Study, get a degree, go through campus recruitment, work a couple of years, get MBA, write bank test and get a ‘stable’ job (usually rendering earlier degree useless in process), and work for the rest of your life. Sounds familiar? Not so much anymore, because taking less trodden paths and starting your own business is the cool thing to do now. But while it looks super cool when it works, the path is not always sunshine and roses. Some brave souls who have taken these paths share their startup stories.
For Krishnendu A.G., CEO of whatznear.com, starting his own business with some college buddies was all about personal satisfaction. “The seven of us studied in the same class in college and went on to work in Bengaluru for a couple of years. It was not dissatisfaction with our jobs or anything else that led us to quit, just that we wanted bigger opportunities and creative satisfaction,” he says. The team went to Krishnendu’s unoccupied house in Thiruvananthapuram, and spent six months ideating, before coming up with the idea of a localised online marketplace and starting it six months later. “In our case, there weren’t many disheartening moments, because all of us were ready to invest two or three years into this venture. The main issues we faced as a new startup was recruiting new talent, because society perceives startups as inferior. People will ask, ‘why don’t you just write a bank test?’”, says the 25-year-old.
Despite Startup Village and the big entrepreneurial boom the State is experiencing, the ground realities remain quite bleak, according to Andrine Mendez, founder of Saltmangotree, an advertising firm. “Being in advertising, we meet a lot of young entrepreneurs affiliated with Startup Village, but unfortunately many of them have not worked out working revenue models for the good ideas they have. While incubation is supposed to guide young entrepreneurs and help them become self sufficient, most often all that happens is they get some press, but miss out on valuable learning,” says Andrine, who believes every startup in Kerala will face major setbacks because of social attitudes and a lack of investors. “That is the turning point in the life of a fledgling company, the inevitable setback. At this point you have to take a decision of either giving up or going on; leave your comfort zone and seek better markets. If you look at every successful company that started from Kerala, all of them relocated to cities like Bengaluru at some point.”
The lack of willing talent and insufficient training and guidance have become the common denominators for the startup scene in Kerala it would seem, with Prasanth Parameswaran, founder of Apprender Pvt Ltd., also agreeing with Krishnendu and Andrine on this front. “Whether you’re a startup or Microsoft, if your product is not world class, people will not buy it. And to make a world class product you need good training, which is still somewhat lacking in the State, despite steps being taken to help entrepreneurs. While everyone thinks starting a business is cool, it can be monotonous; you still have to look at accounts and all that. Also, in Kerala, early adoption is hard to get, with the government being the primary customer for more startups,” he says.
“The main fact is that youngsters don’t often receive the right guidance,” says Deena Venugopal, one of the founders of Anabytes, a digital branding firm. “Many of them may have good ideas but have no clue about options available to them in terms of incubation and financial assistance. As a small firm competing with large marketing houses, we had a hard time gaining acceptance, and it can be demoralising, since we were working out of a small office with one laptop and a dongle. But to be honest, once we built up our brand, things fell into place,” says Deena, who also insists that being a young woman entrepreneur never held her back. “I think Kerala is quite civilised that way,” she adds.
Andrine also offers a couple of tips to help young entrepreneurs analyse if their business is viable. “You invariably tend to build your business around you, but if your company requires you to put in 18-20 hours a day to survive, it is probably not sustainable. Also, if you’ve survived for three years, it’s ok if you are not making profits, if you’ve survived you probably have a good chance to start getting attention,” he adds.
While these young entrepreneurs have braved the storm and emerged on the other side, they also point out plenty of chinks in the State’s otherwise shiny ‘entrepreneur friendly’ armour. Yes, building your own business is cool, provided you’re willing to put in the hard work, face the setbacks, and prepared to leave the comforts of home behind.
