Learnings from meeting 20+ entrepreneurs in Bangalore
As I was making my journey back home from the cafe, I had a different kind of adrenaline rush. I was jumping with excitement, even though I was exhausted and drained. This was the kind of day that makes me really happy, gives me the motivation to go harder in life, and create an impact!
I was in Banglore when the news of the acquisition of Startify came out in the media and being in the Silicon Valley of India, I did not want to crib just about the traffic, thought the traffic is terrible. I wanted to meet the entrepreneurs budding in every corner of the city. Wanted to make use of that culture, exchange knowledge, brainstorm on ideas, know them and share my learnings. One random day I put up a message in a Facebook group that I was available to meet with my brief background. In the next 6 hours or so, my Facebook notifications got flooded. It wasn’t like I had hundreds of notifications, but beating my expectations I had tens of people actually wanting to meet up.
Super excited, happy and pumped I decided to camp up in a Starbucks on a Sunday and meet most people there. That was the only way to meet so many and not spend time navigating through Bangalore’s adventurous traffic. When a startup is cooking in the founder’s head, very few publicise it and I had no way to know what most were working on. So the curiosity increased my excitement to meet them and know their plans.
I rushed to the cafe early morning which was already hustling with people, ordered a cup of coffee and got a comfortable spot. I had meetings set for every hour for the entire day. With every “stranger” we would discuss ideas to change the world, their startup, my learnings and everything else. The best part of these entrepreneurs was their diversity – someone who just completed college, worked in a corporate for 10 years, a food delivery boy, a person who came back to India after working in Australia, seasoned entrepreneurs and businessmen. In no way, I could not bucket them except for the fact that they all had the vision to make a dent in the universe.
Here’s some of the learning I had during these conversations –
No agenda, no meeting
This has been one rule I have been following post that day and it has helped me save hours of my life. On this day in Bangalore, I had gone in with an open agenda of knowing people, but there was a clear difference in people who came in with a purpose versus the people who came to just chat.
The first meeting of the day was with two entrepreneurs working on a DIY animation platform and had worked together in an MNC for years. Being from a technical background they wanted to know more about customer acquisition strategies. They came in with a set of six to seven specific questions and we could have a very focused discussion on that. Similarly, had a person who had come back to India after working in Australia for over five years, and he wanted to know about the fintech space and funding scenario in India and then another person who had come with a hiring pitch.
On the other hand, there were people who did not have an agenda and had come in to have a chat. Undoubtedly, I love those chats and those conversations trigger something at times but in most cases isn’t useful on the longer run. A quick call to decide the agenda before the meeting goes a long way.
Ask questions, ask the right questions
Hands down this was most important learning for me. This was a meeting with an entrepreneur who was revolutionising the event management space. After the meeting I was drained, but realised I hadn’t learnt a lot about the person. He was so good at asking questions, the right questions, that the entire hour I was the only one speaking and was forced to think and answer. No small talks!
The kind of questions define the quality of the conversation. The open ended ones which forces the other person to think are the best ones. I try to always go with some set of questions in any conversation which sets the base or is useful when the conversation dries up.
Entrepreneurship after a job?
Surprisingly a lot of people I met had been working in the corporate for long. This was a great experience personally as I had never worked in one. This is what an entrepreneur starting his own education company to give students more hands-on learning with electronics after working in Samsung for over 10 years said – “I wanted to leave the company about 2 years back, I just couldn’t. I did not have the guts. Over a year back I started to plan every penny I’d spend after leaving the job and then I did. But even now, I go back to check my bank statement on the first of every month to see if my salary has been credited. It’s tough!”. This stuck in me, and has been in my mind even since.
All of these people were much closer to reality and knew how difficult starting a startup was. Moreover they were experts in their own domains, though lacked a broader vision and perspective which is required in entrepreneurship.
Focused energy, than hard work
There is such a clear differentiation between entrepreneurs and wantrepreneurs and that surprised me. The level of conversation with people who were already running a startup (had at least a few customers) was so different. The kind of questions they asked, the kind of people they connected me to and the overall energy were very different. They knew what they needed from me and how they could further help me and more importantly very time conscious.
Many of the wannapreneurs I met, wanted to build something in a very competitive space, which is ok, but had no clue how difficult the space was. Understanding the customer and the market is the most fundamental thing. They weren’t 100% convinced to start or not to start.
One of them had come from Chandigarh for a training course in Bangalore. He wanted to start a cab aggregator service but hadn’t done a lot of research to understand the market or his customers. He wasn’t sure if he should give me his 120% in his idea or not because of which he couldn’t focus on his training nor start his idea.
Make the effort.
The best part of the day was when a food delivery boy had come to meet me. He wanted to start a food coupon startup as we had built good relationships with the restaurants during his job. This was his first “meetup” and it took courage for him to take the decision to come and meet. He made the effort.
Setting up the meetings, doing a background research, at times traveling for hours all took time and effort. After the end of a few meet-ups I felt I wasted my time, but at the end of the day it was all worth it. With so many good experiences, a few bad experiences doesn’t hurt. Make the effort, it will broaden your horizon.
Those days, especially that Sunday in Starbucks was such an experience and was so lucky to meet some amazing personalities. Except for all the brainstorming and gyaan, it’s the personal connections that matter in life. I met a few for the second and third time where they even took me to the old famous dosa joints in old Bangalore! What better?
Meeting up people has never been so easy, just a Zoom call (and an agenda) away! Let’s catchup?
