Achieving in a start-up nation

I envy this generation of youngsters for their guts and dreams and sometimes feel jealous for not having these kinds of opportunities when we passed out of our college.

In this journey, it is important to give credit to the media and the investors who have created an ecosystem that supports such dreamers. It is apt at this point to also give credit to the youth for finding out the problems faced by the common man and create unique solutions like OLA cabs or OYO rooms.

I do believe that the next five years will be very exciting for the country as well as for the youth in terms of opportunities of creating new products, new processes, solving problems and building enterprises which can offer jobs as well as create value for the investors. This is also the opportunity for youth to address different segments of the society, rich and poor, young and old. There are opportunities to create solution for the underprivileged by creating social enterprises, which not only serves the society but also generates fair returns for the investors.

However it is essential for new businesses to be built on sound footings of values and culture, which can last longer than the founder promoters. Culture, which encourages and nurtures professionalism and allows people to grow. Strategies, which are long lasting and sustainable, a business, which eventually makes profits and ensure that cash flows are built in the business. This becomes more important in the new age business of technologies where there are no boundaries unlike brick and mortar businesses where geographical boundaries exist. Therefore the entrepreneurs cannot only think of reach and spreading out but also being able to manage the spread and control the geographies where the customers are. It is always easy to get new businesses but difficult to maintain the same.

The sustainable models will have to have a mix of energy, entrepreneurship, experience and wisdom. This is important otherwise hire and fire will become the norm of the day and youth will loose faith in the new age enterprises. I have seen this in 2000 during the dot.com days. I also saw the same enthusiasm in 2005-08 when the modern retail boom started and companies started hiring for the decade ahead and finally had to scale down. Many entrepreneurs lost money and pride and investors ran away from the sector thus denying genuine entrepreneurs from funding for growth. My suggestion for the investors is to help the young enterprising youth with a sound advisory board, that helps them build and grow the business thus also helping the investors get fair returns on their investments. I am very excited about the future and look forward to participate in the same through whichever mechanism possible.

Authored By: B S Nagesh, Founder TRRAIN