the way to get things done
TRANSCRIPT
The Way to Get Things Done
After full-house sessions in Bengaluru, Ahmedabad and Kolkata held this week, ET Power of Ideas will reach Mumbai on Monday.
Contd..What happens after you set up your company and raise funds?How do you execute your idea, deliver on your promise to the first customer, hire the right people, and transition from a startup to a full-fledged company? All these questions and more were answered at The Economic Times Power of Ideas roundtable held on Monday in Bengaluru, India's startup capital. The panel discussions are being held in eight cities in association with Jio, Department of Science and Technology, and CIIE of IIM Ahmedabad. The Bengaluru event had seasoned entrepreneurs, including K Ganesh of Growthstory and Abhay Singhal of mobile ad network InMobi, discussing with aspiring founders the important but oft ignored aspects of building a company .
Contd..“In every business I have seen, nothing that you plan in the beginning ever happens the same way . We call it the rule of 3: it takes three time the capital, effort, time to execute what you planned for,“ said Ganesh, whose Growthstory houses sector-leading companies such as online grocer BigBasket, home healthcare service Portea and online restaurant Freshmenu.As a company grows, management bandwidth becomes a constraint and hiring starts going wrong, said Singhal.Vikas Malpani, cofounder of real estate website Commonfloor, said different kinds of people need to be brought into at different stages of a company's growth. “While you're hiring the first pool of people you should hire is friends and family . But as you grow, you have to relook at the people you have hired, and you have to have the hard talks,“ he said.
Contd..Commonfloor grew from 80 to 600 people within 12 months and the company suffered a systemic breakdown of people, processes and infrastructure before it could get back on its feet, Malpani said. Customer service is also a key focus area, the panelists said.“The single greatest opportunity in India today is in providing high-quality services,“ said Sanjay Anandram, partner at early-stage investor Seedfund, adding that the Indian consumer has been neglected and taken for granted so far.Chitra Gurnani Daga, cofounder of online travel marketplace Thrillophilia, said her team speaks with at least 5-10 customers every week and tries to incorporate their feedback within the product.
Contd..Because existing customers are just as important as the new ones.“If you have somebody buying from you, or has committed to buying from you, the least you could do is retain him,“ said Singhal, adding that all businesses should be laser-focused on customer churn rate.The huge availability of capital in the startup ecosystem also poses challenges as it can defocus a company's vision, the panelists said.“In spite of having capital, maintain constraints, ensure there is fiscal discipline and strategic reason to doing things,“ said Anandram.
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