9 Thoughts on Running a Startup and 1 Feedback for Prime Minister Modi

It's been a while since I posted anything here. Well, it's never too late. Here is an update.

After a long and eventful stint in the US, I am back in India. Every day, I have conflicting thoughts about my relocation to India. There are plenty of instances when I regret my decision, but on the other side, I am also happy for the opportunity to experience the joy of seeing my lovely niece and nephew grow up!

What's really keeping me busy is my Startup - Jodi Logik. Here are some thoughts I wanted to share about my entrepreneurial journey so far.

1. Don't start a company without a team of people who share the same vision about what you want to do. Ideally, your co-founders should have the complementary skills and can take ownership for a part of the business operations. In my case, I tried bringing together a team before starting and failed miserably. I went ahead and started anyway and I am exhausted trying to be a superhero every day.

2. Passion is everything. It can give you the power to take potentially suicidal decisions such as giving up on a cushy job, taking on humongous daily workload, enduring sleepless nights (I can't remember the last time I had a good night's sleep), and trying to convince your family that your efforts will pay off some time in the distant future.

3. While passion can be potentially suicidal, it also helps you get over speed bumps along the way. Because your brain is always working, you will end up solving most problems. The fact that your rear end is on fire pushes you to do amazing things. You will be surprised what an intrinsic fear of failure can do to you. But the fear has to be felt from inside the core.

4. I learnt that young Indian men and women have zero professional courtesy. Whenever I hear, "I will get back to you..." from anyone, I just assume that they won't. I am right 90% of the time. The funny thing is that I get the same treatment even from people I know and have worked with before! I am not saying everyone is bad and I am blessed to know a handful of people who take their word seriously. As a culture, we have failed to inculcate better manners in our children. I suggest every Indian should travel to a foreign country for at least for 1 week so they see the outside world. May I suggest Prime Minister Narendra Modi take 100 random Indians in his 747 every time he goes on a foreign trip? He needs to just make sure they come back.

5. Building a product is a continuous process that never stops. I see it as an infinite loop of improvement. Essentially, it a "Release - Feedback - Update - Release" cycle that needs to be carefully managed. Always watch out for what customers do with your product and how they use it / ignore it. Think about putting in place a mechanism to observe and monitor customer behavior when using your product. I learnt this late, but it is never too late.

6. There is never a dull moment. You will always have a dozen problems to solve at any time. Don't be overwhelmed. Just prioritize and diligently work towards solving one problem at a time. Remember the point about having co-founders? They would have helped me flush out these problems much faster!

7. Talking of speed, investors are looking for speed. This translates to your ability to execute on your ideas and recover from your mistakes quickly. They are looking for the fastest path to getting multiples on their investment. Remember that always.

8. Having a cool office, the latest laptop, branded T shirts etc are only for those Startups that have traction or investments or both. Nothing of this sort is needed if you are just starting out. Every Dollar or Rupee should go into your product. Thank God I have Indian parents. I am back to being a school kid  when it comes to asking parents for pocket money. They oblige.

9. Learn from marketing experts, sales gurus, books, and thinkers. Now put everything you have learnt into practice. Wondering why I have 9 points in this article? It is a fact that list type articles that rank high on Google invariably have odd number of points! I learnt this by closely following a B2C marketing guru and so far his teachings have helped me a lot. Jodi Logik hit 33K monthly page views and growing :)

Reverse outsourcing...

Here is a blog titled "Outsourcing can go both ways" written by Justin Fox in the Time online edition.

"So, last week Justin mentioned that Singapore's Straits Times newspaper is looking to outsource some copy editing to the U.S. Foreigners? Hiring Americans? As my colleague Coco Masters recently reported, they're after our pilots, too.

In a slightly different sort of turn-about, I recently went to apply for a visa to travel to India, and was faced with this message on the Indian consulate's web site:
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Indian Visa Services Outsourced

With effect from October 01, 2007, visa applicants are requested to obtain visas through:Travisa Outsourcing, Inc. (All queries relating to Indian visa services should be directed to them)
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Travisa is a U.S. company—they've been in the visa and passport expediting business for years. The Indian embassy decided to bring in a heavyweight after being overwhelmed by the surging number of visa applications in recent years.

Earlier today I went to Travisa's web site, and, as it turns out, they're hiring! In New York, San Francisco and Washington DC. That means you can now get a job in the U.S. to do work that Indians have decided not to do themselves. This globalization stuff keeps getting more and more dizzying.

Click on this link if you want to read more from the same author: http://time-blog.com/curious_capitalist/2008/04/outsourcing_can_go_both_ways_p.html

Here are some responses to my earlier post


Jennifer Johnson:

That "day" has been going on for years! (Unless I have a vastly different idea than you do of the definition of "high-value." In 1997, my team of virtual PR agents and I began serving full-service PR and marcom clients, ourselves located in our homes covering four time zones. There were numerous clients that I had never met when we initiated a working relationship. There have been some that I have never met--all while doing thousands of dollars of business! Same could be true, everyday, of the e-Bay clientele. Or, is my definition of "high-value" too simplistic? Cheers, as we toast the virtual age!--"Think Global, Buy Virtual!"


Prem Kumar:

I don't think this would happen in the near future atleast for the next couple of decades. This is because as Human beings we are all driven by emotions when it comes to high value purchases. Deep down it signifies your status ( Feeling good about yourself) amongst the societal peers. The very act of meeting someone & buying is in some way pampering your ego that you are capable of buying. For this a physical interaction is required. This holds true even in cases of B2B buying where there is an Organizational Ego which needs to be pampered to.


Ryan Fox:

Yes. I sell very high end fitness equipment and have had several customers in the past who I've never met spend thousands of dollars. Just last week I sold a $4,000 gym system to a guy I will most likely never meet. To me, it seems like customers want good customer service. A customer goes into a store where they meet a sales person who can't sell and has terrible customer service techniques. That customer then goes and finds the service that is worthy of his business. I hate to say it, but good sales people and good CSR's are hard to find. This is why people are gravitating to the internet. They would prefer NO human interact to BAD human interaction.

John Chepyha:

In the 70's I did a six figure deal overseas and never met the buyer once. We did not even have faxing at the time. Telex and telephone were only form of communication. From first contact to closed deal took 8 months and big telephone bills. It was happening then and it will continue to happen, but will it work with every deal, maybe someday, when we are ready for it. Best to give them a cold call and find out.

David Bruno:

Without a doubt this will happen. As the already frantic pace of business continues to pick up, people's time will become more and more premium. As the days pass, fewer and fewer of my clients have opportunities to get out of the office for lunch and golf meetings. Dinner meetings and Happy Hours are still there... for the time being. I have no doubt with the amount of data that can be transferred electronically, that soon, face-to-face interaction will no longer be necessary.

Putting a face to a name?

I just wanted to rewind to the past just to fathom the enormity of the impact communication technology has had on sales techniques. The door-to-door salesman is a dying breed for sure. However, I still think a personal connection with the buyer/decision maker is a key requirement. Its very hard to describe what constitutes a "personal connection". Lunch meetings, cocktail parties etc do not actually guarantee "personal connection", it just happens.

Having said that, I have experienced situations where I have succeeded in closing long term, high-value deals, without ever meeting the prospect! I am not sure why it happened nor can I explain why I failed a million times even after after literally "camping" at the customer office for weeks!

I strongly believe the nature of the product being sold dictates the approach. I can see myself signing-up for a credit card from a major brand if they happen to make the right offer over the phone. I may not buy a house online for sure. Putting a face to a name definitely humanizes the seller and paves way for "personal connection" to come into play.

Ruby on Rails...has it derailed outsourcing?

Startup companies are the best examples of "globalization - right from the starting blocks". They begin their operations with a small team and they make the best use of engineering talent from around the world. Investors demand the maximum bang for the buck, and of course getting more mileage out of limited Dollars is the priority till more funding comes their way. Startups prove the fact that you don't have to be a big Corporation to leverage global talent.

Ruby on Rails seems to fit very well into the Startup ecosystem. Its a fast and easy way of rapidly building product prototypes and its use is well entrenched in the Startup community. But, is Ruby on Rails stemming the need for Startups to look for talent outside the borders? Definitely a thought to ponder.

I put this question in Linkedin and received only 1 response.

Mark Aniballi wrote "RAD does not eliminate outsourcing; it replaces prototype outsourcing with insourcing. This is much more efficient for business. Once you get to where you want to be though - most enterprises want to solidify into a more traditional platform and optimise for performance using C or Java, etc."

I welcome your thoughts as well.

Got some interesting responses to my earlier post on cold calls. Thanks to LinkedIn! Here they are....

Alexandru Bleau:

Cold calls are a very good insight on what opportunities are out there that could interest your company. However, a lot of them can become time consuming. I do not generally refuse cold calls, but i do rush some of the sales agents who do not have an elevator speech prepared. Time is money so if they waste my time, they do not get my money!

Sanjay Mathur wrote:

Cold Calls? Mmmm. I analyzed my own response(s) to various cold-calls, and realized what enrages me most is if the guy or girl on the other end struggles while opening the conversation, "May to talk to Mr. Medur..er Mr. Mature..oh Math-Ur (my second name is Mathur)" I immediately know that it is a cold call, and question, "Who is this?" From there on the tone of the conversation does not remain congenial, and the effort is to cut the line as soon as possible. Believe me, there are plenty of such I calls I get, despite of my being on "do not call" list!! But, I do entertain cold-calls from some unknown callers and do some business with them. Why I chose to do business with them? It is mainly because of one or all of the following factors: -The caller opens the call enthusiastically -Does not disturb my dinner/ weekend brunch -Does not waste time in saying, "Oh! I am not selling anything to you" or the like -Comes to the point immediately and gives me FACTS and not an opinion -Add value by telling me something I did not know -Gives me option to think and decide and does not push me to the wall -Is well-mannered and honors my time The worst call I got so far was from an elderly gentleman from my country-of-origin. He opened the conversation intimately. I thought I was taking a call from one of my relatives; until he started talking about his "cause." The conversation went off something like this: He opened by saying, "Is this Sanjay?" I said, "Yes!" He said in most cold and matter of fact way, "And you are with AT&T?" There was such an authority in his tone that I said sheepishly, "Yes! What is wrong with it..." He immediately declared, "This is a big mistake!" You can understand how I might have reacted once I found he was not my long-lost uncle, but a telemarketer from overseas :-) Sanjay Mathur

Eugene Rembor wrote:

I think everybody hates cold calls. Probably simply because 99% of cold calls are so unprofessional and boringly badly executed that they make you want to be deaf after 40 seconds. The worst are made out of a call centre where you can clearly hear that someone is just rattling down a script, with no passion, no personal interest, worst with no listening skills and wasting your precious time. Sometime I wish those people would be forced to attend a high-class sales training at gunpoint.

Mike Mladineo wrote:

I don't mind taking business cold calls. They usually last less than 5 minutes and are a good way to gain market intelligence.

Are cold calls annoying?

As someone who has made a zillion cold calls, I can assure you that its pretty annerving even after all the years of experience behind me. The very thought of irritating someone and getting rejected on the phone is not pleasant. But, its a numbers game and seems to work.

I have been always curious to find out what it feels to be on the other side of the fence? How does it feel to be badgered by cold calls, especially from people who speak with an alien accent and introduce themselves with the most complicated names?

I can bet my last Dollar on the assertion that the a VP of Engineering, CTO, and even the CEO of a startup or a mid-sized company receives at least 1 cold call or a voice mail in a day. Please share your experiences. Should we ban cold calling completely (for businesses)? Or would you be interested in taking a call for monetary consideration or an opportunity to sell your services?