Essential Ingredients of Entrepreneurship

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Essential Ingredients of Entrepreneurship

• Raghu Rajagopal

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Introduction

• Raghu Rajagopal
• 17 years of experience
• 3 key Ventures
• CEO SeraNova India / SVP Strategic Accts
  SeraNova Inc.
• Co-Founder ikigo Inc.
• EVP Sales - Swift Response
• Head Chennai Dev. Centre i-flex
• Founder CEO Energeate Advisory Services

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Entrepreneur

• Who is an Entrepreneur ?
• An urge to build
• Want to make the future state the present
  state
• Its taken from a French word entrprendre which
  means to undertake
• Take an idea off the ground and keeping it afloat
• A true entrepreneur is a doer not a dreamer

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Qualities of an entrepreneur

• Passionate
• A strong urge to create
• Leader
• Often unconventional
• Has a GOAL and not a WISH
• Ability to take Risk Leave the comfort zone

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Qualities -

• Focus
• Commitment
• Perseverance
• Sees the Big Picture
• Roll up the sleeve / Get your hands dirty
  attitude
• Delegation
• Always thinking about the idea and validating it

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Qualities -

• Opportunity
• Most of the things worth doing in the world had
  been declared impossible before they were done
  Louis D. Brandeis
• Staying Power
• Success seems to be a matter of hanging on after
  others have let go

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Qualities -

• Planning
• Fail to Plan and you Plan to Fail
• For everything you must have a plan Napolean
• Handling Adversity
• There is no education like adversity Benjamin
  Disraeli

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Qualities -

• Hustler
• Everything comes to him who hustles while he
  waits Thomas Edison
• Aggressive
• Impatient, Restless, Need it now
• Not worried about details

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Qualities -

• Compromise quality of life
• Handle social pressures
• Relationship People person

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Case Study - Seranova

• E-business Services
• 83 Million USD revenues
• Fortune 500 clients
• 1500 employees
• NASDAQ listed
• 0-83 million in 2 years

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Case Study - Seranova

• Success Factors
• Employee and Client focused
• All new ideas encouraged
• Very aggressive
• Out-of-the box thinking in all situations
• Empowerment at all levels
• Intrapreneurship
• Creativitity

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Case Study - ikigo

• Business Activity Monitoring (BAM) solution
• Early Mover First in the market
• Co-Founded by Rajan, Aravind and Raghu
• Raised seed funding of 560K US
• 2 years of operation
• 2 Fortune 500 clients (Engelhard, Wachovia)
• Covered by Meta Group
• Sold the services part to Ness Technologies and
  the IP to Euclid

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Ikigo- What worked in our favor

• Our track record in SeraNova
• Our client relationships
• Early funding for product development
• Our contacts in the industry

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Ikigo What worked against us

• Timing of the venture Immediately post 9/11
• Inability to extend the Staying power
• Biased by the VC opinion Focus - Not being
  resourceful Do what it takes to stay afloat

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Swift Response

• Call Center Focused on 2 verticals
• Grew from 60 - 600 people in 1 year
• Angel Funded
• Successful exit through sale to ESSAR backed
  AEGIS BPO

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In the context of College Education

• Relevant skills to build
• Identify your strengths and weaknesses
• Focus on your strength
• Master your skills in the area of strength
• Books, People, Experience

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Attributes in an entrepreneur that you can learn
in College

• Leadership
• Resourceful
• Passion
• Make it Happen attitude
• Identify and build a team
• Unconventional
• Commitment

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Attributes in an entrepreneur that you can learn
in College

• Focus
• Can be done Dont worry about details
• Seizing an Opportunity
• Learn from your instructors, friends, environment

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Drivers to start a venture

• Idea that can translate into value
• Your friends
• You have an Opportunity Potential client,
  Product half baked
• Circumstances at work

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Essential Ingredients

• Idea
• Vision
• Passion
• Money friends and family before taking
  professional money, Incubation
• Address a customer need

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Essential Ingredients

• Your partners
• Market
• Execution Plan (not all the details)
• How will you make money?

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Essential Ingredients

• Idea
• Validate from advisors, seniors, market
• Barrier to entry
• Impact on the customer base
• New Idea Product or Service
• Existing Cheaper, Faster, Better

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Essential Ingredients

• Passion
• - All success stories have a common factor
  PASSION
• - High achievers passionate people
• - Self driven and motivated
• - Goal oriented not technique oriented
• - Passionate people innovate

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Questions ?