Elements of Starting up

Elements of Starting up

Heart, Smarts, Guts, LuckWhat it takes to be an entrepreneur and build a great

businessJoy Bhattacharjee,

Co-Founder,Kanopy Techno Solutions Pvt. Ltd.

Questions■ What does it take to be a great entrepreneur?■ How do you find such a person?■ How do you become one?■ What are the crucial character traits and habits?■ Are they always the same?■ What can be learnt other than innate?■ Do founders possess different strengths than scalers?■ What are the crossroads business-builders must face?■ How many business books and experts, what to impart?

Lets us ‘Begin’“Taking the first step is always the hardest”

Insecurities:■ What if I fail ?■ Do I have enough money ?■ How long will it take ?■ What happens to my social life ?■ Is my personality startup material ?

Traits of Great EntrepreneursHEART SMARTS GUTS LUCK

Code for

Authentic Vision● Purpose● Passion● Sacrifice● Nuance

Pattern Recognition● Book Smarts● Street Smarts● People Smarts● Creative Smarts

Solidity● Guts to Initiate● Guts to Endure● Guts to Evolve

Lucky Attitude● Humility● Intellectual

Curiosity● Optimism

Lucky Network

Exemplified by

● Howard Schultz, Starbucks

● Guy Laliberté, Cirque du Soleil

● Jeff Bezos, Amazon● Bob Langer, MIT● Bill Gates, Microsoft

● Richard Branson, Virgin Airlines

● Paul Reichmann, Olympia & York

● Jay Chiat, TBWA\Chiat\Day

● Li Lu, Coleader, Tiananmen Square 1989

Showcased in / Analogs

● Philippe Petit in Man on Wire

● John Keating in Dead Poets Society

● Will Hunting in Good Will Hunting

● Frank Abagnale in Catch Me if You Can

● King George VI in The King’s Speech

● Harvey Milk in Milk

● Jamal in Slumdog Millionaire

● Forrest Grump in Forrest Grump

Heart: How it reveals itself

Purpose and Passion + Sacrifice / Work Ethic + Nuance

60 % of founders are Heart-driven“I’d probably rank Heart-the passion for something and the desire to see it through, no matter what the challenge, as number one”

-Google Cofounder Sergey Brin

HEART: Winning with the HeartHeart \hahrt\ noun 1 : the source of an authentic vision and the soul of a business or calling

Purpose and Passion: You cannot plan Heart, or “in vitro fertilize” a truly great business. A company’s foundation lies in purpose.

Sacrifice and Agape: The concept of agape and natural maternal-like sacrifice that comes with creating and building a business.

Nuance: The subtleties and thousand points of light that emanate and coalesce from a genuine Heart and ultimately differentiate it from its competitors.

Power & Impact of PurposeImpact

Purpose Beliefs / Values

Specific capabilities

Tactics / Tools

Behavior

Propagation of Purpose:

A small change in

purpose has a large impact

on more tactical

aspects of what you do. That is why it is important to

understand your purpose

first.

Limitations of Heart■ Heart needs to be complemented by execution and

market acceptance to become business■ Heart can’t just be about thinking big■ Heart-driven approach can yield diminishing returns

Passion

Market Capabilities

Magic

Questions■ What is the purpose of your business, stated simply and

clearly?■ What is the (right-brained) essence of your business model?■ What are the must-have values of your business?■ What are you prepared to do when those values are violated?

Or are there values you are willing to trade off for scale?■ What are the top five to eight nuances in your business that

differentiate it from the rest?■ If you had all the money you could ever want, what would you

be doing to occupy your life meaningfully?

Smarts: How it reveals itself

Pattern Recognition

Book Smarts + Street Smarts + People Smarts + Creative Smarts=

Business Smart

IQ IS ONLY THE BEGINNING

Business Smarts \biz-nəs, sma:rts, noun 1 : pattern recognition across book smarts, street smarts, and creative smarts, esp. In entrepreneuship

Book Smarts■ High IQ helps open the doors, like good University for

Engineering, or MBA■ Book Smarts help solve analytical issues, after that, its

importance wanes!

Baseline - You don’t have to be super book smart !!!

Habits:■ Priority Setting■ Regularly consult a Dashboard of Performance Indicators■ Don’t waste a minute: Run Better, Shorter Meetings

Street Smarts■ Successful because of experience and tenacity (ex. Jim

Skinner, CEO, MacD, former restaurant manager)■ Bring hardheaded practicality and momentum■ Drivers of feedback mechanism of learning■ Are ultimate business anthropologist-observing events and

people■ Read situations and contexts rather than statistics

Habits:■ Use the Three-Minute Rule: Client actions before and after■ Appreciate the Power of Pause: Pause, Play, Mute, Rewind

People Smarts■ Intuiting how people will react in particular situations■ Prioritizing relationships■ Developing talent

Habits:

■ Prepare for Critical Conversations■ Cultivate Network: Triage and Focus■ Focus on Intrinsic Reward as much or more than Extrinsic

Creative Smarts■ Grasp patterns that others do not (even book smarts fail !)■ Are visionaries and can perceive future■ Generate ideas■ Innovative

Best Example: Steve Jobs, Founder, Apple Inc

Habits-Practice Spirituality or MeditationDevote time for Creative activities like Music or Fine Arts

Business Smart (Pattern Recognition)

■ Deft amalgam of the four varieties of Smarts■ Ability not only to mix and match the above qualities, but

also to modify and moderate their volume depending on the person, people, situation, or environment in situation

■ Intuitive and experimental, visionary and practical■ Strategist

Analogy: Chess Player, considers game, rules, manuals, teachers, available moves, opponents he has played against, tactics and strategies learnt by trial error, clock and timer !!!!

Too Much Smart■ Overanalyze■ Miss the bigger picture■ Focus too (tooooo) much on details■ Become precisely incorrect■ Lack willingness to take leap of faith■ Never take the first step

Examples:None, but could be found in failure stories, oh but they don’t have noticeable failure stories, as they always succeed in petty things

GUTS: To Initiate, Endure and EvolveEntrepreneurship is often:■ A lonely endeavor■ Marked by repeated rejection and failure■ Circuitous journey of extreme highs and lows■ Like committing to swimming in a sea of ambiguity■ Normal that nobody else understand your ideas, so spend

most waking hours physically or psychologically alone !

Example: Mike Yavonditte, former CEO, Quigo (contextual ad-targeting network directly competed Google’s AdSense), Founder, Hashabe.

Guts Hierarchy

Guts to Initiate

Guts to Endure

Guts to Evolve

Guts /guhts/ noun 1 : the courage to make things happen with the will to act; specifically at critical moments of initiation, endurance, and evolution

Action, not inaction, not reaction

Failure is not an option, but a reality

Companies that do not survive are the ones that don’t adapt their practices and products to environmental shifts

SurvivorMindset

LUCK’s inevitable role inBusiness-BuildingLuck \luhk\ noun 1 : right attitude intersecting with the right relationship network; the result of a lucky attitude (humility, intellectual curiosity, and optimism) and lucky network (subset of one’s relationship network) composed of unexpected but highly useful relationships

Humility+

Intellectual Curiosity+

Optimism

Subset of relationship network deriving from a Lucky Attitude and further enhanced through

vulnerability, authenticity, generosity, and openness toward people.

Lucky Attitude Lucky Network

Execution is Everything !!!

Good Luck !!

Questions! ?

Thank YouContact Us:

Kanopy Techno Solutions Pvt. Ltd.E-103, Visitor Hostel Extension, IIT-Kanpur,

Email: [email protected]