Be Unreasonable, Think Freely
The cofounder of
Snapdeal, one of India's eight unicorns, describes what it takes to get into
the haloed club -and stay there
Rohit (Bansal) and I
decided to leave our jobs and start a coupons business in 2007-2008 when the
internet was still in its infancy in India. The busi ness had strong initial
momentum and, to seek investments, we started cold calling investors through
differ ent websites, as we weren't sure who would be interested in investing in
our kind of business. We met (ven ture capitalist) Vani Kola through one of
these calls -she was actu ally the last call we made because we were worried a
portfolio company of hers would conflict with us.
It, however, took one call
and a meeting with her in per haps the smallest and shabbi est office she's
visited before we had a chance to present (and later be backed by) her fund.
Changing Decrees
Entrepreneurs with dreams
of building India's best unicorns need to be aware that the rules of the game
have changed. Now, the cold calling has dropped one level lower to try to
attract the attention of the burgeoning angel investing community. I get 25-30
proposals from wannabe entrepreneurs -some as young as 17 trying to build a
business they dreamt of last night and others more seasoned professionals with
a company even registered in their names. Getting the right angel backing you
helps with strong introductions to the right venture capitalists.
When starting up, I'd say
the most important first step is to always think big. Don't be constrained. Be
unreasonable. Think freely. Let people laugh at you. The more ridiculous they
think you are, the better it is.Don't try to solve a problem for three people;
instead, start with a big prob lem, impacting millions of people -for instance,
there are 40 billion utility payments made in India, of which over 39 billion
are made manually.
While there are hundreds of
angel investors in India today, future unicorn-builders must be aware that they
come in all shapes and sizes. Each angel is passionate about a specific area;
while some are financially motivated, others bring domain and operational
expertise to the table.
You don't need to have a
company in your mind to idolise -you're welcome to build another Snapdeal, if
it can be bigger, better and more efficient. Inspiration for your idea can come
from multiple sources. For example, we made multiple visits to Alibaba in China
because both Rohit and I are sons of small traders and were fascinated with the
effect the Chinese giant had on their livelihoods.
If you're going to build a
startup that stands out in the crowd, you have to be willing to take risks.We e
v o l v e d a n d learned from our mistakes and kept moving forward by taking
intelligent risks; eventually things started working out pretty well. Today, we
are building an impactful digital commerce ecosystem, which caters to multiple
con sumption needs of consumers through a single user login. We are making goods
and services accessi ble, plugging leakages in the economy and bringing
efficiency in logistics and supply chain man agement.
Don't be afraid to get your
hands dirty when you're building your company. As Snapdeal moved from the
coupons business to ecommerce, we realised our early processes and sys tems
were not well set up.
When this happens, you in
evitably disappoint cus tomers. I used to reply to 3,000-4,000 emails a week
directly from cus tomers to try to under stand their disappoint ments. As
entrepre neurs, we had to be like a sponge; willing to absorb knowledge and
inspira tion from multiple sourc es. Coupled with that you must be willing to
change and evolve your business idea. The two things that can make or break a
business I be lieve are culture and objectivity. I feel culture determines the
speed of growth of a non-traditional business like Snapdeal. Culture is
determined by the people we hire. We have grown fast and have managed this
growth well only because of the people we hired. You can leap ahead to the next
phase of growth only if your team believes and shares your vision, your passion
for the organisation.
Money Matters
If your company embarks on
this highgrowth path, you will need to attract millions of dollars of funding
to fuel your ambitious plans. The type of investors you target will also
evolve; when we were a small company, a $200 million venture capital seemed
huge. As we have grown, Snapdeal has partnered with several global marquee
investors and individuals such as SoftBank, Foxconn, Alibaba, BlackRock,
Temasek, eBay, Premji Invest, Intel Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, and
Ratan Tata.Be prepared for much more stringent fiscal discipline and audits -we
do a quarterly audit to make sure our numbers add up since we've some publicly
listed backers.
Building India's next
unicorn boils down to impact. We are giving choice and convenience to consumers
in tier II cities and beyond like never before.The huge volume of orders of
health products coming from non-urban areas on Snapdeal is a great example of
the impact our marketplace is having on people's lifestyles. Through our
efforts, traditional handicraft and handloom artisans, NGOs and home preneurs
are now accessing pan-In dia markets and growing their businesses by leaps and
bounds.
This makes me believe we
have accomplished something big and seeing the impact on our sellers' lives has
been the most fulfill ing moments in this journey.
|
Kunal Bahl
|
ETM3JAN16
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