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????

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...

www.kuixine.com 

Journey from a 10th grade to ISB in 25 years

It takes you just that one minute to sign in and still it took me more than two decades to do that. As I sit just 10 days away from the first day when I walk into the gates of the University for my course on Business Management, I look back to see an endless chain of events and circumstances which became the road blocks to stop me from doing this many many years ago.

At this point, many such big and small events come to my mind, which makes me think why it was so impossible for me to do it then and how it is this possible to do it now. The timing could just not be worse. Having a huge family property deal closed, Prudence Advisors (means for my bread n butter, literally) at its best with 3 kids, all eager to grow into successful individuals and my own early 40s mindset of traveling to every place the dart strikes on the map but still here I am preparing for my course and reading up materials at 5 am in the morning. All this sets me to think, why we do not take that moment out and just do what we want to do?

If this means I have some sleepless nights studding, I have some embarrassing moments at the University, have some tough moments at work with clients or have some emotionally tiring moments with kids when I temporary loose focus on them, it must be fine with me and I must be good to go, anyway, in these past years, I have had sleepless night, embarrassing moments, tough moments and emotionally tiring moments and had it zillion number of times and most of it was for someone else, someone close or not, but surely for someone else but I am proud today that I am ready to face these moments for myself.

We as ladies must never give up on ourselves, its never too late for us, its never over for us. We created life, I created life and you created life but then, lets not loose ourselves living this life.

I will write soon and very soon, one of my Blogs will be written by a GRADUATE FROM INDIAN SCHOOL OF BUSINESS..     

Hectic Days

Hectic day for a person at a 9 to 5 workplace would be a number of open windows on the desktop which never seem to close, a phone which never seem to stop ringing and a colleague, who just does not seem to stop cribbing about his/her busy schedules. But, a hectic day for a self employed person like me, a person who choose to set up a business entity for herself, is self created business meetings which seem to pop up from all directions, the mails, calls and many times, sudden drop-in at the office. A phone which never stops ringing which, I willingly carry with me every where and willingly answer every call and a set of employees who I have hired with my free will who seem to just not do anything the right way. This hectic day is my own creation.

Have always told my self for many years “Skills pay the bills” but I am yet to understand what kind of Skills actually pay the bills. It is 1 am and I am still working and I am satisfied with it, so what if my day begins at 9 am, Good, but never seem to end. Even at 1 am I feel bad that I could put in some more hours and here I am filling out my journal of the day. So, the Skill which would pay my bill is actually the skill to work my self out endlessly, then, yes, I do not think I need to worry about my bills any more.

Anyway, coming back to my today’s schedule. Something really interesting for all those readers out here, who would have just started in a Self-Employed role or ones who have moved on with it long time back. I, for the first time in my professional life was able to put a point across to a business associate who had all the experience in a line of Hospitality and I am a new born here and I was proved right as well. How was I able to do it? It was complete confidence on myself and nothing else that I did this and won my case as well.

We are in the process of setting up a resort in a hill station and we had our projections ready as well but something bothered me about it, something did not seem right, I wanted it to be more heavy on investments so that we could focus on guest satisfaction, HR training modules and not bog ourselves down for sales from the first year it self. I am happy I took the right decision and put my point across and got it my way too. We are re-structuring the complete financials as per my discussions. My lesson for the day – do not give up on your gut feeling, if you feel you are in the right, then, stand up for it, you would not have the qualifications for it, you would not have the experience but if your business mind tells you to put your foot down, then you do exactly that, the worst that can happen is your decision would slow down the growth of your business a little bit, so be it, it is your business after all, who else would have more rights to screw it up than you, so why fear and always remember, “Every successful business has at least 2 or 3 failed business ideas behind it” – Good Night…