STARTUP SPECIAL................................ Five lessons that startup founders could 'unlearn' from Santa Claus

Five lessons that startup founders could 'unlearn' from Santa Claus

I was born on the 25th of December. No one forgets my birthday. And sure enough, I get referred to as 'Santa Claus' a lot. While writing this column on leadership and startup entrepreneurship, I role-played being Santa but struck out the idea almost immediately. The idea of being Santa Claus was alien to me as being a Marwari and lending money without interest! Strictly no-no-no!
These are five lessons that startup founders could "unlearn" from Santa Claus:

1. Being the 'Special Guest'

If you are a startup founder, you are not special. That's just not allowed. You cannot 'show up' for work once in a while and spend the days somewhere else (like Mr. Claus does). Sounds silly? I mean, isn't this obvious?

Let me explain by pointing out to the spectacular failures of Google and Facebook in China. While the founders of these great companies have thrived in their local market (USA), they were not on the ground with their troops in the trenches in the treacherous political market of China. And that is why they have been completely rejected there. If Larry Page and Mark Zuckerberg would have walked through the galli-koonchas of China, they would have teamed up with local partners, warmed up to the government and made themselves relevant.
Lesson: If you want to be a startup leader, you have to walk the streets and not be in invisible mode like Santa Baba.

2. Being Unresponsive

Children all over the world write to Santa sharing their wishlist. The governments of the western world take special care to manage the expectations of these kids! For instance, in 2007, the French Postal department received 1.2 million letters written to Santa from over 126 countries. They had to employ people to manage the extra load. Canada receives over 1 million letters; Sweden 750,000 and so on.
But what does Santa do? Does he communicate with these children and respond back? Can you imagine the volume of opportunity that Santa the Leader throws away by being unresponsive? Imagine Santa writing back to each of these kids to study harder and to behave better with their parents? Can you fathom the impact? Founders of startups survive on consumer feedback. They never ignore it. It's a documented fact that Amazon's Jeff Bezos gets distracted in key internal meetings because he is busy reading consumer feedback on his portals.
Lesson: As a leader, you have to be completely committed to hearing, learning and responding to your consumers. Don't become Santa the Zombie

3. Being 'fake'

I was enamoured by Santa Claus for many years. I still remember buying stockings from the Akbarallys store in Fountain and then figuring out a way to hang them outside our flat in Mumbai. I recall my nani being worried that someone would steal the stockings at night! Very quickly as I grew up, my belief in Santa Claus crumbled. It wasn't dramatic but the belief in him just vanished when I learnt that he was nothing but a 'fake' character. I have two younger sisters and I used to feel sorry for them when they continued hanging stockings for Santa.

Startup founders face the same challenge. It's very easy to create a persona, an impression that is larger than life and almost unreal. Living up to the promise then becomes the biggest curse for entrepreneurs. The dotcom crash of the year 2000 is replete with such 'Santa Clauses'. There was a company called Home Trade that played a similar charade and was a great disappointment for all of us working in the internet business. 

Lesson: Don't be who you are not. That's the first lesson for startup founders. Santa is a fake hero.

4. Living on someone else's money

If you examine the business model of Santa, he really doesn't create any value! Dutiful parents stuff presents in the stockings hung by their children while they sleep on Christmas eve and when they wake up, they assume that Santa has given these presents.

Santa essentially lives on someone else's money, and while that may be a great way to get started, the magic doesn't last forever. Most startup founders raise massive amounts of venture capital money in the initial timeline of their Company but the really successful ones generate cash flow, revenues and profits to take their business to the next level.
A simple comparison is how Wall Street values Alibaba vs. Amazon vs. the other e-commerce ventures listed publicly, on the basis of their levels of profitability. Creating value in any form is the startup founders' biggest challenge.

They get easily distracted by the never-ending stream of almost free VC money. But when that stops, the awakening is rude. And there will be no Santa to help around.
Lesson: Create value. Don't just trade it like Santa.

5. Not having a strong second in command

So who is Santa's partner or COO? The red nosed reindeer? Have you ever met him? What happens when his sleigh has an accident on the JJ Flyover? Who takes over?

Most startup entrepreneurs succeed when they come in pairs. Look at Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer. The genius twins of Google. David Filo and Jerry Yang of Yahoo. And also all the magical pairs of our Indian e-commerce companies. It's nice to be Santa but you need Santa 2. And a Santa 2 who is really is better than Santa 1. Startup founders who are successful know this and strive hard at making themselves quickly redundant so that the value of their creation lives on forever.
Lesson: Work hard to become inconsequential. Give your reindeer a chance.

And yes, Merry Christmas and do share this story with your kids - but only after they have grown up!

By Alok Kejriwal, a digital entrepreneur.CDET12 Dec, 2014