Entrepreneur Experience of FMS’ alumnus

Being your own boss is a dream for many. Start-ups require a lot of efforts, planning strategies for success.

Business started with half or little knowledge have higher chances of failing. Therefore, people open their own ventures after in-depth research, proper planning and long-term strategies. They also develop an eye to predict future and prepare back-up plans.

All these elements can be obtained with a good business education such as Master in Business Administration (MBA) or Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM).

MBA students have the option of either taking up placement offers or starting their own ventures. Majority of students opt for placement over entrepreneurship. This is so because of the risks in the process of setting up and running a venture.

However, there are a handful students who are ready to take risks and bear its consequences. These students are an inspiration for others to go for their own startup. B-Schools too now-a-days are also motivating students towards entrepreneurship.

Shiksha interviewed two such students from the Faculty of Management Studies (FMS) - Delhi, one of the top B-Schools of the country. These MBA graduates opted to start their own ventures.

Rohit Agarwal

Venture: Food venture

Name of the venture: OMG

Serves fast food cuisine and also caters food arrangements for small parties.

It all started during my engineering days, when I started working on smaller projects and also approached few venture Capitalist to fund our projects. It didn’t turn into a career opportunity at that time but it propelled me to start something on my own. And this is something that I have carried with myself all along to be an entrepreneur. The key aspiration for me I would say is my dad, who is a businessman who has been fairly successful as an entrepreneur and gets immense satisfaction with the work he does. I guess the sense of fulfillment and satisfaction that one obtains when working on an idea and seeing results is beyond imagination which I wish to pursue.

Apart from some projects that I did during my engineering days, I finally engaged myself completely in this aspiration last year. I started my own food venture and opened stores in Mukherjee nagar and one in Rajasthan. A lot of planning and research was done to come up with the right mix of ideas to start something in the food business especially considering the fact that I am a novice in this sector. However, my love for food and cooking and the passion to start something of my own gave me the inspiration to carry this forward.

It was a very difficult decision to start with as I was travelling a path less taken and there are a lot of uncertainties that comes along with it. But I had the backing of my parents who always stood behind me and also I have the belief in myself that I can give my best to take anything beyond the finish line. This belief made me chose this path.

Apart from the food chain that I am working on, I have also started conceptualizing the other start up that I will be starting in Nepal. There is a wave of technology startups and I want to start something to help bridge the gap between organized and unorganized sector. And with the ever changing customer preference and needs, there is always a lot of scope for right bunch of ideas. And the presence of a large number of Venture capitalists eager to invest in opportunities with potential to success has inspired a lot of young enthusiasts such as me who want to start on their own.

Shubham Trivedi

Venture: E-commerce

Name of the venture: InkMud.com

It is all about giving consumers the power and ease of purchasing student and office supplies online.

Joy of creation, kick of doing something new, kick of setting up processes motivated me to start with my own venture. You are thrown with a challenge of a very few resources (including money) at disposal and the task is to create a new world. There is no other way but to apply mind and get going. Starting a company is hard and no matter what you think you know about starting a business, you’ll be proven wrong time and time again.

Like many of us, I harbored the dream of owning an e-commerce start-up someday. The keeda of starting something of my own was there since my under-graduation days. It doesn't mean that I hated (or didn't wanted to do the) corporate job, but the dream of starting something of my own was gnawing away. However convincing myself about it was difficult initially because when you see your peers getting placed in high paying jobs, somewhere in the back of your head you would definitely question yourself. But in the end you survive doing what you like.

Being from service background, entrepreneurship is something very new for my parents. My dad still thinks I will fail someday, I think so too. I may someday, but even then I will not stop taking risks and giving my best. I have huge respect for my dad and whatever he did is/was right, in fact, he actually helped me overcome every time when things went terribly wrong.

Yes, we've been already working on our venture for quite some time. To equip with all the nitty- gritty of an E-commerce, I started working with Rocket Internet as Entrepreneur-In-Residence (EiR). I've been working with Saurabh Kochhar (CEO India and Global Chief Business Operations, FoodPanda) for quite some time and to whom I look upto as my mentor. He is very aggressive with whatever he does, someone who regularly inspires me, someone whose actions push me to do more and more, someone who indirectly advises me through his actions.

The venture we are building is about school and office supplies, along with the intent of giving back to the society. It’s extremely motivating to know that something you’re building will help create value for others. By starting up a company, you learn more in a few months than a lifetime in a career. Managing your own start up depends on 3 things; the idea, your skills and if you're a doer or not (doer is who never gives up or whom excuses cannot stop from doing or achieving), there's a lot more than just wearing multiple hats.

In the past few years, I've seen lot many cases, where the companies/ start-ups are just the "Starter" and not the "Finisher" and I tell you, we are not among those :).
The team is one of the major factors that decides the success and failure of a venture. We've been very particular about building a right time. If you’ve been the ones who've jumped in the deep end and started your own venture before, but haven’t quite got enough of it, let’s talk, shoot me a mail at shubh.zodiac@gmail.com .