S T R U G G L E O F A C H I C K E N E N T R E P R E N E U R

R U P E S H K U M A R S H A H

W H Y C H I C K E N E N T R E P R E N E U R ?

“I was once invited to speak at SP Jain (a MBA college in Andheri, Mumbai). The gentleman speaking ahead of me was stating that how  entrepreneurs who start at 23- 24 years of age loose steam and chicken out. He named them chicken entrepreneurs. The next turn to speak was me. I was 23. I happily embraced this tag since then.”

A B O U T T H E S TA R T U P A N D J O U R N E Y

- InOpen started in 2009 by Rupesh and Prof. Sridhar. Incubated in IIT Bombay. InOpen is an educational startup with focus on developing high quality academic content through intense research.

- InOpen provides tailor-made solutions for teaching Computer Science to 200+ schools, thus reaching out to 500,000+ students. InOpen aims to touch the lives of 1,000,000 students by 2014.

- International Presence. #USA #JAPAN #Middle East

- Backed by strong VC Funding.

H A P P Y A S S U M P T I O N S F O R A S TA R T U P

- Product Launch and First Customer Shipment are the same thing

- Business Plan is just another document

- Technology is superior than content (read : fundamentals)

- Job and startup can go hand in hand.

- Friends are best partners/employees

S U D D E N C H A L L E N G E S

- Customer Service is just not good intent.

- Delayed Revenue. Cash Flow Crunch

- Too much time spending managing resources (read HR). Assumptions with Friends fall flat.

- Raising Funds is not a PPT.

- Too much Murphy’s law. Unheard Challenges

W H Y B U T ? B E C A U S E W E A S S - U - M E A H E L L L O T

K E Y M I S TA K E S T O B E AV O I D E D ( 1 / 2 )

- Don’t get too much attached to original vision. Accept changes and market feedback.

- Don’t Mix Product Shipment and Cash Inflow.

- Don’t assume anything (ANYTHING in ‘friends-in-business’, product testing (validation), customer demands, overheads, blah blah)

- Cash Flow is no magic. ‘Work out’ the metrics

K E Y M I S TA K E S T O B E AV O I D E D ( 2 / 2 )

- Aggressive Pricing to attract customers and then compromise on quality (or burn cash). Its a death spiral. Create your own value add.

- Don’t create overheads which you can’t sustain. #Kingfisher

- Don’t attempt to be perfect. from Day 1. Its okay to be embarrassed at your first release. #gmail

- Don’t Manage HR dept. yourself. Hire a HR as soon as you are 10 employees. (Have zero assumptions in rewards, compensation, etc)

S I M P L E M A N T R A : S TAY C A L M , M O V E O N (sounds familiar)

M Y T O P 5 L E A R N I N G I N L I F E

1. Enthusiasm and Passion is the only key. A enthusiastic person with good intent somehow manages to do good and land on the correct path. When I started in my college I didn't knew that a word called startup existed and till date I get spelling of entrepreneurship wrong. Thanks to Auto correct

2. We all face problems. But I observe a common pattern. A ‘Big’ problem of the past seems to be ordinary in the present. So your’s ‘Big’ problem today will also become ordinary issue tomorrow. Just Hang on !

M Y T O P 5 L E A R N I N G I N L I F E

3. I failed many times and faced challenges. I am no super man but I just managed to stick. My failures taught me one thing; I don't have anything to loose from this point but only gain.

4. Find Your Interest. Treat this exercise as seriously as a Board or an Entrance Exam. One should develop Clarity of thoughts and be patiently passionate in following one’s interest. Rest Everything will follow.

M Y T O P 5 L E A R N I N G I N L I F E

5. An Opportunity used is an opportunity lost. Focus on your objectives and fundamentals (rather than the end goal). Everything else will automatically get attached (out of nowhere).

W H AT N O W

- Take a Walk

- Get yourself a Calendar

- Start a Blog and every fortnight

- Stay out of Debt

- Be Grateful. Be Nice. The world is a small place

info@inopen.in | www.inopen.in

Thank YouRupesh Shah | Co-Founder & CEO | rupesh@inopen.in | rupeshkumarshah.com

Imagine Create Deliver

A B O U T M EHey I am Rupesh ! 20 something. I am the CEO & Co-Founder at InOpen . Also a Computer Science Engineer. Now teaching Computers to School Students. My passion lies in leveraging quality content and technology for Education. Love for Open Source. My background helps me to lead InOpen’s efforts towards creating educational solutions that focus on creating content which has universally acceptability. I love my Startup and live every moment of it. Hobbies include fiddling with my piano and my gadgets. I Love cooking to core and lover for street food.  More about my start-up can be seen here .

rupesh@inopen.in | rupeshkumarshah.com | @rupeshkumarshah | facebook.com/rupeshkumarshah

Official Bio can be downloaded from here