold off their real-estate and are now paupers. They have lost their credibility and time. Youngsters are enamoured by successes, the riches and the fame. But the journey of an entrepreneur is not easy, and not short,” says Karampuri.

Can you be ready with the product for the masses in three months from the time the idea has been implemented? For those who jump into this route so they can be master of their own fate, the truth is — everyone reports to someone eventually. Think hard before choosing to be an entrepreneur — it makes you swallow your ego a hundred times a day and it pushes your limits for hard work, stretch and resilience, says Iyer.

Today, most start-ups in India are in social networking domain, blogging communities, web 2.0 firms such as a Web site for custom tee-shirts, mapping and location-based system firms. Of the 100 Web 2.0 start ups in India, about 80-90 have sprouted over the past year, says Agarwal.

preethij@thehindu.co.in