-By: Abhishek Shah–
When I quit Edelweiss Capital to start my startup business, many people including friends & family were very excited as well as nervous about my new business and how I will be doing something new — “Be my own boss”, making my own choices and decide when to take off etc etc ….. Sure the accuracy of their assumptions is altogether another story. I found this very interesting of how the concept of starting something new, on my own was fascinating — likegetting a new girlfriend.
I borrowed this phrase from my friend (founder of an awesome Chat for Websites Startup — Flyzoo), “the new girlfriend” — it was an excitement of something new to begin with a potential of infinite possibilities.
Let’s read out what this “NEW GIRLFRIEND” phrased mean to my startup
Investors… a sure thing
Like any early stage capital, a startup is high capital — high risk thing where in angel investors are keen to invest in something new and fresh. The investment thesis usually assumed that out of 1 out of 100 works and so the investors flock to unique business ideas.
Finding investors was never a problem, since my business was trending one but finding a right investor was certainly a problem.
How to choose a right investor, what things to look out for, what kind of background check needed –everything was new for me.
Manpower — Building a team
Some of the toughest job was to find the right resources that will make an extraordinary team. When I was hunting for the resources, I got to meet a lot of people that I would have never met otherwise. Indeed it was some exploring and interesting thing that I revealed to whom I reached out to — some came on-board, offered to join the venture, become a consultant, mentor, partner and offered free advice.
Hiring was not a problem, but finding enough opportunities for the role was definitely a question.
Markets — Exploring is fun
When you are entering the market as a startup, there is a zing in you to explore every minute detail about it — eager to be more novel to grab customer’s attention. Thus, you are able to get build business, grow your customer base etc.
Media — Does the talking
Everybody like to talk about the “new flavor of the season”, especially when there’s a startup company entering the markets. The media is keen to know about you, talk about you. However, I realized that my startup doesn’t need a good PR agency. So it was better to start with the social media networking and folks that are sure to write about you.
Hence the feeling of starting a new business is surely similar to one getting a new girlfriend. There is a lot of exploring, discovering the person which goes same with any new business startup as well.