Caught in the Startup Web

The years between 1999-2001 saw the madness and euphoria surrounding the startups, with every Tom, Dick and Harry trying his hand at opening something(may be a page :-)). And mind you, the unbelievable part was not the hysteria around startups but the sheer number of people who were ready to fund these startups.
After the Dot Com bust there was a period of lull. But the human spirit has the habit of learning from past mistakes and life goes on to explore new fromtiers. This insatiable appetite of human-beings to do something new, something different again led to a new generation of start-up companies that had interesting ideas and MOST importantly a good revenue model in place.

Doning on the new role of Business Development Manager has given me the direction to explore the world of startups and see what all new things are coming up. And, definetely having a big network helps to explore these oppurtunities.

Now, comes the question: Why I'm there, why the heck I'm not having dinner with some big client who can give me big business at one go?
Actually, there are a couple of reasons for that.
First, these start-ups feed my business model directly and can be real growth engines for my firm (To be honest, if it is your idea, then you tend to work on it much more to make it happen).
Also, if the startup grows, you will also grow along with it since you have forged a relationship in the very beginning.
Second reason has more to do with my heart. Finding out what are the new directions in which people are thinking, the barriers they face and studying those fantastic new ideas excites me to the core.

Now, based on my interaction with people who either owned the startups or funding the startups(VC guys),
Below is the list of obsevations regarding startups and some really cool and practical ideas which have already found many takers.

1) Many of the startups are coming either in the area of Mobile telephony or applications based on it(Telecom revolution), or in the Financial Domain(This may be the result of Indian economy booming)

2) Most of the times when the startups are flush with money, they don't know how to spend that efficiently.(It takes some time to digest, but it's true). I've seen the same in recruitments.

3) It's a real challenge to start something. You are always juggling between your startup and your job. And if you jump in it full time, there is always a nagging thought "what if it fails?". Some days back, I was talking to an alumnus of IIM Ahembadabad, who is running a succesfull startup . He shared a view which challenged some of my beliefs. He said that he has found the Tech guys much more receptive to starting-up rather than the MBA's(even who are from the most prestigious colleges). Conventinal line of thinking says that since they are MBA's they will have better business sense and thus open up more firms. But may be, he was right : MBA's with their high flying jobs have more stakes at hand with the jobs, so risk taking ability is reduced.

4) It's very diffficult to keep the morale high all the time esp. when revenues are not coming in the initial stages. Most of the time. startups break up because some partner had his morale in a abyss and he wanted to quit. Startups by their very nature are very sensitive to this situtaion as they are short on resources, budget and time. It has a dangerus effect on other guys too and they tend to break up and abondon the idea. So, it's very important how you choose you partners - they have to be self motivated and should believe in the idea from the core of their heart.

4) The sooner you start, better off you are as your oppurtunity costs keep on rising(since you'll be earning much more in the later part of your career, so it's kinda difficult to leave that high-paying job esp. with family obligations)

5)There is always a challenge for a startupc- how to protect your idea: What if some biggy picks your idea and with it's marketing and fianncial muscle, edges you out?

In the next post I'll cver some good ideas. Till then ..............(searching for something)

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