Of angels and us

Thoughts penned down by CA Rajiv D Khatlawala

My visit to Ahmedabad was planned in just under a week. The seminar was one which I wanted to attend for some time but could not. And I also was well aware that to some extent, I was a little outof-place. The event was for start-up companies and though my company was not exactly a start up , the topics to be discussed seemed relevant. Having started a little early from Baroda, lest the rains should delay me, I reached the venue IIM Ahmedabad , about forty minutes ahead of schedule. The event was to begin at exactly 3pm, so said the email I had received. It was another matter that we actually ended up starting at 3.15pm. But as any Indian would put it, we started right on time! I was perhaps one of the eldest participants as I glanced around me. Most of the participants were in their twenties and I could also observe some four or five of them who surely seemed to be in their teens! And to top this all, I presume about eighty percent of them were Engineers! No doubt then that the world calls India an Entrepreneurial Hub I was convinced, yet again, that it was true and, it was likely to remain so for at least the next couple of decades. I felt intellectual vibrations as I looked around once more, with the youngsters using technical jargons and wielding smart phones! The format of the seminar was interesting we were to witness three quick presentations from participants who may want to put their business idea across to the chief guest and the others like us. Thereafter the Chief guest an entrepreneur turned angel investor- who had travelled all the way from Bangalore was to address various pros and cons of the three presentations and in the process explain how investors having loads of cash could view any business plan and whether and how they would invest in start up companies. The presentations were interesting; especially when one considers that they were from twentysomething. What was more interesting to know was that they were well researched and above all the presenters were quite passionate about their project. An Entrepreneur without passion is no entrepreneur! The presentations were attractive and the post-presentation discussion even more so. In fact we all found ourselves shooting out questions to each presenter, in such a way, as if we were the ones who were going to fund them and needed to be sure! Our major learning came from the sort of questions which the chief guest put forward. It gave us an inkling of what an Entrepreneur turned investor would look forward in any start-up. But, at one point the chief guest from Bangalore (or bengaluru) stressed on the 80-20 principle. He explained that eighty percent of the target customers generally needed twenty percent of a companys products and hence a start up should concentrate on satisfying the needs of these eighty percent customers. I presume everyone, except me, agreed to this notion. I was under the impression that in todays world creating a niche is much more important for survival rather than being a me-too company. I asked the guest whether we should not consider the long tail concept.

He was probably not a fan of the long tail concept and so I refrained from asking him whether or not start-ups should use, or at least consider, the blue ocean strategy. This was surprising since we were also told that an entrepreneur should think out of the box. Somehow the two things seemed inconsistent. My train of thoughts went towards the fact that unless any would-be investor has an open mind towards the ideas floated, his investing decision could be adversely affected. Why should a young start-up even believe in the 80-20 principle? In fact many of the start-ups dont even have a product which they know customers may want- because they are creating something new! Take the example of the mobile phone. A mobile phone when originally conceived would have had the major purpose of one-to-one communication. Today mobile phone companies mainly highlight the other exotic features to sell their products not their communicating abilities! Tell me frankly, when was the last time you purchased a mobile phone for its communicating ability? Thus my own perception was that sticking to the known territory and satisfying the eighty percent customers , may have been a good strategy a couple of decades back. In the coming decades finding or creating niches in the unknowns will probably define the success or otherwise of start-ups. My mind then started toying with the idea as to whether the entrepreneurs of yesterday can really become the angels of tomorrow? While the young entrepreneurial crowd has seen itself in a process of continuous evolvement , had the other side the angels, kept pace and evolved too? If not, there would be a tragic mismatch between passion and expectation! I also wondered that had we been in the western world, whether half of the participant crowd in the room, would already have been funded by now and may be a couple of them would have been on their way to create the next face-book! I wondered that, had Pranav Mistry the Indian-born wonder kid of MIT stayed back in India , is it possible that his sixth sense technology would have been delayed by some more years i.e. till the time some investor satisfied himself about the project ! My perception is that an angel or a VC needs to be a risk taker and be ready to jump in at halfcooked ideas stage and not wait for the idea to be at almost cooked stage. Angels, especially entrepreneur turned angels, have the intuition of visualising the outcome of even half cooked ideas and it may be counter-productive for them to wait a little longer. If one is looking for certainty or near-certainty, the very basis of investing evaporates. I presume that must have been the fate of the Private Equity investors who invested in the likes of SKS Microfinance and other reality ventures they invested too late, and hence lost big money. All in all, I presume the seminar was quite lively, interactive and with a vibrant chief guest which I could judge from the smiling and happy faces of the participants. I am quite hopeful for young India and I must admit that to have been thrilled with the beautiful enquiry from an eighteen year old participant Is Experience over-rated? to which the chief guest said that it was. As we go ahead in to this decade, I am sure that the vibrant and evolving entrepreneurs will find equally vibrant and evolving angels! God bless India! CA Rajiv D Khatlawala (email: rajivkhatlawala@yahoo.co.in)