Build your professional network on facebook via our app Go to app
 
 
 
Working for a start up by Murali Krishna Kesapragada, CEO/MD/Director, Versatile World

Working for a start up

By : Murali Krishna Kesapragada, CEO/MD/Director, Versatile World
Industry : IT Services Functional Area : Getting Started
Keywords :

Career

Start

Working

Decision

Activity:  4 comments  636 views  last activity : 07 06 2010 20:18:04 +0000
 Refer 28
Share
 
 
 

WORKING FOR A START-UP

Nine things you should know 1.  It means dealing with risk and sharing rewardsWorking for a start-up is not for the weak at heart. The reason is simple. For every start-up that succeeds, more struggle and some more fail. Only a small percentage of the voyagers who leave the shore succeed. Secondly, when we look at the big successes, we generally get carried away by the outward manifestations of success and do not consider the blood, sweat and tears that went into achieving the success and are not in the public gaze. Consider this – when Infosys was started, the founders did not find a bank that would give them a working capital arrangement. Worse, when the company went public, its issue was undersubscribed. The bottom line in every start-up is ‘risk’. If you do not enjoy it, a start-up is not for you. The upside of making your way from an early stage to a successful start-up is, of course, quite significant. Both in terms of professional learning and wealth creation opportunity, a start-up is an excellent place. However, there is a caveat – the harvest is a story of postponed gratification. 2.  The harvest comes only in the long haulNormally, a start-up takes anywhere from three to five years to come to a stage where it can go public and only after that, employees can reap the harvest of their hard work. Thus, if an individual is more comfortable surfing jobs, it is probably better to keep hopping between large, established organisations. Now, this does not mean that you won’t be getting salaries. This section does not talk about your monthly salary or your share in profits, but about the money that can be made when the start up reaches a stage when it goes public. 

3.  You should be the type who can work unsupervised – remember, you are the system.

This is a very important issue – before jumping into our start-up ask yourself whether you work best under supervision or are able to create your own work, structure it and deliver it with minimal supervision or none at all. If yes, come right in. If you are unsure, join a big company that can afford supervision.In a start-up, at times it happens that even if supervision could add value, people are so busy multitasking that no one can really ensure that you are doing your work or let you know every now and then that you are directionally correct. The ability to work unsupervised, the ability to reach out and ask for help and be persistent if needed, are critical requirements. If a person walks into the office in the morning and says, “Show me my boss and tell me what to do today”, he or she will find a start-up a very difficult place to work in. 4.  Construct the big picture, focus on the smallPeople who can make it big in a start-up are those who can see the big picture and at the same time, sharply focus on the small – the one on which today depends critically. The big picture is important because that is where the company is going. It may take a few years  but that is what binds everyone together. Usually, it is just a map, a business plan or a statement of vision. It is not the exact, guaranteed future itself. Imagine that you are a discoverer. You set sail in search of unknown lands. Given that fact, it takes a lot of strength to get emotional sustenance from an overall purpose that the team is trying to achieve.While the ability to perceive the big picture is important, equally important is the need for staying focused on the immediate deliverables. After all, the future is many todays, strung together in time.Given that, it is very important to have faith in what I am doing today and the knowledge that done well, it will indeed take me to my destiny. The ability to focus on today while moving towards tomorrow is an uncommon quality that is a pre-requisite for being happy working in start-up. 5.  Teamwork is criticalA lot of people prefer to work in isolation. Yet, more than any other place, a start-up is requires a tremendous amount of teamwork. By definition, a start-up has fewer hands and more things to be done. Everyone has to share the load of a lot of undefined work that cannot wait. As a result, there has to be willingness to share the load in a start-up. 6.  Things to no work as per the plan – do not get flusteredIf you ask me to make one cardinal observation, it is going to be this one. When we are a start-up, we begin with many assumptions. We assume that we can start making money immediately, we assume that a definite source for money exists on which we can bank our immediate expenses, we will assume that we will our first big customer and get paid in record time.None of that will actually happen. Rest assured. The excitement of a start-up is precisely that. Because none of that happens, the people in a start-up try out different customer propositions, recruitment strategies, funding plans and alliances. In the process, they innovate, and those who do it right, make it big. However, the process quite often is a roller-coaster ride. As things fail to happen per plan, there is the inevitable period of confusion, self-doubt and unpaid bills. A start-up is for those who will create new maps and be willing to explore new paths, and not for those who prefer a guided tour of the future.  7.  Your must have faith in yourself – you need to contribute to the energy, not depend on it. What personality trait is required to cope with high highs and low lows? A lot of self-confidence. A start-up needs people who believe in themselves. People who know that irrespective of the outcome, at a personal level they will emerge rich in experience – if the start-up gets grounded, they would still be able to resurrect their lives and move on. There are many of us who seek confidence from the environment we live in; we depend largely on a feedback process to sustain ourselves. On the other hand, there are many who recognise the presence of the environment, accept the generosity, but at a basic level, thrive on their inner sense of worth. In a sense, these are nuclear-powered people. More than any place else, a start-up depends on the energy that such people bring to the organisation. 8.  Learn to accept a low-resource work environmentWe might have more people than chairs, desks and desktops. The very fact we are a start-up implies that our resource base is much smaller than big and established players. More than them, we have to watch costs, worry about prioritising expenses and postpone gratification in a real personal sense. We need to mentally accept that infrastructural support will go down several notches. 9.  Big joy in small thingsNow, if all that we talked about is true, then, where is the fun? Where is the joy in a start-up? It is in the small things. It is only in a start-up that there is no corporate caste system. There is no way you can look at someone and say what his or her level is. Everyone pitches in, everyone fights, everyone pulls weight and people are still not busy enough to be in silos that prevent rapid cross-fertilisation of knowledge, skills and attitudes. It is also in a start-up that you can correlate your contribution to organisational impact. People instantly know who did it.A start-up is also a place where no one has time for politics. You survive one day at a time. There is the joy for accelerated learning, the opportunity to watch people at close quarters and get a participant’s view of how businesses are built. If all goes well, along the line comes the satisfaction of creating substantial personal wealth that is difficult for most people through the salaried route. Finally, all these come in addition to a unique sense of bonding that you seldom get in a big organisation.Taken from
The High-Performance Entrepreneur: Golden Rules for Success in Today’s World
by Subroto, Bagchi;  (Author)
 
 Top Comment : Dayanand Deshpande   | 04 13 2009 10:27:51 +0000
I have seen many guys who started their career in start-up companies even after getting offers from many reputed companies with higher salaries but today they are very successful and they are taking their companies to greater heights with each passing day. so definitely there is a huge amount of learning and experience a person gets by opting to work for a start-up company.
go to top
 
4 comments on "Working for a start up"
Sort by: Most Recent Top Rated
  Commented by  Sanjay Sharma, Service/Maintenance Engineer FLSmidth India Pvt. Ltd    | 04 13 2009 18:18:38 +0000
Rating : +2  
Nice article. Equally applicable for employees woking in big organisation but working on new ways of business development. All these things, what you mentioned, are happening even in big companies at initial stage of new strtegy.This will definitely help them to keep charge themselves.
  Commented by  Dayanand Deshpande, Senior Consultant, Ernst & Young    | 04 13 2009 10:27:51 +0000
Rating : +2  
I have seen many guys who started their career in start-up companies even after getting offers from many reputed companies with higher salaries but today they are very successful and they are taking their companies to greater heights with each passing day. so definitely there is a huge amount of learning and experience a person gets by opting to work for a start-up company.
  Commented by  Vaitheeswaran natarajan, Project Manager Ivrcl Infrastructures    | 09 01 2008 23:53:02 +0000 
nice.
Add your comment on "Working for a start up"

Rate:
Submit
 Found the article "Working for a start up"  interesting ?  Share with your connections and communities  
Leading Recruitment firm
ETL.Ab Initio jobs in Pune
Cognos jobs in Pune
Cognos jobs in Kolkata
Viewers also viewed
More of us than ever are becoming our own bosses and there are certain things that you should...
 
883 referals 21 votes, 899 views
Startegic Initiatives like GST, Rail&Road Load Balancing etc vs Policy initiatives for inviting...
 
0 referals 3 arguments, 61 views
Take the day as it comes! vs Focussed & Disciplined approach
 
2550 referals 35 arguments, 691 views
more...  
Recent Knowledge (108)
Excerpt from the Book “Unposted Letter” by T. T. Rangarajan ’10 minutes early’ means I can live...
 
2078 referals 27 comments, 377 views
Many advertisements come and go.. Few make an impression on our mind.. Impression might be good...
 
1677 referals 20 comments, 643 views
HI The most stressful part of job interview is to get stuck in those questions which are generic...
 
0 referals 6 comments, 323 views
more...  
Sponsored Jobs
More From Author
Check out www.ipaidbribe.com .. THIS according to me .. is a constructive step...
TOTALLY TOTALLY agree with Nikhil...
I know this might sound weird, but I would suggest students.. atleast some of them who CAN and WANT TO .. to go ahead, take this as a chance Life provided you with, and START ON YOUR OWN. Yeah.. right now, there are so many things one can do without...
more...  
  • Popular Knowledge
  •  
  •  
  • Popular Jobs
  •