Successful entrepreneurs' secret sauce

Infosys founder N.R. Narayana Murthy took it upon himself to revise his draft six times once he had committed to writing the foreword to a book. This is perfectionism at work. (Representational photo: Drew Beamer via Unsplash)

What does it take to start a successful business? Is there a particular formula for what works and what doesn’t?

Ujwal Kalra and Shobhit Shubhankar's book Startup Compass: How Iconic Entrepreneurs Got It Right asks some of these questions.

In the book, the authors break down the journey of a startup across 10 stages: from the period before starting, thinking through an idea, building a team, launching a product, raising money to exiting.

“Many people have asked us what (is) the common skillset (that) exists among these icons,” Kalra said. “Interestingly, the answer to that is none. However, there is a common thread: in at least one skillset, they are far and beyond. They are unmatched in it. And that one thing, sets them apart.”

Kalra, who is speaking today (September 17, 2022) at the Bangalore Business Literature Festival on Success Secrets of 15 Entrepreneurs, gave us five examples to illustrate this point. Excerpts:

Perfectionism

N.R. Narayana Murthy, the founder and former chairman of Infosys, needs no introduction. He is, by far, considered the father of the Indian startup ecosystem. He built Infosys into the behemoth it is today. We had approached Mr Murthy to write the foreword of the book, and he graciously accepted. We were running against time to publish the book... Within a span of few weeks, he iterated six times to share with us the perfect version. That’s right – sixth edited version – all by himself. And the last version had the minor mistake of writing ‘idealogue’ instead of ‘ideologue’. Mr Murthy’s level of perfectionism is by far unmatched!

Resilience

Resilience is Deep Kalra’s second name! He is the founder and group CEO of MakeMyTrip. Deep founded the company in October 2000, soon after which the dot-com bubble burst. He went without pay himself, and moved operations to a tiny mezzanine in Okhla, Delhi. “When things get very tough, you can’t stop thinking about it. The more you say to yourself ‘no thoughts’, the more thoughts come in,” Deep said. One day, they made a rule: “Either we would be ‘in’, or we would quit. But if we decided to continue, we would be ‘in’ for a whole month.” The founders would meet on the terrace over a cheap bottle of alcohol. Deep recalled, “This silly ritual kept us going for the good part of a year— eight, nine months at least; because instead of those months being 240 or 270 days, they actually became eight or nine discrete months. And we had each other, and we had promised each other. That really helped. It helped us tide through a tough time.” They called it “discipline in depression.”

Clarity of Thought

Urban Company was not the first venture for its co-founder and CEO Abhiraj Bhal. While at Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Abhiraj realized that instead of solving one business problem per year, he wanted to solve one problem deeply that moves the needle. Arbhiraj and Varun Khaitan, his co-founder, started CinemaBox, a content platform to stream movies while travelling on buses and trains. This was pre-OTT era. Soon after they realized that the company was going nowhere because of operational challenges. “There was no real competitive advantage. This was going to be a struggle,” Abhiraj shared. He realized that even if it scaled, CinemaBox at best would be a lifestyle business, and not something which moves the needle. Something which changes people's lives. That realization, Abhiraj’s clarity of thought, made him shut down his first business, which eventually led to the creation of Urban Company. Abhiraj’s sense of clarity is unparalleled.

People Skills

Yashish Dahiya, co-founder and group CEO of PolicyBazaar, is incredibly good at people’s skills. Yashish shared that the way potential employees send you a mail, the way they make a phone call, even the way they write their CV, all of it pointed to whether a person can be hired or not. In fact, even before a candidate reaches Yashish’s door, the decision is already made. By then, he already would have picked the indication and made his decision. These skills were put to use when Yashish was transitioning to the role of group CEO and Policybazaar was looking for a new CEO. In February 2020, Sarbvir Singh was appointed CEO of Policybazaar. Sarbvir, who was Yashish’s senior in IIT Delhi, had no prior experience in insurance or operations However, Yashish could trust him to be a good fit. He said, ‘He was the sports secretary when I was participating in running and swimming. He used to come to me before every event and ask me about my plan for the event. I, on the other hand, would never have a plan. But, because a senior had asked, I had to make up something. I would say something like, “Since this is a 1,500-metre race, I will run at a certain pace for the first 700 metres and then speed up. Everybody expects me to speed up at 1,100, but I will speed up earlier to build up my lead and eventually win.” He always appreciated my plan and not once did he question it. Further, he would always stand at the 700-metre mark to ensure I didn’t miss it. At the 700-metre mark, he would clap once, “Okay, Yashish!” And every time he stood there, I never lost.’ That keen understanding of people led Yashish to build Policybazaar.

Bold (Insane) Aspirations

Sachin Bansal, co-founder & former chairman and CEO of Flipkart, and now Navi, is the embodiment of aspiration. Flipkart, under his guidance, has always innovated to tweak the tried-and-tested model of e-Commerce to the Indian context. This included starting of cash on delivery which was a pivotal moment for the e-Com industry in India. What sets Sachin Bansal apart is his insane aspirations. He has unparalleled ambitions. When building and growing Flipkart, he set the aspiration of building a $100 billion company. Let that sink in. This was at a time when building a unicorn ($1 billion) was considered a sign of achieving godly status. Decacorn ($100 Billion) was not even heard of. At that time, he was aiming for $100 billion. Even today, at Navi, Sachin applied for a banking licence which is unheard of for such a nascent company. And recently, he has applied for an IPO, which again, is unheard of at such early stage. Sachin is the embodiment of ambitious founder.