Everything begins with an idea. Everything innovative definitely begins with an idea. What is innovative? Is being creative, innovative? Or is innovative necessarily creative? I guess, you can see the mix up here, as much as I do. It is daring to say the least to jump into a thing you believe oblivious to the reality surrounding you. I am currently living one similar experience. Entrepreneurship they say is tough. We are just beginning, now. Trying to build an enterprise with an impact the money slips down to second place. Well, you need it! Damn, right! You definitely need the money, nothing works without it. But, you are seeing something beyond it as your key metric. And this impact entrepreneurship delves into your own self for answers. Perseverance is everything.
Now with money rolling out of the pocket, I mean, shit just got real! Taking a series of personal loans to build something which I believe is necessary and also beautiful, it doesn't matter living my life on the line for a few more days to come. There is a lot of belief right now and frankly an equal amount of fear. I have been reading a lot of quotes on the internet. And this one, ' To be brave doesn't mean that you dont carry fear, it just means that you have got the nerve to overcome it'; the timing couldn't have been more perfect for this.
Now with money rolling out of the pocket, I mean, shit just got real! Taking a series of personal loans to build something which I believe is necessary and also beautiful, it doesn't matter living my life on the line for a few more days to come. There is a lot of belief right now and frankly an equal amount of fear. I have been reading a lot of quotes on the internet. And this one, ' To be brave doesn't mean that you dont carry fear, it just means that you have got the nerve to overcome it'; the timing couldn't have been more perfect for this.
There is another good 3 to 4 months of solid work before we will be able to put anything out or make public. The idea is no secret. There are quite a few people working on this already. But the format and the packaging, surely is, very innovative and necessary. We are figuring things out on the way. I am now more sure that something amazing will turn out for the world to see and experience. It is happening as you are reading this.
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| Ideation and sketches by Shashidhar Subramanya |
The music plays 24x7! There is a strange appreciation to most of the work place discipline followed in my earlier work places. There is a craving to create a space of our own. It has happened a bit late, all this. I could have easily started off on anything I wanted to an year back. But the team right now and the zeal surrounding our work wouldn't have been there. When you are focussing on social problems and trying to work out a solution for it, it better be easy to execute (like off the shelf) and it should be scalable.
When you are addressing a social problem through business, the major hurdle one would face is affordability. We feel 'affordability' is one of the major decisive factor for an entry point into the market. And for the businesses in the social space, it is spectacularly spoiled by non profits which do work with similar vision and offer their services for free! Its very difficult to break this mindset in the Indian context, but it is possible. A whole new dynamics of smart networks and partnerships would help break the affordability barrier and reach a lot of users. Just take along with you all those who want to reach where you want to reach. It will solve most of your problems. We are learning this now.
To try and build the startup in a lean way takes a lot of unlearning. I didn't know the full form of MVP a month back. Now we are trying to build one to prove our concept right. We are building one to take it to the customer to eventually decide whether to pivot or persevere with it. I think as any startup, decisions should be data driven as much as it is pure intuition. Data shouldn't just be a preparation exercise for your pitch to the investors. And you need to be with the customer even before you start selling it to them. Make them your partners in development. I would buy what I want. So if you want me to buy something from you regularly you better know what I want even before you sell it to me. And this is the challenge we face when we try to price a solution covering a market's needs.
I am really excited about the challenge we have taken up to solve. At this point the air around me is extremely positive but also hot, noisy and polluted. The no of trees are reduced to a handful. You just cant have a free walk on the streets. The lakes are all eaten up for real estate development. You cant really blame them. They are hardcore businesses. They dont exist if there is no requirement. Damn! it is no more Bangalore like the old times.
But, hey! There is always a solution. In our studio we believe, whatever the problem that is there around us, can be solved. And solved, right now!
When you are addressing a social problem through business, the major hurdle one would face is affordability. We feel 'affordability' is one of the major decisive factor for an entry point into the market. And for the businesses in the social space, it is spectacularly spoiled by non profits which do work with similar vision and offer their services for free! Its very difficult to break this mindset in the Indian context, but it is possible. A whole new dynamics of smart networks and partnerships would help break the affordability barrier and reach a lot of users. Just take along with you all those who want to reach where you want to reach. It will solve most of your problems. We are learning this now.
To try and build the startup in a lean way takes a lot of unlearning. I didn't know the full form of MVP a month back. Now we are trying to build one to prove our concept right. We are building one to take it to the customer to eventually decide whether to pivot or persevere with it. I think as any startup, decisions should be data driven as much as it is pure intuition. Data shouldn't just be a preparation exercise for your pitch to the investors. And you need to be with the customer even before you start selling it to them. Make them your partners in development. I would buy what I want. So if you want me to buy something from you regularly you better know what I want even before you sell it to me. And this is the challenge we face when we try to price a solution covering a market's needs.
I am really excited about the challenge we have taken up to solve. At this point the air around me is extremely positive but also hot, noisy and polluted. The no of trees are reduced to a handful. You just cant have a free walk on the streets. The lakes are all eaten up for real estate development. You cant really blame them. They are hardcore businesses. They dont exist if there is no requirement. Damn! it is no more Bangalore like the old times.
But, hey! There is always a solution. In our studio we believe, whatever the problem that is there around us, can be solved. And solved, right now!
