Build a successful startup from scratch: Insider tips for budding entrepreneurs

In the contemporary world, initiating a business requires minute in-depth understanding and knowledge of many subjects, which also includes legal, sales, financial, marketing, liability protection, intellectual property protection, and human resources. However, if entrepreneurship is something that interests you then there are also stories of incredible success of early stage startups which have turned into multi-billion dollar organisations such as Uber, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Airbnb. To understand the entire process of investing and building a big business right from scratch, our start-up expert Ravi Ranjan shares his insights on what an entrepreneurial mindset should look like.

1. Is there anything called a startup mindset? If yes, what are few of the elements of those?

I think the fundamental of having a career as a founder is realising that it's not the first time that there are startups coming up in India or anywhere. There have been businesses around us for thousands of years. But, I believe that there are fundamentally two reasons as to why startups have become a movement in recent times. Firstly, we have a very large population who are currently online. This means that organisations now have an opportunity to discover their audience very fast. Lastly, another difference between a business and a startup is that the latter can scale up very fast. So, for a young student who is just about to start their career, a keen observation of how the ecosystem is evolving might be of great help. I believe in a class full of students there are always some students who will have an interest in talking about technology, AI, crypto or something like that. These are the people who have leadership qualities and the entrepreneurship mindset to take it further. However, people who have a traditional mindset and wish to become an entrepreneur need to start figuring out these trends to develop an entrepreneurial mindset.

2. You mentioned, it is very easy for a startup to scale up and grow into a big business but in the past there have been instances where a startup has faced challenges or even closed down. What are your views on that?

I strongly believe that it is not just with startups but with everything in life, be it going to a college or managing a family, one can fail in anything. But how one deals with it depends upon how mature they are as a person or what capabilities they have to move ahead in life. There are challenges everywhere but the reward is also extremely high once you take risks. One of the biggest advantages of building a startup is that you will never fail but always end up learning as to how things work. If one looks at some of the big businesses in the world, it's not their first attempt; the founders always had 2-3 companies in the past that did not work out. Not everyone becomes successful in the first go and entrepreneurship is not for the faint hearted. I believe young students need to understand that every disappointment is going to train you on how to not give up. Young entrepreneurs need to be 5 times more courageous than their friends and peers.

3. What are some of the reasons an organisation fails?

I feel there are three fundamental reasons as to why an organisation fails. To avoid the same, before they start, students must do enough research. Secondly, they also need to analyse and understand whether their business needs funding immediately or can they manage without funding for a certain period of time. Lastly, they should have the expertise as to how to exactly scale a business. For example, if an entrepreneur is starting a small startup in Kolkata–is he or she able to scale the business to multiple cities? If not they are not going to be successful.

4. Do you think young students should worry about having a safety net when they are eventually starting on their own or they should be fully focused on what they are doing?

As an individual I feel different people have different challenges. In the case of some students their family expects them to start earning as soon as they finish their college. For them I feel they should not be giving time to a startup without having a safety net. On the other hand, 90% of students are also not in that category and they can absolutely take risks for the first few years. I believe that if one really wants to be successful they should have zero backup plans. They should be 100% focused on the startup they are building and in some cases, students should also take the initiative of starting from the second or third year of the college itself so that by the time they finish college, they would either have a successful company or a lot of experience to hold upon. Eventually there is nothing to lose as a young student as they only end up learning.

5. Do you think a business can be started with zero funds?

Yes, there are businesses that can be initiated with zero external funding. Though this is true for about 60% of all businesses today. For instance, one of the very successful organisations today, Zoho, was started without any external funding.

6. What are some other insights you can share with young professionals who are looking to start a business?

One of the most important things is that they must understand the market they are going to target. For instance, if they are building something on web3 or metaverse, they must understand the market well. Here, I don’t mean that they must be an expert, but at least they must know how big the market is and at the same time they must also have a few members in their team who compliment their skills.

7. What are some of the non negotiable things which a young student must consider before beginning a business?

I think the most crucial thing to bear in mind before beginning a business is that nobody should start a business just because there is funding available. A startup venture should be initiated to solve a problem. If a business is solving a problem right from its initial days then it is good to go and if not then it is totally non negotiable. Furthermore, a young student should also make it a point to be ethical and have the utmost integrity without compromising on it. Lastly, not bringing your 100% to the table when working on a startup is also a non negotiable quality.

8. How can a young student make it easier for themselves to approach someone for funds?

India has more than ten thousand angel investors in the current time, clearly indicating that our country has the best opportunities for people to invest in the present period and future as well. Students today have the option to raise money from the government, angel investors, private equities, grants, business plan competitions and many more. I believe a young student can make it easier for themselves by preparing a list of top investors via researching on the internet as everything is available for free, and then start reaching out to them on Linkedin and meeting them at different events. Initially a young student should speak more about their ideas rather than pushing the prospective investors to put money on their business. I believe by following these steps a student can get an investor interested in their business idea.

A startup ecosystem uplifts the future of any country. It is often seen that a small company with big ideas turns out to be more innovative when weighed against a lot of big companies and as our expert Ravi Ranjan says, if you are ethical, have integrity and are looking to solve a problem in the long term, you are good to go.

About Ravi Ranjan: Ravi Ranjan is an Entrepreneur Evangelist and a Startup Expert having over 10 years of experience in helping startups. At present Ravi Ranjan has been selected as a representative of India and the strategy head for the private office of the Sheikh of Dubai. He is currently engaged in helping the Royal Family of Dubai in finding great opportunities to partner with startups. Apart from this, Ravi is also an International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) fellow at the United States Department of States and a Chief of Events and Partnerships at Venture Catalysts. In the past he has served as the Curator, Business Advisor and Project Lead for Shark Tank India, the world’s biggest and most successful Business Reality Show.