SalMa MooSa & ViVEk SriniVaSan

SALMA MOOSA & VIVEK SRINIVASAN

Notion Press Old No. 38, New No. 6 McNichols Road, Chetpet Chennai - 600 031 First Published by Notion Press 2017 Copyright © Salma Moosa and Vivek Srinivasan 2017 All Rights Reserved. ISBN 978-1-948352-84-0 This book has been published with all reasonable efforts taken to make the material error-free after the consent of the author. No part of this book shall be used, reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. The Author of this book is solely responsible and liable for its content including but not limited to the views, representations, descriptions, statements, information, opinions and references [“Content”]. The Content of this book shall not constitute or be construed or deemed to reflect the opinion or expression of the Publisher or Editor. Neither the Publisher nor Editor endorse or approve the Content of this book or guarantee the reliability, accuracy or completeness of the Content published herein and do not make any representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, including but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose. The Publisher and Editor shall not be liable whatsoever for any errors, omissions, whether such errors or omissions result from negligence, accident, or any other cause or claims for loss or damages of any kind, including without limitation, indirect or consequential loss or damage arising out of use, inability to use, or about the reliability, accuracy or sufficiency of the information contained in this book.

Vote of Thanks Pravin Shekhar For your trust in us and your belief that our story could bring lessons to many out there and for your unceasing patience with us. Thanks Pravin – Devil does care, literally! Team of Startups Club For the Family we are; thank you for taking on the responsibilities of Startups Club on yourself, for making this journey your own and being as crazy as this journey has been. As we say… #SCCoreTeamRocks Pioneers & Members of Startups Club Hope each one of you understand that this book, the story and us, would not have existed without you. This book is your story, our version. You have made this happen. Thanks for making Startups Club “The wind beneath your wings”

Founder’s Note

W

hen we started writing this book, frankly we did not know how it would turn out. Neither of us has ever written a book. Even if we did attempt, we have never completed one. After completing the first chapter, it became abundantly clear to us that we had to definitely write this book. The human memory is an amazing thing and we tend to selectively remember what we want to and how we want to. Also, the way two people experience the same things tend to be very different and this is amply illustrated in the two different versions. As a principle, we decided not to read each other’s version and let the contrast shine through. The other reason, we wanted to write this book at this point in time is because, often you tend to read books by entrepreneurs who have already registered runaway success. Invariably, you never get to hear about the challenges and the difficulties that they faced in great detail. You get an eagle’s eye view of how they reached the final goal, which betrays the whole truth. The difference between the two versions is like - looking at a person ready to go to work as opposed to someone who has got up straight out of bed. This is the reason we decided to write this book now, before our memory and perhaps our success, begins to shade reality for all of you readers as well as for ourselves. This book is the story of the short journey that Startups Club has taken. This company did not start as a company, but as a hobby. How things turned out to be, would have been beyond

viii r Founder’s Note

our wildest imagination at the time we started. Truth is really stranger than fiction. Experiences of others are the best way to learn and so we decided to share our experiences, which will act as lessons to help founders deal with co-founder conflicts, growth challenges, cash crunch and the constantly changing dynamics of a startup. We hope it is the 12 years of Co-founding lessons you will take away from here. We would love to hear from you, on your thoughts about this book and our journey. You can reach us at vivek@startupsclub. org or [email protected]

Vivek Srinivasan

Salma Moosa

Milestones Covered in This Journey Chapter 1

Vivek calls it – Genesis Salma calls it – How It All Started?

Chapter 2

Vivek calls it – First Meetup Salma calls it – Kick Started

17 22

Chapter 3

Vivek calls it – Our Big Event Salma calls it – Member’s Need Money

31 36

Chapter 4

Vivek calls it – Getting into Rhythm Salma calls it – Why Stop Now?

43 49 57

Chapter 5

Vivek calls it – Exodus Salma calls it – Falling Apart or Becoming Strong

Chapter 6

Vivek calls it – Going to Get Someone Else Funded Salma calls it – Ahhh…Investors

69 73

Chapter 7

Vivek calls it – Changing Tunes Salma calls it – The Club Has a Heart

79 84

Chapter 8

Vivek calls it – Building a Team Salma calls it – Delegate…Noooo

91 95

Chapter 9

Vivek calls it – Surgical Strike Salma calls it – Surgical Strike

101 109

Continue the Journey Forward…

119

Chapter 10

3 7

62

Genesis How It All Started?

Vivek’s Version

B

iz Stone said in one of the episodes of a National Geographic show - American Genius;

“In order to succeed spectacularly you need to be willing to fail spectacularly.” Before Startups Club, Salma and I were running a consulting company. Our goal was to consult SMEs and help them during their launch and growth phase. We got to work on a very diverse range of projects during this time across industries. It setup a wonderful foundation for things to come. Times were hard; we started in the shadow of the 2008 financial collapse. Clients were hard to come by in those days. At times we were flat out broke. I still remember borrowing the pocket money, Salma’s youngest son Zaid had saved up in order to buy lunch. During the 7 years that we ran the consulting firm, I would tell Salma several times – ‘What I had learnt doing business in the real world, even 10 years in Harvard would not have taught me.’ I came from a family that would forego any upside to ensure certainty. Both my parents spent their entire lives pursuing one single job with the government (different governments). Let us just say taking risks is not something baked into my DNA. My father would keep threatening to change his job but never followed it through. That was his greatest flirtation with risk. I guess that part developed a little in me. At Prudence, the consulting firm Salma and I ran; none of these projects were spectacular and the risk we took upon

4 r A Thought to a Million Dollars

ourselves while pursuing this venture was limited. If a project did not work out well, we were the only ones aware of it, it was not an unmitigated disaster in clear public view. Notwithstanding this fact, somehow and someway in the pursuit of money we got to work in over 15 different industries as diverse as education, healthcare, real estate, IT, services, manufacturing, retail, hospitality, etc. Our learnings from working across such a wide spectrum serve us well today. As I had mentioned earlier, the risk-taking gene is a little suppressed within me. Salma is the exact opposite. If she does not take risk, she would probably feel dead. We had once ventured into starting a website called Exotic Explorer. The idea was to sell hotels at exotic locations. No run of the mill property. It was going to be like Makemytrip for exotic locations only. We discussed the idea. Salma bought the domain and setup a countdown timer on the site before sitting down to figure out how much time it would actually take to build the site. Not to mention the hotel tie-ups and other such relationships that had to be put in place. And we did launch it by the date that was set. Comfortably, in fact. Salma has the gene that sets us up for the Spectacular. Up until the point that we were running Prudence whatever spectacular goal she set us up for, the outcome was mostly internal. I guess it had to become public soon, destiny was setting us up for it. In the Winter of 2012, we had got to a point where we were questioning this never ending cycle of spring and winter of client acquisition at Prudence. We had pivoted towards mentoring startups instead of consulting SMEs by then. Finding startups that would pay for consultation was hard. You see we tend to talk unnecessarily in India. Getting someone to pay to hear you talk was a task.

Salma Moosa and Vivek Srinivasan s 5

I had suggested several times that we go network at meetups and see if we can find clients. To Salma even the idea of a conversation that was not pointed at a specific outcome was incredibly painful to envisage. It was kind of like a living room without a TV; what is all the furniture pointed towards? After an incredible amount of coaxing she agreed to come to a meetup, that too on a Sunday morning! For me this was a Hail Mary, the meetup had to be semi-decent or she would never go to another one. For some reason the organizer handed her the floor to talk to the 30-odd people who had come to the meetup. Salma took the floor and started painting the picture for what would become Startups Club very soon. Her pitch was pointed – “We are startups, we are getting into business; why should it be intimidating for someone new coming to such an event? Everyone who is here has come here looking for a tangible outcome so instead of just sitting and talking why can’t we give each other tangible outcomes? Why can’t we engage more with each other and help one another out? Why can’t it be like a community where we know one another and outsiders are welcome and made a part of it?” Something happened that day. Two others who were attending the same meetup said “we should do this” and asked Salma to lead the initiative. Salma at her usual effervescent best agreed to lead this initiative. My Hail Mary had paid-off; a bit too much to my liking. I was only focused on getting her to attend a few meetups to sell our services, to widen our lead base and here we were, giving birth to a new one. We went back and I still remember that day in late February. She was sitting at her computer and I was walking around in front of her debating with myself the various things that we can do. She looked at me and announced that she had setup a meetup.

W

e often get to hear about the next big fundraise that a startup made and the large plans that they are about to unleash. Entrepreneurs are optimistic people and most often, they initiate the fundraising plan without thinking about what follows. The journey of a startup starts to feel like a journey from one bankruptcy to the next. Many of us have to project a very successful façade to the outside world and do not talk about the struggles of a startup. This book is a chronicle of the ups and downs of our accidental startup – Startups Club. Vivek Srinivasan has been an entrepreneur for the past decade and during this time has dabbled in several businesses. He founded the Startups Club along with Salma Moosa. They have been building the community and the business around it for the past five years. Vivek speaks at several events and is known for talking about Startups as well as technology and future. Salma Moosa has been a life-long entrepreneur and has been engaged in some venture or the other for the past two and a half decades. Her strengths lie in the area of Marketing and Sales, and she delivers workshops on these subjects very often. She is a force of nature when it comes to getting things executed and has driven the growth of the Startups Club community almost single-handedly. Salma enjoys engaging with people and thrives on it.

Price 199