The
theme which drives me as an entrepreneur is “Apply technology for the the
benefit of greater good”. I have seen disruption in ‘execution of day-to-day
activities’ due to evolution in 'application of technology' in the last 10
years, more so than before. All the tasks which were done manually or handled
in an unorganized manner are made efficient and effective with the help of
technology. Buying things, getting services or watching favorite shows through
Internet has become ubiquitous. I was thinking about the days when the online
world did not exist and wondering how innovation has evolved in the Internet
domain, right in front of my eyes over time.
When
I completed B.Tech in 1995, the Internet has just come into the main stream.
AOL and Yahoo started just then. I did know about internet but accessed it
rarely from computer centre in college.
Google
started its journey in 1998. I completed my M.Tech at that time and got placed
through campus @ DE Shaw Private Limited. Jeff Bezos was taking e-commerce to
new heights by that time.
While
I was busy dabbling with ‘cutting-edge’ technologies like Bluetooth, J2ME and
J2EE, there was a dot com bust and only the best-of-internet survived. I knew
about Indian Services companies like Infosys, TCS and Wipro. Owing to my interest
in development activities around networking, I joined in IBM, after declining a
similar offer in Sun Microsystems.
In
2001, I worked on ‘app-store’ for Reliance on device-side. I was thrilled with
the reach of data services from Reliance, through the app-store model.
Globally, only NTT-DoCoMo was following that model, especially with J2ME. I did
apply for a patent on bluetooth-based LAN model for such data services (which
could be used in Malls etc) which was published. I did see the potential for
such models in future.
I
did work with different kinds of pervasive devices – palm pilots, internet
appliance devices and other embedded systems. I was always thinking about why
IBM does not adopt a particular strategy, but never did it occur to me that I
could step out of IBM and start my own venture in any of those areas.
In
2004, when Facebook was created, I read a few news articles about it. I was
interested in launching a services company at that time and not a product or
SaaS company. My exposure to enterprise technologies and strong knowledge
around architecting solutions using IBM middleware were the primary reason for
that.
In
2008, app store models have come into existence. Apple and Google dominated the
scene. I was excited that the model I fancied about a few years ago, is
implemented by someone in the market. It still did not occur to me that I could
drive such solutions through my own venture !
Even
when I stepped out of IBM in 2011, smartphone and Internet penetration in India
was just on the upward trend. With the evolution of these two in the next five
years, most of the activities executed in non-tech world started going online.
I happened to watch companies with ''mobile first" strategy.
Bus/train/flight
tickets, movie tickets, house rentals or sales, groceries & vegetables, jewellery, apparel and other lifestyle essentials are
all available online in India now. All kinds of services like taxi-hailing, wedding
photography, AC repair or house painting can all be fulfilled through apps on
mobile. India has almost ten Unicorn companies (companies with valuation more
than 1 billion USD) now.
The
BIG questions is – why didn’t I get any of these ideas in the last 20 years,
when I was doing my so-called ENGINEERING course or working in MNCs in CITIES?
How did I let pass so many disruptive ideas !? :-)
I
got several answers for that question, but couple of them stick out
prominently. The first one being lack of awareness about starting a venture of
my own at different stages of career. I haven’t come across anyone who
jumpstarted their career as an entrepreneur and succeeded earlier in life. None
of my family members had a business background earlier. I did not have the
opportunity to interact with any MBA grads for sufficient time to know about
the business fundamentals. The news about new companies being formed to solve a
specific customer problem was non-existent in those days. The idea of opening a
business is equivalent to opening a shop in neighborhood, which is primarily to
earn good money. As acquisition of personal wealth was never a true motivator in
life, it did not entice enough to start on my own.
The
second major reason being the culture in which I was brought-up. We are used to
the culture of ‘passive consumption of things’ and ‘contentment and sharing of what
we have’. We were never encouraged to ‘create
anything new’, forget about ‘thinking big’. The idea of making a difference in
the world or creation and distribution of wealth was never discussed amongst
family, friends or in school. I am ever grateful to my family, friends and
teachers for being with me and taking care of all my needs though.
I
believe the above two reasons – lack of awareness and brought-up culture –
inhibited the action of starting on my own, but not innovation. After adequate
experience and exposure, I was driving innovation in terms of solutions within
a constrained environment. But that does not provide satisfaction for a person
hungry to innovate for a broader and bigger impact. Does it?