Sample Copy. Not For Distribution."legendary Arc reactor". Similarly, a start-up which doesn't have...
Transcript of Sample Copy. Not For Distribution."legendary Arc reactor". Similarly, a start-up which doesn't have...
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iii
Startup 6th Sense Knowing is always better than guessing
and when it comes to start-ups an extra sense
may come in handy
By
Sourabh Das
EDUCREATION PUBLISHING (Since 2011)
www.educreation.in
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v
Preface This book is nothing but the collection of lessons
learnt by sustaining the hardships of life while
attempting a start-up, and if you are expecting
something groundbreaking in terms of tricks and
methods for a successful start-up career, then this
book is not for you.
However, if you are looking forward to get an
insight into the hardships faced by first timers and
first-generation entrepreneurs with no family
background in business and you have doubts about
your future course of action regarding starting up,
then this book might do the trick.
In short, this book details the day-to-day
challenges an entrepreneur faces and the traps
which he or she may encounter in the path to
success.Therefore, the book discusses more about
the traps and less about the opportunities you may
face or encounter while pursuing your dream of
becoming a successful entrepreneur.
There are thousands of books on management
strategies and personality building written by very
highly rated authors, but only few will tell you the
hard hitting realities about the business world and
that is where this book bridges the gap.
Now, imagine reading a huge book with 400
odd pages filled with all sorts of management
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jargons, and then try applying its learning into your
real life.
I would like to say “good luck” with that, and
however let’s imagine you having a little book with
an exhaustive list of traps (“yes” traps) which you
are likely to face, or in other words, a list of
mistakes which you are likely to commit in the near
future regarding your business plan and the
resulting venture;
Which sounds better?
Now You Can Read This Book In Two Ways:
One is to read it like a book critic
This is to say that make an effort to find out the
shortcomings of the points listed in the book which
will help you register the points in your mind for a
longer period of time, and they will strike you
whenever you encounter them in real life.
Or
You may have a thought of not regarding it as a
book but a diary written by you from the future that
has fallen through a wormhole into your lap and the
“future you” has listed his mistakes one after
another.
Now, won’t you like to read your own diary
from the future?
“I think you will do.”
*****
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vii
How to use the book
Don’t wish for the reinforcement of your own ideas
and conjectures which may or may not match with
this book’s philosophy.
But,
I can assure you one thing that when you will
really start experiencing tricky situations in your
life as an entrepreneur, this book will come in
handy.
The book has been designed in point wise
format in such a way that you may read any topic or
point at any given point of time and still the
statement’s veracity or its authenticity will not get
diluted.
So topic “38” is an independent commentary in
itself, and its applicability will not be hindered if
you haven’t read the point preceding it.
There are several bullet points without much
explanation but that is because they are just the
traps or situations which you may encounter
without being warned in the real world, and these
traps are waiting for you and if you ever plan to
embark on this journey of setting up your own
business, this book will serve the job of a GPS
which will spot some of the most common but
venomous traps that you are likely to encounter in
your way of accomplishing dreams.
*****
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Content List
S.no. Content Page no.
Preface v
How to use the book vii
1. Introduction 1
2. Starting Up? 5
3. Questions A Person Should
Ask To Himself Before
Taking The Plunge
11
4. Chronology of
entrepreneurships and its
significance in determining
the future
50
*****
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Startup 6th Sense
1
__________________________________________
Introduction
“This is not a book but a GPS which locates the
traps that are waiting for you in the path leading to
a successful start-up.”
Observing the situation and waiting for the right
moment will go a long way in your quest for a
successful start-up career.
Psychological clues and symptoms of
succeeding in a start-up are as follows:
1. Being able to control the urge to speak up your
mind: sometimes being truthful and expressing
how you really feel may negatively impact your
business prospects.
2. Controlling the urge to surrender and start
afresh without completing the things at hand.
3. Understanding and realizing whom to explain
and whom you cannot.
4. Ignoring people’s inability to understand your
ideas (start-up or otherwise)
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Sourabh Das
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5. Avoid paying any botheration to other’s views
or being defensive about explaining your start-
up idea or plan to others (friends or family and
random people), because they will find fault in it
and you will be demoralized even before you
line up on the starting line or in a vice-versa
scenario, but on the contrary, if they praise you
too much you might speed up your start-up
plans with over excitement, which may result
into committing an unforced error just like a
tennis player with three or more match points
often commits in a tennis match.
People tend to think that their idea or
business model will make them an instant
champion of the field which is untrue to the point
that very few ideas actually tend to represent the
wider opinion of the people (in this case, your
potential clients) as you will agree with me that
ideas in our mind depend on what we perceive of
the world and not what it actually is.
Like in case of film directors making worthless
movies with utmost faith in their talent without the
slightest hint of what is waiting for them on the box
office.
Similarly, a counter point can be made that
great film directors with reputation can walk free
even with a pointless high decibel action blunders
but that is because their reputation has reached a
level from where their perception influences ours
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Startup 6th Sense
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more than ours does to his perception and not a vice
versa which is the case in our situation when we
first start something new.
A more surprising point to be noted is that
the best ideas are never the out of the box ideas at
all but improvisations and innovations in order to
overcome an obstacle.
A very good example is the invention of
airplane by Wright Brothers in 1903 which is an
out-of-the-box idea from any stretch of our
imagination, but few of us realize that people have
been trying this for ages and the concept was well
known before they were even born, and the most
important point is that they actually built the aircraft
based upon the works of Sir George Cayley.
In this entire episode, the most important thing
to learn is that there are no out-of-the-box ideas
which work in the longer run, but seriously thought
over string of ideas which when fall in place at the
right time of the history results into scientific or
technological breakthroughs.
Therefore, a wise and sensible way to
innovate and discover fruitful ideas is to observe
the surroundings (in this case, market demands and
gaps in the product lines available) and improvise
on what’s available, and someday, while you will be
dreaming about something unrelated but your
subconscious mind will be drawn towards the
incomplete innovation and something will strike in
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Sourabh Das
4
your mind, and at that, moment you will see that
perfect innovation which world may someday
recognize as an invention and may consider you a
true genius.
And what does this process if done deliberately
is called?
Lucid dreaming
*****
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Startup 6th Sense
5
__________________________________________
Starting Up?
There were days when people dreamt of becoming
"the next Bill Gates or Steve jobs", but then the
internet start-ups came and everything changed.
Earlier start-ups meant starting a brick and
mortar business built over a new technological,
market or social innovation, but nowadays, internet
start-ups have taken their place which are much
easier to start but at the same time much more prone
to "end-ups" as well.
One more intriguing point is that today too
many start-ups depend upon borrowed ideas from
the net which is otherwise fine until unless you start
typing... "New ideas for start-ups" on the Google
search bar.
A start-up which is inspired from a start-up
doing well is bound to fail because you might end
up following a mirage.
But why?
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Sourabh Das
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Simply because so many people in the world
are thinking about the same thing at the same time
that whenever you will try to emulate a particular
start-up or a internet business model; it’s most
likely that you are already a part of a queue (which
is to copy the successful model) which will lead you
to nowhere.
If a start-up idea is not fuelled from within and
as a result of the surrounding environment
(including your online life), it is bound to fail just
like an Iron Man suit will fail without the
"legendary Arc reactor".
Similarly, a start-up which doesn't have its own
"Arc reactor" is bound to end up being a heap of
scrap similar to what could happen to an Iron Man
suit without the energy source.
Therefore, a great start-up will always have its
own "Arc reactor" no matter what; it can be an idea,
a unique talent or even a trade secret, but one thing
is for sure that without it, there is no point wasting
time building "Iron patriots" or Iron suits which
cannot fly because we are not fortunate enough in
the real world to have a friend like Tony Stark who
would lend you his "Arc reactor" which he invented
because of circumstances more than anything else.
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Startup 6th Sense
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Some less known facts about running
a start-up are as follows:
1. The profits are unlike regular and periodic
salaries we receive during our job days.
2. In few months, you may only earn the running
costs of the setup, whereas in others, you may
gain huge sums of cash, but it come with fringes
and will get tied very soon on future contracts.
This happens because of festivals and seasonal
demand patterns, and after the completion of an
entire financial year, you may realize the actual
ground situation of the venture, and this is true
even for internet start-ups as well.
3. Reverse HR hierarchy flow structure in start-
ups: When you work in a MNC, you expect to
become team leader then may be a manager of
sorts and then vice president, president and then
may be a MD. But in case of start-ups, you are
the chairman and MD yourself, but you don’t
have a president nor a vice president and your
team is so small that you in fact don’t require a
whole floor so there is no need for a floor
manager or a leader and ultimately your team
has just two or three people, so who could be
the leader except you or your partner.
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Sourabh Das
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So you see in a way, you might have thought
you could bypass the entire hierarchy and directly
become the chairman & MD of your own venture,
but in vain because now to be truly feel like a
chairman & MD (read boss) of a well-oiled venture,
you will need to expand it to the point from where
you could appoint floor managers and different
teams with dedicated leaders for them and complete
the hierarchy structure which you thought could be
bypassed by starting a venture of your own which is
not the case in real life.
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Startup 6th Sense
9
The YouTube Test
Most of us would agree that YouTube is now a
good platform to showcase your innovation as well
as presentation of skills especially if it relates to
digital world.
However, it can also be used to check and
clarify your own doubts regarding certain notions
and inhibitions which you hold in your mind.
Such as having an idea on innovative chairs but
you are not sure of its market potential; so the best
thing to do is to make a presentation on those chairs
and simply upload it to YouTube and wait for a
month for responses on the video, and you will get
the answer to your question regarding its potential,
but it is important to keep a point in mind is not to
be too touchy about the responses you receive
because chances are more you might attract
negative reviews as well, also if you are not inclined
to do even this much, just type a comment related to
your doubt in a related video and you might receive
up votes or negative replies accordingly which will
show you the idea’s reception in the real world.
"Nine quick routes to a Failed Start-up" is an
attempt to inform people about things which wait
for a mediocre MBA graduate outside his college.
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Sourabh Das
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First Way: Not planning the revenue model
early on.
Second Way: Having more partners than
actually needed.
Third way: Over investing in the initial phase.
Fourth way: Being generous with your
employees, customers, suppliers and partners.
Fifth way: Lacking periodic audits notably
checking the profits and viability every
fortnight.
Sixth way: Trying something outlandish.
Seventh way: Believing in unsubstantiated
market predictions and surveys because in real
life these surveys count for a big zero.
Eighth Way: Over believing on your
employees about their abilities.
Ninth Way: Management institute style
“Business Plans” because none of them actually
succeed in the real market without alterations
and modifications.
*****
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Startup 6th Sense
11
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