JOURNEY OF SUCCESSFUL AND UNSUCCESSFUL FIRST GENERATION

ENTREPRENEUS

A. INTRODUCTION
First generation entrepreneurs are also known as New Entrepreneurs. They are
actually the wealth creators and fresh leaders or mangers. The only deviation between
them is that a new entrepreneur can invest a quite small amount with the risk of losing
it while an established one is Risk Safe. Though the fear of investment is attached
with dedication and arduous work. For them all the days are not the same, consistency
the most important.

Undoubtedly the First Generation Entrepreneurs will have to face hurdles and that is
very undoubtedly common. They are the people who continuously ask themselves
how to be motivated throughout the day. How to do better than the competitors. How
to be more productive. And How to be successful?

A society filled with any all kinds of businesses have created or becomes a potential
rise to entrepreneurs, these can be any kind of business. The first generation
entrepreneurs have to put in a lot of efforts to meet the requirements of the business.

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B. CHALLENGES FACED BY FIRST GENERATION

ENTREPRENEURS

1. LACK OF EXPERIENCE IN DOING BUSINESS:

First generation entrepreneurs are the ones who have no or little experience of
business. This factor is responsible for in effecting the smooth running of business.

2. ECONOMIC HURDLES:

First generation entrepreneurs are the ones who will be affected by the government
policies or regulations which tend to always become hurdles in the business.

3. PROCEREMENT OF CAPITAL FUNDS:

The first generation entrepreneur’s most important thing is procuring of capital

amounts which is not available so easily. These funds are very important in
starting of the business or establishment of business.

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4. MANAGING CASH IN AND OUT FLOW:

The next essential part of entrepreneurs is managing the cash which comes in
form of payments and paying all the expenses, rents, invoices etc. there requires a
proper management of cash which helps in smooth running of business.

5. CONVINCING THE CUSTOMERS:

A first generation entrepreneur finds it difficult to convince the customers in

buying or investing in this product or service.

6. RECRUITING A PROPER MANAGEMENT TEAM:

Every entrepreneur needs to have a proper backup of people who tend to have
same interests and tend to share the common goal of success.

7. BELIEVING IN THE PROCESS:

While entrepreneurs strive hard to be in the process, they tend to sometimes drift
from the actual path. An entrepreneur should be cool minded, a leader, active, a
cheer leader then only he can lead his team.

8. PROPER SPENDING ON STRATEGIES:

After having a proper cash flow sometimes it becomes very difficult for
entrepreneurs to manage or keeping a proper amount of cash to marketing. They
never get enough amount to market their business. This lends to small population
of people knowing about their product or service. Business has to grow properly,
slow and this process takes time and waiting patiently is all that matters.

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C. SUCCESSFUL FIRST GENERATION

ENTREPRENEURS

Being a First Generation Entrepreneurs makes things a little more about survival
guide for those who want to chart their own course and be their own boss. Some of
the famous first generation entrepreneurs who became successful are given below:
1. Ritesh Agarwal- OYO ROOMS: Begun with only 11 rooms in a Gurgaon
hotel, OYO rooms is now a hub for elite hotel stays with 65000 rooms in
about 5500 properties across India.
2. Kunal Shah – FREECHARGE: The popular platform which revolutionized the
online recharge framework with three-step revives alongside giving offers of
the same esteem. The organization was established in 2010 and was as of late
procured by Snapdeal.
3. Sridhar Vembu – ZOHO: Zoho is a household name for corporates now and
Sridhar Vembu is the man behind it. He started his journey with AdvetNet.Inc
which was a network equipment seller. AdvetNet.Inc was not so popular
initially but with the passage of time, it transformed into a revolutionary
online program provider and applications provider, and then to Zoho. Now,
Zoho gives tough competition to MNCs like Google, Oracle, and Microsoft in
providing SAAS services.
4. Azhar Iqbal – NEWS IN SHORTS: dropped out in his 4th year of college. He
made news by introducing News in Shorts the one and only app which cuts to
the chase delivering only vital details in a news to all those lazy people and
even to those who don’t have enough to go through all of them. The app
makes sure that each news is conveyed in less than 60 words. Got a minute to
spare? Keep up with the world with news in shorts. It started as a Facebook
page and now it has made its share of fame so well that it received INR25 Cr
in funding three months back.
5. Vijay Shekhar Sharma – PAYTM: From being a small-town boy from Aligarh
who bought second-hand tech magazines to the founder of one of India’s most
trusted technology brands, Vijay Shekhar Sharma has come a long way. After
passing out from college, he started his first company- ‘XS Communications’,
a college-based startup that created Content Management Systems, which was
being used by major publications including The Indian Express. While trying
to set up (One97 Communications) Paytm, Vijay once ended up with a loan of

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Rs. 8 lakhs, which got him into a vicious cycle of unpayable debt. Vijay’s
investors were not confident about the idea of a mobile-first consumer service
that would cater to the masses, while India’s telecom infrastructure was
improving in 2010. He personally put $2 Mn at stake to finally launch the
brand. The rest, as they say, is history.
6. Sachin Bansal – FLIPKART: For every shopaholic in India, Flipkart is the
new shopping destination. Sachin Bansal, the mastermind behind the idea,
created an internet shopping revolution along with Binny Bansal and Flipkart
took birth as the first e-commerce website in India.
7. Sandeep Aggarwal – SHOPCLUES.COM : A sequential business person,
Sandeep Aggarwal is the author and CEO at Droom, an online commercial
center for purchasing and moving vehicles – be it autos, bicycles, bikes,
superbikes, supercars, vintage vehicles, vintage bikes, bikes, etc. Established
in April 2014, the completely value-based platform likewise sells some vehicle
administrations including vehicle care and itemizing, auto assessment,
roadside help, guarantee, and protection listed by the third-party vendors. He
is also the co-founder of Shopclues.com – India’s originally managed
marketplace.
8. Shradha Sharma – YOURSTORY: YourStory founder Shradha Sharma wanted
to narrate the tale of Entrepreneurs like her to the world and there her
brainchild transformed into reality. YourStory now has 72,000 articles to credit
and is the most influential platform for StartUps in India today. It has 10
million engaged readers every month.
9. Nandan Reddy – SWIGGY: Nandan Reddy along with his mate Sriharsha
Majety changed the way India eats. They both started with Bundle, a logistics
aggregator, which connected SMEs to courier service providers. A year later,
when the business was doing pretty well, they shifted their focus to the
foodservice industry when Swiggy, the food delivery app rolled out into
reality. Since its inception, Swiggy has rapidly grown to become a leader in
the Indian food delivery sector by consistently shrinking delivery timelines
and improving customer experience.
10. Phanindra Sama – REDBUS: RedBus has made booking bus tickets way
easier than before and it all started when its founder, Phanindra Sama could
not go home for Diwali due to the notorious Bangalore traffic. He realized
some key issues with the then-existing bus model and found the internet as the

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best medium for solving these issues by putting together information on a

platform where customers could access it easily and take better decisions. By
April 2014 RedBus launched hotel booking powered by Ibibo Group’s
followed by redbus teaming up with Uber.
11. Vijay Arisetty – MYGATE: Of all the ‘hungry-for-disruption’ segments where
technology has made its presence felt in the last decade, the apartment security
market might be the least glamorous. But, it has undoubtedly sprouted newer
opportunities and greater market potential with the influx of biggies like
Reliance Industries (which has entered the segment with its apartment-
management app JioGate), NoBroker, and Adda, to name a few. In this episode
of UpClose, watch Vijay Arisetty give his take on competition from big names
such as Reliance, NoBroker, and Adda in the apartment security market.
“Every space is going through some or the other technology infusion, with
smartphones and various other technologies coming to the forefront,” he says,
adding, “But, in security, which is a $20 billion industry and where eight
million security guards are employed in India, there is no technology to
enhance their lives.” This insight gave birth to MyGate in 2016, which is
basically an end-to-end “community management” platform that provides real-
time information and alerts to its users. Its aim is to enhance convenience by
tapping technology, which in turn will enable a seamless connect between the
internal and external world of these gated premises.
12. Mansi Gupta – TIJORI: Born out of love for traditional handicrafts and
apparel, and to cater to the global demand for Indian handcrafted products
Mansi Gupta started Tjori in 2013 in New Delhi. Tjori is a multi-category,
online-first artisanal ethnic brand that includes apparel, wellness, home, and
mother and child products. The brand focuses on handmade products and the
goodness of traditional Indian ingredients. Tjori began on a small whiteboard
with a huge foresight for the brand, an opportunity which was explored due to
the lack of knowledge about the traditional and heritage handicrafts of India
on a global platform. The inspiration was Zara, which started from a small
boutique in Spain and now has taken over the world of fashion. The company
was started with my savings of Rs 10 lakh and now clocks an annual turnover
of Rs 50 crore. At present, Tjori caters to 195 countries across the globe

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through digital marketing and our ecommerce website. We help deliver the
orders through our courier service partner, Fedx.
13. Rishu Gandhi – MOTHER SPARSH: Coming from a business background,
Rishu decided to discuss her plan with her father and close relatives who were
already in the same segment. “I wanted to do eco-friendly products, but I did
not have any clue on how to begin. My father was the first person I
approached and he supported me. I told some of my relatives about my plan
and they introduced me to a third-party manufacturer. That was when my new
journey began,” Rishu recalls. In 2016, Rishu launched Mother Sparsh brand
as a bootstrapped, in Mohali, Punjab and put forth her first offering: one of
India’s first eco-friendly, 98 percent water-based wipes that are biodegradable.
The zero-polyester wipes claimed to offer the purest and most gentle care to
babies. Rishu says Mother Sparsh’s products are skin-friendly and Ayurvedic
in nature, crafted to protect a baby’s sensitive skin from redness, rashes,
rashes, boils, allergies, dryness, and various other problems. She says, “A
baby’s skin is delicate and sensitive, and doctors advise against using strong
perfume and chemical-based products. Mother Sparsh’s water-based wipes are
made of natural plant-based fabric, purified water, and are velvet-soft.” The
products, at present, get manufactured in a third-party manufacturing unit in
Ludhiana, and raw materials like the fabric for the wipes are sourced from
Gujarat and other places.
14. The solutions INFI team: When customers order food on the Zomato or
Swiggy app, they expect to receive message updates on the status of the
delivery. The mobile notifications and messages after shopping from Flipkart
or Amazon, also helps the customers in keeping a track of their parcel. Various
notifications also inform customers about the deals and offers. But, to make
this communication possible, the enterprise needs to set up its own backend
infrastructure and interfaces. And, this costs a lot of money. This is where
CPaaS, or Communications Platform as a Service, has emerged as a cost-
efficient solution for enterprises. It is often a cloud-based platform which
empowers enterprises to add real-time communications features to their
applications. If managed well, these features would allow enterprises to
seamlessly communicate with customers. This can be done by signing in with
a CPaaS provider rather than investing in expensive infrastructure and

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interfaces. With a wide range of high profile clients, global integrated multi-
channel communication services provider Kaleyra is aiming to revolutionise
the CPaaS space. The new and improved avatar of Italian IT and telecom
services provider Ubiquity, Kaleyra was christened in 2016. This came two
years after it acquired a majority stake in Indian enterprise communication and
cloud telephony services startup Solutions Infini. Through a closed-source
platform, it manages communication services on a global scale, using
messages, push notifications, email, instant messaging, and voice and chatbot
services. The company claims it now has over 3,000 enterprise customers and
handles close to 3 billion messaging notifications per month. Kaleyra’s India
story began when Aniketh Jain and Ashish Agarwal finished a computer
applications course in Bengaluru in 2009. Recalling their college project for
sending messages to parents about the academic results of their children, they
were inspired to start their own business. In the same year, they set up
Solutions Infini in Bengaluru with a bootstrapped amount of Rs 4 lakh.
Solutions Infini quickly grew big and started managing cloud communication
on multi-channel platforms including messaging, voice, email, and APIs. It
also started providing services such as long and short codes, IVR, click-to-call,
call conferencing, call masking, and toll-free solutions.
15. Raveendran – BYJU: Whether it is getting Shahrukh Khan on board as a brand
ambassador or becoming one of the highest valued edtech startups in the
world, BYJU'S is now synonymous with edtech in India. The startup's current
valuation stands at $5.7 billion with CEO and Co-founder Byju Raveendran
holding a 21 percent stake in the company. However, BYJU'S journey – that of
the startup and the founder - is like none other. Byju doesn’t have the IIT and
IIM tag. Growing up in Azhikode in Kannur district of Kerala, he went to a
Malayalam-medium school. What helped was that he had an instant affinity
for mathematics and science. That the format was working across the cities
was amply evident. From packed classrooms, the teacher-turned-entrepreneur
had to shift to auditoriums and eventually to large indoor stadiums, where he
would be tutoring close to 25,000 students at once. Although the edtech
entrepreneur never started with a business plan in mind, the venture followed
its own course. BYJU'S shifted from teaching only for exam-taking classes
(10+, 12+, CAT etc) to teaching students across age groups. This was integral
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for the brand’s evolution from a test and exam prep teaching model to teaching
and learning for students across age groups. The app is now for K12
education. In 2011, the company was officially registered as Think & Learn
Pvt Ltd. Better recognised by its brand name, BYJU'S – The Learning App
(launched in 2015), the startup today is one of the few Indian companies that
has witnessed 100 percent growth in three consecutive years. In FY19, it
recorded a massive 200 percent growth.

D. UNSUCCESSFUL FIRST GENERATION

ENTEPRENEURS
1. WHY FIRST GENERATION ENTREPRENERS FAIL?

90% of startups fail or entrepreneurs fail within 5 years of inception says a study.
That's the hard fact and harsh truth you cannot ignore. It happens all around us.

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By the time you read this sentence, one startup might have failed out there. No, this is
not something being afraid of. Just completely want you to come out of the dream
state and have a healthy dose of reality.

Because nobody wants to be part of that stats.

How can an entrepreneur avoid dreadful date with failure? What is crucial for startup
success? Is there a formula for startup success?

There is no straight answer because hundreds of factors are involved and contribute to
startup success. But, among them, three factors top the list.

They remain universal and constant among all the successful startups out there.

If focusing on getting these three right, you have a good chance of becoming one of
the 10% startups that succeed.

i. Right market,
ii. The right product, and the
iii. Right message are the three you need to get right.
i. Right Market:

According to a recent study, most of the startups fail because of the lack of market
need for the product. The founder comes up with an idea, falls in love with it,
spend whatever he or she saved to build the product, and when he or she sells it,
no one is there to buy it. He or she tries harder, spend more, and still, no one
wants it. Then he runs out of money, and the startup dies. That's the story of many
of the startups that fail. So, before doing anything, spend a lot of time to know the
market and make sure it's a great market with lots of real potential customers.
Because the market is the one thing, you cannot change once you've started.

ii. Right Product:

The next thing you need to get right is the product. The rules are simple. If your
product is the first one in the market, don't worry about building the best product.
Build one that works and get it to the market fast. If you have competitors out
there, then focus on building something better, get the customer faster results or
reliefs, or cheaper. Talk to your potential customers, get the pulse about their
problems, how they feel about the current products or solutions out there, and then
build a better one or improve your existing one based on the feedback. When you
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get the market and the product right, you'll achieve the product-market fit that will
lead you to success. And if you get the third one right, you can be sure about your
success.

iii. Right Message:

Some might suggest that 'the team' is the third critical component. But to build the
right product, you got to get the right team. So it gets covered there. Many
products have failed even in the right markets because of one big, fat reason. They
didn't get the message right and communicate product features and benefits
correctly to potential customers. But if you don't communicate the features and
benefits of the product, no-one will know or hear about it. And unless your
potential customers hear about it and believe that it's the right product for them, it
won't sell. That's why your message matters. Without the right message, the right
product cannot reach the right market and won't succeed.

2. SOME OTHER FACTORS RESPNSIBLE FOR FAILURE OF

FIRST GENERATION ENTREPRENEURS

i. No Proper Market Research and Analysis

ii. Poor analyzing of marketing strategies could affect the business.
iii. Poor market outreach could possibly let down the entire business.
iv. No proper management of cash flow.
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v. Launching of the me-too products or the same products which are already in
the market.
vi. Networking plays a vital role in business, lack of networking can affect the
business.
vii. Lack of uniqueness or no innovation in products.
viii. No proper placement of products.
ix. Fast rate of Cash Burn.
x. Improper pricing of products or services.
xi. Improper Geographical Planning.
xii. Lack of Management Skills amongst others or the employees.

E. CONCLUSION
The harsh but the sad truth is, Entrepreneurs fail. Even the ones with great ideas fail.
It doesn’t matter how unique or exceptional or smart your idea is, but it isn’t enough
because an idea doesn’t guarantee results, but how well you execute it does. Because
whether you succeed or fail depends more on how you are giving life to the idea and
the idea itself. A great idea can bite the dust when poorly executed, while a not-so-
good idea can succeed when implemented correctly. Because execution is everything
and success usually comes after numerous starts, adjustments, pivots, collective
efforts, and commitment to cross the finish line. And that’s where many entrepreneurs
fail even when they start with a fantastic, groundbreaking idea. It’s hard to accept
because we all believe we are good at executing our ideas. It might sound bitter, but
you need to accept if you are serious about succeeding an entrepreneur.

The five areas where entrepreneurs go wrong with execution and eventually fail.

a) They don’t know what it takes to succeed: Most entrepreneurs know they need
to put a lot of effort to succeed, but they don’t know what it really takes to
succeed.

For example, to succeed as a business, you need to come up with the right
idea, validate the idea, build an MVP, get your first customers, launch the
product, get your 1,000 customers, and scale your business. But how much
effort is required for that is what you don’t know.

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For example, it might take a week to validate specific ideas and might take a
month or two to validate some other ideas. You can validate some ideas with
an online survey, and might need to meet a lot of people and ask the right
questions, comb through the answers, and read between the lines to validate
some ideas.

But, first, you need to define what success is and how you will measure it, and
that’s where many entrepreneurs lose. They don’t know what to measure, how
to measure, and how much effort is required to get there.

b) They don’t know how to balance things: People who fail usually stay on the
extreme ends. They either work hard or slack. They do too many things or
nothing at all, and they feel motivated one day and lose hope the other day.
Entrepreneurship is like running a marathon. It’s a long one, and you cannot
start fast, lose steam in the middle, and fail to reach the finish line. You need to
run fast enough and also preserve the energy to reach the finish line. You have
to celebrate each milestone, no matter how small it is, and yet remain glued to
the ultimate goal. You have to get up after a fall, quickly assess what caused it,
and move forward. That’s where people lose it. They either get excited when
they win small or depressed when they fail.
c) They follow what’s popular, instead of what they’re good at: This is a no-
brainer. After Facebook, hundreds of people wanted to build a social media
platform even if they didn’t have the experience or expertise to build one.
After Flipkart, so many people started an e-commerce business even if they
didn’t have a clue as to what e-commerce is. And the list goes on. Even you
might have seen a few of them. It’s like you decide to start a restaurant in your
locality because the neighborhood restaurant is doing great. You can’t because
before starting a restaurant, you should know a thing or two about running a
restaurant and making it profitable. Otherwise, you’ll bite the dust. As an
entrepreneur, contrary to the famous advice, you shouldn’t ask, “What do
people want?” Rather you should be asking, “What is it I know better than
others that my market is missing and people would be interested in paying for
it? Because that will take you close to success than following a trend that you
have absolutely no idea about. But many entrepreneurs miss that one while
starting, and it leads them to failure.

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d) They don’t know what they don’t know: As much as you know what you are
good at, you also need to know what you don’t know. It’s critical to your
success, and failure to recognize your dark spots will lead you to crash for
sure. For example, you could be a great developer, but if you aren’t exactly
good at UX, you’ll end up building a product with poor UX. It could cost you
everything. You could be great at selling, but if you terrible at time
management and prioritizing deals, you’ll fail. You should know what you
don’t know so that you can find someone suitable to do those jobs for you
while you focus on your strengths. It’s not just critical; it’s the thin line
between your success and failure. And there is another side to this. People get
too comfortable with things they know. They get to the stage where they
believe they got it all figured out because they have plenty of experience.
Because the moment you start believing you have got it all figured out, you’ll
stop listening and learning, and start making decisions based on assumptions.
You’ll stagnate, and it’ll lead you to downfall. Be grounded and humble, and
keep your mind always open to learning. It’ll help you grow.
e) They don’t stay in their lane: Being an entrepreneur and founder gives you a
lot of freedom—freedom to stay on course or go off-course. And that’s where
things go wrong. People start doing things even if those are beyond their
expertise simply because they can. For example, if you have no idea about
designing things, you should avoid suggesting color choices to your designer.
If you don’t know much about advertising or marketing, you should avoid
picking your marketing channels or suggesting them. But people cannot resist
getting their hands dirty and have an opinion. Because they are the founders,
they feel entitled and start putting their suggestions and recommendations on
things they don’t know much about. Where do people go off-course? The
moment they try to do what isn’t their primary skill set, merely because they
can. And that takes them to a downward spiral.

Those are the top five areas where entrepreneurs go wrong when it comes to
executing their ideas and fail even when they have a fantastic idea. Remember,
entrepreneurship comes with lots of responsibilities, and one of the most
significant responsibilities that comes with it is how you are executing your

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idea, choosing what to do and how to do. You can choose not to make these
mistakes. You can choose to succeed or fail.

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