Men and women are two different species whose communication is still @ infancy - Bill Cosby.
Like men and women, entrepreneur and VC are two different species, their ideas are different and their goals are different. Men think about sex, women think about gifts. Entrepreneurs think about the growth, VC think about returns. After all these differences still marriage is possible.
Like marriage brings attachment, commitment, food, caring and responsibility, VC fund also brings few things like Acceleration, etc…
On a lighter note:
| Marriage(Woman In Your Life) | VC Fund |
| Growth | Acceleration |
| No need to worry daily(Food), only monthly worries | No need worry monthly only quarterly worries. |
| Helping hand for the bright future | Help with future rounds. |
| | |
| Peacefulness | Competition |
| Respect in the society. (Pls compare with live-in relationship) | Image |
| Stability | Stability |
| Second Salary | Hands on Help (Nice to Have) |
| Help In Taking Care | Help in Recruiting (Nice to have) |
Few more points:
1. 1. Bedrock for things to work in both is communication - be upfront and clear.
2. 2. If things work its heaven. if they don't its hell. Usually both are experienced alternatively in both cases.
3. 3. At marriage vows are made and after marriage they're broken every day but marriage still survives as long as breaks are not huge. It’s just too inconvenient to divorce! Similarly revenue/profit projections are made at funding and they are hardly ever met (plus or minus) but co still survives as long as negative deviations are not huge. It’s just too inconvenient to liquidate!
PJ: VCs are worse - they want returns from entrepreneurs (who can be women as well) ..hehe
Sorry If I am biased towards any particular gender.
Joke: The VC and entrepreneur are always ready for the marriage. But the problem is VC wants decide who is bride, who is the groom.
Note: Special thanks to Suresh Narasimha (CEO of Telebramha) for instigating these thoughts. He was speaking at NASSCOM product conclave about VC Path.
Mr. Kiran Karnik, former President of NASSCOM, speaking at recently concluded NASSCOM product conclave had given 3P Mantra for the Product Startups. Following are the details.
Patience:
It's said that patience is a virtue and this certainly holds true in practice. It is even truer in this fast-paced society where rushaholics and hurry addicts are in the majority and companies seem to believe that faster is better. Although patience is sometimes mistaken for sloth, it's the patient ones who are the most effective time managers. They tend to think things through before they act and focus more on results than activity. Following are the few characteristics of patient enterprises.
1. Patient companies fully intend to accomplish all their goals but they don't expect it to happen overnight. These companies recognize that time is their ally, not their enemy, and that all goals can be accomplished, given a realistic time frame. They will not hurry to go to a VC or taking the company to public.
2. Patient enterprises are not thrown off balance by momentary delays. These enterprises utilize idle time by working on other tasks or new innovations.
3. Although patient enterprises utilize idle time and waiting time rather than get frustrated by the delay, they seldom perform two activities at the same time if both activities require their attention. So they don't do sales on a marketing platform.
4. These enterprise plan before they act. Consequently they make good decisions, wise choices and sound judgments, achieving above average results.
Persistence:
Know that persistence is the name of the game...and plan accordingly.Those entrepreneurs that meet success do so because they had the ____ to push and prod and coddle their business into existence.
They found a way to keep their business moving forward in a strategic and precisely aligned manner. If something wasn't working for them, then they changed the way it was done. They looked at their business from many angles and found a way to proactively design their business to work the way they needed it to.
"Energy and persistence conquer all things."- Your Entrepreneurial Predecessor, Benjamin Franklin.
It is very important in sales. Today’s “no” doesn’t mean, No forever. You have to keep calling your prospective to customers. It is better to revisit your sales tracking once in a month and give hello calls to everyone in your list.
Passion:
Passion but passion is most important for every entrepreneur. Passion is a beautiful thing. Passion is what keeps you awake at night because you are so excited about what you are building. Passion is what makes you work on weekends. Passion is what blinds you to imaginary hurdles. Passion is what makes you deaf to destructive criticism. Passion more than makes up for lack of money. Passion attracts talent. Passion attracts customers. Passion brings pride in what you are doing. Passion sells your product. Passion sells your dreams. Passion makes you think differently. Passion makes you less greedy. Passion is what helps you get up after a bad fall. Passion is what builds great companies. Passion is the only hope for a startup. You can right lot about PASSION.
There is no word called “Failure” in the today’s entrepreneur’s dictionary. This is the state of mind of many startups I had met. Failure is not an option! That’s the battle cry of the entrepreneur. Is this is Right?
If “Failure is not an option” what happens if you fail? If I am right more than 50% new business will disappear in the first two years. I am sure this number will be very high, especially if we consider the startups that are started in spare bedroom and closed by that time next relative arrives.
So what do you do if you’ve decided that failure is not an option? Do you commit suicide when you end up among the majority of start-ups that crash? A small percentage of entrepreneurs actually take this grim avenue. I wouldn’t recommend it. I think a wise entrepreneur needs to have plenty of options, including failure.
Many of us don’t want to allow “Failure as an option” into your consciousness, fearing we may doom ourself to it. The advice many of us get from so many of the so called self improvement books is to not to allow failure word in the dictionary. Because of this many of new entrepreneurs seem to believe that reality is little more than the projection of will. Thus, if they commit to the belief that “failure is not an option,” they will not fail.
May be I am wrong! Please let me know your comments!
Note: Thomas Edison had 2000 failed attempts at creating an effective light bulb.
VC Or Angel:
With the requisite talent already in place in the Indian IT/ITeS and Technology industry, the sight of aspiring ingenious technological start-ups on the domestic terrain certainly does not raise an eyebrow. One thing that is common among these startups is, it is the dearth of funds to kick-start the ventures.
Why Angel, Why Not VC:
Many o f these start-ups need a smaller investment size that does not fall under the purview of Venture Capitalists. 8 out of the 10 start-up’s I came across are planning raise 0.25 to 0.5 million dollars. 19 out of 20 VC’s minimum investment is more than one million dollars.
There is this dearth of angel investors in India. Many of us came VC’s in one or other conferences. It is very hard to come across an angel investor. I fell this is partly attributed to the fact that angel investing is typically done by first generation entrepreneurs. In India, first-generation entrepreneurs are as old as decade or two and it is only now that they are turning towards angel investing. If I go by this equation the number of angel investors are too less to fund the scale of innovation happening out there.
My suggestion to all the entrepreneurs who are planning to raise less than one million dollars is STOP CHASING VCS, START LOOKING FOR ANGELS. Look for the people who made money in last decade or two, especially in your start-up domain. According Mr.Srinivas Udayagiri MD Lightspeed , in India only 8 out of 1000 proposals were sanctioned VC funds last year.
We should get more successful entrepreneurs than VC to the conferences . Especially in the conferences that are focused on early startups.
At the launch of Venture Capital Association of India Mr.TC Nair (Sebi’s Whole time member) said the market regulator was in favour of balancing investments by VC funds across different sectors.
My heart says, it is very good. I want the investments in all the sectors. Especially education, agriculture research, health etc…
My mind says, capital will flow where ever it has to flow. People will invest where they like to invest. It is very foolish to force people.
At present 90% of the VC funds are foreign funds and TAX free. If I am right most of these funds are coming through Mauritius. If required an VC fund can open another firm in Mauritius and invest in the area where they liked.
Comments Please!
Let us discuss this in the upcoming StartupSaturday Bangalore. Off-course off-line...
