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Image you are silently working for your start up company for 20 years without any limelight and fame. And suddenly a day comes you have sold your company for $4.7 billion (Approx 34,300 Crore INR ).
This happened to trio entrepreneurs and co-founders, Srinivasu MN, Ajay Kaushal, and Ganapathy. All the three are IIM Alumni.
The 3 commonly met in Arthur Andersen in 1999. By the third quarter of 1999, all of them decided that it would be good to start their entrepreneurial venture.
In an interview Srinivasu said, 'We spent the first 90 days ideating on what to do and incorporated the company in March 2000'. This shows the value of drilling down the idea before venturing, and being self confident of the task we are taking up.
Entrepreneurs often start a startup to solve world problems, or the problem they have faced at personal level. This story is of similar nature, about an organisation 'BillDesk'. This is a platform that provides an interoperable service through a digital network of agents i.e. internet banking, mobile banking and retail shops for consumers to do a bill payment, at one place, anytime and anywhere.
If you have paid a Vodafone postpaid bill or any online payments, you must have seen this name (BillDesk) during processing. But I never imagined that this service company might be sold at 34 thousand Crores.
Below we are discussing key tips and learnings from an interview done by Moneycontrol.com.
What are the 7 lessons for young entrepreneurs from this Billdesk story??
1. Starting early:
We should put our ideas to work as soon as possible, even if the conditions are not favorable. As Srinivasu says, 'In the 2000s, India had not even seen the internet. At that point there would have been less than 50,000 internet users. There was nothing digital happening in India. Amazon was not famous outside of the US, Google was at a nascent stage'.
2. Don't wait for savings to plunge into your dream start up:
Your dream and passion is much bigger than your money. As Srinivasu says, 'What we did not have was any meaningful savings. Corporate salaries then were not what they are now. But we thought it was worth taking the plunge'.
3. Being clear and confident of your vision:
As Srinivasu says 'We had a clear view that there were going to be massive technology-led changes in financial services. We thought that an opportunity would come from the intersection of technology and financial services, both of which we understood fairly well'. As we now know from their success story that they cracked it well.
4. Giving time for your idea to grow and test itself:
Srinivasu said, 'We were clear that we will give it a shot, and not question anything for the first three years. The first time we reevaluate our decisions will be after 36 months. Fortunately for us, the 36 months passed by and we never recalled our plan to reevaluate'. Many entrepreneurs give it up very fast, they get very negative and panic about their ideas. Further Srinivasu says, 'One thing we all knew is that we were not looking for overnight success in any manner'.
5. The work speaks for itself:
Srinivasu said that the word of mouth was an important tool for their product success. Further he adds, 'By 2003, all the top banks joined our platform. And as I sometimes jokingly say, the last time we made a proper pitch for a client to join our platform was in 2003. After 2003 it has always been one client passing on its testimony to another'.
6. Value your product by right price, don't be inferior in pricing:
Srinivasu says, 'If you really have a great product, you should not underprice it. If you truly are innovating, you will get a premium for it'.
7. Create the market for your product, if it don't exist in the world:
If you feel that their is a need and a solution for that need, don't wait for others to do. You bet big on it and take risks to do it yourself. As Srinivasu says, 'When we launched in 2001, online payments did not exist anywhere in the world'.
Click to read detailed interview:
About author:
The 7 tips article is written by Maaz Mohammed AQ. The interview material is sourced from moneycontrol.com.
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