How a 23-year-old’s battle with cancer is transforming the lives of others

Editor-Himansu Sekhar Samal

This article is sponsored by YesStory
As a student of social entrepreneurship, 23-year-old Sushanth Kodela was an average young man, full of hopes and aspirations, raring to make a difference in the world with his skills and training. But within days of enrolling in a Master’s programme, Kodela was diagnosed with adrenal cortical carcinoma, an aggressive cancer so rare, it afflicts 1-2 people per 1.5 million annually and real numbers of those diagnosed with it remain unknown. “Despite the initial biopsy report, I hoped that, somehow, given my age and the rates of incidence of the illness, I wouldn’t be one of those 2 people,” he says.
The tumour turned out to be malignant, bringing Kodela’s world crashing down. “I was shattered,” he says, describing that long, dark period of his life, “and began to sink into powerlessness and desperation.”


The real victory over cancer is what you make of it
After many gruelling sessions of surgery and radiation, Kodela was declared cancer-free, but not before he and his family went through a harrowing ordeal. “Running around for doctors, diagnostics, reports, and treatment is an inevitable part of the recovery from cancer and a strong support system eased my journey,” he says. What was harder is the havoc cancer can wreak to your spirit. “With a desperate urgency, I began searching for cherished moments in my life when I had done something meaningful. Sadly, none existed.”

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Once he came to terms with his condition, he realised something profound and powerful about it: “I realised that I didn’t have control over my cancer, but I did have control over my life and what I chose to do with it henceforth.” Thus, in his close shave with mortality, Kodela gained a newfound appreciation for life and that was the first step in his journey to real recovery.

Lifting the veil on cancer
But questions about what makes recovery challenging prevailed. Once he was back in college, Kodela and fellow cancer survivor Chiragkumar Patel began assisting other cancer patients to understand their illness better and arrange financial support for treatment. They were faced with inefficient, expensive, and compliance-ridden hospital management systems and inconsistent healthcare information, making navigating treatment alternatives a nightmare, even for the literate and financially secure. “We realised how such factors can compound the hardships of cancer and impede one’s recovery,” he recalls.
These early experiences, bolstered by Kodela’s social entrepreneurship background, led the duo to start unCancer India in 2013 as a support network for people facing cancer – as patients, survivors, or caregivers.
In the English language, the negative prefix ‘un’, besides meaning a lack or an absence of something can also denote a reversal of things or to an action not yet taken. Kodela explains unCancer India’s mission saying, “Cancer can be all-consuming, but we want to help people transcend their disease and undo the damage it has done. Without trivialising cancer, we want to empower people to be able to fight it like they would any other disease rather than be overwhelmed by it and quit.”
He adds, “Very often, people do not want to admit in public that they have cancer for fear of judgment, victimisation and abandonment by family and friends. Many fear losing their jobs, are apprehensive about finding life partners, or worry that their children will inherit their disease and find it hard to get married. So, the afflicted hide behind the disease.”

The importance of support networks in dealing with cancer
unCancer India is founded on the belief that the stigma surrounding the illness can be wiped out only if cancer survivors lead the conversation. Its core mission is to reach out and engage with cancer patients as they chart the path to recovery.
Studies on the role of support networks in overcoming cancer suggest that being amongst people with similar experiences can improve a patient’s quality of life and chances of survival. Such networks are a source of strength and companionship, and give patients a chance to voice and work through their challenges.
Once cancer patients/survivors/caregivers register on its online platform or Facebook page, they are connected with others who are undergoing or have had similar experiences and cancer types. It offers a safe space where people are nudged away from the strong negative conditioning associated with the illness and encouraged to exchange information, share lessons, and inspire others battling cancer. Cancer survivors too are actively encouraged to join the platform and share their experiences to help others battling the illness.
Once on the platform, members receive the personalised guidance of a mentor to support them whenever they need help in overcoming a hurdle. “We are also onboarding specialists in different areas of oncology who can address people’s questions about cancer,” says Kodela.
The team is also working on improving the interface and user experience of its online platform to make information more readily accessible.
WHO data is gruesome in its estimates that there will be 22 million new cases of cancer annually across the world by 2022. Given growing healthcare costs and an infrastructure that’s scarcely prepared to deal with this explosion, organisations like unCancer India will play a crucial role in providing patients with support that hospitals are ill equipped to provide.
“Our ultimate vision,” says Kodela, “is to build an entire ecosystem of care around each individual struggling with cancer – one that will address their concerns in real time, ensure positive outcomes in response to the challenges of living with cancer, and encourage them to become stakeholders in our mission.”

https://youtu.be/Tkq1dGlDGBw

C for Champions
As a young student of social development, Kodela admits he was a little green behind the ears. “I started unCancer with a lot of unrealistic assumptions,” he laughs, “but DBS believed in our mission, invested in us and stood behind us all the way, doing their best to connect us to the right people and resources and learning from us in the process. Add to this the unwavering support of its incubation centre at his alma mater, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, and the duo were able to safely experiment with new ideas. “The interest and investment in social enterprises is encouraging and we hope this ecosystem to support social enterprises flourishes in our country,” he adds.

As part of the Livestrong Foundation’s Big C Competition, which awards innovative solutions to improving the lives of people facing cancer, unCancer’s business model was selected as one of the top five global innovations. Its solutions were recognised as highly impactful and the duo emerged runner ups in the global challenge. The exposure provided the fillip the fledgling startup needed to push ahead and bring a ray of hope to the lives of so many afflicted by cancer.
If you are (or know) a cancer survivor or someone who has cared for persons with cancer and wish to help others in their fight against it, contact uncancerindia@gmail.com.

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14000 रुपए से कंपनी शुरू कर विनीत बाजपेयी ने तय किया 'शून्य' से 'शिखर' तक का अद्भुत-सफर

Editor-Himansu Sekhar Samal

इसमें कोई संदेह नहीं है कि इंसान की सफलता में ‘किस्मत’ का एक अहम किरदार होता है पर वो उस पर 'आश्रित' नहीं होता। सफलता की ‘इमारत’ में जितना जरूरी ‘किस्मत का सीमेंट’ है उससे ज्यादा अधिक महत्वपूर्ण है उसकी नींव और दीवारें, जो इंसान अपने मजबूत इरादों और दृढ़ निश्चय से बनाता है। प्रामाणिकता के तौर पर आप ‘मेगनोन ग्रुप’ के संस्थापक एवं चेयरमेन विनीत बाजपेयी के ‘शून्य’ से ‘शिखर’ तक के प्रेरणादायक सफर पर नजर डाल सकते हैं। 'आसमान से आगे’ किताब लिखने वाले विनीत बाजपेयी का परिचय उनकी किताब के शीर्षक से काफी मिलता है। वह अपने जीवन मे सबसे पहले एक ‘लक्ष्य’ को निर्धारित करते हैं। फिर ‘जुनून’ और ‘जज्बे’ के साथ, उसे पाने के लिए जी-जान से लग जाते हैं। वह आज के दौर के उन सफल युवा उद्यमियों मे शामिल हैं जिन्होने अपने स्टार्ट-अप की शुरुआत एक छोटी सी पूंजी के साथ की और कुछ समय मे ही उसे एक ‘ब्रांड’ बना ‘डिजिटल-मार्केट’ मे स्थापित कर दिया।

विनीत बाजपेयी ने, महज 22 साल की उम्र में, अपने बिजनेस की शुरुआत 14,000 रुपए के साथ की थी। कहते हैं संघर्ष के बिना सफलता नहीं मिलती। विनीत इस ‘कथन’ को अच्छे से समझते थे।  दिल्ली विश्वविध्यालय से अर्थशास्त्र में स्नातक और प्रतिष्ठित लाल बहादुर शास्त्री प्रबंधन संस्थान से एमबीए करने वाले विनीत ने ‘स्थायी नौकरी’ और ‘संघर्ष’ में, ‘संघर्ष’ को ही अपना साथी चुना। वह जीई कैपिटल में कार्य कर रहे थे उसी दौरान उन्होनें डिजिटल एजेंसी ‘मेगनोन’ की परिकल्पना को साकार रूप दिया। वह एक स्थायी-नौकरी कर रहे थे। जिसमें पूरी संभावना थी कि आगे चल कर उन्हें पदोन्नति मिलती और उनकी तनख़्वाह भी बढ़ती।
लेकिन विनीत के मन मे तो कुछ और ही चल रहा था। वह कुछ ‘अपना’ करना चाहते थे। शायद उन्हें अपनी क़ाबिलियत पर पूरा भरोसा था। उन्होंने बिना देर किए, जीई -कैपिटल से नौकरी छोड़ी और अपने दोस्तों के साथ साल 2000 मे ‘मेगनोन’ की नींव रख दी। फिर क्या था, विनीत के कुशल नेतृत्व और मार्गदर्शन में ‘मेगनोन ग्रुप’ एक के बाद एक मुकाम हासिल किए जा रहा था। विनीत बाजपेयी, ‘डिजिटल वर्ल्ड’ मे एक नाम बन गया था। विनीत के ग्रुप ‘मेगनोन’ ने बड़े-बड़े डिजिटल-प्रोजेक्ट अपने बना लिए थे।
मेगनोन ग्रुप के राजस्व के आंकडों मे (पीछे लग रहे ‘जीरों’ मे) लगातार बढ़ोतरी जारी थी। जिसका सिलसिला बदस्तूर चलता रहा। विनीत ने योरस्टोरी को बताया,

"शुरुआती दौर में मूलभूत संसाधनों के नाम पर ‘मेगनोन’ के पास एक जेनेरेटर वाला कमरा, दो किराए के कम्प्युटर और दो सहकर्मी थे। लेकिन इन सबसे ज्यादा बड़ी चीज़ जो हमारे पास थी वो था हौसला। हमें पता था कि सही दिशा में काम करने पर सफलता अवश्य मिलेगी" 

वर्तमान मे ‘मेगनोन ग्रुप’ की कंपनियों मेगनोन\टीबीडबल्यूए और मेगनोन ईजीप्लस के दिल्ली, मुंबई और बेंगलुरु जैसे महानगरों मे ऑफिस हैं। 250 से ज्यादा पेशेवर (प्रॉफेशनल) मेगनोन-ग्रुप मे कार्यरत हैं। नैस्कॉम की सदस्यता वाले, आईएसओ 9001 से प्रमाणित, मेगनोन-ग्रुप के पास हायर, डाइकिन, हुंडई, हैवलेट-पैकर्ड और स्टैंडर्ड चार्टर्ड बैंक और इतिहाद जैसे बड़े ‘क्लाइंट’ है।
साल 2012 मे विनीत बाजपेयी को एक और बड़ी सफलता मिली थी। विश्व के डिजिटल वर्ल्ड के प्रतिष्ठित नाम ‘टीबीडबल्यूए ग्रुप’ (जो फोरचून 500 ओमिनीकोम ग्रुप का भाग है) ने मेगनोन ग्रुप का अधिग्रहण कर लिया। अधिग्रहण के बाद भी, विनीत मेगनोन के ग्रुप-सीईओ बने रहे। यही नहीं, मार्च 2014 मे ‘टीबीडबल्यूए’ ने विनीत को, उनके विशाल अनुभव और कुशल नेतृत्व-क्षमता को देखते हुए, टीबीडबल्यूए इंडिया ग्रुप का मुख्य कार्यपालन अधिकारी (सीईओ) नियुक्त कर किया था। वह इस पद पर नवम्बर 2015 तक रहे। अब विनीत मेगनोन ग्रुप के ‘चेयरमेन’ की जिम्मेदारी संभाल रहे हैं।

टीबीडबल्यूए के अंतराष्ट्रीय अध्यक्ष कीथ स्मिथ के साथ मेगनोन के चेयरमेन विनीत बाजपेयी 

2014 मे इंपेक्ट पत्रिका की डिजिटल इंडस्ट्री के 100 प्रभावी लोगों की सूची मे विनीत शामिल थे। 2013 मे सिलिकॉन इंडिया पत्रिका ने अपने आवरण पृष्ठ पर विनीत को भारतीय मीडिया का नया पोस्टर बॉय बताया। विनीत को कई अवार्ड भी मिले। वह 2013 मे लाल बहादुर शास्त्री (कॉर्पोरेट एक्सिलेंस) अवार्ड, 2012 मे एमिटी (कॉर्पोरेट एक्सिलेंस) अवार्ड, 2011 मे सीएनबीसी टीवी मर्सिडीज बेंज़ यंग तुर्क अवार्ड और एशिया पेसिफिक उद्यमी अवार्ड से नवाज़े जा चुके हैं।
हाल मे ही विनीत ने अपने एक नए उपक्रम ‘टैलंटट्रैक’ की घोषणा की है। विनीत ने बताया कि 'टैलंटट्रैक’ एक ऐसा परस्पर संवादात्मक मंच हैं जहां मीडिया, कला और रंगमंच जगत से जुड़ी प्रतिभाएँ अपने ‘हुनर के प्रोफ़ाइल’ का पंजीकरण करा अपने लिए अवसर तलाश सकते हैं। इस 'अभिनव-मंच' को इंडस्ट्री से जबर्दस्त प्रतिक्रिया मिली है। अभी तक 30,000 से ज्यादा हुनरबाजों ने अपने हुनर का पंजीकरण 'टैलंटट्रैक' पर कराया है। विनीत कहते हैं, 

"देश मे प्रतिभाओं का भण्डार है। यहाँ लोगों मे असीम प्रतिभा और हुनर है। कुछ लोगो को मौका मिलता है। कुछ लोग अवसर के न मिलने से निराश हो जाते हैं। 'टैलंटट्रैक' 'हुनरबाजों' के लिए उनकी प्रतिभानुसार अवसर दिलाने का 'जरिया' (ब्रिज) बनेगा। हम 'टैलंटट्रैक' के मंच से लोगो को 'स्टार' बनाएँगे।"

विनीत में सकारात्मकता और तत्परता कूट-कूट कर भरी है। अपनी इस सफल उद्यमी-यात्रा के दौरान विनीत ने (अंग्रेज़ी भाषा मे) प्रबंधन पर दो किताबें ‘द स्ट्रीट टू द हाइवे’ एवं ‘बिल्ड फ़्रोम द स्क्रैच’ भी लिखी। जिसके बाद हिन्दी मे उनकी किताब ‘आसमान से आगे’ भी आई। उनकी किताबों को समाज के हर वर्ग (मुख्यत: उद्यमी-वर्ग) से काफी प्रशंसा भी मिली है । इन किताबों के माध्यम से विनीत युवा उद्यमियों को अपना बिजनेस आगे बढ़ाने के लिए प्रेरित करते हैं। वह बताते हैं कि

"एक छोटे बिजनेस को बड़ा बनाया जा सकता है। बस जरूरत है आत्मविश्वास की और एक ‘जुनून’ की जो आपको बहुत आगे ले जा सकता है। अगर आपके हाथ मे किसी कार्य की कमान सौंपी जाती है तो सबसे पहला काम आपके लिए आपके ‘अभिवृत्ति’ मे परिवर्तन करने की होती है। आपकी अभिवृत्ति होनी चाहिए, न तो मैं आराम करूँगा और न ही आपको आराम करने दूँगा”। 

विनीत बताते हैं कि किसी भी स्टार्ट-अप को बढ़ाने के लिए किसी ‘विशेष-रणनीति’ की जरूरत नहीं होती। आपकी मेहनत और समर्पण आपको खुद ब खुद सफलता की रोशनी का ‘प्रकाश’ दिखाएगा।
विनीत कहते है,

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“मेरा लक्ष्य दुनिया के उस आखिरी इंसान को शिक्षित करना है जो पढ़ना चाहते हैं, जिनके पास संसाधन की कमी है”

Editor - Himansu sekhar Samal

इंसान की जीवन-यात्रा किसी शतरंज के खेल की तरह ही होती है। हर कदम पर उसको अपनी ‘चाल’ का ‘हिसाब’ रखना पड़ता है। मसलन जीवन के खेल में मुकद्दर का ‘सिकन्दर’ वही बनता है जिसकी ‘चाल’ के पीछे एक ‘खयाल’ (विचार) होता है। इसी साल प्रतिष्ठित फोर्ब्स पत्रिका की, 30 उम्र से कम के दुनिया के प्रभावशाली युवाओं, की सूची में शामिल होने वाले सामाजिक उद्यमी डेक्स्टेरिटी ग्लोबल के संस्थापक एवं मुख्य कार्यपालन अधिकारी (सीईओ) शरद सागर की अप्रत्याशित और गौरवपूर्ण सफलता इस बात को सत्यापित भी करती है। यह एक ‘विचार’ (आइडिया) ही था जिसने ‘डेक्स्टेरिटी ग्लोबल’ की नींव रखी थी। विचार था सबको ‘साक्षर’ बनाने का, उन लोगों तक शिक्षा के अवसर पहुंचाने का जो किसी न किसी वजह से ‘जरूरी-शिक्षा’ से वंचित रह जा रहे थे। आपने देश में कई तरह के शिक्षा अभियानों के बारें में सुना होगा। शरद, देश ही नहीं, समूचे विश्व को शिक्षित करने के ‘मिशन’ में लगे हुए हैं। उनके इस अभियान को आप ‘वैश्विक साक्षरता कार्यक्रम’ भी कह सकते हैं।
बड़े सपने देखने की शुरुआत
शरद सागर की जीवन यात्रा अपने आप में प्रेरणादायक है। शरद, बिहार के एक छोटे शहर से आते हैं। शरद ने योरस्टोरी को बताया, 

"आप कह सकते हैं मैंने सीमित संसाधनों के साथ अपरिमितीय सपनों की वो उड़ान उडी है जो लाखों लोगों के सपनों को (आकार देकर) साकार बनाने में एक निर्णायक भूमिका निभाएगी। मेरा लक्ष्य दुनिया के उस आखिरी इंसान को शिक्षा से ‘सशक्त’ करना है जो पढ़ना चाहते हैं और पर्याप्त संसाधनों के न होने की वजह से आगे नहीं बढ़ पा रहे हैं। मैंने देखा है कि कैसे मेरे माता-पिता को ताउम्र पहले अपनी पढ़ाई के लिए, फिर मेरी पढ़ाई के लिए संघर्ष करना पड़ा था।"

शरद ने योरस्टोरी को बताया, 

"डेक्स्टेरिटी ग्लोबल एक ऐसी दुनिया का निर्माण करना चाहता है, जहां शिक्षा का वास्तविक रूप में लोकतंत्रीकरण हो सके, जहां कोई (छात्र) बच्चा अपनी शैक्षिक यात्रा में बिना किसी बाधा के आगे बढ़ सके, अभिभावकों को अपने बच्चों को स्कूल भेजने और भूखा रहने में, किसी एक विकल्प के चुनाव के लिए, मजबूर न होना पड़े।" 

वह बताते हैं कि इन्हीं उद्देश्यों की पूर्ति के लिए ही डेक्स्टेरिटी ग्लोबल ने अपनी आर्थिक मदद नीति को आकार दिया है, जो कहती है 

“अगर आप (शिक्षा के लिए) अदा कर सकते हैं, तो करिए, अथवा डेक्स्टेरिटी ग्लोबल आपके लिए अदा करेगी”। 

शरद बताते हैं कि डेक्स्टेरिटी ग्लोबल की स्थापना के पीछे उनकी एक दिली-मंशा थी, जिसके तहत वह इस मंच से सुनिश्चित करना चाहते थे कि किसी भी अभिभावक को अपने बच्चों की शिक्षा (या उससे संबन्धित अवसरों) के लिए उन परिस्थितियों से न जूझना पड़े, जिससे उनके माता-पिता को गुजरना पड़ा था। वह कहते हैं कि सभी को शिक्षा से जुड़ी तमाम संभावनाओं के अवसर (बिना किसी आर्थिक एवं सामाजिक बंधन के) समान मिलने चाहिए।
डेक्स्टेरिटी ग्लोबल की स्थापना
शरद ने डेक्स्टेरिटी ग्लोबल की स्थापना 2008 में की थी। जब वह हाईस्कूल में थे। पिछले 8 सालों में डेक्स्टेरिटी ग्लोबल ने लोगों को शैक्षिक- अवसर प्रदान कर उन्हें सामर्थ्यवान बनाने का काम किया है। डेक्स्टेरिटी ग्लोबल का मिशन दुनिया के हर बच्चे को उचित शिक्षा के अवसर प्रदान करवाना है। डेक्स्टेरिटी ग्लोबल ने अपने अभिनव शैक्षिक-मंचों के माध्यम से अभी तक लगभग 1.2 मिलियन ज़िंदगियों को प्रभावित किया है। भविष्य की योजनाओं पर बात करते हुए शरद बताते हैं कि उन्हें उम्मीद है कि आने वाले सालों में डेक्स्टेरिटी ग्लोबल की पहुँच (हर सार्क देश से गुजरते हुए) 200 मिलियन के अंक को पार कर जाएगी। इसी नीति के तहत ही डेक्स्टेरिटी ग्लोबल ने 10 मिलियन डॉलर की छात्रवृति और फीस माफ़ी प्रदान की है। वह कहते हैं कि 

"हम अपने मंचों को पश्चिम अफ्रीका और लैटिन अमेरिका तक पहुंचाना चाहते हैं। क्योंकि डेक्स्टेरिटी ग्लोबल का एकमात्र उद्देश्य दुनिया के हर बच्चे को शिक्षा के उचित अवसर प्रदान कराना है, इससे फर्क नहीं पड़ता कि वे (दुनिया के किस कोने मे) कहाँ रहते हैं और उनके अभिभावक क्या कमाते हैं।"

शरद सागर-डेक्स्टेरिटी ग्लोबल 

महज 16 साल की उम्र में डेक्स्टेरिटी ग्लोबल की शुरुआत करने वाले शरद बताते हैं कि उनके लिए इनती छोटी उम्र में (डेक्स्टेरिटी ग्लोबल की) टीम बनाना आसान नहीं था। वह बताते हैं कि उनके लिए (हाईस्कूल की पढ़ाई करते हुए) लोगो की (डेक्स्टेरिटी ग्लोबल में ) भर्ती करना और पेशेवर लोगो (जिनकी उम्र उनसे 10 से 15 साल बड़ी थी) को संभालना इतना आसान नहीं था। शरद कहते हैं,

"अभिभावक से अध्यापक तक, सरकार से लोकल एवं वैश्विक संस्थाओं तक, आज के दौर में कौन एक हाईस्कूल छात्र की बात सुनता है, लेकिन अगर आप अपने ‘काम’ पर पूरा विश्वास रखते हैं, तो आप लोगों को अपने ‘विजन’ पर विश्वास दिलाने में कामयाब रहते हैं।"

डेक्स्टेरिटी ग्लोबल का विस्तार
डेक्स्टेरिटी ग्लोबल ने 2012 में डेक्स स्कूल की स्थापना की, जो दक्षिण एशिया का (अपनी तरह का) पहला ऐसा स्कूल हैं जहां हाईस्कूल के छात्रों को ‘नेतृत्व और उद्यमिता’ की पढ़ाई कराई जाती है। दक्षिण एशिया के अलग-अलग जगहों से, करीबन 120 छात्र यहाँ से स्नातक हो, आज दुनिया में बड़े-बड़े काम कर रहे हैं। यहाँ के बच्चों ने यूएन युवा साहस अवार्ड से लेकर अमेरिका के विश्वविद्यालयों की छात्रवृत्तियां जीती है। डेक्सस्कूल से निकले बच्चे आज सफल स्टार्ट -अप चला रहे हैं। कई अपने देशों के यूएनईपी एंबेसडर हैं। पिछले आठ सालों मे, डेक्स्टेरिटी ग्लोबल नासा, यूनिसेफ़, यूएनईपी, यूएस कॉन्सुलेट जनरल, निजी बैंकों, प्रतिष्ठित विश्वविद्यालयों और मीडिया घरानों के साथ काम कर चुकी है। इतना ही नहीं, 2015 में डेक्स्टेरिटी ग्लोबल ने बॉलीवुड अभिनेत्री काजल अग्रवाल को अपना ‘गुडविल-एंबेसडर’ बनाया, जिससे हर जरूरतमन्द बच्चे तक जरूरी शैक्षिक अवसर पहुंचाया जा सके।

स्टार्ट-अप्स को सलाह
युवा उद्यमियों को संदेश देते हुए शरद कहते हैं कि वास्तव में एक ‘उद्यमी’ ‘समस्या निवारक’ है। वह कहते हैं,

"चाहे कोई भी बिजनेस (स्टार्ट-अप) हो, उसमें लाभ हो या न हो, अगर वो दुनिया की कोई ऐसी समस्या दूर करता है जो उसे (दुनिया को) और अच्छा और समृद्ध बनाती है, तो मान लीजिये आप सही रास्ते पर हैं। आप चाहे प्रौद्योगिकी से जुड़ी कंपनी (स्टार्ट अप) चलाते हैं या फिर किफ़ायती दरों की सेवाओं वाला स्वास्थ्य से जुड़ा स्टार्ट-अप, अगर आपकी कंपनी का ‘उद्देश्य’ और ‘विजन’ लोगों (कर्मचारियों या टीम) को बांधे रखता है, तो आप (उद्यमी) जरूर कामयाब होते हैं। चीजों को केवल करने के लिए मत कीजिये। स्टार्ट-अप की शुरुआत में आप (उद्यमी) लोगो की ज्यादा न सुनें, असफलता के बारें में ज्यादा न सोचें। अगर आप में काबिलियत और जुनूनी नेतृत्व- क्षमता है, तो ऐसा कोई मिशन नहीं जिसे आप पूरा नहीं कर सकते।"

उपलब्धियां
शरद की बड़ी एवं विशेष उपलब्धियों में उनका अमेरिका की मिशिगन स्टेट विश्वविद्यालय के उद्यमी- पाठ्यक्रम (सिलेबस) में शामिल होना है। शायद ही कोई युवा उद्यमी इससे पहले किसी विश्वविद्यालय की पाठ्यचर्या का हिस्सा बना है। शरद को चौथे ग्लोबल इकनॉमिक लीडर्स सम्मिट का भी विशेष एवं वीआईपी आमंत्रण मिला था। उन्हे यूएन वर्ल्ड सम्मिट यूथ अवार्ड मिला है। वह भारत का प्रतिनिधित्व, बांग्लादेश, भारत, दक्षिण कोरिया और श्रीलंका में हुए यूएन सम्मिट में कर चुके हैं।

शरद इतनी कम उम्र में कई वैश्विक संस्थाओं द्वारा पुरस्कृत और सम्मानित हो चुके हैं। इसी साल जनवरी में, फोर्ब्स की (प्रभावशाली युवाओं की) अंडर 30 की 30 की सूची में शरद शामिल थे। इस सूची में शरद के अलावा फेसबुक के संस्थापक मार्क जकरबर्ग, नोबेल पुरस्कार विजेता मलाला युसुफ़ज़ई, इन्सटगरम संस्थापक केविन सिस्टरोम जैसे बड़े नाम शामिल थे। यूके आधारित पत्रिका रिच्टोपीया द्वारा जारी, दुनिया के 100 शक्तिशाली युवा उद्यमियों की सूची में, शरद 9वें स्थान पर थे। रोकफेल्लर फ़ाउंडेशन की 100 ‘नैक्सट सेंचुरी इन्नोवटोरस’ की सूची में भी शरद शामिल थे। जून 2015 में, ताइवान सरकार ने भी उनके कार्यों की प्रशंसा की। ताइवान के मंत्री ने (इटली) मिलान में सोशल एंटरप्राइज़ वर्ल्ड फॉरम में बोलते हुए शरद का नाम (सामाजिक उद्यम के जनक माने जाने वाले) बिल ड्रायटोन के साथ लिया गया।
डेक्स्टेरिटी की आधिकारिक वैबसाइट : www.dexglobal.org
शरद सागर का आधिकारिक फेसबुक पेज : www.facebook.com/sharadsagarofficial
फोर्ब्स की अंडर 30 की सूची : http://www.forbes.com/30-under-30-2016/social-entrepreneurs/
दुनिया के 100 शक्तिशाली युवा उद्यमियों की सूची: http://richtopia.com/people/young-entrepreneurs

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Making a global product from the bedroom at 18: journey of Shalin Jain, founder Happyfox

Editor-Himansu Sekhar Samal

In the recent decade, entrepreneurship has been on the rise and instead of securing plush corporate careers with MNCs Indians are taking up the entrepreneurial route at a very young age.
Over the past five years, the overall ecosystem for startups has improved remarkably with access to better infrastructure, mentorship, PR/media and of course capital pool among several others. But imagine the case of Shalin Jain (@Shalin10) who started his venture, Tenmiles (now Happyfox), a customer-support and help desk software from Chennai in 2000 while still in college.
At 18, Shalin was totally driven by the passion to create products that are loved all over the world. In 1999, when he was just 17, he had a job with a technology startup that had over 100 employees. “I was the youngest in the company and was working really hard. I started skipping every possible class that wasn’t interesting in college,” says Shalin. But soon his attendance in college fell short and he had to leave his part time job.

Within a week, Shalin got an offer letter from another company but he didn’t take that up as it was far from his house. “At that point starting up was the only option left for me and in 2000 I launched Tenmiles from my bedroom,” says Shalin. Tenmiles spun out it’s fastest growing product in customer service segment into a all new entity – HappyFox.
To unravel the entrepreneurial journey of Shalin, YourStory spoke to him over email and Skype. He spoke on various aspects like challenges while starting up in early 2000, shifting base to the US and his profound love for music and piano.
YS: You started very early (at 18) when the trend of starting up was not popular in India. What exactly motivated you?
SJ: One of the best programmers I knew in Chennai was my neighbour. I persuaded him to code an app for me. He worked with me only on weekends and helped me turn my first idea into a product. He also started his company during his college and I was in awe of the possibility of doing something like that.
YS: Take us through your journey so far as a techie and an entrepreneur.
SJ: I love to design and create useful products that appeal to larger markets. From our latest release, HappyFox, to our first product Screenswift in 2001, we have built a bunch of successful products that people love to use.
I grew tremendously from each product that we built and released. Every product we launched got better. Our early success got us lot of interesting people coming on-board.
Starting my company from my bedroom and making it global has been a memorable experience. But everyday it only feels like you have just started. There is so much more to learn and do.
As an entrepreneur, I have learnt that the most important assets of a company are its people and culture. Without having this done right you can just be another run-of-the-mill business.
YS: Tell us about your initial struggle and challenges?
SJ:  I had to quit my day job to satisfy my university attendance requirements and keep my grades attractive for a fancy B-school entry. Soon after I quit, I had another offer waiting for me with more flexible work timings. But there was one silly thing stopping me from saying yes; the commute. Tenmiles (16 kms) was actually the distance I didn’t want to travel for the job I got during my early college days. I know it sounds silly now but that made me start something of my own and call it, Tenmiles.
One of my biggest challenges was to hire for the product startup in the age of booming IT services businesses. But I started to approach the problem differently and I was able to find people from different avenues, with inclination to create meaningful products, the push to learn whatever is required to make a difference and not particularly be influenced by the attractive yet monotonous lifestyle of their peers.
YS: We hear that you love music and can play the piano. How do they help you in your work?
SJ:  I loved playing the piano and writing music. It helped me stay focused and choose my way to express myself. I met some really amazing people and collaborated with them to make albums. In startup-speak, I got a co-founder and produced an album which we could never release. We started approaching music companies (I wish we had iTunes in 98-99) but just ended up pivoting to selling them as jingles for ads and also as a score for a documentary film. Isn’t this so relatable to how tech startups pivot? I am happy I learnt doing this in high school.
YS: Last year, HappyFox moved to the US. What differences do you see in the organization after moving there from Chennai?
Shalin Jain: HappyFox is a customer-support and help desk software suitable for enterprises and startups.  It is our flagship product and one of the fastest growing products that has come from Tenmiles. Most of our customers come from the US and there is lot of interest for our product from this part of the world. So it is natural that we moved there. We started operations here a year ago to serve our customers better.
We now meet our customers face-to-face, more often, and that alone has had a remarkable impact on our product and marketing strategy.
YS: How has the Indian startup ecosystem evolved over the past five years?
SJ: The ecosystem in India has emerged really well in the last five years. There are so many more events, meet ups, blogs and resources, co-sharing workspaces, awards, media attention, venture funding and overall the sheer volume of startups is remarkable. The growing ecosystem has made it easier for entrepreneurs to get the right kind of support, think big and achieve it.

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After a Rs 3Cr pre-Series A round, Collegedunia looks to leverage India’s mobile population

Editor-Himansu SekharSamal

College search engine Collegedunia recently raised a Rs 3-crore pre-Series A round, to spruce up its mobile offering for tech-savvy millennials, who form its target market. The funding, from Umang Kumar, Co-founder and CEO of Gaadi.com, will be deployed for product development and team hiring. After noticing a steady increase in mobile web traffic on its platform, the startup recently launched its Android app, with an iOS version currently under development.

Collegedunia collates information on higher education in India and abroad and currently claims to feature 20,000 colleges, institutes and universities, with data on one million fees structure on its platform. It covers areas like fee, placement, alumni record, rankings, awards and extra-curricular activities, and claims to average 60,000 visits every day across mobile and web platforms.

Story so far

The core team

Founded in 2014 by Sahil Chalana (28), Collegedunia now consists of a team of 100 with an average age of 25 years. Sahil, a 2010 BITS Pilani graduate, initially started an education forms startup – getmyform.in. While they achieved success by helping build 3.14 Digital, the startup did not work out in the long run and the founders parted ways.
Sahil then noticed that there was a huge gap in the data collated and the quality of information being sought by college aspirants in the pre-admission sessions. So, along with his team, he pivoted on their existing model and worked on lead generation for educational institutes and launched Collegedunia.
After bootstrapping for about six months, the startup raised Rs 1 crore in angel funding from Gaadi.com CEO Umang Kumar and other undisclosed investors in November 2014. Some of the key members include-
Himanshu Jain, a PEC Chandigarh graduate who helped build TrulyMadly from scratch is currently the CTO at Collegedunia. Nishit Kumar, an ex-employee at IDS Infotech leads Collegedunia’s content, and built it from scratch to the current 30-member team. Ashish Kumar, an NIT Jalandar gradudate, leads operations and helped build and grow Collegedunia’s mailer and affiliate business. Sanjay Meena, a DCE graduate and ex-Career 360 employee, leads Collegedunia’s sales efforts.
Positioned as a platform for college research where students can explore and compare their future study destinations it offers State and city-wise listing of top colleges and universities with reviews and ratings. Collegedunia also puts efforts into maintaining its user interface and experience and caters to three major sections currently. The college section provides information on course fees, placement, admission etc., with 30,000 reviews of 9,000 colleges. The exam section gives info on 18 streams, along with practice papers and tips, while the course section provides details on over 6,000 courses available across India.
The startup’s current revenue model relies solely on ads. But, going forward, it aims to add more revenue streams, with an online marketplace for preparation material. Collegedunia currently counts NIIT Group, Educomp Business Schools, NMIMS, Alliance Business School, Lovely Professional University, British Council, IDP Global as its clients.

Mobile app strategy

With about 38 percent of its traffic coming from mobile, the startup believes that mobile as a platform can contribute to exponential growth. Sahil says,

College search is the second most important thing for a student and we aim to be the mobile personal admission assistant to the student during his admission hassle.

Collegedunia sees the most traction for engineering and management-related queries, but is also seeing other avenues like law and fashion picking up. With a mobile app, the startup aims to provide a more personalised experience to users and ensure that users get access to relevant information at the right time.
The app allows users to set up their profile and explore colleges based on different filters such as locations, streams and substreams. Users can also explore colleges based on custom filters such as facilities, placements, male-to-female proportion, best ROI etc.

Sector overview

The Indian education market is estimated to be worth $100 billion and is poised to witness major growth in the years to come as the country will have the world’s largest tertiary-age population and second-largest graduate talent pipeline globally by the end of 2020.
The total amount of foreign direct investments (FDI) inflow into the education sector in India stood at around $ 1,200 million from April 2000 to June 2015, according to data from Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP).
Some of the interesting players in this space include, Careers360, which raised an angel round in 2014, and more recently, in December 2015, acquired Mumbai-based NoPaperForms.
Online test preparation startup Toppr has made two acquisitions so far, with Manch in Febraury 2016, being the most recent. Another interesting development in the education space was when Khan Academy partnered with Tata Trusts last December, to create specialised, freely available online content tailor-made for India.

Future plans

Collegedunia aims to reach one lakh visitors per day and cross one million installs in the next six months. Its long term vision for the next 12 months is to cater to the end-to-end needs of students looking for admissions in India. It then wants to replicate the same model abroad and venture into online counselling.
With about 25,000 installs in two months, Collegedunia is optimistic about its mobile growth and aims to offer counselling services through its app in the future. While it currently offers information about 20,000 colleges across India, the startup hopes to double the figure by the end of 2016.

YourStory take

India holds an important place in the global education industry, and is estimated to have more than 1.4 million schools, with over 227 million students enrolled and more than 36,000 higher education institutes. With mobile gaining widespread adoption in the taxi and e-commerce industry already, it is most likely the next turf for edtech startups to fight it out in the near future.
The education sector unlike most other sectors in India is not affected by price consciousness. Indians are generally willing to pay a premium for accurate and timely information related to education, so there is a tremendous opportunity in this sector. With 20,000 colleges and institutes covered, Collegedunia has a good opportunity to cash in and also help better the lives of millions of aspiring students.
Website- collegedunia.com

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Apple : Return of the Ord

 
 
 

A visit to the iconic Apple store at 5th Avenue in New York can be somewhat overwhelming for a first time visitor- given the design, size and sheer size of the crowd there. Having said that, if the crowd doesn’t unnerve you, the confusion will! An innocuous question like “which Macbook model to choose” can put the friendly store assistant totally off guard! The MacBook Air is a good choice but has an under powered processor and no retina display, Macbook is good but somewhat heavy and expensive and MacBook Pro? Not an easy answer to get. After staring at the roof for a full 2 minutes and asking twice about usage pattern, the helpful assistant throws up his hands in despair and shrugs his shoulders with the profound advice- “Don’t Know!”. Suddenly the realisation hits with a deep sinking feeling that Steve Jobs is gone, and is gone forever.

Image: wikipedia

The signs which became loud and clear last week to the world with the launch of the iPhone SE became somewhat obvious to Wall Street some six months back when Apple started trading at an earning multiple of 9 (a steel mill or cement plant might command a better earnings multiple).

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However the signs of Jobs absence were visible much before Wall Street latched on. The launch of iPhone 5 C signaled the first break from the Apple philosophy, way back in Sept 2013.

Apple, to most of us, was is  almost the final word when it comes to product design, seamless consumer experience, imagination, and yes, perfection. And perhaps, that mysterious but pleasant surprise feature/s in each product. This was achieved by not aiming to make analysts and strategists happy, but by completely focusing on user experience with Apple products – starting from packaging to fonts to casing to design to overall manufacturing and feel of the product.

All this core user experience was achieved not only by keeping a relentless focus on every aspect of product design / manufacturing but by  keeping the number of products low. Apple is was probably the only company in the world with such a large balance sheet size (USD 424 Billion Market Cap, 37% EBITDA margin, USD 170 billion cash reserve) and such a limited range of products and equally limited models. Probably told us a thing or two about focus or rather Zen-like-focus!!!

However, the launch of iPhone 5C signaled a decisive shift from this Apple belief, and the Apple 5C symbolizes everything which Apple was not.

Describing the Zen of Steve Jobs, Jeff Yang in his weekly column “Tao Jones” describes the impact of Zen teachings in Job’s work and style, and how Jobs was as proud of the things that Apple didn’t do as he was of the things it did. One of the things which Steve Jobs definitely didn’t like was having a bunch of never ending models designed to capture every segment of the market.

With the launch of iPhone 5C, Apple started to move from user obsession to market obsession where it no longer aimed to delight its users but wished to service number-crunching analysts in order to justify its share price / market cap / valuation and those crazy EBITDA multiples. Suddenly from being a minimal product company, Apple morphed into a company with endless models in each category. There were multiple screen sizes, colours and multiple processor types for each product without any clear differentiation or user delight. There were classics, pro light, S, SE, C, models without numbers, model with numbers and models with multiple scene sizes! While Apple sales continue to grow with additions to each category, somewhere during the journey Apple has lost the plot of innovation. What do you conclude when its biggest achievement since the launch of iPad in 2010 is not any new design but a pink coloured iPhone!

Hence, iPhone 5C or SE or 6 or 6S are not the continuity of same series of models but rather symbolize the break from whatever Apple had been so far. Over this period, Apple has ceased to exist as a bold company driven by a Zen practitioner, which dared to imagine the future and create it.

Instead, now the boardroom is filled by a timid group of managers who find the legacy too big to hold and wish to get approval from analyst reports, focus groups, journalist views, and hide behind the fig leaf of banality, and aim to build by not imagining but looking at everybody else for guidance. In that sense, the Apple of yesterday is gone forever and is taken over again by the era of ordinary, which touched Apple in 1985 and almost killed it, but for Steve Jobs. Alas – he is no more!

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5 lessons startups need to learn from Value Investing

16 March 2016

EDITOR - HIMANSU SEKHAR SAMAL

Warren Buffet – The Value Investing champion with US President Barack Obama

Several books have been written on the subject of Value Investing. Warren Buffett himself has been a flag bearer of this philosophy. People who do not understand the stock market consider it the equivalent of a casino. A place full of madness where people are looking to get rich quick without proper research and homework. Similarly, in the startup space, there will be a time when you will see people starting up in a sector because there is a huge mindshare and talk in the media about that particular sector, its people or the funding. The real reason, which is to solve a problem, often gets lost in the hype.

Startups function in a similar manner to Value Investing. While Value Investing sounds like a heavy term, it can be simplified as the old school method of investing money. Let us explore what makes it so simple and how it can help us in our startups.

1. Never lose money: According to Warren Buffett, the first rule of Investing is to never lose money. Warren Buffet does not advocate the high-risk-high return principle. And he is quite right. High-risk-high-return glorifies those who make the high return, but forgets to talk about those who risked everything and lost. Even in startups, where everyone says one in 10 survives, the biggest reason for failure is capital running out. Being frugal is what matters, hiring people at sky-rocketing salaries and then running out of cash and firing people to save cash is not the right policy.

2. Profits instead of debts – One of the most important points to note while investing in a business is its financial statements and especially the Profit and Loss statement of the past several years to see the history of the business. For startups, it might not be possible to be profitable from day one, but that does not mean you burn cash for a long time without any substantial promise or a revenue model that does not promise cash in the near future. Then, you might get caught in a vicious cycle of debt piling and raising money. You can be an e-commerce firm, or an on-demand food startup or any other service provider. Logistics will be a hurdle and will eat into your revenues. Until you sort out the obvious challenges, or build an alternate stream of profit, debt will keep piling up. Remember the lesson your grandpa taught you, “Never owe anyone.”.

3. Working capital in the bank While evaluating a business to invest in, one of the most important things a value investor looks for in the balance sheet is cash in the bank. We cannot depend on what does not exist. Even if it is funding from outside. Being in talks for funding is not same as money in the bank, and does not give us the right to over-spend based on a few promises. Things can go wrong at any time, and talks can derail at any stage. In the end, the only thing that can help you is the cash with you, not the promise of cash.

4. Circle of competence – Warren Buffett often talks about circle of competence. Circle of competence refers to the area where you have expertise. Warren Buffett says he does not invest in technology stocks because he does not understand technology. Something similar is at play here. We start e-commerce companies and other logistics-based services without solving the real problem of logistics. We often tend to go with the hottest trend instead of actually working where our expertise lies, it could be IT for most software professionals and they can build a brilliant tech platform to solve the tech part of the problem. Foodtech or e-commerce companies solve only the tech part of the problem. The other part of the business still remains unsolved. For others, we would need someone whose circle of competence covers the said problem. We often tend to forget when we are moving out of our circle of competence and the boundary is extremely blurred.

5. Build for the long term – Albert Einstein had said, “The strongest force in the universe is the power of compounding”. Warren Buffett built the majority of his wealth after he turned 50. A single share of Berkshire Hathaway today costs over $200,000, which is over Rs 1 crore. To build a strong business, one needs to build it for the long term as opposed to going with the current trend. A business built for the long haul will provide bigger benefits compared with several businesses in a short time frame. It took Amazon over a decade to churn out its first quarter. Imagine if Facebook and Google would have sold themselves at the first opportunity that presented itself.

By owning a share in a company, an investor buys a partial ownership in the business. And when a partial owner is so diligent about the business he is investing in, why shouldn’t you be when you have invested your time, capital, and other resources in the business, apart from being a complete owner of the enterprise? These are some of the lessons from Value Investing; however, there is more that can be covered to help us build a sustainable business. The playground of doing business is changed. The rules remain the same. In order to solve a problem, we must not forget the basics, which should stand strong today and will stand strong forever.

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From earning Rs 150 a month to running a Rs 30 crore business, here’s the story of Prem Ganapathy’s Dosa Plaza

Think Change India

  16 march 2016

 Editor - himansu sekhar samal

Prem Ganapathy was only 17 when he left his family behind in a village in Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu, without informing them. He had pinned his hopes on the assurance of work from an acquaintance and headed to Mumbai, in search of a job, meaning, and a livelihood. Although his acquaintance in Mumbai never showed up, Prem turned his misfortune into opportunity. He struggled his way up the ladder, and is today the owner of Dosa Plaza, a multi-crore business.

Image: Facebook

Prem did find work in Mumbai after his acquaintance bailed on him. “The very next day, I got a job washing dishes at a local bakery at Mahim for a salary of Rs 150 a month. The good bit was that I could sleep at the bakery itself. In the next two years, I picked up odd jobs at various restaurants and tried to save as much as possible,” Prem told The Economic Times. For the next few years, he delivered pizza bread to a hotel in Chembur. He then moved to Navi Mumbai and started working as a dishwasher in a restaurant.
By 1992, Prem had managed to save up enough to rent his own handcart. He started selling idlis and dosas on the street opposite Vashi railway station. “I borrowed some money from friends and rented a handcart for Rs 150. It was really difficult in the initial days. Many times, the municipality vans used to come and pick our handcart. But I was very positive and determined. I never gave up hope,” Prem told Rediff in an interview.

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Prem was lucky to have some very educated roommates who helped him learn how to use a computer. “I took a break of two hours every evening and spent the time surfing at a cyber cafe. I used to read about various businesses and learned quite a lot. My brothers also played a crucial role in making the business a success,” he says. After witnessing the success of a McDonald’s restaurant which started beside his cart, Prem soon decided to venture out and start his own restaurant.
In 1997, Prem leased a small space for Rs 5,000 a month nearby and named it Prem Sagar Dosa Plaza. His business grew as he started experimenting with dosas. In the first year itself, he introduced 26 different varieties of dosas, included Schezwan dosa, paneer chilly, and spring roll dosa. By 2002, his stall offered 105 different varieties of dosas. The time seemed right for expansion.
“My luck turned the day Centre One mall decided to open up in our vicinity. Its management team and staffers had often dined at our restaurant and enjoyed our fare. They suggested that we set up an outlet in the mall and we happily complied,” Prem says. Soon he started receiving franchise requests, including some from abroad. To date, Dosa Plaza operates 45 outlets in India and seven international outlets in three countries, i.e. the UAE, Oman and New Zealand.
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Ritesh Agarwal's journey from being a SIM-seller to the helm of OYO Rooms

Himansu sekhar samal

(For Agarwal, who left…)

photo by yesstory admin Himansu samal

MUMBAI: When Ritesh Agarwal walked into a meeting with venture investor Bejul Somaia last year, his rucksack attracted immediate attention. Curious as to what the young entrepreneur was carting around, Somaia askedhim about it and was amazed to hear the answer.                
For Agarwal, who left home in Odisha as a teenager to seek his fortune, carrying all his possessions wherever he went was second nature. And now, as cofounder of an online aggregator of budget hotel rooms, checking into a new room every night was also business.

"It helps me get a pulse of what customers and hotel owners want and also gives me the convenience of not maintaining a home," says the itinerant founder whose startup, OYO Rooms, has recently raised funds from Japan's SoftBank.
Some four years after he landed in Delhi, Agarwal, who once sold SIM cards in his hometown, has built one of the most valuable Internet startups in India by a college dropout.
The hands-on approach is a big reason why Agarwal has been able to aggressively ramp up OYO Rooms from five cities in December 2014 to 73 cities now.
"He has a very strong grip on all the levers of the business. In five minutes he can go from a strategic conversation to drilling down into the minute details important to a property owner," said Somaia, whose firm Lightspeed invested in OYO in January 2014.
Agarwal, hailing from a business family, moved to Delhi in 2011 to start his entrepreneurial journey after deciding to skip engineering college entrance exams. He had also briefly enrolled in University of London's India campus.
It was when he was 18 that he founded Oravel Stays, which was building the Indian version of home sharing portal AirBnB. Agarwal got in touch with accelerator VentureNursery, flew down to Mumbai and got seed funding of around Rs 30 lakh after a three-month programme.
Agarwal, who stayed at over 100 bed-and-breakfast rooms while running Oravel, soon discovered that the problem for these portals was not discovery. "The big problem was that these portals are not standardised," said Agarwal.
It was around the same time that Agarwal became the first Indian to be chosen for Thiel Fellowship, where he was given $100,000 grant by early Facebook investor and PayPal cofounder Peter Thiel. The fellowship is given to entrepreneurs below 20 years of age who skip college for two years to start running their own business.
"One big learning from Thiel fellowship was think really big and create an impact, without thinking if anybody has done it before," said Agarwal, who decided to pivot the model to OYO Rooms, putting most of the Thiel grant into the business.
And investors feel that Agarwal has the maturity to build an organisation and execution capabilities. "I always thought Ritesh was unusual for his age (or any age) in terms of his clarity of thought and purpose. He embraces the concept of hiring people better than him and giving them the freedom to contribute," said Somaia, adding that experienced founders also struggle with this.

photo by yesstory admin Himansu samal

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How to build a profitable Unicorn, in the words of Dhiraj Rajaram and Subrata Mitra

 hIMANSU SEKHAR SAMAL

Dhiraj Rajaram, Founder and chairman of Mu Sigma, and Subrata Mitra, Partner at Accel Partners, had a candid discussion recently at StartupMaster Class, an event hosted by IIT Kanpur Alumni Association in Bengaluru. They discussed the evolution of entrepreneurship over the past decade, the dilemmas startup founders generally face, Indian jugaad, investor-VC conflict of interests and profitability and scale. Here are some highlights from their discussion:

photo by yesstory admin Himansu samal

 

 

 

 

 

        

  Need Entrepreneurship then and now

Dhiraj and Subrata reflected on the long journey that they had gone through over the last few years and how the startup scene in India has changed drastically over the past decade.

The only reason Dhiraj chose to start up was because he believed there was big pain point to be solved. Subrata pointed out to the audience that Dhiraj had enough belief in his idea, that he and his wife sold their Chicago home to finance the company in its early days. With startups gaining mainstream popularity now, Dhiraj said, “These days I get scared when everyone says that they want to become entrepreneurs.”

Dhiraj believed that people should start companies when they have real problems to solve and not because it is the current fad. He added that though India needs more people in the entrepreneurial ecosystem it doesn’t necessarily need more entrepreneurs. He said,

We need more employees with entrepreneurial spirit and they should be encouraged to be a key part of startups. If an entrepreneur needs encouragement then he or she is not a true entrepreneur.

Subrata and Dhiraj also stressed on the importance of early hires and the initial core team that make a big difference for upcoming startups. Dhiraj said, “Subrata helped me hire my first 10 employees through his personal network and alma mater (IIT Kanpur) and this helped Mu Sigma immensely.”

Starting up

Dhiraj was initially working as a Management Consultant with Booz Allen Hamilton, before going on to start Mu Sigma. About starting up, he said,

“ I never wanted to be an entrepreneur.”
Subrata in jest added, “I never wanted to become a VC.”

While working, Dhiraj realised that the problem-solving paradigm in system integrations and IT was getting slower and less agile. He said, “We saw that problem-solving needed an overhaul and wanted to bring maths, business and technology together to solve this pain point.”

They realised that there was limited supply of applied mathematicians in the world and finding people with expertise in applied maths, business and programming was not an easy task. So they built the company step-by-step and Dhiraj felt that even after over a decade in the industry, they are still in their adolescence stages.

‘I hid my real dreams from early customers and investors’

While talking about the early days at Mu Sigma, Dhiraj added that he initially hid his full vision for the company from his customers and even early investors. He said, “I thought that everyone would think I was dreaming and wouldn’t believe a word of it.”

Subrata interjected reassuringly that this was fairly standard behaviour among ambitious entrepreneurs.

Talking about their core business and strategy, Dhiraj said that their aim was to build an art of problem solving that was scalable and not limited to specific problems. He believes that this was the USP that helped them survive and thrive while competitors stumbled or shut shop.  He said, “Most of the other companies thought of it as solving specific problems and that made the difference finally. We invested in training, platforms and everything we deemed necessary to improve our ‘art of problem solving’ methodology.”

Indian jugaad and innovation

When Subrata broached the topic of jugaad and innovation, Dhiraj stated, “Jugaad is not about taking shortcuts. It is about not giving up under resource-constrained environments.”

Dhiraj then cited an example of how Mu Sigma showcased their jugaad to one of their major clients -Walmart. He said, “As part of their company culture Walmart looks to make judicious use of resources. So when we wanted to get new furniture for our office, we went to a trailer park in Bentonville, Arkansas, where Walmart’s trucks are dismantled, and used the recovered wood to make our office benches. This turned out to be cost effective for us and also showed Walmart that our relationship with them was not limited to monetary transactions.”

Message to young entrepreneurs

Dhiraj believed that real entrepreneurs shouldn’t hesitate to put their skin in the game. Many entrepreneurs generally have second thoughts when the going gets tough and consider moving back to a 9-to-5 job. Dhiraj said,

The best way to overcome those thoughts is to burn your existing bridges, so that there is no looking back.

Dhiraj stressed that entrepreneurs should look at beating the system when they can. He said, “Be in the mode of ‘why not’? If the system says something should cost five dollars, try and figure out a way to get it done for three dollars.”

Regarding the stigma that has long been attached with starting up in India, Dhiraj believed that there is nothing wrong in being considered poor by one’s peer group and sacrificing luxuries to build a business. He said, “What is wrong is people being non-authentic. What you are willing to give up is what defines you and makes you successful. Be true to your employees and people who are around you. People will eulogise you for toughing it and taking responsibility.”

Take unreasonable risks

Subrata said that entrepreneurs should ensure that their vision carries through to the next five or seven people in their company who will become their ‘soulmates’ for the their long journey. “Ensure there are proper communication channels. Talk regularly and build trust,” he added.

On taking risks, Dhiraj said that relying on instincts and gut-feel is better than relying on the brain, in most cases. He added, “While looking for a spouse, people rely on their heart and feelings rather than the brain. Good VCs too invest in people (not purely in the business) and they know misfits generally turn out to be great entrepreneurs.”

Profitability or scale or both?

India is currently home to 5.7 per cent of the world’s unicorns, with nine of India’s mature startups being valued more than $1 billion (Mu Sigma being one of them). Subrata asked Dhiraj about what it takes to build a unicorn in India. He asked,

Should startups focus on profitability or scale or both?

Dhiraj admitted that this was a hard question and varied across organisations and the entrepreneur’s ultimate objectives. If the focus is on scaling rapidly, then the founding team should be prepared to do away with a large amount of their equity to raise huge funding rounds,while on the other hand if founders are in it for the long haul they should focus on unit economics from day one and give up small amounts of equity only when necessary.

According to Dhiraj, safeguarding the startup is the founding team’s fiduciary duty.  He said, “You should try to develop a company that can generate its own cash rather than diluting your equity to raise capital. After all, the main aspect of being an entrepreneur is owning your company, otherwise you are more like a glorified employee. So create cash flow and profits as quickly as possible.”

Having worked with and invested in many well-known entrepreneurs, Subrata too weighed in on the subject to say,

There is no right answer to this dilemma. Entrepreneurs should do what their heart tells them to do and not have regrets later.

While Subrata believed that India is not in a downturn, but due to the excesses of 2015, there will be market corrections. But this should not worry entrepreneurs. He said, “Google was built in a downturn. Lot of investments are happening in India but on a smaller scale. Fundamentally, Indian consumption is going to grow five to tenfold in next ten-year period and India-facing companies will start doing well.”

Conflict of interest between entrepreneurs and VCs

VCs generally want to multiply their money or look for exits as soon as possible for their firm, while passionate entrepreneurs want to solve problems, irrespective of how much time it could take. On this possible conflict of interest, Dhiraj said,

The relationship between a VC and entrepreneur is similar to Mother-in-law and daughter-in-law. It is not possible for both parties to be aligned all the time and they need not be aligned either.

Dhiraj believes that the relationship creates ‘good tension’ and discipline that is beneficial for the company in the long run. He also added the end-game involves entrepreneurs pushing VCs out or VCs pushing entrepreneurs out.

Dhiraj concluded that entrepreneurs should just focus on their work and social good and impact will follow automatically.

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