Thoughts on “Entrepreneurs in Residence” in India

This follows a discussion on Twitter started by @patwardhanrahul, and subsequent rouge elements introduced by Yours Truly.

Exploring with @krisnair whether "entrepreneur in residence" program will work with @IndiaCoVentures ?

—
Rahul Patwardhan (@patwardhanrahul) January 01, 2012

I think if one were to construct a “Funnel” of possible candidates for EiR, specifically with the Indian context in mind, it might look something like this:

[Funnel Start] Trying/Tried

Folks that are just getting their hands dirty with their very first venture or have tried and failed once. Like me.

[Middle] Bootstrapped & Profitable / Family Biz

Folks who’ve bootstrapped their own business (or cut their teeth running the family’s business) and are profitable.

 [Top] 1+Exits/Ex-BigCo

Folks who have sold one or more companies or folks who are big-company execs who have built a star record.

I think the folks in the middle will make the best candidates for Entrepreneurs in Residence.

• People who are starting off – say 2-3 years into their business – need to be given the opportunity to really fuck up first. Especially those with fancy degrees or stellar professional track records.
• People at the “Top” are a lost cause, for this cause. Almost all US/European EiRs fall into this category. But while that may work for them, big success is so much harder to get in India that it’s all too easy to become comfortable with the mantle of success. And it’s far too easy to get distracted with the clamour for attention that follows. Good luck getting aboard the few homegrown exceptions that exist.
• People in the middle, however, are a promising lot. To be bootstrapped and profitable in India means having at least 5 years (but more likely about 10 years) of operating experience – complete with setbacks, recoveries and possibly one (or two) major changes of direction. These people will bring the experience, humility and pragmatism of being still grounded in the reality of running a business they are fully responsible for. Their experiences will be the most valuable to portfolio companies being mentored by the fund. Their current business model will be sufficiently de-risked and stable enough to support fresh growth. But most importantly, this category of people is large enough to find enough of those, who are hungry and ready for more.

A little something for the newly (and relatively newly) parented

Amazing!

All of you are parents!

I was peeping around on Facebook and saw the photos of all your wummy-yummy-gummy-bear babies and got a little senti. So I started looking around for awesome “parents and children” quotes, but I soon had to concede that nothing comes quite as close to an Adi original…

So here goes:

May you find the joys you never knew, in the smiles of your children.

May you hear the sweetest music you’ve ever heard, in their laughter.

May you see the dreams they dream, when your eyes meet their dancing eyes, even in the briefest of moments.

May you find the wisdom to stand by them as steady as a mountain of strength, when they fail and fear and falter.

And when the time comes, may you find the courage to let go, so they may walk onward, to make those dreams come true.

Also, I present to you, a mishmash assortment of pictures from the way-back-machine to remind us all of the hair we still had on our heads, or the trousers we once fit into, of the bitter-sweet memories we’d consigned to the grainy darkness of the past…

But most of all…

I hope these pictures remind us of a time when we dreamed dreamy dreams of things that we are now making true.

With Lots of Love,
Adi.

–
29 July 2011
Written to dear friends who had all become proud parents in the recent past.

An Ode to the Unknown

I thought a thought last eve, you see;
A thought that kind of dilemma’d me.

What if, I thought, I’d touched the truth?
What if, I thought, I’d not been uncouth?

What if, I thought, ’twas just belief;
To express my view, in full bas-relief?

All just “What ifs?” Certainly!
But just “What ifs” mayn’t be just to ye.

And then the real thought came; it spake to me.

Said it:

Remember this friend; I make it known.

Your Truth’s a version of the truth,
Your Truth’s a clue and you’re a sleuth.

Your truth is true in certain space,
And ’tis true in certain time.

Your truth is part of larger part,
Which is part of larger truth.

You spend your life collecting parts,
Of fragments and pieces and still other parts.

And when you’re done; when you’re just thru.
Your life’s just part of an unknown true.

–
14 August 2011
Spurred by an instant messenger conversation with a friend.

India’s Gross National Happiness according to Facebook comes from Sex, Money, Superstition and the God delusion

Here’s what the graph shows for 2010-11:

Giddy levels of GNH on “Frandship day” (41.531, 1 Aug 2010) followed by Diwali (31.209, Nov 5 2010) followed by the “Super Moon” news (26.36 March 19, 2011) beating Christmas 2010 by a point (25.55, Dec 25 2010)…

Holds true for 2009 too, except of course for the Super Moon….

So… It’s mostly teenagers and twentynaagers who haven’t gotten over their teenage years of sexual deprivation and repressed emotions, finding the ultimate tool to make a new “frand” (which the world of brands cashes in upon by manufacturing “frandship” day), followed by the Goddess of Wealth (Wealth = Money for most), followed by Superstition, and then yet another commercialized holy event.

Call me a cynic, but it seems Sex, Money, Superstition, and Mythology are what captures our (Indian) minds – in order of appearance (and it’s all good for business).

So much for the last quarter million years of Homo Sapiens evolution (at least in India :p )

Check it out: http://www.facebook.com/gnh/?c=IN

Preparation created champions. Advertising created heroes.

Shiny social whatsitzname. VC 10 gazillion.

He stared skywards, into yesterday’s storm.

They crossed swords. Something changed. Forever?

I Pledge… To do no evil.

What do you pledge?

The lazy, eccentric, six-word-addict lived pennilessly.

He jumps to live in flashbacks.

The distance didn’t hurt. Love did.

My first six word story. Ever.

http://creator.zoho.com/showForm.do?formLinkId=1&link=true&sharedBy=adityaathalye&borderColor=CC9966&headerColor=CC9966&privatelink=bRUAXd37TDhrQ2tWtvQJBWX6e2rbjOHzZxtETNhxmJaxatwrstJ90QMpV3HQmENkPwVS46WNeCJMxv9eRBVxkXXph35D4Cq33F45

shamiana film festival

saturday evening last… “shamiana film festival” … in koregaon park…

short films, documentaries, independent cinema…

next time you hear of this one happening in your city…

do yourself a favour …

go watch.

what i attended (sat, aug 25, 2007)
http://www.openspaceindia.org/August07_events_act.html

more about the festival
http://subalterncinema.com/blog/2007/04/23/shamiana-open-air-short-film-festival-27-28-29-april/

Suspended animation

the university of pune is a favorite hangout for many punekars… from early morning joggers to evening conversations over tea and snacks… naturally… such a lovely green campus and vibrant community…

i discovered these wonderful creatures in one of my walks through the univ’s little lanes… i have no clue what this species of spiders is named… this one i captured on camera was easily 5 inches across…

i think these spiders show up and grow up once the rains subside… it’s very easy to miss them… they are brilliantly camouflaged… suspended about 5 – 8 feet from the ground in a strong web that spans 20 – 30 feet easily and touches the ground here, a dead stump there, and yet again another branch… pioneers of structural design.

and one has to stand and stare… and wonder… how much new life is spawned by the once-parched earth…

the still life

pune city, maharashtra, india

culture, art, education, beautiful women, great weather, un-hurriedness were it’s first, second, and third natures… some of the charm still remains, but a relaxed town with great weather, it is not anymore…

a bustling metropolis is birthing… a rabidly growing clutterscape and noisescape of neon and glass towers, steel and concrete, people and automobiles.

looking into the future seems hard… hard to see through the smog of development(?)… harder to wait for the dust to settle… how can it? perpetual footfalls, relentless wheels…

and sometimes as i turn my back to the unsettling dust… she reappears unexpectedly, flirtingly… and romances me on the street… and i feel still, life…

a ratty limerick

inspired by, and in response to a ratty post… hat tip: shruti koley

a lamentful lament on a life i don’t live

ah ’tis such a ratty life,
scurryful scampery skrimmagy strife.
moving cheese,
trying to please,
boss, husband, children, wife.

To Web or Not to Web

Hand the world to the web service.
Urge they; BUT just the reverse is,
True too, I say.
‘Cuz IMHO today,
The web is also going where the desktop is.

"Web services will take over the world!" aka… "The desktop is dead!"

It’s all too easy to take a polar view of the whole space, particularly when prosperity is plenty.

But wait… take a deep breath (and about ten paces back).

The highly advanced web-browser of today is a desktop app right? (And it runs on top of a highly advanced operating system… which is also a desktop app.) Our first point of contact with the web is our desktop (or handheld.)

Further, the notion that some stuff is best done on the web and some is best done outside it… is also blurring…

Consumer level document editing is possible off a web service, but at the same time, consumer level web hosting is possible off your regular desktop… even your sandisk cruzer!

Huge computing power, vast inexpensive storage, and faster bandwidth are the three catalysts. They tempt us to do what we love most… create more and publish and distribute more.

Sure, per KBps bandwidth may not be inexpensive enough yet, but IMHO, a few dozen million broadband connections is not a bad number to run with. It will become a few hundred million soon enough… and much faster than it took us to get to 1bn Internet users today.

The web is getting more and more distributed… It looks like a dancing, fluid interplay of what’s stored/run on third party servers and what’s stored/run off your own machine… The desktop is fast becoming a more critical piece of the web…

In fact, the desktop is itself becoming the web… by becoming a web server.

Humans, Cyclical Systems, and Nature

In nature, there is no top or bottom of any food chain. There is no food chain. Nature is a highly cyclic system in the long run and in the short run also. Everything is an input to everything else. The lion ends up as food for bacteria, fungi, and scavengers other than lions. There is no waste. Except for the fact that all natural activity depends on a single largest energy input to earth, which is the sun.

A deeper appreciation of this fundamental cyclical behavior of natural systems is the key to creating sustainable business models.

Humans do operate some cyclical systems. BUT this happens only on a small scale. Here’s a simple example. The lady of a typical Indian household washes vegetables, steps out and throws the wash-water to the tree near by. The wash-water is hence immediately re-cycled. (Do not forget we in India are still an agrarian society. It follows that the typical Indian household resides in a village.)

I think the challenge for us is to open the mind towards creating business that is truly cyclical in behavior… particularly, especially, in large-scale operations.

(My statements are based on my individual observations and conversations with friends. I can supply no empirical evidence whatsoever in defense.)

the chameleon’s karma

the chameleon’s the strangest i’ve seen,
moves slow, thumbs oppose, leaf green.
clay red or bark black or branch brown,
and at once can look up and down.
his last karma: what might it have been?

political scotch-isms

i prefer scotch straight or on the rocks,
the spirit that makes and breaks deadlocks.
for nations are by political men,
gathered over scotch in the den.
talking israel, iraq, east bloc or indo-pak.

open media and collaboration…

i.believe…
open source media (open media) is the near future of the network…
exchanging thoughts, ideas, experiences, memories, and information is not the same any more as it was even five years ago… the internet has evolved into a platform that spontaneously catalyses convergence… i see formerly separate paths of blogging, social networking, and information media marrying in various combinations… public and private efforts such as Wikipedia, Socialtext, Always On… now GoingOn are babies of these marriages…

it is clear to me that user-generated content … and now transactions … are key results of the proliferation of the network that gives power to the edge/fringe… the rise of the individual voice… but individual voices shouting out together drown each other out… and this is where i believe open media can step up in its various forms to build context and help make sense out of the noise…

in my opinion, an open media platform is a peer-reviewed collaborative knowledge powerhouse that builds context for sharing and discussion of thoughts, ideas, experiences, memories, and information…

in my opinion, the open media revolution is here to stay… and evolve… let’s walk together on this fascinating journey.

KaosPilots

hi all… an interesting model of an education program…
http://www.kaospilot.dk/  … (text snippets inlined below…)

"………. The criteria for success are not only that the students get
good jobs after they graduate, but that they create new
and exciting jobs.

As an entrepreneurial educational program the KaosPilots
is therefore a progressive and positive answer to the
fascinating challenges presently facing our part of the
world. Namely, that more and more industry and service
jobs are moving away to places such as China and India.

This change in the global "productivity food-chain" leaves
all of us in the western part of the world with the same
question: who in the future will create the new jobs that
will replace those now disappearing? Which lines of
business and which industries will in the future be the
growth-engines in our part of the world?

And not least:how do we best unlock the creative and innovative forces
in each individual and in society as a whole? "