Ashwin Upadhyaya's Blog » Startup

The Startup Conundrum

Ashwin Upadhyaya — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:34:55 +0000

One of my entrepreneur friends, Vinay once told me “Earlier, your boss used to screw you. Now when you are an entrepreneur, the whole world wants to screw you.”

The customer wants to buy at a cheaper price than you can manufacture. The government wants to stack all its policies against you. The investor wants all the returns in the world. So what do you do?

Right now, all I know is to just stay on course and see through the journey.

Why a startup is like an uphill trek..

Ashwin Upadhyaya — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 09:06:11 +0000

It gets tougher and tougher with every step you move forward, more mentally than physically. Yet, the only way you know is forward.
Resources are limited and you try to conserve and optimize them to the max.
It is not the goal, rather it is the path that gives the happiness.
The team moves only as fast as the slowest person!
For the outside world, it only matters if you reached the top. Until you reach the top, slog, slog and slog. The world doesn’t care.
You will never see the true height and the beauty of it unless you actually start the journey.
For every few people who succeed, there are a few who failed too. Its just a fact of life.

Why I write this? For the single reason that I am now able to see the tip of the mountain in our startup venture. And I know it is still not easy reaching there. It still needs many days of slogging and a lot of mental strength. Yet, how beautiful the path seems! I just hope our resources permit our journey to the top.

Be a Wangdu!

Ashwin Upadhyaya — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 03:58:06 +0000

Rajesh Hanbal used to work at a reputed software firm in Bangalore. He has quit his job and is dedicated towards preparations for the Indian Administrative Service.
Ashwin Krishna also used to work at a software firm in Bangalore. He has quit to achieve his dreams. His aim is to create a world-class university.
Vinay Parameswarappa, another ex-software engineer conducts walk tours in Mysore and gives you an experience of true places which are not in any map.
Rakshit plans to quit his software job and get into music production.
Prashanth is director at an internet solution company.
Justin is an American who is passionate about Mysore and works hard to make civic problems known.
Sourabh, again an ex-software engineer runs a book club and is into event management.
Suraj and Anil and I run a company into renewable energy power plants (1).

I had written about Mysore Santhe in my last post. That is where I met many of the people I mentioned now. We had many more people like GV Krishnan (2), Krishnavattam, Bapu Sathyanarayana, ER Ramachandran and Javeed Nayeem who write for the print media and Anantaramaiah who runs a school in Mysore.

I guess you liked Phunsuk Wangdu on screen. Mysore Santhe is a place to meet such Wangdus. And probably get inspired enough to become a Wangdu yourself.

Added this line after comments from readers
It was G V Krishnan who initiated this idea of Mysore Santhe

Questions I don’t have an answer now

Ashwin Upadhyaya — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 07:09:00 +0000

I am writing this post so that I can come back 5 years later and see if I have found the answers. Its just a list of questions.

Is there really something called a breakthrough event in business or is it just a series of incremental improvements?
Does a startup become successful only if we keep fighting against all odds? Or, is it better to stop the battle, prepare with better arms and then come back? I remember the quote by Abraham Lincoln: “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe“. The catch however is that, in the case of a startup, you don’t even know what to chop until you have started.
How much of a toll does starting your own company take on your family?
Once you start a company, you start to live in a different world. You start being more optimistic about things. You start living on hope. A hope that, even if something fails, that will lead to something even better. Does this feeling exist only during the startup phase? Or does it the change you forever?

The railway ticket queue

Ashwin Upadhyaya — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 18:13:53 +0000

Thought of an interesting analogy while talking to my friend.

Getting into a relatively new business is like the formation stages of a queue in front of railway ticket counter (in India). When a ticket counter opens, people rush to be the first person at the queue. The ones who are smartest (by guessing which is the first to open) always have an eye on the counter even when it is closed. Just when it is about to open, they make the run for it. Most don’t make it to the front, yet there is fierce competition. Example: IT industry in the 1980s, Renewable energy now.

Getting into an existing business is like joining the existing queues. You can still move forward but the excitement is missing. Example: IT industry now, Renewable energy 10 years from now.