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Why do many hesitate to start their own business?
I wrote a response to the above question that was asked in Quora, which I am sharing below (with a bit of tweaking). As an entrepreneur for last two decades, I have seen this “hesitation” often and used to wonder why?. I will list few of them that come to my mind, in no particular order. After you graduate, when deciding between a job or starting on your own, you are generally given the advice by many to first work for few years, gain the experience and then start your business. For me, I started my business right after my engineering – in fact, I was doing freelance software consulting…
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TiECON Chennai 2017
TiE Chennai is one of the well run voluntary organisations in the city that’s aimed at promoting entrepreneurship and fostering networking amongst its members. Every year, it’s annual TiECON is a mega event featuring talks by industry leaders and panel discussions by experts and rising stars. This year too was no different. Pitchfest: In parallel to breakouts, there was “Pitchfest”, which was speed dating for investors and start-ups. Along with Kritik & Venkatesh, Directors of Anjana Software, I met with startups that were shortlisted by TiE Chennai. The energy and passion of the founders were certainly infectious. The companies we had met were: Buttalks – Underwear subscription service for men Turmswear –…
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Matrimony.com IPO celebration dinner
Matrimony.com Limited, the company behind BharatMatrimony.com went public earlier this month, it’s public listing (IPO) was over-subscribed 440%. To celebrate the successful listing, Mr.Murugavel Janikaraman had invited his friends and well-wishers for a dinner today at Leela Palace, Chennai. It was a relaxed and cheerful evening with Sri Mahatria of Infinitheism delivering a short keynote address. I have written (paraphrased) below few key points from what was being spoken. Mr.Murugavel Janakiraman spoke of 5 key lessons he has learned from Mahatria, that he follows in his life: Do with a small beginning, keep doing incremental improvements, for getting sustained progress Goas far as you can go, once you have gone there, see further from…
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A passionate heart with a rational mind is needed for success
Today, Nasscom Tamil Nadu Region celebrated the tenth anniversary of its Emerge forum with a special program. It was also the 98th episode of Product Connect – a program where industry experts share their journey with fellow members of the community. It was special program today because Nasscom had invited the same 3 business leaders of Chennai who had spoken in the very first program of Product Connect – Gowri Shankar Subramanian (Co-Founder & CEO of Aspire Systems), Murugavel Janakiraman (Founder & MD of Matrimony.com Limited) and Suresh Sambandam (Founder & CEO of OrangeScape). I was looking forward to today’s program was special for me, as I know all the…
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Lufthansa Runway to Success Season 5
I was happy to get to be the moderator for an informative panel discussion today. Titled “Finance Your Venture”, it was part of Lufthansa Runway to Success Season 5 organised by TiE Chennai. The panellists were experienced hands on the trade – Ashvin Agarwal, Balram Nair, Manu Iyer & Satish Mugulavalli. We talked about: Right source of funding – Entrepreneurs need to think beyond the glamorous VC funding. There are many options available nowadays including Bootstrapping, Friends and Family, Friends of Friends to reach HNI (High Networth Individuals), Non-Collateral Debt Funding from Government/Public agencies, Seed Capital and grants from Government schemes and finally Brick ‘n’ Mortar businesses interested to be…
