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Category: Entrepreneurship

  • Employee selection in Start ups: A few useful pointers

    Entrepreneurship
    is often considered the pursuit of a goal without being restricted by
    the limitations imposed by resources. The goal could be limited only to
    financial gains, but could also include larger gains. Invariably, each
    of these goals has an end customer who benefits the most from the action
    of the entrepreneur.     Often, if one doesn’t think of the customer right from the beginning as suggested in the earlier post, one realizes this extremely practical learning at a high cost!  
    Translating the idea into a product/service without being restricted by the resources currently under control would imply seeking support from other sources. While co-founder (read about benefits/drawbacks and implications here) is definitely an option considered there are many other who do not like to cede control over their business and attempt going for an employee who could help realize the idea/concept into a product/service on offer.  
    My interactions with the start up ecosystems have helped me find some better approach that some entrepreneurs prefer. Here are a some of the pointers I believe would help lot of other entrepreneurs:

    What role am I hiring the employee for?
    Often the lack of structure could confuse the founder about the skills that one is trying to look out in his employee. Would it be apt to choose an employee for the IT development involves or for the sales side?
    My personal advice in this is to keep the business aspect with the founders always – not because it could be a business secret, but because there could be important decisions that need to be taken on the ground and direct customer interactions could help this process.
    The need to hire an employee begins from the need to accelerate the production to revenue cycle of the business. This gives a complete spectrum of activities and the notion of job-description wouldn’t make any sense here. Recollect the notion of uncertainty again here – would you prefer some one who is a sort of specialist in one area or a person with generic skills adaptable to the surprise scenario that is so common in the entrepreneurial journey.

    Clearly, independent of the dominant role for which you are hiring. looking for some one who is flexible is better – lets call them Jack of All Trades (JoAT). 
    Note:JoATs are better as long as there is no significant specialization that is to be needed in the product/service development. [We are still in the survival phase]. Working would JoATs for too long could in fact begin limit the growth of the business. Switching over to specialists at the right time is important as one navigates the growth stage.
    What am I looking for in the new employee joining?
    Flowing from the above aspect of preferring a JoAT to a specialist what needs to be understood is that ability to learn quickly is important. If you employee is not willing to bend his/her back and put in the effort with you in your pursuit it better stay away from the candidate. Many candidates come in with the notion of a fixed working time – if one are fixated with a notion of rigidity, it definitely an indicator of the inflexibility that is so essential to live through the survival phase.

    And remember to take note of the thumb rule – attitude is more important than aptitude – this is the ground on which any recruitment has to be based. 

    Reading this blog and thinking about it, is surely a precursor to the large issue of organization culture that is often ignored in start ups – this is definitely an issue for another blog!
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    Do like, comment and share this blog if you find it useful.

  • Co-founder selection

    An entrepreneur when starting off his venture typically tries to on-board a co-founder, and the most co-founders are friends. On-boarding a co-founder is an interesting junction in the start-up’s journey. Here are possible benefits and drawback one would need to think of in choosing co-founders:

    Clear Benefits:
    Having a co-founder is an indication that the
    ideator has been “sold” the
    idea to someone other than himself/herself, and that someone has joined the pursuit – this is an interesting signal to the outside world (primarily investors & employees). Resource pooling clearly emerges out as a very tangible benefit from such an approach – thereby de-risking to a limited extent.  
    – “I am not alone believing in an idea!“

    Teams enable the entrepreneur pool in some essential “factors of production”, in the classical terminology – land, labor, capital. Definitely, this process has added resources as a result of accumulation from more than one of the founders. In the contemporary world we could possibly look at some more dimensions to the classical factors – network, intellectual capital etc. 
    – “I am possibly better off!” 

    For start-ups, whose first challenge is survival this means: on-boarding a stakeholder would enhance the survivability of a start up; a greater breather space, and potentially a greater growth prospect. 
    – “I survive to fight another day!“
    The
    benefit is not just in terms of physical resources the idea sounding, check and balance mechanism, emotional support etc are all packaged into this. 
    Other implications:
     
    In
    addition to selling the concept of idea, the ideator is also responsible for the firm that gets formed. In many ways the identities
    of the two – the firm and the founder overlap when one starts off. However, realizing that
    these two could be separate over a longer period is important – the
    founder mindful of the distinguishing between the firm and the
    founder, the founder would need to make a decision that is beneficial
    for the firm which could continue perpetually. The co-founder decision one makes
    should be thought out in this light, and with the benefits to the firm be predominantly greater than the personal needs of the founder. Ask the question:
    – “Would the person be the right fit for the firm?”

    The
    ideator when on-boarding a co-founder would also have to note that the
    initial idea could also undergo a change. In addition to accessing new
    resources (means) there are new goals that the firm would need to adjust
    itself to. Ask yourself:
    – “Am I willing to change he goal? will the joint effort of the co-founders make the firm better off?“
    Many
    of the co-founders shared personal friendships – this could potentially
    be the source of the on-boarding, rather than the idea.  We are all
    emotional being, and encouraging friends in their entrepreneurial
    pursuit could be but a logical extension of the friendship. The ideator
    would benefit from reflecting on what each individual in his network
    could get to the table and relate it how the potential exploration could
    be helped by the individual.     Ask yourself:
    – “Is it the idea or is it my relationship alone?”
    Few words of caution in selecting friends co-founders:

    If the common interest is not the idea, and only limited to the social relationship – the firm wouldn’t benefit as much from from such an alignment of the founders. An obligation cannot be the source to a long term commitment; periodic incentivization is needed for one to sustain such a relationship.
     
    Last but not the least, co-founder conflicts are extremely common. There are many who do go to the extreme step of saying – be ready to loose friendship if you want to get into a partnership for venturing out into a business. Distinguishing what would form the professional space and what the personal space is important – this ability to separate the issue from the actor would be extremely helpful for founder.

    The call to add on a co-founder is one that could have significant implications on the firm and the ideator. So think through before you on-board your co-foudners.

  • Prioritize Stakeholder Acquisition

    I wrote this blog to highlight a best practice
    approach in starting off and tried rationalizing it. It also answers the question as
    to why dealing with the customer as stakeholders of business before any
    other stakeholder would be a good idea.



  • Prioritizing Stakeholders for your start-up to reduce uncertainty

    Murphy’s Law seems to follow entrepreneurs more than anyone else – Yes! anything you believe wouldn’t happen, will most possibly happen. So the challenge is really of being able to live through all these experiences and eventually be able to get the business they intend to create see the light of the day. 

    The notion of such unpredictability in what one does is generally called – uncertainty. There is really nothing certain about the entity that entrepreneurs are trying to create. They have a thought about the need for something they believe would be required by someone… Yes! It is only a thought when it starts like many other thoughts! The entrepreneur chases the thought and attempts to create value – economic, social etc out of the thought by manifesting the thought into the realm or reality.

    In the process there are numerous challenges that come in – beginning with the thought – the entrepreneur would need to really see if the intended product/service is something that would be found valuable and useful for people. The second question is really to see if someone could pay for the same! I have mentioned multiple times about the need for early customer engagement in earlier blogs [read here and here]

    The maximum uncertainty would definitely be on the customer‘s end of the chain. The thought that the entrepreneur would have initiated invariably would have come from his/her prior experience/ability/capacity – essentially – the response to the questions: who am I? What do I know? Whom do I know? She/he would also have attempted evaluating what would it take to create something of value and how someone could and then figure out a way to reach out to the person who could not just use but also pay for the same. 

    This mean the maximum uncertainty for a business is not on the customer‘s side of activities and would progressively reduce in the following order – investors, suppliers and employees. The following diagram indicates the same:
     
    High Uncertainty                                                     Least Uncertainty
    Customer    >    Investor      >    Supplier       >        Employee
    The uncertainty in the above context could be understood as containing two components – the predictability of the behavior of each of the stakeholder and second, the effective control on that the entrepreneur could have on the behavior of each of these. We could visualize the spectrum of predictability and controllability to be as below.

    Least Predictability                                              Most Predictability
    Customer    >    Investor      >    Supplier      >        Employee 
    Least Controllability                                             Most Controllability
    Customer    <    Investor      <    Supplier      <        Employee

    An effective approach for an entrepreneur to be able to leverage and grow his/her business would be to reduce the zone of maximum uncertainty and steadily build the other stakeholders commitments to effectively handle the reduced uncertainty. 
    (click on the stakeholder link to be directed to some best practises in finding a better stakeholder)

  • Looking at an enterepeneur as a farmer! – An interpreation of entreprenurship

    Entrepreneurship is really a hot topic of discussion. There are various forums that discuss about it. I tried super-simplifying this by equating it to farming! But in reality there are many analogies that we could think of when this comparison of start-ups as plants…
    Beginning with this blog, I attempt to try drawing parallels between plants/farming/ etc and the world of entrepreneurship.

  • Looking at an entrepreneur as a farmer!

    Many aspire to be entrepreneurs and start firms that eventually become part of their “identity”, i.e. an entrepreneur acts as if there is no distinction between the firm and the individual running the firm. You might have possibly guess where I am heading to in this blog…So just hang on…
    While an entrepreneur is the one who grows and manages the firm/enterprise, it is very important for an entrepreneur to be able to distinguish oneself from the firm. 
    As an analogy, we could look at the entrepreneur as a farmer who passionately tills the soil, sows the seed, takes sufficient care to see the crop grow and finally harvests the crop. An interesting question to ask here – what would happen if the farmer begins to think that the crop he grown and (s)he is one? Yes, you may not be willing to harvest what you have grown!
    A sense of attachment to the firm, with the ability to detachment is a key to being able to act in the best interest and with the right spirit. It is the attachment, which is the passion aspect of an entrepreneur, helps put in all the energy and enthusiasm one holds towards the hopeful dream into action; but the detachment enables one takes an arms length view of the venture at hand and decide with potentially the best interest what is to be done.
    The key, thus is really to look at the process of venture creation and growth with a “farmers” mindset than being the crop itself!!! What say?
    There are interesting extensions of this attempt of being able to equate the firm one sets up to plants; I would love to explore this aspect over the next few blogs. Stay tuned is your are interested in thinking about this.

  • GOD and the notion of Uncertainty…

    The nothing of GOD is extremely intriguing. All of us have different notions of the Generator, Observer and Destroyers (GOD) based on our own experiences. Yes I said Experiences – read on to see why I make this claim. 
    One of the comments on my last blog on the trinity of Hindu Mythology and the possible purpose behind the design mentioned – 
    “Wonderful Article 🙂
    Reading this, I could not help myself but think
    these gods are man-made; they represent what our ancestors thought a
    wise idea worth sharing. However, the mystery is not solved yet. I just
    wanted to point out, I personally feel there is nothing divine and
    supernatural about gods as they have been portrayed for millenia!”     
    – Anonymous
    The comment got me thinking about why the notion of divinity and supernatural ability might have been attributed to GODs. I think I possibly got the answer! or may be not! However this is definitely an interesting thought – worth sharing. 

    Scientific Thinking which found its feet has been built on the concept of reasoning. The ability to question and associate a cause and affect relationship has definitely served the human society well. The near exponential growth in the number of invention, and its commercialization that has quickened the pace of economic growth and gotten more CERTAINTY into our lives. 
    Extending this, the possible origin of the notion of God, then has to be on the other extreme – when one feels or experiences UNCERTAINTY. These two observations sort of reinforce my interpretation.
    1. The first one is definitely from my own personal experience of facing uncertainty which is so much a part of the entreprenuerial journey.
    2. The existence of a high belief rate in God in the lower economic strata of society!
     Let me try explain this observation a bit elaborately:
    As an entrepreneur and you will realize the complexity of the issues that (s)he faces from various directions and the limited cognitive ability wouldn’t be completely enough to handle this. Even effectuation strategy, which through its principles provides a very very effective way to handle this entrepreneurial uncertainty, acknowledges the role of surprises (Lemonade Principle). In handling such a high uncertain situation where the distrution is unknown and hence a risk cannot be associated requires one to be positive and optimistic all through – and also believe in the strength of miracles. Miracles that just emerge when you least expect it – while some could attribute it to luck, it could also be attributed to the ability of God to influence things in one’s favor. An extension of the above claim where this relation of uncertainly in business and a religious bent of mind can be seen in most businessmen being devout to a specific deity.
    I also extend this uncertainty to the economically weaker sections of the society, where people have no idea where their next day’s meal would come from! The physical strength, minimum skill and the effort of these people is all that they would need to rely on in being able to sustain themselves on a day to day basis. This is possibly one of the reasons why this section of the society is highly susceptible to religious conversions – when there is a slightly better quality of life could be expected!
    PS: The above is just a thought that I put across and would appreciate your  feedback on the same.

  • Start-up Nation – Dan Senor and Saul Singer

    Israel – the name resonates with a country that is today synonymous with Innovation, Technology,  a Start-up culture that could be the awe of any country!
    Definitely, Israel is unique… is there something that one could learn from this small country that is located in the midst of a hostile neighbors. For a community of people who were displaced from their origins over 2000 years ago, to come back and create an innovation powerhouse, it is nothing less than a miracle! 
    The authors – Dan Senor and Saul Singer have just written a fitting biography of this nation that has rebuilt in the last 6 decades a story of a culture that had to start from scratch and script its prowess as a leading start-up ecosystem. 
    As one who has an interest in entrepreneurship, this book has an interesting combination of history, societal aspects, the economic conditions etc very well written. Right from the genesis of the country to how they seeded each of the industries – the need for innovation, the role played by military, a comparison with startup clusters, and last but not the least the challenges ahead… all so well put across that the reader is just glued to the story.
    I just love this book and would urge every guy interested in entrepreneurship read this book.

  • Choosing your first employee – Attitude over Aptitude

    The first employee of any start up plays a crucial role. It is in fact a process by which the culture of the organization begins. Navigating this challenge is not easy for start-ups!
    Co-Founders typically are seen to be friends or colleagues and it is very often the employee whom they hire that turns out to be the first external person joining the team. While it is possible that the employee might not really be a complete outsider, but someone in what I could call as the latent network (one which we do not access frequently in the course of our work) and pull him into the active network (that which we access very often).
    As someone who has helped a few start ups in their hiring, and seen many others make their choices, I find there are two broad requirements that emerge out as the most required in my opinion:
    1. Willing to push and attempt to think beyond what he/she already knows
    2. Hungry to work hard if need be
    In addition to this, possessing the knowledge and the skill would only add up to the person as positive points.  But the real deal breaker would be hiring a person who is not willing to think knowing his/her limits and having no enthusiasm to learn if it takes. Simply put, I am looking at the right attitude fit before I look at the aptitude fit.
    Knowledge and expertise of an individual could come with a well defined self-image; the start-up founders would need to know, to what extent these would be beneficial for the company and at what level it would be detrimental to the company’s prospects!
    If the employee is one who would take up additional responsibility beyond what is expected of him and executes this it would be an added positives, the founders however should be willing to give this freedom to the employee to explore and work with them.

  • Balance Product Development with Communication

    Many startups work too much on a product but spend little time communicating about their product/services; there are other start-ups which do the other extreme – over communicate but spend little time on product development. As mentioned earlier, working out the communications to synchronize with what you intend to deliver through your product is quintessential.  It is crucial to find a balance in this activity of really doing the work – and talk about the work. 
    In addition to the hard work put on the product the entrepreneur could at a minimum need to have the following as part of his communication activities:
    1. Elevator Pitch – short pitch that covers what the business does and addresses. Ensure it is catching the attention of the listener! Yes, it takes time to perfect this and its only by practice that this gets better.
    2. Short Business Summary – I would prefer a super short summary in a hard copy format – say around A5 size or even the hind of your visiting card that helps communicate what you do really precisely sharply. There are like like hook to the communication exchange done – people could look at this and find use at a later date.
    3. Business Presentation – this is an ever-evolving document. The more time you spend understanding your audience and the more presentations you make – this one only gets better. Spend time working out your presentation – remember getting the right graphic/images could make is just so much more communicating.
    4. A catchy website URL- there is really nothing like a web URL! for the company that clearly defines what you intend to do. This is invariably a one time choice – so think through and work out your thoughts with the name. For those who still believe offline is the only business – spending time online and having a good website could make a enormous difference.
    5. Blog – Developing a habit of blogging pretty regularly is important when you intend to communicate with your audience regularly.
    Start-ups would benefit by devoting time towards a sustained communication effort. It would be ideal for the founding team to sit down on the communication dimension periodically and take stock of what they are trying to pitch right from day one (or even earlier depending on when they are booking their URL). 
    Even as little as 30 minutes a week to re-look at the way you communicate could emerge very fruitful.Keep the audience coming back for more interesting, relevant aspects. So take the time off and get your communication plan worked out.