The previous parts of this series dealt with the structure, the Idea state and the starting of your organization and getting your idea on the ground. This part of the seven part series has to do with executing your idea including - starting the company - financial planning - managing tasks - external support functions - getting to the market - setbacks and recovering from them

1. PART 4 – The Execution
things that
I learned
from my
startup
experience
Suhas Dutta

2. “
“
Tony Hsieh, CEO Zappos

3. So far…
• We went through the basics of starting and planning.
Idea
Starting
Executing
Funding
Marketing
Selling
People
Emotions
Learning
Results
• Lets get into executing and running the business.

4. Starting the company
• Do not be in a hurry to incorporate unless you are looking to
– File for patents
– Receive investor money
– Start the sales process
• Be aware and well versed in the shape that your company will
take – as in partnership vs. LLP vs. sole proprietorship vs.
Pvt. Ltd. etc.
– Each of these have various differences in terms of
stipulations, requirements (statutory type) that you will need to
follow
• But get your agreements with co-founder(s), if you have
one, done up front and in crystal clear fashion. Otherwise this
will come back to bite you in the a**.
• When you do incorporate, the registered address should
preferably not be the same as your residential address.

5. Starting the company…be prudent
• Don’t be fixated to have
an office with bright
walls,
stylish
furniture,
coffee
machines, foosball tables
etc.
– An open plan space is okay
– A good work environment is
essential, but do not throw
money just as yet. There will
be plenty money for these
types of things later.
– Question frivolous spending at
the start
???

6. Starting the company…be prudent
•
If you can exist for a while without
specific office space, do so.
–
•
If you do have office space, it might not
be a bad idea to rent furniture for the
initial some months. This will keep your
liabilities low.
Look for shared office space
–
–
•
TIE provides shared space
Lounge access in Regus (along with
free wi-fi, and beverages) is all of Rs
900 a month
Meeting people. You can always:
–
Rent a conference room at Regus
–
Meet people at coffee shops

7. Starting the company…vendor research
• Do a bit of research while picking up
vendors
–
either
for
infrastructure, marketing, or your base
technology
– If technology is your mainstay, do not
outsource it
• Cheapest is not necessarily the worst, and
the costliest is not always the best
• Create some level of redundancy in your
infrastructure and systems. That will cost a
bit of money, but it is worth the spend.

8. A bit more planning …financials
•
You need to have a close sense of
this. Have a financial plan for the
first 6-12 months. Treat this as your
budget.
•
What financial planning will do for
you:
–
Ensures better management of money
and cash flow
–
Helps understand risks and priorities to
be able to invest wisely
–
Helps manage assets and liabilities
•
Ensure there is financial longevity.
You can’t be spending time
scrounging for money right from the
start.
•
But do not throw money at
problems. Do not create just
workarounds around problems – fix
the problem.

9. Managing tasks
• Yes, you are the founder and
maybe the CEO. That does
not, unfortunately, put you on a
high pedestal.
• If you are looking for someone
to delegate work to, so that
you
can
think
strategy…then, you should be
in a regular job and not be
building on your own.
• Get down and
HANDS ON!
dirty,
and
• If you have the luxury of a
team,
you
should
be
interdependent
and
complement each other. That
is what teamwork is about.

10. Manage tasks like a project
• Convert all non-super-small
tasks, be in technology
development, marketing, sa
les, people related etc to
short projects and track
them to completion.
– This will create accountability
and a way to keep a handle
on the million things that you
will have running all the time.
– Even if you do not want to
spend money on a regular
scheduling software, use one
of the many available on the
cloud.
TIP: If you are not the project manager type, and hate even the
concept…well, tough luck. Learn up, quick!

11. Of Lawyers, accountants…
•
There are some tasks
which are not the core
function
of
your
endeavor,
and
you
need to get help doing
those.
•
Get an accountant, inhouse or outsource.
•
•
Get a CA who will help
set
up
the
basic
accounting processes
and show you how to
be
prudent
about
money.
Ensure you engage a CA who has experience in your area of business.
•
Get a corporate lawyer who you can tap from time to time.
•
Get an IP lawyer (if appropriate) too

12. SMART

13. Get to the market
• It is important for you to
get the market asap
…especially if your service
/ product is very different
from what is available
currently.
• You will need to have
planned for this during
your
startup
and
continually after that.
• Create phase gates for
your product / service so
that that when you release
it is not an incomplete
product / service.

14. When there is a setback
• Not an IF, but a WHEN
• There will be setbacks once in
a while. Some due to:
– Mistakes that you
company make
or
your
– Underestimating a situation
– Other business factors beyond
your control
• Your success will depend on:
– How quickly you can work out a
get well plan
– And how well you execute to
that
• Time to re-engage with mentor
as well.

15. Mistakes, problems
• At the risk of sounding
philosophical
– Confront
problems.
Being an ostrich will not
help.
– It is okay to make a
mistake, but don’t repeat
at least the same one.
– If
you
made
a
mistake, own up, fix it to
the
best
of
your
ability, learn from it and
move on. Do not mope
over it.

16. Maintaining the balance
Customer
The
startup
entity
Employee
Business
• You invariably will get
tugged in three different
directions all the time.
• It is for you to
determine where that
point of equilibrium will
be for you.
• The tugs will be around
ethics,
making
money,
customer
centricity, speed to
market,
employee
friendliness
and
transparency.

17. • Planning, of some form or the other, comes up in
every other slide, doesn’t it? Because many
startups are run a seat of the pants operation with
little planning and resulting (often) in setbacks.
• In the next deck, we will cover the very basics of
funding and soliciting investment that we learnt
from our experiences.

18. • Have questions or feedback? Write to me.
• If you need a little help in terms of mentoring, reviewing
material, vetting a plan or the like…I would be happy to help a
fellow entrepreneur start her/his journey. It will cost you just a
cup of coffee.
• If you have already started and could do with some strategic
advice, helping create your business plans or your investment
pitch, marketing strategy, fulfill your company’s training
needs, need advice on the pitch etc, please feel free to reach
me.
• My coordinates are:
– reach@delhigate.com
– linkedin.com/in/suhasdutta/

19. OUTSOURCING STRATEGY
IT ADVISORY
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RETAIL
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CONTENT DEVELOPMENT
STARTUP ADVISORY
+91 9980711477 | +91 9980525553
reach@delhigate.com