Dreaming of a great future or building one..

This has been one of the most the most talked about statement, "Dream big things, Coz only if you dream is when you set out to achieve it" it's post Steve Job's statement that dreaming became an even more sexy statement to quote, "only those who dream to change the world, set out to do so" something in those lines but today I understand that there is more to dreaming than just dreaming...

It's exactly 2 years, 9 months, 11 days that I had a dream, a dream which I, along with my co-founder / best friend, Vivek Srinivasan would be these two entities who would reach out to entrepreneurs from across the world, rather, the entrepreneurs from across the world would reach out to us, but yes, it was a dream, if you would have asked me then, I would have had that big smile as I tell you my dream, Coz I really believed that it was a dream, you know what dreams are right, you see them with closed eyes, so here I was seeing a dream with open eyes, so yes, I had that shyness, that, please don't take me to be mad look, when I dreamt this dream. Today, I know a very small portion of entrepreneurs of this world, would do anything to have us talk to them, have us spend an hour with them, have us focus on their startups for just a day and for us to be a small part of their huge growth.. 

So, how did this unbelievable dream become a small reality?? Did I sit on that couch in my small little living room, dreaming and smiling about it?? 

What do you think I did?? 

Yes, I did exactly what you are thinking, I did.. I stopped just dreaming about it and I got these contents of my dream into the real world of mine, which I can assure consisted of evil monsters called - bills, had ugly green beasts called - society, had small but dangerous piranhas called -responsibilities, which could eat me and my dreams along with it with no time, but I dared to bring it out and from that day, it was no more a dream, it was my fight for achieving my dreams, it was my struggle to make Vivek believe it is possible to achieve my dreams, it was the fight which I took on every day. 

Just like an alcoholic fighting hard to stay clean, I fought hard with myself and the monsters around to keep my dream alive in this real world. Every small success, I would jump, I would cheer, I would cry tears of happiness, I would hug my monsters with love, Coz it's them who let my dream grow from a figment of my imagination to this real thing called Startups Club, now I got warriors, an army slowly building within my dream, who would stand by me, when things get rough, who would guard me when I felt scared of these monsters, who would hug me (literally) when I felt lonely, I found my warriors in my Members of Startups Club from across the world. My dream was becoming a reality, a real entity and I was winning it, even today I am. 

So today, sitting in this flight to Pune, writing my blog contents on my phone notes, I have a thought, a day ahead of having 3 events in 3 different locations, 2 different countries and Vivek and I, in a position to reach out to lakhs of entrepreneurs in this world, I think back, is it okay to just dream and only dream? did I know I was practically implementing my dream into a reality? Did the universe play a larger part than I did for this to happen? What is it that has given me, today? 

My monsters, who pushed me to move ahead or else, they would get me down, 

My warriors, whose trust made me to go on? 

My Partner, who stood by me even if he at times did not believe it was possible 

Or ME????

Talking through Mails...

From the time we learned to speak, there has been a constant struggle and yearning in us to make sure the people we speak too, listen to us and remember us too.
- From "Ma, I am hungry" to "Mommmm... I am so very hungry"
- From "You can join me now" to "Hey, lets do it together now"

The story continues even today, with my Clients, my Friends, my Kids, my Co-Founder, my Community Members and so on..

So, what have we learnt from so may years of practice in making people listen to us?

 Today, the platform has changed, everything remains the same and the tactics to make people listen to us also remains the same but still, we just don't seem to get it on how we could make the mails be noticed. So, let us learn to talk through mails.

- Do, what you do best, add your expressions...
- Talk less to be heard more

Expressions through mails.. does matter

Every time we sit down to write mails, especially to a Client, associate or an important connect, the first thing we leave aside, are the expressions. Always remember to put your expressions into the mail. You don't have to send a mail, which just reads out the message, whats a message without an expression.

"Ma, I am hungry" means the same too "Mommmmm I am so very hungry"but the need for your mother to know she has to bring you to eat is more stressed with a little bit of expressions added to it. Said that, for a client, you write a "Would love to meet" and try "Look forward to meeting you eagerly" makes all the difference.

Talk less to be heard more

Take a shape of a blow horn, you must have seen it zillion times, but have you noticed, that the side you speak in is always smaller to the side where it is heard. This is exactly the same. 

Having specific few lines and clear, expressing language leaves behind a very loud, clear and an impressive mail, which can never be ignored. Never ever try to fit in everything into those few lines, a sale pitch, an introduction or an invite, needs to be very specific but definitely not missing out on your feelings, thoughts and passion. 

Try it always and see how magical it is...

Brand Association OR Brand Trust

When we set out to organise events, the first thought which crosses our minds is, will we bring the brand associations for the event, enough for us to be able to take the costs of the event and handle the logistics?

The fact of the story is, that it is never about associations, its about the BRAND TRUST...

What is BRAND TRUST?

Just like every startup has its trusted early users, in any event planning, budgeting, outreach & execution, the only motivation for any organiser is the early sponsors & partners who come forward to join with us. There is no clarity on the number of foot falls at the event, there is no clear Agenda to the event, there is no mention of the speakers, there is nothing, yet, they come forward to join with us for the event, then, what is this? what kind of association would you ever call this? This is nothing but a pure example of BRAND TRUST.

Taking forward this BRAND TRUST, I would like to share brands and their stories who showed to us, what matters is just trust and nothing more for our annual event under Startups Club DemoDay2015 on August 8th & 9th, just a week away...

Lets start with our Event Partners, Ignitus World founded by Anjali & Sarath, driven by pure passion but what stands out very clearly is the ability to adopt an event of their client's as if it was their very own. Taking up every challenge with an intention to bring about a solution for the same. They have in a very little time taken up weddings, corporate events, personal events & launches. But the fact they stood by us from the day they have known us and were very soon able to close on one of our key note speakers, motivated us to move ahead in bringing some of the best line of speakers and panel members.

One brand which just makes me go nostalgic is MyBabyCart headed by Mridula, one of the seasoned members of Startups Club, feels like just yesterday she had visited one of our meetings at Mr. Beans in Koramangala and shared with us on how she intends to start her own portal specially for women entrepreneurs, I remember she had shared "I will not give up, coz my last venture did not do well, learning from those mistakes, I will surely make it this time" those words mean so strong now, because she does not only successfully support many women entrepreneurs by posting their products on her platform but also has made a strong community of Women Entrepreneurs under Mompreneurs and conducts meetings every quarter and has a strong trust which has been built. One mail to Mridula, ensured her partnering with me, if this is not BRAND TRUST, what is??

Finally, last but not the least, a short and sweet story for all of you. I was going through a regular meet one morning, I get a call from a Facebook connect asking me if she was late for the meetup, I tell her that she is, but she must come over, as I get to see her in person and she agrees. Post 15 minutes she walks in, a young entrepreneur, excited and nervous and that moment, my life just became sweeter than I ever thought it could be. She, Priya, founder of KrispandCrumbls makes some of the world's most tasty chocolates and loves exploring with her skills. It has been some 8 months, but it feels like a life time we know each other. All my Club's gifting solutions is without doubt Priya's responsibility and she also makes some really beautiful gift packs as per our very own budgets. Once again coming as our trusted Gifting Partners. Taste it to understand...

With these three beautiful stories, can I confidently come to conclude that Brand Association can be created only if BRAND TRUST exists... Go out and build your trusted associations... without an ounce of fear in you... You never know, who your next title sponsor would be...

My father or my MBA

I have spent all most 25 years telling everyone who asked me what my qualifications are about how working with my father was like doing a MBA, starting today I share the stories (short for sure) my father made me learn working under him, on this special day, his birthday - 23/05 

Kandnery Mohammed Moosa (joined me spiritually on 13/8/2008) was his name, very typical Muslim name and with looks doing complete justice to his name, but for what ever reasons, there was never this one person who would ignore him, make him feel a mis-fit or not listen to him, he always got his way around things and people, so till the point you are done readying these serious of blogs, you would surely know how to get things your way and more.

Here starts my very few but important learnings I will carry all my life from him. Today's blog is for Trusting Yourself.. 

The day he called me to his office for the first time, and just asked me to jump into the car beside him and drive down to Chennai, my journey with him in business started from Chennai and so here I am sitting in Chennai on his birthday, writing this blog. He spoke about his product, a fuel stabiliser for internal combustion engines (could not understand a word what he said) followed by the fact that he was as of now making me the Managing Director of his company (I was exactly 18 years 4 months) and I kept looking at him and was fine it, after all it was just a post under him, I was cool with it. He drove down to IIT-M and in an auditorium full of faculty from mechanical department he put me on the stage announcing I was the MD of his company and will now talk in detail on his upcoming product. I wanted to kill him, myself, that very minute. So here I was on this stage, with no clue on what I am going to speak and I looked at him, my eyes to his, "Dad, I will ruin your chances you or your product have over here in this campus" and he looked back, "it's your dad's product to screw it up, no body else's" I knew he wanted me to do anything which I felt was right, trust myself and never to look back, what ever the outcome be. I did exactly that and I cannot deny that the talk went really well and we signed a R&D contract with IIT-M in not later than a month of that talk, but it's been 26 years and I have never let go of that learning, this is the reason you will never see me fear anything in life, you will never see me hesitate trying out something new, you will never see me doubt myself ever. 

So do that to yourself, trust yourself because the biggest and the most important asset you have with you is yourself and if you doubt that for start, there will be nothing in this world you will ever trust. Move ahead today and never look back and what you carry along with you is THE TRUST YOU HAVE ON YOURSELF..

Next one coming soon... 

How do u know if you're on the way to build the next big Startup?

How do u know if you're on the way to build the next big Startup?

After spending a decade between startups, hearing those beautiful stories of all the Facebooks, Apples, Whats app buy outs, Airbnbs and the list continues, I would always think, whats is it that our startups are missing out on? why does it feel like, it would never be the case with any of our entrepreneurs? There were moments when I would question our mentoring, our approach, our strategy, our suggestions and at times, sit back to consider if even continuing with this as our profiles. 

Then came across these two participants, totally unconnected with each other, for our annual event in Startups Club, DemoDay2014, Khuzema from Chennai & Arjun from Vellore. Both, no way similar to each other. On one side was this young, super aggressive, super naive and super loud and on the other was this young, super clear, super sensible, super passionate, super driven, super experienced in tech and I looked at both of them, as they got mentored to pitch their own ideas to the panel. I noticed them in various mentoring sessions, some together.. some in groups and they really did not look any thing similar.. their attitudes, their approach, their ideas.. The only three things common about them were 1. they both were young 2. they both wanted to be successful entrepreneurs 3. they both loved being associated with us.

Today, 1 year down the road, from those thoughts, long hours of discussions, longer hours of fights, unimaginable hours of working things out, we, the two young entrepreneurs and us, Prudence (Vivek, me and our team) are the three founders on board of this food related startup. Now, as I write this, I can clearly answer my question, will one of our Startups be the next BIG THING? Oh yes.. definitely it is and in fact we can see it happening already...

Lets see how, may be you could get the formula of making a successful one and if you do, don't forget to let me know through comments;

1. Team - not perfect, no way from the same age group, not from the same back ground.. BUT.. a team which is never ready to let go of the reins to make the progress. There is always this one of us who will always ensure the things move ahead. Trust me, we have taken turns.. all of us, at some point of time.

2. Idea - Idea was completely different from what it is today, but what we have today, is what our food lovers wanted & felt was missing, we were able to connect with our users at a very.. VERY early stage of the journey and get their problems, understand their needs, talk to them in person and make them realise that solution is on the way.

3. Fear Factors - Still exists, blogging here, just 1 day to go for the Beta (Soft launch) at 3:15 am, just saying a good night through a whats app message to the Tech Director, who had his whole team in Chennai sitting with him till now working on the website, we fear, his last message to me was.. "I am nervous" and just couple of hours back, my message to him was the same. So this has been on and this will be on.. but we are sure that at times one of us are at that point of time where we fear things ahead, the others will pull us up, so we know and are confident, that we will fight our fears.. that is the reason fears exist right? to fight them out.

4. Investments - Woooo.. this is one word.. which just typing the word out, gives me some crazy thoughts of all the time we have changed our strategy, thanks to this one word. There was a point of time, some 6 months back, the complete initiative had seen a dead end, if it was not for the youngest student founder who pulled us all back together and took this up, maybe this blog would never have been written.. So, yes, Investments has and will be one of the issues but then, do you know what we believe? if there is no need for investments, we would not be going ahead anywhere, the fact that we need funds is a proof in itself that we are progressing.

5. What now?? - We do not know, it is the bloody truth.. You can ask us all together or ask us individually, we would have the same answer to this question, we have no clue whats going to happen, but we are happy at the place we are in, that matters to us. We have our users waiting for the launch, who are joining us for the launch on 15th May at 5 pm, our HomeChefs cooking for all the foodies, we have not come across one person who heard us talk about our Startup, say a WOWWWW.. we are getting stronger by the day as a team and we are progressing, that is all matters to us for now and what lies ahead of us, is left on our hard work and our users, so why break our heads on that.

So, here it is, just 5 things which could come to me for now, but by the end of this, I am so glad to write that I am so sure, clear, confident and aware that we are building the NEXT BIG THING in Startups.. 

Give your thoughts or try our HOME CHEF's yummy foods by being our FOODIE on...

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