Best entrepreneurs emerge from times of adversity: Entrepreneur First

The coronavirus pandemic did not deter Entrepreneur First, a UK-based investor firm, reach out to the start-up community in India to facilitate investments.

Entrepreneur First (EF) aims to help build technology start-ups from scratch. It brings together like-minded people and can even help start-ups find co-founders. With cohorts running every six months in Europe and Asiafor 50-100 people on each, the programme has two stages: ‘Form’, where start-ups can develop their ideas and find a co-founder. The ‘Launch’ stage is where start-ups can get their team funded and begin building the company.

Positive outlook

Last month, EF announced 100-plus start-up meetings and ideas were pitched to 35 VCs. A second session by EF India involved online presentations of five start-ups to investors. All had a common thread — the usage of technologies such as AI, IoT and computer vision.

Esha Tiwary, General Manager, India at EF said the organisation is very bullish on Indian tech entrepreneurs and is committed to supporting them even through the current economic situation.

“Challenging times provide an opportunity for new and innovative solutions,” said the official.

Noting that the Covid-19 pandemic is impacting economic activity of start-ups and is likely to elongate funding cycles of seed-stage companies, Tiwary said, “Most of the 35-plus early-stage VCs that we are in touch with have expressed interest in start-ups and are open to new investments.”

The official added a new normal is expected to emerge over the next 2-3 months, and innovators as well as entrepreneurs can use the situation to their advantage. “The best entrepreneurs will emerge from these times of adversity,” contends Tiwary.

EF was launched in India in January 2019, and has helped build and invest in 10 companies here.

Reflecting on the challenging times faced by early-stage start-ups who may not have the capital infusions necessary to tide over an extended economic slump, Tiwary said, “There are two things that start-ups can focus on to deal with the current macroeconomic situation. First, minimise burn, renegotiate all existing contracts, minimise expenses and cut all non-essential spends. The key is to survive during this period.”

Second, start-ups need to focus on optimisation. “During business as usual, there is often no time to take a step back and analyse the business processes or product designs. Start-ups can use this time to bring in cost and efficiency improvements,” said Tiwary.

Investment scenario

As for EF’s advisory to funded start-ups and those looking to get funded amid Covid-19, the official insists her extensive interactions with investors has led her to believe that investors have not closed their doors to new investments. “In fact, a lot of them recognise the innovation opportunity that such a climate brings. However, start-ups will need to get ready for longer fundraising cycles, since it will take more time for investors to judge and develop belief in founders right now,” adds Tiwary.

The official maintains businesses need to be extremely innovative during this time “to keep moving forward. You need to run to stay in the same place. Our teams are working hard to enable 100 percent remote working of our business. Our admissions process has moved completely online, and we are doing remote interviews of aspiring founders applying to Entrepreneur First.”

EF continues to take applications for the fourth Indian cohort starting in August 2020.

The facilitator has developed new tools to enable founder interactions with each other and is in the midst of building processes that are completely remote.

Advising start-ups on what they need to do to keep their chin above water, the official said, “Start-ups need to get more innovative about acquiring customers through new, more effective channels given the current environment. They also need to look inward and think about what structural improvements they can work on which they did not get a chance to focus on earlier.”

Referring to recently-funded start-up Unbox Robotics, which is building robotics solution for parcel sortation in warehouses, Tiwary said the start-up is utilising the time to optimise the designs of its robots and reduce costs.

Unbox Robotics’ logistics automation system will help e-commerce and online shopping players to automate and improve their operations with limited space and capital.

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