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“Entrepreneur At 20, Failure By 23”: 10 Things I Learned About Running A Student Startup

By Vishwarath Reddy: 

Dear Students,

Starting Up, Screenshot PitchersSo you want to startup? I have been there. I had an idea and couldn’t stop talking about it. Eventually I co-founded StudentLive, a platform for student driven content. Within a year, we went onto build a good network of campuses across India, with 100’s of student contributors and 1000’s of readers. We then leveraged this network to help various brands to tap into college crowd. Sadly, 2.5 years later I called it off.

Entrepreneur at 20, failure by 23.

I failed for many reasons, much of which was attributed to the fact that we had very less knowledge about various aspects of building and selling the product. However, I learnt a lot in this journey from my success and subsequent failure. Here’s what you can do to be prepared for what’s coming at you.

1. Get out of idea phase: The problem is we focus large part of our energy thinking of endless possibility of our awesome ideas. Oh those sleepless nights! You need to move on from your ideas by testing each your assumptions. Write down your idea, vision, simple business plan with assumptions (target user, tech challenges, Revenue sources etc). This will help you transition from idea phase to execution with clarity.

2. Make the best of your campus: Being a student opens doors without much effort. Be it access to mentors, investors, tech talent or your first customers. Participating in business plan competitions gives you a platform to get feedback on your ideas and earn initial investment. Hackathons are a great place to find some really cool developers. Lastly, the entrepreneurship club in your college could help you with setting up your office or infrastructure to getting your 1st set of clients.

3. Get out of your campus: Get out there and talk to people. No one is going to steal your idea. Even better, do a summer internship at your favourite startups. Understand your market, stakeholders and sales process before jumping in. A lot of students I speak to tell me that they are under-skilled to score an internship but the reality is most of them haven’t even tried to reaching out to startups. All you need is the ability to learn.

4. Team: There are many blogs out there which will give you advices on hiring and finding co-founders. Do not be an ass to your team. If you think by being one you will become Steve Jobs, you are mistaken. You will come across as a shit head. Build culture, not ego.

5. Execute (The rough phase): Build a Minimum Viable product (MVP). Find out how you can reach out to greatest portion of your users with one particular platform. Do not waste time in building an iOS app, android app, web app, website and mobile website with 100 odd features over 12 months. Choose a minimum set of features that can validate your idea in the shortest time possible. The thing about keeping it minimal is to be agile. More often than not our assumptions fail. When that happens, you should be able to pivot your idea in a new direction without wasting more time or effort.

6. Technology and design: Try to keep most of your development and design in-house. Involve your developers and designer during idea, sales and customer interaction phases. Developers aren’t artists, you can’t expect them to perform magic. You do not want your products to look like an abstract painting (Nobody understands them). There is a difference between artists and craftsmen. Developers and designer are like craftsmen, they come up with elegant solutions to user’s problem.

7. Keep a tab of things (metrics): Establish your MVP’s definition of success. It can be revenue, customer conversions, page views, social engagement or app downloads. Track these metrics as you execute your MVP. You might discover a new source of income or engagement which you’ve missed out. Metrics will play an important role in product and business decision as you grow. To make sound decisions you need to rely on data rather than intuition.

8. Get the word out: There is no easy to do this. You need to do some annoying stuff like spamming your friends and persuading (threatening) your friends with high social reach to share your content. Talk to strangers at a bus station or an airport (if you’re lucky). You need to be in good books with your local journalists, they are God sent. I spent a lot of time as volunteer at local events to gain good network of journalists, friends and influencers who later put in a good word about me.

9. Investment and revenue: Do not fall prey to valuations and investment deals you see in the news. You need to be grounded in your idea and focus on your work. There are many conflicting views on idea of revenue for startups. One school of thought prescribes on building on users and let revenue come in later. Other one focusses on bootstrapping. I prefer the latter. It depends on your business and customers. check out companies like: Basecamp, Kickstarter, Zoho etc who’ve grown into valuable startups without heavy weight investments or stake dilution.

10. Failure: You are more likely to fail than succeed. Sadly, our society looks down on failure which only makes it harder. But it is okay to fail. Your story doesn’t end there. In reality you learn more by failing. You acquire tangible career skills and learn to embrace the passion for building something. I know many failed entrepreneurs who went onto be successful at what they take up next.

There are many more tangible and intangible factors like mentors, hiring, financial discipline, culture, continuous learning, etc which can make or break your dream. Take time out to read some good blogs and books with some great startup advice which will help you along the way.

Everything said, being on your own is the most amazing and fulfilling feeling ever. I wish you all the success.

You must be to comment.

  1. hemen

    START UP RE-DEFINED

    No doubt , you have read the definition of a Start Up in the Start Up Action Plan document
    I have tried to envisage below, how that might look on that Mobile App for Registration :

    * Is yours a Private Ltd Co / LLP / Partnership ?……………………………………. Yes / No
    * Is your Company more than 5 years old ?…………………………………………….Yes / No
    * Is your Start Up formed by splitting an existing business ?………………………. Yes / No
    * In last 5 yrs, has your turnover exceeded Rs 25 Crores ?……………………….. Yes / No
    * Is your product/service ” DIFFERENTIATED ” ?…………………………………….. Yes / No
    * Is your product / service ” COMMERCIAL ” ?……………………………………….. Yes / No
    * Is your product / service ” INNOVATIVE ” ?………………………………………… Yes / No
    * Is your product / service driven by ,
    ” TECHNOLOGY / INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ” ? ……………………………………..Yes / No
    * Is your product/service ,
    ” NEW / SIGNIFICANTLY IMPROVED ” version ” ?……………….. …………………. Yes / No
    * Does your product/service add ” VALUE ” to customers ?………………………….. Yes / No
    * Does your product/service add ” VALUE ” to ” WORKFLOW ” ?……………………. Yes / No
    * Have you got certification from Inter-Ministerial Board ?………………………….. Yes / No
    * Have you got recommendation from Incubator in Post Grad Indian College ?…….Yes / No

    MY TAKE :
    # Each year 12 million persons join India's work force
    # Of these , 3.5 million are Graduates
    # Rest ( 8.5 million ) are 10th / 12th Standard pass or less
    # No more than 1,000 persons will fulfill above mentioned ” Eligibility Criteria ” for Start Up
    # There will be endless debates on the correct meaning of words in CAPITAL letters above !

    WHY SUCH STRINGENT ” ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA ” ?
    # At Rs 2.5 cr loan per Start Up, Govt Fund of Rs 2500 Cr can help only 1,000 Start Ups !
    # Any relaxation in ” eligibility criteria ” , may result in MILLIONs of persons queue-up !

    WHAT IS THE IMPLICATION ?
    # Funds are just insufficient to help 12 million persons to become ” Self Employed ”

    MY SUGGESTION :
    In India , we are talking of getting ” Unemployed ” to launch ” Start Ups ”
    Anywhere between 100 million to 400 million ” Unemployed ” for whom neither Public Sector nor Private Sector , is in any position to create jobs
    We want them to become ” Self Employed ” – what Shri Narendra Modi described in USA , as our ” PERSONAL SECTOR ”
    They are unlikely to launch technology driven , Web-based businesses , even if their businesses require them to have a Smart phone , on which , their customers can reach them
    They aspire to become ( list can run into 200 trades ! ) :
    * Street-side Vendors ( Vegetables / Shoes / Purses / Fruits / Trinkets )
    * Craftsmen ( Plumber / Electrician / Carpenter / Repairer )
    * Dhobi / Barber / Pan Beedi shop-owner / Tailor / Mochi
    * Doodh-wala / Ruddi Paper-wala / Gajra-wala / Delivery Boy
    * Cook / Maid / Courier / Tuition Teacher / Beautician / Taxi Driver
    * Home-cooked Tiffin Service / Car wash / Gardening ……

    How can we help millions of JOBLESS to set up such MICRO – BUSINESSES ?

    By Government ( Central / State / Municipal ) getting out of their way !

    HOW ?
    * No licenses / permits / approvals / conditions / criteria
    * Simple online registration on proposed Web site of DIPP for Start Ups
    * No personal Income tax for individuals
    * No Corporate Income tax for Start Ups for 10 years ( no chance of profit in first 3 years )
    * Amnesty Scheme for enabling Rs 10 million*crores of BLACK MONEY to flow into such
    Self Employment

    It is still not too late for our Policy Makers will think ” Out of Box ” and implement :

    http://www.hemenparekh.in > Blogs > A New Economic Order – Start Up Act – 2015

    Anything less just won't make much of a difference !
    ——————————————————————————————————
    hemen parekh
    21 Jan 2016

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An ambassador and trained facilitator under Eco Femme (a social enterprise working towards menstrual health in south India), Sanjina is also an active member of the MHM Collective- India and Menstrual Health Alliance- India. She has conducted Menstrual Health sessions in multiple government schools adopted by Rotary District 3240 as part of their WinS project in rural Bengal. She has also delivered training of trainers on SRHR, gender, sexuality and Menstruation for Tomorrow’s Foundation, Vikramshila Education Resource Society, Nirdhan trust and Micro Finance, Tollygunj Women In Need, Paint It Red in Kolkata.

Now as an MH Fellow with YKA, she’s expanding her impressive scope of work further by launching a campaign to facilitate the process of ensuring better menstrual health and SRH services for women residing in correctional homes in West Bengal. The campaign will entail an independent study to take stalk of the present conditions of MHM in correctional homes across the state and use its findings to build public support and political will to take the necessary action.

Saurabh has been associated with YKA as a user and has consistently been writing on the issue MHM and its intersectionality with other issues in the society. Now as an MHM Fellow with YKA, he’s launched the Right to Period campaign, which aims to ensure proper execution of MHM guidelines in Delhi’s schools.

The long-term aim of the campaign is to develop an open culture where menstruation is not treated as a taboo. The campaign also seeks to hold the schools accountable for their responsibilities as an important component in the implementation of MHM policies by making adequate sanitation infrastructure and knowledge of MHM available in school premises.

Read more about his campaign.

Harshita is a psychologist and works to support people with mental health issues, particularly adolescents who are survivors of violence. Associated with the Azadi Foundation in UP, Harshita became an MHM Fellow with YKA, with the aim of promoting better menstrual health.

Her campaign #MeriMarzi aims to promote menstrual health and wellness, hygiene and facilities for female sex workers in UP. She says, “Knowledge about natural body processes is a very basic human right. And for individuals whose occupation is providing sexual services, it becomes even more important.”

Meri Marzi aims to ensure sensitised, non-discriminatory health workers for the needs of female sex workers in the Suraksha Clinics under the UPSACS (Uttar Pradesh State AIDS Control Society) program by creating more dialogues and garnering public support for the cause of sex workers’ menstrual rights. The campaign will also ensure interventions with sex workers to clear misconceptions around overall hygiene management to ensure that results flow both ways.

Read more about her campaign.

MH Fellow Sabna comes with significant experience working with a range of development issues. A co-founder of Project Sakhi Saheli, which aims to combat period poverty and break menstrual taboos, Sabna has, in the past, worked on the issue of menstruation in urban slums of Delhi with women and adolescent girls. She and her team also released MenstraBook, with menstrastories and organised Menstra Tlk in the Delhi School of Social Work to create more conversations on menstruation.

With YKA MHM Fellow Vineet, Sabna launched Menstratalk, a campaign that aims to put an end to period poverty and smash menstrual taboos in society. As a start, the campaign aims to begin conversations on menstrual health with five hundred adolescents and youth in Delhi through offline platforms, and through this community mobilise support to create Period Friendly Institutions out of educational institutes in the city.

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A student from Delhi School of Social work, Vineet is a part of Project Sakhi Saheli, an initiative by the students of Delhi school of Social Work to create awareness on Menstrual Health and combat Period Poverty. Along with MHM Action Fellow Sabna, Vineet launched Menstratalk, a campaign that aims to put an end to period poverty and smash menstrual taboos in society.

As a start, the campaign aims to begin conversations on menstrual health with five hundred adolescents and youth in Delhi through offline platforms, and through this community mobilise support to create Period Friendly Institutions out of educational institutes in the city.

Find out more about the campaign here.

A native of Bhagalpur district – Bihar, Shalini Jha believes in equal rights for all genders and wants to work for a gender-equal and just society. In the past she’s had a year-long association as a community leader with Haiyya: Organise for Action’s Health Over Stigma campaign. She’s pursuing a Master’s in Literature with Ambedkar University, Delhi and as an MHM Fellow with YKA, recently launched ‘Project अल्हड़ (Alharh)’.

She says, “Bihar is ranked the lowest in India’s SDG Index 2019 for India. Hygienic and comfortable menstruation is a basic human right and sustainable development cannot be ensured if menstruators are deprived of their basic rights.” Project अल्हड़ (Alharh) aims to create a robust sensitised community in Bhagalpur to collectively spread awareness, break the taboo, debunk myths and initiate fearless conversations around menstruation. The campaign aims to reach at least 6000 adolescent girls from government and private schools in Baghalpur district in 2020.

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A psychologist and co-founder of a mental health NGO called Customize Cognition, Ritika forayed into the space of menstrual health and hygiene, sexual and reproductive healthcare and rights and gender equality as an MHM Fellow with YKA. She says, “The experience of working on MHM/SRHR and gender equality has been an enriching and eye-opening experience. I have learned what’s beneath the surface of the issue, be it awareness, lack of resources or disregard for trans men, who also menstruate.”

The Transmen-ses campaign aims to tackle the issue of silence and disregard for trans men’s menstruation needs, by mobilising gender sensitive health professionals and gender neutral restrooms in Lucknow.

Read more about the campaign here.

A Computer Science engineer by education, Nitisha started her career in the corporate sector, before realising she wanted to work in the development and social justice space. Since then, she has worked with Teach For India and Care India and is from the founding batch of Indian School of Development Management (ISDM), a one of its kind organisation creating leaders for the development sector through its experiential learning post graduate program.

As a Youth Ki Awaaz Menstrual Health Fellow, Nitisha has started Let’s Talk Period, a campaign to mobilise young people to switch to sustainable period products. She says, “80 lakh women in Delhi use non-biodegradable sanitary products, generate 3000 tonnes of menstrual waste, that takes 500-800 years to decompose; which in turn contributes to the health issues of all menstruators, increased burden of waste management on the city and harmful living environment for all citizens.

Let’s Talk Period aims to change this by

Find out more about her campaign here.

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A former Assistant Secretary with the Ministry of Women and Child Development in West Bengal for three months, Lakshmi Bhavya has been championing the cause of menstrual hygiene in her district. By associating herself with the Lalana Campaign, a holistic menstrual hygiene awareness campaign which is conducted by the Anahat NGO, Lakshmi has been slowly breaking taboos when it comes to periods and menstrual hygiene.

A Gender Rights Activist working with the tribal and marginalized communities in india, Srilekha is a PhD scholar working on understanding body and sexuality among tribal girls, to fill the gaps in research around indigenous women and their stories. Srilekha has worked extensively at the grassroots level with community based organisations, through several advocacy initiatives around Gender, Mental Health, Menstrual Hygiene and Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR) for the indigenous in Jharkhand, over the last 6 years.

Srilekha has also contributed to sustainable livelihood projects and legal aid programs for survivors of sex trafficking. She has been conducting research based programs on maternal health, mental health, gender based violence, sex and sexuality. Her interest lies in conducting workshops for young people on life skills, feminism, gender and sexuality, trauma, resilience and interpersonal relationships.

A Guwahati-based college student pursuing her Masters in Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Bidisha started the #BleedwithDignity campaign on the technology platform Change.org, demanding that the Government of Assam install
biodegradable sanitary pad vending machines in all government schools across the state. Her petition on Change.org has already gathered support from over 90000 people and continues to grow.

Bidisha was selected in Change.org’s flagship program ‘She Creates Change’ having run successful online advocacy
campaigns, which were widely recognised. Through the #BleedwithDignity campaign; she organised and celebrated World Menstrual Hygiene Day, 2019 in Guwahati, Assam by hosting a wall mural by collaborating with local organisations. The initiative was widely covered by national and local media, and the mural was later inaugurated by the event’s chief guest Commissioner of Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) Debeswar Malakar, IAS.

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