Entrepreneur's Corner

We all want to be Startup artists. I've been with startups for more than a decade and have shipped products that are deployed worldwide and generating revenue. While it takes a lot to ship a product, I find it refreshing to work with smart people and build successful products and businesses.

Dream it, and you can build it!

A while ago I read an article "Validate your idea before plunging into business world" in India New England (July 16-31, 2006) written by Ms. Sudha Jamthe. It is a very interesting article where she talks about the importance of market validation, value provided by mentors, and the need to have a plan. She also has a blog called "From the eyes of an entrepreneur" (http://coolastory.blogspot.com). I have provided a link on my blog to that site since I think it will be useful of other fellow entrepreneurs.

Several years ago, I was trying to start a company in the wireless mesh area with a couple of other partners. The validation came back negative and we dropped the idea. Today, wireless mesh seems to be picking up. While market validation is a necessary step to take to validate the idea. sometimes it can be misleading if one does not spend the time to do it thoroughly.

As part of starting the company, we had to go through the due diligence meetings scheduled by the VCs. One such meeting was an eye-opener. We were trying to sell our idea and the presentation was lacking the enthusiasm needed. The person doing the due diligence said something that I still carry. He said, "Look, don't try to sell to me. Sell to yourself first. You have to believe that what you are doing is great. Once you are sold, you will have no problem selling it to the world." He went on to give us the reason. He said that going through several years in a startup was going to be a lot of hard work and innumerable sacrifices on the financial, personal, and other fronts. His view is that if there isn't 100% conviction that it is the right thing to do, it will lead to lack of focus, frustration and second guessing if things don't go well.

Another point to be kept in mind is that when you start, it is advisable to make sure that the idea falls into one of the following categories:
1. A disruptive idea (e.g., transistor).
2. A quality of life changing idea (e.g. cell phone).
3. A no-alternative-solution idea.
Of course, underlying all of this is the fact that the idea results in solving some priority issue for the customer.

The other excellent point that Ms. Jamthe raises is the concept of writing an executive summary. I was reminded of my thesis advisor's comments. He used to ask me to write the abstract for a paper before writing up the whole paper. He would also ask me to think about what figures I wanted to use for the paper. And lo and behold, once these two were in place, getting the paper written seemed a lot easier.

An executive summary helps you put down all the key elements of your business. If this is clear enough, then the rest of the business plan can and will evolve over time. All in all, I liked the article and Ms. Jamthe is doing some good service by sharing her thoughts and experiences for the benefit of other entrepreneurs.

The article also covers team selection. The key criteria for the core team is that everyone should have the passion and enthusiasm to take the idea and build it into a business. Ideally, the roles should have minimal overlap. This will make sure that people know their strengths and use the rest of the team to complement their weaknesses. Seasoned (Tier-1) VCs may be willing to fund an A team with even a B+ idea since they believe that the team will convert the B+ idea into an A+ idea.

Finally, one cannot underplay the importance of one or more mentors. A good mentor will be there to listen and provide constructive suggestions/criticisms when asked for and will be stay in the background when all's well. Ms. Jamthe covers this aspect as well in her article.

Walt Disney said, "If you can dream it, you can do it". For those of you wanting to start out as entrepreneurs: listen, learn, adapt, focus and dream it. You will successfully build it!