5 Pitfalls to Avoid as an Entrepreneur
Kunal Shah on ‘Being an Entrepreneur in India’
Last year, Kunal Shah — the founder of Cred and FreeCharge, was our guest on the Building it up with Bertelsmann Podcast, and what a fantastic experience it was. With Kunal, you can always expect the most candid conversations and deep insights, powered by his passion for entrepreneurship and eye for detail that will not fail to surprise you. As a serial entrepreneur, deep thinker, mentor and even the “Chief innovation Officer” of the entire business category, his advices on starting-up in India are unmissable.
During his interview Kunal spoke about how entrepreneurship has evolved in India and also highlighted some of the most common mistakes that have led to 9 in 10 Indian start-ups not being successful.
According to him these are the 5 pitfalls one must avoid as a founder in India:
1. Plan Better vs. Fail Fast
“Indian Entrepreneurs have the curse of not doing enough research”, says Kunal, many founders fall into the trap of launching quickly and while this may work in a market with limited downside risk, in the Indian market you will just “get wiped out”. Kunal conducted extensive research and prototyping before the launch of Cred and Freecharge.
2. Know your Market
While both Team and Market are the two strong factors that influence success, “the only thing that guarantees success is Market”. This is particularly true in a “shallow market like India”, where it is essential to target sectors “which are less served or competitive”. This is also why simply copying a successful start-up from abroad has often not worked for start-ups in India.
3. Pre-empt and Plan Rather than Spend to Solve
Even though it is great to have generous funding, overcapitalised start-ups often get into a habit of trying to solve problems by spending money instead of strategically pre-empting the challenges and planning ahead of time. Kunal Shah says he didn’t have this kind of money and hence was always cautious “of making any silly mistakes”.
4. Don’t do it to Prove Yourself
A lot of people “love the idea of being called an entrepreneur” or are just “trying to prove that they are really special”. But one is not going to be a great entrepreneur if the source of energy is insecurity” or the ambition of gaining power by building an empire. This also often leads to founders not realising that beyond a certain point they should exit as they may not be the best persons to run the venture anymore.
5. Build an Atmosphere of Trust
Abandon the typical “review culture and establish a system of default trust” which will boost collaboration and employee relationships. Infact, Kunal goes a step further to say that most “people get shocked when they are trusted”.
To listen to the complete conversation, Click here.
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