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Moneycontrol Startup Conclave:
“The world is going to only get more distracted... One has to decide to take control of your time and attention, says Nir Eyal.
Moneycontrol Startup Conclave: Four tips from Nir Eyal on conquering distractions
-- Master internal triggers
-- Make time for traction
-- Hack back external triggers
-- Prevent distraction from past
Moneycontrol Startup Conclave: Nir Eyal on conquering distractions
“Use technology to hack back external triggers of distractions…. Use technology to block out technology… Two-thirds of people never change notification settings, for instance,” says Nir Eyal.
Moneycontrol Startup Conclave: Nir Eyal on time management
You cannot call something a distraction unless you know what it is distracting you from. My mantra, whenever I get distracted, is to take a deep breath and tell myself again and again that this is what I do to get better.
You need to spend less time communicating and more time concentrating. You have to schedule your days or someone else will do it. You have to turn your values into time. If your entire day is spent doing reactive work. You are running fast to nowhere.
Making a simple to-do list is not of any use. One has to create a to-do list with inputs like time in it to make the output of doing a task successfully.
Moneycontrol Startup Conclave: Nir Eyal on how to tackle internal triggers of distraction:
Time management is pain management because all human behaviour is driven by one thing and that is the desire to escape discomfort. Writing down your sensation like anger, stress, and loneliness will help.
Moneycontrol Startup Conclave: Nir Eyal on internal triggers of distraction:
Ninety percent of the distraction comes from inside our own heads. These are called internal triggers. Uncomfortable emotional states that we seek to escape, such as anxiety and boredom. We choose to distract ourselves from these feelings. Therefore, understanding the root cause of the problem is the most important, which are often just feelings or internal triggers.
Moneycontrol Startup Conclave: Nir Eyal, bestselling author of Hooked and Indistractable, on how to conquer distractions
I took so many years to write this book on not getting distracted because I kept getting distracted.
So, I wrote this book for myself more than anyone else.
The problem today is not an information shortage, it is an attention shortage
Distraction is an action that pulls you further from your goals.
Just because it is a work-related task, does not mean it is not a distraction.
For years, I would get to work and set a goal and decide not to get distracted. But also, just think about checking my email...That is the most dangerous form of distraction. The distraction that does not even let you realisethat you are off-track.
Moneycontrol Startup Conclave:
“Sometimes, some products will be so engaging that they can create distraction…. We keep getting in our own way, we keep getting distracted... The one superpower that I want is to be indistractable,” says Nir Eyal, bestselling author of Hooked and Indistractable.
Moneycontrol Startup Conclave:
“It is very difficult to live with the most successful man, they are not normal,” says Sudha Murty.
Moneycontrol Startup Conclave: Narayana Murthy on when good governance starts:
A child knows how to breathe, how to cry. I think there are certain characteristics of human beings that are best acquired from very early days. That happens because of family, early teachers, of environment you live in, the philosophy that you have imbibed, and role models.
Put the interest of the community ahead of personal interests in the short and medium term and you will be a winner in the long term… Infosys was run on this principle.
Moneycontrol Startup Conclave:
“I enjoy the company of people who are happy; who thought that Infosys was their company,” NR Narayana Murthy, Founder, Infosys.
Moneycontrol Startup Conclave: ‘Best way of deriving happiness is to share the fruits with the employees’, says Narayana Murthy
Extremely important that the founder has the imprint on his/her soul on how deliberations take place in the company.
Because I was a leftist to begin with and came from a family of eight children and a lower-middle-classfamily, we were taught that sharing is caring.
When you see examples of commitment to the company, my view was that the best way of deriving happiness and joy is to share whatever little fruit is coming out of this exercise with as many people as possible. That is why we distributed as much as $20 billion among our people.
Moneycontrol Startup Conclave: Narayana Murthy on how he keeps his team together when there's uncertainty
Human relationship is based on faith and trust. That's the primary job of parents -- to bring a certain sense of calmness of the environment at home. You have to be authentic, but you should not panic.
So, during such times of uncertainty, I would crack jokes in the office, and to start on something new and then talk to them about how other people have gone through than we are going through, how God is with us.
Moneycontrol Startup Conclave:
“The reality of life is fear, doubt, uncertainty… these are parts of everyone’s life but particularly in the life of an entrepreneur. When we went public, it was a big time of uncertainty about whether we'll do well or not... There are times when you have to transcend logic and embrace faith,” says NR Narayana Murthy, Founder, Infosys.
Moneycontrol Startup Conclave: "I was very lucky; I have the support of my wife," says NRN
Was very lucky in that I had the support of my wife. When I resigned on her birthday on August 19, 1976, I met her and said happy birthday and said I have resigned.
She said not an issue, we will live with the means we have, I will support you and you will succeed.
The only person I was very friendly with was my friend and was the only person with whom I confided in. And she was an unbelievable support. I was lucky to have that person.
Moneycontrol Startup Conclave:
“When I started out on the journey, they (Infosys co-founders) knew I was earning a higher salary than them. They realised by my actions that I had a big dream. Gave them a reasonably convincing agreement because the future of this company would be better than the (previous venture), NR Narayana Murthy
Moneycontrol Startup Conclave: Narayana Murthy lists key attributes of entrepreneurs
An entrepreneur must have many attributes. In the beginning, it is about imagining an idea whose differentiated business value is better than all other ideas. A founder must have high aspirations, lot of optimism and hope. The founder has to sustain energy from inside and run the marathon. In the beginning, it is about imagining and idea whose differentiated business value is better than all other ideas.
He or she must be able to articulate the power of their idea to various stakeholders… your job is all about passionately articulate why you're going to change the world. You have to use innovative methods to convince your customer that you had really nothing is indeed better than someone who has everything
Selecting key employees, sometimes cofounders and early adopters. In the final stage, the managerial phase… once it sets in, you invite managers to create system, processes, protocols, invite independent directors, have a good governance mechanism
Moneycontrol Startup Conclave: Narayana Murthy on why he became an entrepreneur
“I was a strong leftist when I was a student, went to France to work. On Saturdays went to Sorbonne and had lots of conversations with capitalists, socialists, and communists. Eventually, came to the conclusion that the only way society can remove poverty is through entrepreneurship, providing jobs, and power of enhancing taxes paid to the govt. That was primarily the reason when I came back, I wanted to conduct an experiment. The first experiment was a failure and the second one has done reasonably well,” says NR Narayana Murthy, Founder, Infosys.
Moneycontrol Startup Conclave:
Enjoyed every minute of Yashish Dahiya's answers, NR Narayana Murthy, Founder, Infosys
Moneycontrol Startup Conclave:
“We usually pre-select people, we don't hire through interviews. I hired one from the basketball court, he runs our UAE business,” says Yashish Dahiya.
Moneycontrol Startup Conclave:
We had not thought through the impact of everything in the first year of going public, says Yashish Dahiya. He adds: “It's a team, one person cannot do it. I have a 30-35% shareholding of the management team. In my opinion, a founder should not have more than 60% of shareholding in the board.”
Moneycontrol Startup Conclave:
“We are very early stage organisations as far as public life is concerned,” Yashish Dahiya
Moneycontrol Startup Conclave:
“We cannot make money without investing, that's very clear. However, At Accel we think about how to build stuff than polish stuff in a startup we invest,” Subrata Mitra, Partner, Accel.
Moneycontrol Startup Conclave: Investors asked me not to meet investment committee: Dahiya
Investors have asked me to not meet the investment committee because the information I provide might spoil the deal. And these are very reputed investors: Yashish Dahiya
Moneycontrol Startup Conclave: Yashish Dahiya, CEO, PB FinTech:
“Our competitors never found the right reason why they started off... One should build the business not for the numbers that investors looking for but for the problem that needs to be solved…. Insurance mis-selling was one big problem we were solving,” says Yashish Dahiya.
Moneycontrol Startup Conclave: Yashish Dahiya, CEO, PB FinTech on funding winter:
There's no funding winter. There was a very long summer. Maybe it is spring or autumn now. There's way too much capital available still, in terms of funding.
You have to be 100% confident before entering the IPO market. I had to be successful from day one. You have to be patient till you have won. I didn't ever comment on any competitor till they were completely destroyed.
India is potentially a very large market. Currently is a very small market. It will become a $100 billion market, but it will take time.
Moneycontrol Startup Conclave: Once you’re public, you’re responsible to shareholders: PB FinTech CEO
Yashish Dahiya, CEO, PB FinTech: “Once you are public, you are responsible to the shareholders. After 6 months of listing, I felt we went too soon. But when I look it today in hindsight, I feel it is the right decision. Took us one-two years,to explain to the market what our company is.”
Moneycontrol Startup Conclave: Vinay Inamdar, Director, Strategic Enterprise and Digital Natives, Cisco Commerce India:
“Business is breathing down the necks of the tech teams. We work at the intersection of observability and security. With full-stack observability, the future is already here.”
Moneycontrol Startup Conclave: Lot of internal company information going on ChatGPT, says Prashant Pitti of EaseMyTrip
A lot of internal company information is going on ChatGPT. How do you control that? We are working with Cisco, AWS in dealing with these things.
Moneycontrol Startup Conclave:
From a security standpoint, it is important to learn from others' mistakes. It's important to read about what's happening, and have some controls in place, says Goutam Kurumella
Moneycontrol Startup Conclave: Goutam Kurumella, Senior Manager, Startup Solution Architecture, AWS India:
“Security is fundamental for everything that you do. As buildings you need to ensure three things -- detection, investigate, and remediate.”
Moneycontrol Startup Conclave: Data breach can happen at API and human level, says Prashant Pitti, Co-Founder of EaseMyTrip
Cloud systems, the security it provides, has definitely helped platforms like us to improve cybersecurity aspects.
During the initial days of EaseMyTrip, there was a data breach -- a fraud worth Rs 26 lakhs. We were wondering what we are doing. Even thought of getting back to my old job. However, sanity prevailed and we decided that we will never let this happen again. And since then, there has not been a data breach at ease my trip.
Must understand that data breach can happen not just at the API level, but also at a human level.
Moneycontrol Startup Conclave: Meghana Narayan, Co-Founder, Slurrp Farm:
“I do think there is a growth and profitability trade off. You cannot grow 200% if you want to be profitable. Steady 50-60% growth with profitability is better.”
“For far too long, India has exported commodities and imported brands; we want to change that.”
Moneycontrol Startup Conclave:
Shibam Das of Atomberg said: “If we become too aggressive for growth and forget the ultimate aim of starting Atomberg, then we lose focus.”
“Hopefully, we will be crossing Rs 1,000 crores of business this year,” he added
Moneycontrol Startup Conclave: “
The trend of buying jewellery during the wedding season has changed from buying jewellery for day-to-day wear. The nuance and categorising of jewellery is happening online,” says Gaurav Singh Kushwaha.
Moneycontrol Startup Conclave:
Without online presence, it is not possible for consumers to discover all possible designs a brand has to offer, says Gaurav Singh Kushwaha
Moneycontrol Startup Conclave: Market moving from unorganised to organised, Gaurav Singh Kushwaha
“If you look at the biggest player in our category, Tanishq they are doing some 40,000 crores in revenues and are still 5 percent of the market. So truly the market is moving from unorganised to organised. The opportunity and tailwinds are very strong. So, I think it’s just about the execution now and getting to $1 billion revenue will take just few more years,” Gaurav Singh Kushwaha says.
Moneycontrol Startup Conclave: Meghana Narayan, Co-founder, Wholsum Foods:
“We started off our business purely with faith in India and faith in our consumers. If you are really useful to somebody, they'll give you their time and money….”
“… As we move on from online to offline, we are seeing just by changing packaging size there's a difference... just creating smaller packs to let customers try out more.”
“Indian consumers are more value-conscious than price conscious; startups should understand that. Demonstrating value to see for consumers in their daily lives, is when the magic will happen.”
Moneycontrol Startup Conclave: Gaurav Singh Kushwaha
Bluestone CEO
“What we noticed was in our category, a lot of people latched on to the browsing bit… going through 2000-3000 designs of rings…. Something you can’t do in a store. But the comfort of the online channel to complete that purchase was not there. That's what led to building the omni-channel experience.”
Moneycontrol Startup Conclave: After tapping omnichannel market we realised buying patterns changed, says Bluestone CEO
Gaurav Singh Kushwaha, Founder and CEO of Bluestone, said: “The opportunities we were tapping in the online market was just 1/30th. Only when we started looking at Omnichannel we realised that the buying patterns have changed...A lot of people latched on to the browsing bit. The comfort it gave was big. The TAM is huge, opportunity and tailwinds are very strong.”
Moneycontrol Startup Conclave: “
My biggest challenge is my mom. I have been trying for many years to convince my mom to buy my ID batter and when that happens, I will be a $0.5 billion business,” says Musthafa PC, Chairman and CEO, iD Fresh Food
Moneycontrol Startup Conclave: Harsh Jain of Groww on biggest learning from a mistake
Harsh Jain of Groww says: “We underestimated the need and the time it takes to get licenses.”
“It has been a very short journey for each one of us. And, over the next 20-30 years, many more mistakes would be made, but we would all be taking learning from them.”
Moneycontrol Startup Conclave: Ruchi Kalra on biggest learning from a mistake
Ruchi Kalra, Oxyzo & Ofbusiness Co-Founder, says: “For an investor, the value of the asset created by a founder is important. For each founder what's important is to look at the quality of the asset you are building. We started a logistics business, but it didn't take off; so, we decided to shut it down. We realised that we will not make money with it. It's an important lesson we learned.”
Moneycontrol Startup Conclave:
Harsh Jain, Co-Founder & COO of Groww, said: “We don't think about profitability as much as Vidit or Ruchi does. Our metrics still remain growth and core growth. While profitability is significant, our core metrics are still focused on customer success and order success.”
Moneycontrol Startup Conclave:
“Profitable growth is a permanent change of culture; this is how we’ll grow… only this way. We had to change employees’ mindset. ESOP grants are aligned to profitability, not revenue, nothing,” says Meesho co-founder Vidit Aatrey on tying leadership bonuses with ESOPs.
Moneycontrol Startup Conclave: Lending businesses have to be PAT positive from day one, says Ruchi Kalra of Oxyzo
Ruchi Kalra, Oxyzo & Ofbusiness Co-Founder, says: “Profitability is always PAT at Oxyzo. Lending businesses have to be PAT-positive from day one…. I always believed in sales before marketing and tech is always the focus. We can proudly say that 90% of the tech we developed in the first three years of our business is what we use now.”
Moneycontrol Startup Conclave:
Ruchi Kalra, Oxyzo & Ofbusiness Co-Founder, says: “India is a land of B2B startups, but it is very hard to convince VCs to fund B2Bs…. Finding multiple taps for capital for your business early on is very important for a startup…. For us, the design choice was to connect with India….”
Moneycontrol Startup Conclave:
“We are doing fine in terms of profitability and revenue. We just want to focus on increasing our penetration. Whatever is there in the media (sic) about us achieving a revenue north of Rs 2,000 crore, is correct…. You need to understand if your growth is conflicting with your profitability,” says Harsh Jain of Groww.
Moneycontrol Startup Conclave: Initially focused on WhatsApp as distribution business, says Vidit Aatrey
“Our cash burn is down by 90% and we will be profitable in the next 12 months,” said Vidit Aatrey of Meesho.
“Initially, we focused on WhatsApp as a distribution business, then we went very consumer heavy. We’re now ahead of Flipkart and Amazon in terms of users,” Aatrey added.
Moneycontrol Startup Conclave: COVID-19 pandemic shown that digital is a must for all countries: Pramod Varma
The COVID-19 pandemic has shown to different countries, digital is a must-have for a country. It is a means for creating resilience and inclusion. Digital is not good to have, but must have,” Pramod Varma, Chief Architect, UIDAI.
“India, through G20, has brought the idea of thinking big, not just restricting itself to just procurement. Countries have realised the need to bring digital for resilience and inclusion. India has demonstrated that DPI can be done on a massive scale. The country has shown how digitisation can bring in absolute change,” he added.
