Media Release
Bengaluru, Jun 15: “Catch the wave at the right time!” was one piece of advice that Ravi Gururaj had for the audience gathered at the Catholic Club on the occasion of the members meeting of Kanara Entrepreneurs, as in surfing, it is the timing that matters.
A serial entrepreneur, Angel Investor, NASSCOM Executive Council member and having being involved in several start-ups himself, Ravi Gururaj, a very appropriate person to speak on the subject, was giving a talk on ‘Insights from successful start-ups’.
“Being at the right place at the right time is very important and one cannot catch a wave after it has passed,” said the experienced entrepreneur. “Aware of the timing in Sales Cycle matters a lot, like knocking corporate doors during the budgeting time will open a lot of doors of opportunity.”
Sharing his learning from various experiences with start-ups, Ravi Gururaj informed that his first start-up venture gave him a valuable lesson that other people will bet on your skills and invest.
“While it brings a lot of responsibility on the entrepreneur, it is equally rewarding & fulfilling. I had the opportunity to watch closely my mentor making decisions, which was a great learning experience,” he said.
When the situation became tough, he learnt to be resilient & move forward, carrying out bootstrapping works and riding on piggyback distribution. This was a very good strategy during such times – developing customers by giving value and leveraging on the customer base of a very large client.
Some of the advices he had for entrepreneurs were:
• Know your Customers well. Just getting them to be the users of your services will not help.
• Cash is King – collecting money upfront is very advantageous. So get customers to realize value and invest in your business.
• Don’t follow a wave. Following a wave is like looking through somebody else’s rear view mirror & driving.
• Big Game Hunting – at least one of the numbers ie client, should be big. It is actually less intimidating than one thinks.
• Give yourself some more chances – sometimes one cannot achieve success immediately or success in one venture will not be followed immediately by success in the following ventures too.
• Networking – Building bridges is very critical to support entrepreneurs.
• Know where you are going and believe in yourself.
• Build credibility - otherwise how will others believe you & invest in you.
India, he informed has a very favourable Startup Ecosystem, being the third largest behind the United States and United Kingdom. Though delivery is a pain in India right now, he was of the opinion that India has very strong growth Indicators for the next 10 years, with a burgeoning middle class that has started to consume. There is a huge opportunity for technology in small & medium enterprises in India.
Though packed with amazing opportunities for Startups in India, he cautioned the listeners against certain characteristics of the Indian consumer market – Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity & Ambiguity. To counter these, one has to be nimble & agile and always be prepared to change. India is the place where products that are resilient and cost to service is low will do well.
Ravi Gururaj citing examples of deep thinking computers such as DeepMind C and Learning Robots, updated the audience how Globally Companies & Countries are taking gigantic strides towards intelligent Automation and warned that the pace of things will change as Technology is advancing at a very rapid pace. “You can dream things now and it becomes possible in real time” the FICTION to REALITY time has narrowed down. With technology, the world is becoming efficient, accessible, borderless, secure & scalable and leading to world of a P2P (Person-to-Person) interaction without any intermediary.
His advice to all was ‘Think differently & shock everyone’.
Though entrepreneurship is a very lonely journey, he felt that the support of an Organization such as KE would be of immense help and of very great comfort to its members during such journey and in crisis and hoped that KE through its vast network will build bridges across the castles such as religion, caste, technology.
Earlier, in his presidential address, Peter Anil Rego, the president of KE emphasized that KE stands for change and urged every member to constantly evolve with positive change in attitude, personality and in whatever one does, remarking that ‘Not all change is improvement ...but without change there is no improvement’.
It was a historic meeting, as it marked the initiation of two organizations with several common objectives, Kanara Entrepreneurs (KE) and Catholic Club, seeking to understand, associate and benefit mutually, leveraging each other’s strengths. The Catholic Club was represented by its treasurer, Lukose Abraham and other committee members.
The new members were administered the oath by Naveen D’Souza, director membership. The five new members inducted were Ronald Raj, Janet Lucinda Solomon, Jacqueline Olivia Solomon, Melwyn Vincent Smith and Rupert Fernandes.
The whole meeting was well compered with lot of valuable information & some pinch of humour by lead member Robinson D’Souza.
The vote of thanks was proposed by Adrian D’Souza and the meeting concluded with a fellowship dinner.