Two's company - The value of venturing jointly
Five new-age entrepreneurs on
the importance of having co-founders and the huge advantage of not going it
alone
Kunal Bahl CEO, Snapdeal
At a recent Mumbai event,
Bahl revealed he does not know of many companies that became successful in a
short time with a single founder. “It is possible if the person is super
exceptional,“ he says. “At least I never had that faith in my own abilities to
the level we have reached. Also, it's about whom you want to do it with. Rohit
and I are best friends since high school and I never imagined doing anything
including starting a business without him.“
Talking about complementary
per sonalities and skills, Bahl says, “If you can get along with the person and
tolerate each other then it's alright. We have a great personal equa tion but
we realised we would have friction around professional decisions about the
company. But we decided we would sort it out. Over a period of time, we both
got strong as individuals and became the entrepreneurs that we are.Even today,
if we go into a room, we may have two different opinions but when we come out,
it will be one opinion and it won't matter whose opinion it was. And that's
what the company needs.
“I am very lucky to have
that calculation. It stems from a mutual respect for your co-found er. I don't
think I have met a smarter person than Rohit in my life.“
Sachin Bansal executive chairman, Flipkart
It helps a lot to have two
people in the company as partners, believes Bansal. The reason: there are tough
decisions to make. And having a per son who is as passionate about the business
as you are helps. “I am sure Binny (Bansal, co-founder) also finds it helpful
to have me around as a bouncing board for what he's thinking and I use him for
my ideas,“ says Bansal.
He is also pragmatic in his
view of having a co-founder.“Things don't always work out well. There will
always be failures and successes. And over there, having another person around
helps a lot,“ he says. “We are also good friends outside of work. So, we spend
a lot of time with families. That way it's pretty good.“
Naveen Tewari CEO, InMobi
In a social media post some
time ago, Tewari re vealed why he was glad the Bengaluru-based company had four
founders. While the four were friends while studying at IIT Kanpur, Tewari
recalls how the “power of four“ kept them going and prevented them from giv ing
up when their first venture mKhoj failed and they directed it to InMobi, de
spite limited resources. “Whenever one of us was on a downward spiral, the
other three used to make him believe in the then seemingly impossible goal and
get going. Challenges like these acted as a litmus test for each one of us...
we had each other's back.“
In his note, Tewari added
how being college buddies made them aware of each other's ec centricities.
“Sometimes just for fun we fight like crazy,“ he said. Being close friends also
allowed them to spend downtime with each other. Most of them lived in the same
vicinity and would spend time at each other's homes. “Our wives and kids have
given up all hopes and have joined our madness too,“ he wrote.
Jaydeep Barman CEO, Faasos
Barman and Kallol Banerjee
went to the same engineering and management schools (Insead and IIMLucknow).
“We work well together,“ Barman says. “We fight a lot. I can tell him anything
wit hout worrying about any repercussion and vice versa. The ability to express
our views the way we want is the most important factor to look for in a
co-founder.“
There was scope for clashes
when the two cofounders were taking decisions on the same thing. To avoid this
from happening, Barman says, “We have divided roles and responsibility.“
Sanjay Sethi CEO, Shopclues
Sethi is more philosophical
in explaining the need for a cofounder. As a general principle, an individual
sometimes is not complete. But teams should always be complete to run an
organisation. In other words, “It's hard for one person to be an expert at
everything. Of course, there are exceptions in the world and that's why it's a
general principle,“ he says.
Sethi recalls that when
Shopclues began, it had five founding members, all with complementary skills.
Sethi was the operational person, the one who knew how the marketplace worked.
Radhika Ghai Aggarwal, his co-founder, was the marketing person. Due to certain
circumstances, Sethi became the CEO. “I had to take on the task of
fundraising,“ he says. “It was the hardest thing for me to do because I had
never done it in the past. I partnered with Radhika and we did the fundraising
aspect of it together.“ He says without Aggarwal, Shopclues wouldn't have been
what it is today. “You are on a treadmill 24|7,“ Sethi says. “There is no
downtime and you need a lot of support, not only functional but also at a
stress management level. But it's also important that the founders are able to
resolve their conf licts. You cannot avoid conflicts, but you should have a
mechanism to resolve them.“
Having expertise in
different areas also helped. Sethi says, “She's (Aggarwal) not a product
technology person, which is what I do. I know nothing about merchandising and
marketing. So we don't interfere (in each other's work) as we don't have a
point of view. We have trust that whatever the other is doing, is doing it
well. So that takes away many reasons for conflict.“
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rashmi menon@ & aditi saxena
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ET17FEB16
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