No, I have not lost my brains yet. And certainly I am not reeling under the new year fervor. The context is, post doing my Social Media consulting company, Until ROI Consulting Pvt. Ltd. I joined The Indus Entrepreneurs, TiE Delhi – NCR chapter. Its been a fantastic journey and its growing and getting exciting by the day. There is so much to do and so much to learn.
Though I Have a Problem and So Do Almost 1500 odd People!
TiE Delhi – NCR is one of the best chapters globally and we are growing and am I excited to say this, hell yeah! But let me share my experience from my interactions with TiE Delhi – NCR members and entrepreneurs who are still not aware of what all they can achieve, by being part of the world’s largest entrepreneurial network.
Most of our members have amazing feedback to share with us and I feel amazing at times to hear from a young entrepreneur when he comes and says, TiE helped me grow my business from this level to where I am today.
There is another set, though who have yet not realized the power of the network. Yes, I have always been telling fellow entrepreneurs, that TiE is the world’s largest network of entrepreneurs and well, if you are still not leveraging the power of networking, then you have still much to work upon.
My Personal Experience!
Before joining TiE, I was also a member with the Delhi chapter and let me be honest, I was much helped in my business by the team. I used to volunteer in many events without seeing a profit motive and in almost every event, the network automatically helped me create many new business opportunities.
But what helped me here, was my own pro-active approach to leverage the network by being a member. This is exactly what I tell people who ask me what’s the benefit of being a TiE member?
Gentlemen, I am sharing the Secret, Listen Carefully!
Its simple, once you are a TiE member (which takes less than INR 10 a day of an investment, as INR 3309/- (annual membership fee) broken down is less than INR 10 a day). You could simply use your debit/ credit card to make payments online on the official TiE Delhi site and wallah you are in.
What Next?
Hold your horses guys, well, next comes the step of engaging with the team and letting the TiE team know more about you and look at exploring various possibilities. How to do this?
Call a TiE Delhi team member for a coffee and well, set your objectives and plan your various engagement pointers with TiE.
Attend Events – these are golden networking and knowledge opportunities!
Ohh Yes! You might be a great networker and you might know everything there is to know in the world. But believe you me, I have been on both sides of the table. Attending TiE events and doing them now. And these are amazing opportunities, which are to be latched upon and not to miss.
Ohh my ROI!
Its better to say Ohh my ROI than Ohh my Gawd later. Yes, I realized it early in my entrepreneurial stint. Investing a couple of thousands in attending TiE events and other Industry association events year round is well worth every penny. Obviously how worthy do I make of it is my own skills.
My simple suggestion to all entrepreneurial brains is straight. The network is open for you. The value is there which has been created over 2 decades. Now its upon you to leverage the same and create bigger opportunities.
If You Still Have Questions?
Well, if you still have questions, call me/ write to me: paritosh@tienewdelhi.org
Why am I doing this, Is this part of my Job?
As a clarification, at TiE its not about doing a ‘job’. What I enjoy most is the freedom to create value added initiatives and super quick decision making. No, this post is NOT a part of my job in any manner and has not been influenced by anyone.
Its about how badly I want every entrepreneur to come and be part of the world’s largest network of entrepreneurs which is available so simply. Obviously you have to be proactive to keep in touch and build opportunities.
The TECHSPARKS is back and so with a bang. the Delhi round-table is round the corner on 7th of May 2011. Though it needs no introduction, if you want to know more about #tsparks click here.
Delhi sure is going to witness a flurry of entrepreneurial activity on he 7th of May 2011. And why would it not happen, when, you have some real exciting names in the industry spanning the mobile to the venture capitalists joining the discussion.
I would have loved to present a sneak-peek into the action, alas it all got announced a while back by YourStory. But still to give you a little knock on your door for the action which you can expect at the event, the exciting speakers on board the Delhi edition are:
Well, if you are still wanting some more, here you go with a fantastic video introduction to the TechSparks 2011:
This post is by far one of the difficult most that Iv written. Never really that I have had a heavy heart before conjuring up my thoughts on what really to write and how to put it across.
And why am I giving it such a lot of thought?
Because this post is not about any thought leadership or any thoughts that I am sharing. This is certainly not about any gyaan and definitely not about what to do and how to do it?
I am sure by so many ‘Not’s’ you must have understood that the author must have gone through an experience in life, where he has surely learnt ‘what not to do’.
Bang on! That’s the learning. Today as I sit with myself remembering of the days when I was sitting with a friend in a small lone room in Delhi’s cold winters, with the window of the room still half broken, on a small desk. We were discussing start-ups and ventures. She was running a start-up while I was thinking about doing mine and we were discussing all of this over a cuppa tea!
That was the day when I told her what I want to do, what my strengths are and we sat about thinking of names, so many of them came by. It was like naming your own child. There was so much love, passion, thought around the name.
Finally the name came!
Until ROI!! Yes! That’s the company, I said. I had nothing in hand, nothing at all and armed with only a name and zillions of dreams which powered my guts at that time, I said this is a company I launch today and that company will be called: Until ROI. And that was the starting of a venture.
The first thing many of my seniors told me was dude, 98% of the start-ups don’t make it over 6 months in India and making it over 1 year for you will be almost impossible, as you don’t even have a penny to start with. You are cash-less in every sense of the word. And yes they were not wrong. I was cash-less in every sense of the word.
I anyway said, if this be it, let it be, I will anyway start. And I borrowed a laptop from one of my friends for a few days, sat in another friends’ office who was also running a start-up and I said, let me announce to the world that Until ROI has arrived!
And I created a website
To build a website you need cash! But well, I said, I can build a website with my dreams and so I did. Even till date, the official Until ROI website remains the same of what I did. Using the free wordpress platform, I learnt a bit of php myself and coded the site, thanks to WP
Thanks to Google, the official Email was set-up in a jiffy and did not cost anything at all. Well, this is what kicked in life into the dream called Until ROI.
But now we needed to do the real thing, business!
And it was time to contact customers and sales calls began
Well, yes it was now time to do business. Just having a website won’t suffice you as an entrepreneur. Leaving your job is one part of it, running a successful enterprise is another. I must thank, Rahul, Pooja, Aashita who lent me their support during the initial stages, coupled with my own brand that I had created in my previous role as a Social Media Evangelist in the market, Until ROI got its first break and we were in business. The first cheque we ever got was for INR 40,000.
And I was on top of the world! 40k was like wow!! It was a feeling which I celebrated by paying off for the laptop I had bought on an EMI for myself.
Scaling up: well, we invested into an Airtel Boardband connection for ourselves
The company had its second asset in the form of a broadband connection. Armed with a laptop, broadband, a chair and a table inside a store room, Until ROI started operations formally.
I never had the time to go ahead and register the company. Hence I went ahead with business while keeping it as a proprietary business. Yes it was difficult to make our first set of clients understand, why we are proprietary, but the clients kept faith in this one man and they said okay we will go ahead with you.
Did they test me, well yes they did. Why?
Social Media is something which is very new for the world even today, so thinking about doing it with a proprietary company 1.5 years back was sure a big thing.
And more clients started coming
We started getting more clients through referrals and I must thank many people here. Digbijoy, Avinash, Chandan, Rahul, Pooja, Aashita and others.
Strategically we also found some very amazing partners in Virtue Insight, some of the best people in business I know. Both Fen and Sarika have been great help!!
And we started growing
Slowly and steadily we started growing. And as we did, we shifted to a new office (3rd floor of my house) a fantastic looking room large enough to have 5 people sitting with ease, with a 5.1 music surround system, and a whole stack of books (library) we started operations from there. I remember how I used to see the open sky through the huge glass (which also acted as the glass board for planning and strategizing) and be inspired!
This inspiration took us to the next stage where we got the 1st actual on rolls employee on board. I remember the feeling even today when I told my parents, Im paying a guy 18k in my “2″ member company and everyone still used to say, its just another few months, josh thanda ho jayega!
I am thankful to Piyush and Vikas at this stage, along with Aseem, thanks guys, you all rocked!
Business Development was the next challenge: but how?
Before I come to the next level, I woke up one of the days to find a sweet LinkedIn message sent to me by someone at the world’s largest social network facebook, asking me to join fb India. We did have a telephonic conversation, but then I dropped my plans, as the entrepreneurial bug was biting hard.
Anyway, BD was our next challenge and I said, obviously being a 2 member team with 3 clients, probably we would not be able to scale up, so lets partner with events and so we did. We started LIVE blogging some of the largest corporate events in India and I must thank Avinash, Fen and Sarika for all their support in this case!
We were rolling and then something happened
At one of the largest events in the history of corporate India in Mumbai, I met the VP of Corporate Strategy of an emerging Indian IT company and we hit it off! He invited me to his office in Delhi and we had this company as a client! And I was on top of the world. What followed it was a strong relationship which brought in capital into Until ROI in the form of HNI investment into the venture and I said, nothing better could happen, money coming in, more experienced brains on board, this venture is a sure fire hit now!
Before accepting the offer I did speak to many people, took advice but my gut said its okay to go ahead with it and you are going to make it a success and we went ahead!
And a team of 2, we raised some amount!
Things started rolling for us. I was so happy seeing my ’2′ other team members (I hate using the word employee) sitting in a plush office ‘Until ROI’s’ office. We had RFID badges given to us and I always used to chuckle to my friends, come visit my office and remember to take your badge from the guard (all in fun)!
The dreams started getting bigger and well, we sure felt lucky to have some real experienced brains from the industry backing us.
With the backing of an investor we started seeing desi and videsi dreams.
And our learning began
My first brush with writing excel sheets, numbers, create Bplans and many other things happened. We rose from being a ’2′ member to a ’3′ member team. Clients started trickling in. The guards in my building never got to know my name, but they got to know me as, ‘woh sir jo raat ko 12 baje se pehle office se nikalte nahi’, jinke karan hamie bhi jaagna padta hai’
I used to love it all, all the action, passion, there was no sense of time, food, weather, security, it was all work and that’s what I loved doing.
And we made a Pvt. Ltd. company
Thanks to Vishwa and Ashwani, the moment I saw a legal paper saying Until ROI Consulting Pvt. Ltd. I was overjoyed. There were joys all around. Infact pretty much during this time, I worked with one of my close designer friends, to re-brand Until ROI and we designed the new logo, which was well appreciated!
We had our own share of success and failures
But this time around there were the investors to both support us and be reported to. I quickly realized that this is someone else’s money I am working on and I need to be very very careful with it. This is where I really thank my parents and they have always taught the lesson of being intelligent with money. Coming from an absolute non-business background, I was always jittery about working on someone else’s money.
We added Karun, Nidhi and Abhimanyu to the team quickly. These sure are cool people to work with. They took on Until ROI.
And this is where I learnt the biggest lesson of my life!
Choose your team members, not because they have a title well worth, but because they love doing what you do and with probably the same passion. because they are in the skin because they want to be. This has been one of my top learning’s till date. Today I just know why not to recruit someone and when to just draw the line.
I must thank Nidhi, who sure did help me learn a couple of tricks here.
Somehow it all started up great, everything was well formed, but somewhere down the line, there sure was that little feeling in the heart that we need to be stronger, need to be closer, need to be in each other’s hearts. Need to feel each other’s pain and be there for each other at all times.
And finally here I am
And finally here I am, no more with Until ROI Consulting Pvt. Ltd., today remembering all those times, some of the most exciting times of my life, which have taught me immensely. There have been some really amazing relationships that I have created with many people.
The company moves forward and I always wish the entire team all the luck and the best ever in life!!
And going forward
Before I step ahead, I must thank some very crucial people in my life who have given me everything. Mom, Aditi, Sarika, Dimpy, Anurag bhai, Digbijoy, Avinash and I must mention people who I have always looked upto and have met at least once in life: Bill Gates, Michael Dell, Sanjeev Bikhchandani, Deep Kalra, Vijay Shekhar Sharma. They are all some of the best people Iv always looked upto and will always keep doing it!
Going forward I will be working as an enabler to the entrepreneurial ecosystem in India while consulting brands into their Digital Media strategy.
YES!! YOU GOT IT RIGHT. The title of the post says: Warning: The Air You Breathe Here is Charged Up With Entrepreneurial Particles!!
I am talking about nothing other than The TiE Entrepreneurial Summit 2010, undoubtedly one of the largest extravaganza, year 2010 witnesses. A perfect setting for the end of a decade.
TES marks the Enterprising India’s largest gathering of some of the most exciting souls on earth, a class, a breed called: entrepreneurs.
Entrepreneurship is not just a word, its a way of living, its a common passion which binds enterprising minds together who come on board with a common aim of creating and delivering value. People who dream of a future not just for themselves but create opportunities for many others, who become a part of success stories.
And without a doubt, India as a country is blessed with great minds. We have had some of the best enterprising ideas right from the bottom of the pyramid, from the rural parts of the country of over a billion people to the well networked metros. Starting from a global success story of a man who did not have food for 5 days and traveled on a goods train after being left by the security saying that he is from a friendly country India, this man decided to build an institution we know as Infosys today. There are many such inspiring stories of grit, determination, hard-work, hanging on and creating dreams.
At TES we are going to bring forth such stories while creating an opportunity and a strong ecosystem for many more to flourish. December is going to bring with it a whole new wave of energy which is going to create many new directions for many more achievers to come.
Its 2:04 A.M, as I am sitting at the Until ROI office, and looking at dreams outside the balcony on the third floor. Its the Delhi skyline, I am looking at and its a quiet time, when nothing sounds except you and your heart and those many sleepless dreams!
And as I sit here, at such a time, I am doing two things:
Working to make sure all the deliveries to our clients are completed on time
I just saw the entire 12 part series of “Inside The World Trade Center” by Discovery Channel on YouTube
“And as I just finished seeing the series, I am filled with anger and hope, death and life and many other emotions at the same time”
Well, and as they say you can never predict the future, just keeping the thought in my mind, I write this post, and to start with I want to thank everyone from my family to friends, some people who I have been really close in life, all whom I have respected more than my life and many others, who I know I remember deep down in my heart! Especially I thank my family and Suhita Poddar, who has kept the ultimate faith on me and Until ROI and being from London School of Economics still offered to join a rising start-up rather than go in for a great comfortable job!
THANKS FOR WHAT?
Well, thanks for making me the man I am. Thanks for giving me the heart to proudly say, that today I am an entrepreneur, not because I wanted to make a lot of money and be rich and famous, but actually if I share the real story in my heart, its about, how I always wanted to join the Indian Air Force and achieve the dream called INDIA.
I COULD NOT BECOME AN AIR FORCE OFFICER, I CHOSE TO BE AN ENTREPRENEUR!
Due to whatever reasons that I could not become one, I found my calling in the purpose which I have deep inside my heart since I know of myself, which is, to see my country, my INDIA as one of the fastest and the biggest superpowers in the world. That no-one, and I mean no-one ever calls us the 3rd world country.
And today for the first time in my life, I want to share it with the world. I became an entrepreneur, well, to make INDIA a superpower. YES! to many it may sound weird, and this may come as a statement to just boast on, but I challenge you, to join Until ROI, I will promise you one of the fastest growing careers, though we are a very small company right now!
You know why I can confidently say this? well, because you will be joining this company with a vision of INDIA and when INDIA grows, we will anyway grow up and that too much faster!
INDIA IS MY STORY!
INDIA is my story, Iv always been passionate about this one feeling called INDIA in life. After not succeeding to become an Air Force officer, I decided to be an entrepreneur earning a meager 15k a month, living in Delhi, being responsible towards the family. I knew being an entrepreneur would be one of the best ways I can really fuel the fire. Create employment, Create New Dreams, Empower other people’s passion and get the real determination out of them!
I CAN GET A COMFY JOB
Yes, I can get a very comfy job, leading marketing for a major corporate, but well, where is the empowerment of thousands and millions of others? That’s my calling!
WHAT WILL THEY SAY WRITING MY OBITUARY?
They will write, this was that man, who showed us how to see dreams and fight till the very end, even if all hell broke lose, even then, fight it out and he empowered us to create the dream called INDIA.
WHAT AM I DOING AS OF NOW TO JUSTIFY ALL I AM SAYING?
At Until ROI we have a mandate, set by me as the Founder and CEO, that every 10 paying clients that we get at Until ROI, we sponsor the education of a poor and DESERVING child! And I will make sure that we take personal care in raising that child and chose the best out of them to hone them into leading organisations of tomorrow’s INDIA. And mind you, we are still a small company, a start-up as they call us!
I CALL YOU TODAY!
I call you today – yes, the one reading this post, if you feel there is some part of your heart, which is screaming out to achieve your dreams after reading this post, well, give me a ping and we will talk about exploring opportunities of working together to achieve this dream called “INDIA”! Write to me at careers@untilroi.com and we will live the dream we call INDIA!
This blog post is surely one of the closest to my heart! And before going ahead with it, I must thank the people in my life who have made it possible for an ever middle class, traditional, safeguarded by Jobs background individual (which I was) to be a dreamer, an entrepreneur today!
There are many, though to name a few, My Folks, My Life , Avinash, Neha, Sarika, Rajiv Sir and a host of others who have always been a support!
Entrepreneurial life is something, which can only be read about in books and blogs, but felt the high of, only when you leave a comfortable job, to find your dreams, when you give into your eternal calling and make a way for yourself.
How I got My Wings?
I remember how I was the happiest soul on earth when I had received a good offer from a major Indian IT company to work in their testing practice at Bangalore, I was sure that now the career is set. It was a different kind of a high! BUT still, what was a bigger high for me, as I remember those moments today after a couple of years, was to sit on a plane, the first ever flight of my life. I had never been on a plane all my life and that one journey from Delhi to Bangalore on a plane, got me my first wings!
After delivering a highly successful project, I felt a void, some sort of a calling. When everyone else used to leave office at 6-7PM, I used to sit at the library, get books, loads of them, and sit through reading stories of established people. A Ratan Tata, An Ambani, they were all dreams that time. And finally I decided its time!
I Quit my First Job after 9 months
Obviously everyone in the friends and family said, you have lost it, why do you want to come back to Delhi when you have all the chances of going onsite and have a good life? I still remember, when I packed my bags from Bangalore and got onto the flight, with nothing in hand, I was a little unsure as to what will I do next after landing in Delhi.
Finally landed in Delhi, quite some humiliation and frustration, but finally when the dust settled everyone accepted the fact, that I had quit a safe haven only to do something of my own. And I started my search for something.
My Ex-boss From My Part Time Job from Class 12th Called up
I was working since class 12th. Did road shows, Joined a Start-up BPO unit which today is pretty established while I was pursuing full time college. My Ex-boss called up, when he got to know I’m in Delhi and we said lets work again.
And to everyone’s utter amaze, I became a Relationship Manager with an insurance company. The job was simple, go pick your bag each morning and come back to office with a cheque in your hands and be happy till you are performing.
The targets, the pressure of performing, the heat, dust, cold weather, abusive people in Delhi, I faced it all. Iv knocked at people’s doors, just to be shooed away under the name of insurance agent.
I was performing though, but was not satisfied. Though till today I think this was one of the most steep learning phase of my life, when I got to know how to sell! YES! I could sell… taking a cheque worth a lakh of rupees in India, from a lala sitting in a Gandhi Nagar, Kapda Market, is no less than a feat.
I moved on…
I submitted my resignation to my boss, who was against it, telling him, Boss I will come back one day with my own company. There is a bigger calling for me in life.
And I started looking again and hit upon my first idea and floated a company called: “WeYouPoint – Together we make a point” it was an idea of creating an online platform to get the industry and the academia together. I did my research and started building contacts, by going to smaller colleges and delivering lectures and talks!
I became the second youngest Indian after Ankit Fadia, to deliver a talk at Symbiosis Pune! Where it was a mixed feedback I got, but for me, it was a high of sorts. I remember, how it was hurting to invest 3500 rupees to catch a flight to Pune and reach the college, but I had in mind that this could be the turning point.
But As They Say Life Aint That Easy…
The venture could not work out, due to two simple reasons:
I was immature to really understand the dynamics of running a venture
I learnt the art of building the right team of people
And I came back to square one, jobless, again an undecided member of the family, and someone who was not right as per the people around. At an age of 20-21 when I was discovering myself and following my heart, there was a lot which put me back, also I missed not having a mentor around at that time.
Finally to sustain myself, I had to go back to being in a job and I knew selling, so went back to the wealth management industry and started performing, with my eyes and ears open to all sorts of ideas and stories and everything else.
And Now I wanted to Know, How People Earn From the Internet?
YES! Internet was catching up at that time, and I wanted to know how people could just sit at home and earn. And my quest started, which pulled me into studying the internet closely. Closely such that one fine day I stumbled upon a major industry association’s Blog.
And to be honest, I did not know what a blog meant, till I saw it and this was in 2007 end.
I knew I could write and there was a lot in me which wanted to share and learn and grow and hence I contacted the administrator of the blog, with a blog post, who actually responded back and today he is a mentor, a guide to me! He came as a stroke of opportunity and it changed the game.
I started blogging and that is how Paritosh Sharma the blogger emerged. I got my motivation from the fact that people started liking my work and this kicked in me the view of taking it to the next level, which was to take my skills LIVE. And I started going to events, while LIVE blogging them.
People till today express amaze as to how fast can you capture the thoughts of a speaker, speaking LIVE at an event? And I say, its the love of the work guys, it makes you achieve things automatically!
I became the Official Blogger for One of India’s Largest Industry Associations…
While this happened, it opened a new chapter in my life with an offer from a start-up into Social Media Marketing, to expand the Social Media operations with the Co-Founding team! Though Social Media was fresh, very fresh 2 years back, we started dabbling into the same and made a name for ourselves.
This was a good learning period for me as it opened up a whole new world of opportunities, which spelled future!
And future it was, with the New Media industry gaining ground, I found my calling. I knew this is it. This has enough scope for exploration, freedom of expression, delivering absolutely innovative solutions and creating new possibilities for clients.
Becoming a Social Media Evangelist was a turning point in life and till date Iv never looked back.
Plugging Gaps in The Industry Which I Realized Early On, I Started Until ROI
Looking at the gaps in the delivery and expectations of the market, I again set out to plug the same and started a venture called Until ROI.
Its been 7 months now and we have been growing as a company briskly, with interesting offers of acquisition and the rest. I remember how it all started from a very modest small store room, a laptop and me. Yes, that was http://untilroi.com/ when we started and today we are a growing team of passionate people who are simply winning hearts with absolute client satisfaction and innovative solutions for the market.
I want to thank every client, every one who supported us through all the rough patches, these 7 months have not been the easiest months of our lives. For me personally its been like a new birth. Like a new life, which is of learning, exploring, knowing the various dynamics of creating an organization.
And today as I sit at a good looking, though a small one room office, at 5 AM in the morning, remembering old times, and taking new decisions, making new calls, I feel blessed, to be, to choose to be an Entrepreneur! With dreams of making it big for not just myself, my team, my people, and many others who I wish to touch with the possibilities of seeing dreams and reaching out to get them, today I feel good taking strides!
May God Bless everyone and give everyone the power to change the world for the better of everyone else
I landed back from Mumbai just yesterday and surely it was great LIVE Blogging the biggest Leadership event ever in India. Out of my many experiences in the financial capital of India and the city of dreams. Bollywood stars and the rest, I found this very amazing example of simple yet striking innovation by an entrepreneur.
This is what I found:
What you see in the picture above, no its not a Google van! Its the freshest and the best Gola (ice candy) made of fresh mineral water and fruit juices called Gogola India.
I bumped across this van while I was going for a meeting on the Hill street near the Globus mall in Mumbai and just for the fun of it and to interact with the van guys, I did buy two Golas from the van. The van looked pretty okay (a second hand maruti van) with all the electrical machines inside to make a good gola in seconds.
Interestingly, the menu is like an IE page, which gives you all the options of the various flavors available simple, yet unique!
The Revenue figures of a single van which stands since 12pm till late in the night and keeps rotating in between two streets in Mumbai are:
Daily sale (golas): 300 (in good times) 150-200 (in normal business days)
Price per gola : INR 30
Positioning of van is changed on weekdays and weekends
There are more than 10 vans in the city, doing the rounds
My Feedback and Comments as an Incubation Consultant:
Good to see that the logo has been duly trade-marked (good asset)
Good revenue model (taking in consideration, all operational costs, costs of building the supply chain, maintenance of vehicle etc.)
Simple and effective!
The Gola I had, was pretty good and was surely packed in a healthy manner, with properly kept juice/ color bottles.
I very strongly feel, the kind of Innovation we have in India, is amazing! Its simplistically brilliant and a concept which can surely become into an auto-generating proposition, and once your brand is recognizable, and you have a size, you can diversify.
So, we have Ms. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw post lunch at The Leaders In India 2009. I have always admired Kiran as a woman entrepreneur. She has proven words with actions! My respects Mam
Talkign about the Global Biotech sector Kiran says that it is a business size of over 90 billion dollars globally. Each of the past decades have triggered a new growth of innovation. Interesting to know how the entire Biotech industry has evolved over time. Though Ihave not really understood the Biotech industry much, but sure, I am intrigued!
My own journey of Biocon has been that of experimenting and learning! I call myself an accidental entrepreneur!
I was always interested in brewing. I have had to overcome countless challenges over decades. We started small with simple technologies we built and also partnering has helped me build my own entrepreneurial vision. I started my entrepreneurial journey when I had the provilige of starting India’s first Biotech company, which had its own large number of challenges. People were very skeptical of success and at my time, India was still a developing company and we had sub-optimal structure that we have today and it was the time of the license raj than today. I was a 25 yearold first generation woman entrepreneur!
All I had was foolish courage!
There was no access to VC all I could avail of was very expensive debt based funding which I accepted. I was very driven by green technology at that time. But there were very few takers at that time and one of the BIG challenges I had was, the space I was getting into, was based on one very important need, which is: high quality uniterrupted power supply which India does not have even today.
I started my business from scratch opting for less evolved technology. We focused on a niche opportunity, as I had to be very real about the infrastructure and the environment I was working in. I always knew that India was a very small market for me and hence I had to operate in a niche which gave me some kind of advantage. Also in my starting years, what helped me was, I started this as a JV with a small Irish partner, and they provided me with assistance to market, my product to Global markets and this is what helped my business started.
Up until 1980′s we were still loners in Biotech in India
It was really abotu building this company step by painful step and slowly the Biotech sector started gaining acceptance in India when the govt realized the importance. Creating the skill based that we need to drive this industry has paid us fairly well in time. Thankfully because of the success of the IT and software sector, the VC had taken root in India. Since this happened, we started looking towards VC funding, when we tried to scale up. It also allowed to develop sophisticated products and I was able to compete due to our cost base.
By late 1990′s I had a fermentation unit which could handle all sorts of enzymes
The cluster effect that had started in Bangalore really helped us. the boom in Bangalore had many innovative start-ups in the space which also helped the entire industry as such and hence we were benefited. We had international players coming into India setting up operations which helped gain confidence and many are now building scale into what they were doing. Biocon had started gaining market leadership in the niche segment we were looking at.
As an entrepreneur I felt that enzyme segment was going to be limiting to our growth and we had to take some hard decisions
We hence applied our technology to develop into bio-pharmaceuticals. We were the first to cut across the IP barriers hence defining new opportunities.
“We are the world’s first and only company i manufacturing Insulin and Insulin analogs and I am proud to say that”
Overtime we have become bolder in saying that lets innovate in the Bio-pharmaceuticals now. We can today afford to innovate, we can afford to build programs around new products. Innovation in the field of Bio-tech is something we must surely take very seriously. We tend to opt for low risk services and generic versions of drugs and vaccines.
In India the cost of risk is very affordable and hence we must back innovation
What is happening to companies in the western world, is an opportunity for us. I think India really has a good opportunity to cash on in what is happening in the western world. There is a whole new emerging opportunity in Bio-generics. We will pursue Innovation led mantra to grow and that is really my goal as a company and myself as an entrepreneur! All along e have constantly challeneged ourselves and tracked new technologies.
An important learning that I have learned as an entrepreneur is challenging the status quo and moving ahead
We are trying to develop world’s first Oral insulin and its going to be a game changer for us, if it happens
We have really made a lot of conscious effort in partnering with companies, which has actually helped us leapfrog, and it has been a great business tactic for us. In our journey there is one inflection point, I had a tough and emotional call to make! Enzyme was going no where as we were not really investing enough in it, the reason being we had limited resources. And hence we finally said, we must dis-invest and divested into our competition and they have invested and grown this business fr more than we were doing it at that stage. But we surely benefited out of the IP and knowledge we had built over time. We bought a company in Germanhy which will help us start our operations in Europe.
We have started building global scale in our businesses
Our strategy has been always to develop products, leveraging India’s cost base and using affordability as our competitive edge and we are determined to do it at an affordable rate.
My message to other companies from developing world(s) is, who are stretching hard to fight against odds, we have:
Dont hesitate to partner when you want to pursue certain business opportunities, it allows you to grow faster
Its important to start simple and start local, be realistic about matching your skill sets w.r.t technologies you are trying to develop
I started my life as a brewmaster looking to brew beer, your journey can take you anywhere, but your life should be an inspiring hope
It was great to listen to you Ms. Mazumdar Shaw as usual! The fire of entrepreneurship has surely gotten a needed kick from you!
I am supporting this survey by YouGov, which is aimed at Promoting Entrepreneurship in India and getting more funds to the country, to support entrepreneurs!
I particularly want the level of primary education to increase in India and be supported by entrepreneurs.
If you share such a DREAM, I CALL UPON ENTREPRENEURS to take this survey and SHOW SUPPORT to the CAUSE of ENTREPRENEURSHIP in India!
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