In Praise Of Modest Ambition
Go big or go home is the rousing advice thrown at
entrepreneurs by media and startup culture. It’s also bunkum
Youngsters as fresh as hot bricks
from a kiln were raising money by tens of millions, of dollars, and here I was,
after ten years of being in the digital industry, still sucking my thumb, while
others gunned for greatness. Go big or go home, they said.
I cofounded Webchutney in 1999.
And I have seen two waves of companies that had zipped past me to the finish
line. By 2008, a golden generation of entrepreneurs had already built massive
companies like MakeMyTrip, Naukri, BharatMatrimony, Shaadi, Bookmyshow, etc.
Standing on the sidelines, I was
now witnessing yet another wave of digital businesses in the form of Flipkart,
Zomato, Freecharge and Paytm. Yet again, I had failed to ride the wave. I was
at best, a curious onlooker.
It was déjà vu, and it wasn’t
pretty. Dragging me down in my own estimation was the baggage of a decade of
experience and nothing “comparably grand” to show for it. Nothing that was as
bold or zealous. I seemed to have vision alright, but I almost felt like I
lacked the carnal appetite that pushed my peers towards growth, audacious
goals, ambitious futuristic blueprints and professional maturity.
Don’t get me wrong, my business
was profitable and growing, but it was also predictable “agency” business. In
my head, I was convinced that consumer facing internet companies have a greater
chance at blockbuster success than most services businesses. Given a second
chance, I would build something more scalable than a digital advertising
business.
Consumer internet companies are
sexy. If you are in the right spot and have people willing to fund it, you
announce big, hairy, audacious goals, say that you’ll “put a dent in the
universe”. You build a brand that your girlfriend or boyfriend know. Parents
and relatives see your brand commercials. You strut about, your landlord pays
obeisance. The press — well, they love it. If you can’t be the next Elon Musk,
you can sound like one.
These things will almost never
happen in a services startup. Outside of a few hundred prospective clients and
a few thousand potential candidates you might recruit, nobody cares. Nobody
knows of your existence. In comparison, life is boring — you aren’t an A-list
entrepreneur.
But then recently, a friend
shuttered his startup after 10 years. He was building a consumer product
company and had raised over ₹100 crore. One of the smartest and most
persevering people I know and the darling of his VC, he had to pack up and go
home. Blood sweat and tears — all summed up to naught.
VCs who fuel the blitzkrieg find
founders who are willing to sacrifice years to prove a hypothesis in which they
themselves don’t have immense stake considering the low event of success. As a
struggling founder, you are all alone. For every successful Flipkart, there are
a few hundred in the graveyard. The odds of becoming a unicorn for the
thousands of startups that launch every year are very, very miniscule.
The point is, today, after years
of wondrous covetousness, I have developed pride in what I continue to build
and what peers in my circle of competence have built. If you put together good
talent, you have to be extraordinarily unfortunate or plain moronic to not to
have milked the cow for cash. I know of friends and worthy competitors in the
digital advertising industry who are sitting on wealth of over ₹100 crore in their individual bank accounts. The pessimist might say it
is less than the last round that “the new sexy consumer startup” just raised.
But, it is also a hell of a lot of money for someone who is just about 35 years
old. It is definitely not chump change. To my mind, it’s mission accomplished.
This certainly doesn’t mean that
every one of my “digital advertising” peers who started out on their own,
including me, didn’t face near death experiences in our businesses. We still
reminiscence every time we meet — exchanging stories about our constant moments
of self-doubt, our mistakes, the horror of dealing with layoffs when a major
client left and the almost never-ending cash flow issues. The journey hasn’t
been easy for any one of us by any means. I’ve personally survived
psychosomatic disorder during my worst phase but hopefully I am done with it.
That said, most of us have come out alive, wealthy enough for now and yeah — a
lot humbler.
I’ve now begun to believe that
today’s media narrative of Go Big or Go Home, which loosely translates to Get
Big or GTFO (get the f*** out), has a very condescending, intimidating impact
that potentially discourages a very large number of promising entrepreneurs
from building meaningful businesses that in reality, have better odds of
achieving personal financial stability for themselves. Outside of the much respected
(and rightfully so) torch-bearing founders of unicorns, other founders who look
for guaranteed wins for themselves are also equal champions. It takes smarts to
do that — not accepting odds which almost guarantee failure. And these
potential entrepreneurs are exactly what the doctor ordered in a country like
ours.
Bottom line: If you really examine
your motivations and the kind of life you want to live, restraining your
ambition may not be a terrible thing after all.
Sidharth Rao
The author is
the cofounder of digital marketing firm Webchutney
ETM 21OCT18
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