Know What You Want?

There are many different types of professionals who specialize in helping business owners, including coaches and mentors. So what is the difference? A business coach will work with a client to identify their goals and present them with a plan of action to achieve those goals. A coach isn’t supposed to give advice, but rather help someone determine what they should do next.

A business mentor is more directive in trying to guide clients towards success; mentors have an established framework for their advice and will often take an active role in guiding the decision-making process of their mentees. So who is a better fit for business coaching, and who is a better fit for mentoring? Each has its own advantages, so it all depends on the type of client you are trying to work with.

When considering whom to work with, consider the type of client you are: if your goal is to improve your business significantly, then finding someone who can help you set up a plan of action to achieve that goal could be advantageous. If not or if there isn’t much of a difference between their services, then it might make sense to hire both.

Again, if your goal is to improve your business considerably, then having a mentor who has actually been through it themselves will be very beneficial. This can allow you to walk into the situation feeling confident that you have someone on your side who has been through it before and will act accordingly.

When you are looking for a business coach or mentorship, it is important that it is the right fit for your company. Discuss what a business coach and mentor do and help you determine which will be best for your company.

Responsible Leadership

Responsibility may mean different things to different people, but for today’s leaders, it is non-negotiable. On the lines of what I have been discussing with my peers, business schools have often trained students to think in narrow, linear ways, thus producing managers who excel at following instructions and executing plans. True leadership, however, lies in creating the conditions that enable responsible behavior.

Organizations, off late have been increasingly investing in stakeholder engagement, sustainability initiatives, and leadership development programs. However, the current landscape shaped by geopolitical tensions, rapid technological change, and evolving workforce expectations requires even more from today’s leaders. 

A simple framework for leading responsibly in uncertain times, stands on 3 pillars: Attention, Authenticity, and Agility.

Attention
In today’s high-pressure business environment, effective leaders are expected to juggle immediate priorities while keeping sight of long-term goals. Many turn to multitasking, but more often than not, it backfires as engagement drops, focus scatters, and people shift from being thoughtful professionals to just checking boxes, instead of embracing uncertainty, and maintaining strategic clarity even when things feel chaotic.

Authenticity
Ethical leadership rests on the foundational elements of a strong value orientation, clear articulation of corporate values, and a compelling vision for the future. When any of these components are overlooked, trust within the organization is compromised, and employees become less inclined to voice concerns.

Agility

Responsible leadership demands the ability to navigate disruption while upholding strong ethical standards. In an environment where the pace of change continues to accelerate, long-term strategic planning is becoming increasingly complex.

Embracing Neurodiversity

In today’s innovation-driven world, diverse perspectives fuel creativity. Yet neuro-diverse talent remains underutilized in several parts across the globe. While neuro-diverse teams increase productivity and innovation, in many working cultures and non-progressive non-inclusive corporate human resource management mindset only a small fraction (maybe about a tenth) of the workforce "may" exhibit neuro-diverse traits, an even smaller portion secures inclusive opportunities due to stigma and rigid hiring processes. Quite surprisingly, yet very much admissible is the fact that only just over half (52%) of employers say there is a general awareness across the workforce about what neurodiversity is and why it's important.

Neurodiversity is in concept a viewpoint that certain people have learning and thinking differences rather than inferiorities. The concept has been around for many years, but in a nutshell, it means that brain differences are just that, differences. Embracing neurodiversity means valuing and supporting people with different ways of learning and behaving.

Responsibility in AI

The democratization and consumerization of AI are revolutionizing industries by enhancing efficiency, customer experience, and decision-making. However, as AI adoption grows, enterprises must prioritize responsible implementation, ensuring ethical, secure, and transparent AI systems through governance, legal compliance, and technical safeguards. The principles of responsible AI are based upon neutrality,  transparency, privacy and security, comprehensiveness, accountability, beneficence, and robustness.

Responsible AI ensures that the AI systems are trustworthy, ethical, and aligned with the societal values. AI governance is the backbone of responsible AI, which is strategically speaking, a focused approach with long-term ethical AI alignment, encompassing frameworks, policies, and processes to guide the design, deployment, and monitoring of AI systems.

Responsible AI requires a horizontal collaboration across the board among data scientists, legal experts, and business leaders. This is crucial to foster interdisciplinary contributions, and engaging effectively with all stakeholders.

Write your B-Plan

A business plan is the foundation of the business. A good business plan guides you through each stage of starting and managing the business. You can use the business plan as a roadmap for how to structure, run, and grow a new business. It is a way to think through the key elements of a business. The business plan is the tool one uses to convince people that working with them, or investing in their company, is a smart choice.

The secret to a great B-Plan is - the plan is supposed to be viewed by management as a living document: should be concise and accurate.  It is a constant guide to high performance and corporate success. The plan should be meticulously designed by the leaders by defining who the customers are, by the numbers, with specific measurable demographics: know everything about the buyers including what they watch, read, and hear. The management and leaders should know the targets better than their own family. You should know the answers to the "What(s)": customers need, want to buy, will pay, "When(s), Where(s)" and "Why(s)": the need to buy; basically the emotional components as well as the utilitarian purposes. The skill of analyzing the augmented needs of the market to forecast what the consumer might purchase in the future even before the customer knows he will need it. The B-plan should reflect about the set specific priorities with key objectives that the business will achieve through the correct resources. The financial plan should be defensible and accurate, with backup plans in the event of unseen consequences.

As a conclusion, a great plan is developed by people with deep knowledge and experience. They possess a strategic mindset. They have a clear vision of where they want to be and how to reach their destination. And, most importantly, they achieve desired results based upon a clear road map. Perhaps these insights can be of value as you consider your own business plan. If you are developing a plan for your first business, you should engage the help of people who met the criteria as discussed here. It will be well worth the additional effort.

Reverse Mentoring

Nowadays, an interesting concept of reverse mentoring is gaining ground. Many instances of younger people mentoring experienced/older people could be seen in the corporate world. Since the younger lot is very much involved into areas like technology, creativity and design, than the older generation, they help in bridging the gap to a very large extent.

Reverse mentoring is simply the opposite format of traditional mentoring, where the senior leader is mentored by a younger or more junior employee a.k.a. mentoring in reverse. Traditionally, a mentor is expected to be more senior and more experienced than their mentee. However, this process mentoring recognizes the fact that there are skills gaps and opportunities to learn about on both sides, and that each person can address their weaknesses with the help of the other's strengths.

Reverse mentoring encourages employees to form “professional friendships” - regardless of seniority – to exchange skills, knowledge, and understanding. It can play an important role in crossing generational divides as not only does it encourage communication across multi-generational workforces but it can also help to break down harmful stereotypes about different ages groups. Meanwhile, reverse mentoring is not just about age but new starters can provide fresh perspectives and ways of working, while long-serving team members likely posses a wealth of organizational knowledge.

Reverse-mentoring programs provide millennials with the transparency and recognition that they are seeking from the management. While digital skill development should not be the focus of a reverse-mentoring program, it is a meaningful part of the relationship. At the same time, there are potential drawbacks when you engage in a reverse mentoring partnership. A more senior team member may not believe that their younger mentor(s) have valuable knowledge to share, and they may not be open to receiving feedback from people with less experience. Conversely, newer team members need to feel confident enough to share their opinions, and they may be less willing to participate if they are afraid of giving feedback to more established colleagues.

Does your startup need a mentor?

In any startup, a mentor brings in their unique perspective, experience and network. They more than often are on a lookout for giving back to the fraternity or community and seek suitable opportunities and trends to analyze an idea and provide direction from an outsider's perspective. As mentors generally bring an area of specialization with them, they can advise start-ups as to what they should focus on, or how they should tackle various problems. A good mentor provides a genuine feedback about a business plan or an idea, which makes a lot of difference between success and failure. The mentor comes on board with their deep insights gained through experience and guide startups to make right decisions at right time. They also provide key strategic inputs across various lifecycles of a product or business.

Mentors bring to the table their domain knowledge, learnings from professional and personal (arising due to business) failures in the past and provide an insight into market realities so that startups do not tread the same path in similar situations, and are much better informed, equipped and proactive. The mentors also help startups connect with the right people at the right time through their network. Their rich experience helps in understanding the potential upcoming pitfalls and how to avoid them.

A mentor is generally passionate about working with bright people, shares experiences and has a sense of giving back to the community. The kind of network and the degree of training that a mentor brings to the table helps a startup achieve success to a great extent.

Imperfection: the strategy for strategists

In a world and times of rapid changes around, professionally and personally, seeking certainty can often lead to indeterminate opportunities and results. It is wiser to take sure-footed smaller yet confident baby steps, to pave the way through uncertainty.

The world today feels chaotic, with economic and other disruptions, and consequently imperfection sounds like a bad thing, but it pertains more specifically to accepting the ambiguity of not having perfect knowledge before making strategic moves. Companies and nonprofits can make a series of small moves that help them build knowledge of the uncertain world they are operating in, and slowly add capabilities, assets, and other forms of advantage so they can essentially bootstrap themselves into strategic positions, rather than making the wrong type of bold leaps or being frozen in stasis.

In a world where things are changing very quickly and fundamentally, the elementary approaches learned in business education can yield either incomplete or misleading results. The kind of uncertainty that we face today really is twofold. One is the type we see in the media, which is economic uncertainties and external shocks, while more importantly and basal kind of uncertainty are the rapid technological changes. Artificial intelligence, automation, programmable biology, and other disruptions are blurring industry boundaries and what it means to be a competitor in a particular domain.

In the world of big data, AI/ML, and other disruptive technologies, the strategy formulations and implementations need to be in real-time, more dynamic, guided by audacious questions at the top level, but at the same time also actualized by the people working at the forefront.

Being an Entrepreneur in India

Being an entrepreneur myself — Apart from handling work pressure, it also entails handling social pressure to keep progressing or making steadfast growth, which is not expected from you when you are in a job, seems as if it is a punishment by your peers and society for having the courage and taking the leap to build something on your own from ground up. When you seek jobs and employment – you are employed or jobless, but for entrepreneurs – you are either a winner or a loser. Believe you me, constantly winning is not a joke - you lose money, you lose fame, you lose clients and markets, and you even lose your family and friends.

Someone who got fired, could be sitting at home and search for another job for a while and could get through by mentioning work experience. For entrepreneurs, who may not have made big in their venture, are deemed not so successful in their professional life and if they try to get a job in the aftermath, they have to explain why there is “a gap” in the resume, which is more difficult done than said. You may even end up facing more rejections than a fresher, whilst it should be the other way round as now you have expedited skill growth, more enterprising and job ready.

Moreover, once you have been an entrepreneur, although you are more street-smart, does not give you a magic wand and make you a wizard and get things done in the blink of an eye. People assume you are influential, powerful, and rich (the tip of the iceberg is acknowledged, but not the ice beneath the surface standing for the effort to be there). Being an entrepreneur doesn't make one rich it turns them poor until break even. An employee feeds his family every month, an entrepreneur feeds his family and numerous other families who work for him. The entrepreneur has to make sure the salaries of employees get dispatched on time, even when the business is running at a loss. This is despite him not taking a single penny when the business is not working well.

An entrepreneur at all times has to pretend and fake themselves to remain confident and optimistic during all times. When employees fall sick - they depend on the company, when clients fall sick – they may delay payouts, but the company has to take care of all payables, while receivables are stagnant, which are a real nightmare for an entrepreneur.

Let us say, you have a problem in life — personally, socially, or professionally. 6 out of 10 people will help you financially, 3 out of 10 people will give you advice on how to solve your problem, one person will guide you, help you, create a path for you to sort out your problem —  that person most certainly be an entrepreneur.

An entrepreneur deals with 100s of problems in their career - day and night, so they have this ability to solve practical problems. There is a huge difference between saying “what is right” and “what will practically work out”. That is where an entrepreneur steps in and are unique and different from others.

For some reason, our films have portrayed corporates as villains. Our society strongly believes they are evil, but because of these men at the helm, lakhs of people stay sustained. People seek jobs in private companies, political parties run their rallies and functions with corporate donations, even a small-scale neighbourhood function needs sponsorship, yet entrepreneurs are "evil".

The dark side of being an entrepreneur is — being an entrepreneur in a society that does not respect them but needs them and is quite happy to keep milking them.

Business Mentor: Where & How to Find?

Identifying the right mentor involves aligning your objectives with their expertise and approach. Seek mentors through industry events, networking, and online platforms, ensuring they possess insights relevant to your field. The mentorship relationship should be built on shared values and mutual respect.

Business mentorship come in various forms, offering specialized guidance for specific needs or entrepreneurship endeavours. These platforms provide structured frameworks for mentorship, often pairing you with mentors who are experts in your field. When selecting an avenue, similar to finalizing an investor, here too consider your goals and the availabilities to ensure a meaningful match.

To make the most of mentorship, maintain an open mind, actively seek feedback, and be willing to take calculated risks. Implement the advice you receive and incorporate it into your strategies. A strong mentor-mentee relationship is a two-way street, built on collaboration and trust. Business mentorship stands as a potent catalyst for professional advancement. It empowers individuals to reach new heights by tapping into the wisdom and experiences of seasoned professionals. Whether through online platforms or structured programs, the journey to finding a mentor is a proactive step towards success.

Where to Find a Business Mentor
a) Close to home: you may already know someone that has the skills and traits you are looking for in a mentor. Make a list of the close acquaintances, casual contacts, social media contacts and see if anyone stands out or meets your criteria.

b) At work: an obvious way to find a business mentor. Everyone has to start somewhere and asking for assistance and business advice from a coworker or manager is not a sign of weakness or failure.

c) Online: There are many online mentoring services that connect small business owners with mentors. You might meet with the person over a video conference or even by email. Just because the person is not in the same town or city as you does not mean they are not a valuable resource. In fact that is a blessing in disguise, as by learning about different local markets, you might open yourself up to new opportunities in different parts of the globe.

Why You Need a Business Mentor

The general perception about entrepreneurs is - they are individuals toiling away at their desks to create new products by "themselves", but seldom are the most successful businessmen, individual contributors or hustling singled-handed go-getters. The most common practice of business professionals who are new to the game or veterans like serial entrepreneurs spend a significant amount of time bouncing ideas off of colleagues, teammates, friends and family members.

More times than not, sustainable businesses are created by motivated and educated people that gain these traits through experience. This is where the mentors come in, whose insights help in impacting business practices, ethics and, eventually business success. They have lived through the journey and learning from their mistakes and successes, can impart some of the valuable lessons they have accumulated over the years.

The Value Add of Mentors

a) Knowledge: A mentor who has been in the industry for a while or are ideologically congruent to how you envisage to run your own enterprise can help with the business plans, budgeting tactics and even the day-to-day operations.

b) Objectivity: Mentors can give you an honest review of areas in your business that need improvement, as well as point out the areas that are doing well. So you need a mentor who is honest with you and who knows how to offer constructive criticism.

c) Discipline: A business mentor on the trek ensures accountability in goals and re-circling to check-in how well are we aligned or digressed in the process. A strong work ethic and a drive to succeed can make or break an entrepreneur.

d) Network: Although knowledge plays a significant factor in the success of a business, networking is a critical element and spoke of the wheel that lets the business roll on smoothly. Mentors often introduce you to their own professional networks, expanding your connections and opening doors to collaborations, partnerships, investments as well as help specify your target audience. “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know."

Nava Paath of Nava Durga

Goddess Durga offers life lessons that inspire a wealth of meaning for the management world. Navaratri worships Goddess Durga in various forms of power. The nine forms of Goddesses, which are popularly known as "Nava Durga" signify the conquest of the dangerous demons which draw their parallels and meanings as per context – personal, professional, business and otherwise.

Goddess Shailputri

Significance – Introspection, Strength, Courage, and Composure. Helps in guiding us in our journey to explore and discover our purpose in life Helps to understand the struggle related to the initial years of setting up a business and focus on its successful continuity by evaluating the business goals.

Goddess Brahmacharini

Significance – Confidence, Competence, and Perseverance. A balanced state of mind, immense willpower, desire for success, and confidence are the most important qualities that help us in the most challenging times in the lives of entrepreneurs and businessmen.

Goddess Chandraghanta

Significance – Grace, Knowledge, Bravery, and Vigilance. With supreme bliss by being vigilant regarding any changes in policies and regulations, one must learn adaptability and upgrade technology to maintain relevance and fit to add more value to the business.

Goddess Kushmanda

Significance – Energy, harmony, wealth, and power. To create customer centricity and wealth in your business you must focus on your financial well-being and emotional well-being, which contributes positively to your business.

Goddess Skandamata

Significance – Intelligence, and compassion. A compassionate leader inspires all the team members through coordination and collaboration. This enables the leader to focus well on the business goals.

Goddess Katyayani

Significance – Knowledge, Courage, and Power. Modern businesses are dynamic with policies, trends, and competition and the business must adapt all these accordingly.

Goddess Kalratri

Significance – Happiness, Knowledge, Wealth, Perfection, and Purity of heart. As an entrepreneur or a business leader, one needs to communicate regularly with the employees and stakeholders on the plan of action to overcome the challenges.

Goddess Mahagauri

Significance – Cheerful demeanor. A leader needs to make first impressions with all stakeholders of the company with a pleasant cheer.

Goddess Siddhidatri

Significance – Knowledge, and Wisdom. As a businessman or entrepreneur, one needs to have a thorough knowledge of the business and focus on constantly building new skills and strategies that will help the business grow.

If the entrepreneur, or businessperson focusses on the above 9 important lessons from Goddess Durga, one can take the business to new heights.

Happy Dussehra!!

Money, More Money, Even More Money

To some people, money is power. To some money equals status and prestige, while for others it means security. For some people money allows them to get the things they want in life. Others just want to have enough to meet their needs. How important is money and what role does it play in your life?

While money allows you to function suitably in a capitalistic world, many people do not associate positive emotions with it. Money is associated by people as something that belongs to the future and is supposed to make it secure. This makes a lot of people go through a guilt-trip when it is spent, which eventually leads them to compare themselves with their peers. This induced peer pressure spirals into self-doubt, negative self-talk, and messy future thoughts. Despite all this, there is something that binds all our thoughts, apprehensions, and plannings - everyone is very emotional about money.

The psychology behind our relationship with money is very underrated and there is a great deal of undercurrent to the confusing emotions many of us feel when it comes to our finances. Our feelings are always unrelated to the financial decisions we make and indicative of something much deeper.

Anything important in our lives is emotional. Our relationships are emotional, our work is emotional, and so is our money.

Startup Growth Mantra

India has rapidly moved ahead on the path of economic growth in the last few years, and the startup ecosystem has been playing a crucial role in this exponential growth. The various district-level, state-level, and country-wide initiatives on the ground have created an entrepreneurial buzz that has enabled the country to rapidly attain pioneer positions globally in terms of the number of startups and number of successful unicorns.

Statistically speaking about 15K startups got registered in the country in the last fiscal year alone, which as compared to only a half a decade back was merely ~1000. Having said that, we cannot overlook the fact that about nine out of ten startups fail within the first 3-5 years of inception despite getting funded (by friends, family or third-party) and/or being able to generate early revenue. From the perspective of most entrepreneurs, the top needs they identify besides funding, are access to the right market and simultaneous access to the right guide to take them forward. Let us dive a little more to understand how these may help any startup survive, sustain, and grow in the market.

Funding – paramount at every stage of the startup in technological spearheading, acquiring and retaining talent, strategizing go-to-market activities, product development, business operations et all. The simultaneous need for working capital also grows to build and scale up infrastructure. A brilliant idea may still be at the desk and fight it off for proof of concept and never be able to reach the stage of proven market acceptance irrespective of how effective it is, due to the lack of funds.

Market Access & Fit – Howsoever good an idea may be and be strategized for bridging the gap, achieving market fit for the product or solution is extremely important and critical stage for any startup. When a business is started, it is done with a clear objective in mind to address a market gap that the entrepreneur identifies. However, at the very foundation to actually strive and cater to the objective lies various factors like timing to the market, flexibility & adaptability, credibility, and usability much before the product is even introduced to the market, the needs of which are very volatile and dynamically changing at every stage of the startup. May a times, the well-audited, segmented and tragetted audience might expect a solution that is different than what is being offered by the company. So, it is paramount to develop the product with as much dynamism as possible and be suitably backed by the other mentioend need, that is of funding. Thus right ‘Market Access & Fit’ is an important aspect in every startup's journey.

Mentoring – Mentoring is one of the most important yet neglected, least talked about, and probably the least emphasized need for business growth. An entrepreneur might come up with a brilliant idea, and if it is worth its' salt, pitching it to investors is likely to give access to money as well. However, there are many steps and other challenges faced by first-time entrepreneurs at every step of their entrepreneurship journey. In the absence of right mentoring, a lot of founders get their calculations and strategies wrong, eventually burning cash on things that could have been avoided and leading to a scenario where they are left with no money to sustain or scale the enterprise.

Guidance or mentoring from industry experts or successful entrepreneurs in the domain can give the right direction to the entrepreneurs. They can get inputs on aspects such as compliance and taxation, technology, hiring, procurement, sales, and marketing etc to build more robust and sustainable businesses. Most of the mentors are also people with the right industry connections and can help startup founders get the right exposure or opportunities to network with other important stakeholders such as investors.

It is not easy for first-time business founders to find all these discussed aspects catered to under one roof. The challenge is even more daunting if the startups are in Tier-II, Tier-III, or Tier-IV cities. That’s the reason why setting up of a networked ecosystem is extremely important for extracting the true potential of the talent India offers.

For India to truly become a global startup super-power enunciated not just in numbers, but in terms of economic and employment growth, there is a need to prioritize cultivating this ecosystem across the country. The governments as well as the other stakeholders including universities, colleges, and B-schools have to collaboratively materialize this effort, remove the barriers, and pave the path for speedier and widespread growth for the Indian startup ecosystem!

Fundraising Stumbles

Fundraising for startup businesses has been typically a slow and painful process. Most entrepreneurs would rather spend time growing their business than making fundraising prospect lists, scheduling pitch meetings, and asking for money. Unless the entrepreneur has a track record of business success or excellent sales ability, the reality of fundraising for many first-time business owners is that it takes reaching the final stages of negotiation with at least 4-5 prospective investors before closing the deal with one of the investors. At the same time, most entrepreneurs need at least ten prospective investors to put together a meaningful list of investors for the round of funding and the process of assembling 40 to 50 fundraising prospects is daunting. So, the question is - what is an entrepreneur supposed to do?

While an entrepreneur can start off by identifying private investors and brainstorming with relatives, friends and business associates who would be willing to support the venture. If the intention is to scale up the effort, focus should be on how to maximize the close rate with fundraising prospects. It makes more sense to increase the closing rate from 25% to 75%, rather than expanding the prospecting list to 40 or 50 individuals, thus needing fewer prospects to complete the round of funding.

1. Pick a closing date, then don't enforce it: When raising large sums of money from VC Firms and/or institutional investors, the closing dates are critical. The interest income in most cases is almost the same amount as the total legal fees on VC rounds, so the cost of a closing delay is substantial. In practice, the investors will ignore the closing date and give the money at their own convenience. 

Word of Advice: the standard closing date clause should read "The closing date is [some date in the near future] or another date that is mutually agreeable to both parties." This will keep the documentation valid for several weeks after the closing date in case the investor takes extra time to give the funds.

2. Provide investment options: Flexibility is critical when dealing with non-institutional investors. Take-it-or-leave-it terms seldom work because the motivation for each investor will vary. If the funding is raised in the form of debt, it is prudent to offer different options for participation in the round with the variables being amounts/thresholds, time horizons, and repayment schedules. On the other hand, if the fund is raised against equity dilution, the preferable instrument is convertible debt than preferred stock.

3. Anticipating follow-up meetings: It is best to end each meeting with a definite plan for the next meeting. Even if the whole idea and the story can be told over one meeting, it is better to spread it to two or three meetings since that might be how long it takes for the investor to get comfortable with the entrepreneur. It is also a good idea to schedule reference calls with previous investors, partners, and/or board members to demonstrate the people involved with the venture and who can vouch for the business.

4. Stop selling: The habit of selling and the sales culture of fundraising can seep into the interactions with investors even after the investment decision is made and the formalities are being worked on.

5. Getting the Check: When raising money, often the entrepreneur gets tied up and entangled in the process of answering the questions posed by the investors, negotiations, paperwork, making sure the relationship with the investor can be continued even after. During the course of all these interactions, it is easy to forget that the primary focus and purpose of the process is to get the money.

Word of Advice: It is a wonder that the funding is received earlier than anticipated if it is asked for earlier. One way to ask for the check is to ask your investor whether he plans to make a wire transfer or send a personal check so you can decide if he needs to receive your bank wire transfer details. It might be presumptive to ask this question too early, but it tends to move the dialogue along very quickly. What must be remembered are -- "If it is not documented, it is not said" and "The deal is not closed until the money is in the bank".

You, Him, Her, or Them? Which Investor?

In our last discussion, we deliberated on how to go about choosing the right investor or venture capitalist from the entrepreneur's perspective. We will delve deeper here. 

To get into hot deals, the investor gives founders a reason to pick them over other investors. This so-called “reverse pitch” is the VC’s opportunity to sell a founder on their unique value-add. The “reverse pitch” has become more important as investing has become more competitive. There are more investors than ever before. Founders too are better educated about the fundraising process and what to look for in an investing partner.

While every “reverse pitch” is unique to that investor, here are three main takeaways on what an entrepreneur should be taking care of and how VCs convince founders to take their money:

a) The pitch is relevant, differentiated, and authentic
b) Investors should show than tell founders how they can help and provide support

c) The way an investor makes a founder feel matters a lot, in terms of how well-prepared, responsive, and transparent they are

Counteract: Choose a VC

In recent times, we have watched several business reality television series like Dragon's Den, Sharks' Tank, Money Tigers and many other such presentations adding on to the available offline investor pitch events. Aspiring entrepreneurs pitch their business models to a panel of investors and persuade them to invest money in their idea. The investors use several valuation techniques to debunk or concur with the owner's valuation and decide whether to grant them funding in return for an ownership stake.

The budding entrepreneurs get a fixed amount of time to primarily pitch their business ideas to the in-panel multi-millionaires who are willing to invest their own cash, time, and expertise to kick-start the business or at times t help scale-up the business in terms of geography, expertise, technology, and help the entrepreneur with their business knowledge, market dynamics etc. After the pitch, the investors have the opportunity to ask questions about the venture. The entrepreneurs do not always have to answer or elaborate, but of course, what they choose not to address could very well affect the outcome. The pitch is over when each of the investors have either declared themselves out for further deliberation, or when the entrepreneur secures the full investment that they are asking for.

There are rare occurrences, when the entrepreneur(s) receive multiple competitive offers and deals either individually or collaborated by a few investors. Here the entrepreneur faces a dilemma for which he must think on his/her feet and conclude a response to - How to go about it? Who to collaborate with? Which offer to accept?

The entrepreneur must now choose and pick an offer or investor by analyzing the take-aways and let goes. How does s/he decide? 

Startup Mentors: A Need or Luxury?

Entrepreneurs typically delve into the market with disruptive ideas and big visions, and often than not explore diverse avenues to take the idea(s) to the end of the tunnel and may get entangled and spoilt for choice and scamper to find that one right path to tread on, either tried-and-tested on into the unchartered territory on an unexplored trek. A big impediment in the path of many entrepreneurs is that although they have no perceived dearth of subject knowledge and market dynamics, there are hints of inexperience when they start a business. This hypothesis is backed by the fact that almost 90% of Indian startups fail within the first 5 years, mostly because of inexperienced founders. While this may be a big concern, hell did not break loose and hope is not lost yet, as a way to overcome this obstacle is to engage with an advisor, mentor, coach, or guide, as one would like to call them.

Mentorship is a key factor that shows the way for startups to reach heights. A perfect mentor provides tried and tested ideas, fills your knowledge gap, and helps to reach your goals with less stress. That brings us to the most important set of questions - Who can be the right-fit Mentor for the Idea? Where to find this Mentor? and How to get the best out of the Mentor?

While startup mentors are extremely critical, the foremost objective is to not find "a mentor" but "mentors" who are experts in different fields, because any single mentor may not be capable or sufficient to solve all the problems that the entrepreneur or the venture was, is or will be facing.

There are several diverse factors that contribute to eventual success and meeting the entrepreneur objective and vision of the business. The robustness of the idea, cohesiveness of the team, the sense of association and being integral part of the vision from the employees, the go-to-market strategy of the company in terms of product/solution, promotion, pricing, and timing among others, and the entrepreneurial experience of the frontrunner, These sought-after startup mentors help to maintain focus on the business problems and provide alternative solutions to the problems.

VC Myth 03: Dilution

Myth: The issue is about how much external financing the founders should raise, and when. It also reflects on who and how the company is being controlled, an issue near and dear to the hearts of all entrepreneurs across the globe. This myth exists in many variations, all centering on two themes: control and dilution. This might be stated in diverse ways, with the same underlying belief - if you raise money, you should raise as little money as possible, because then you will give up less of the company now.

The amount of financing a company should raise is often a controversial (internally) issue. Entrepreneurs sometimes intentionally choose to raise lower amounts of funding to minimize dilution or to remain attractive for the quick flip in the unlikely situation (at times it is intended and planned too) sale of the company, but most of the time, that decision is later regretted. The entrepreneur should raise the amount of funding that will enable accomplishment, with some cushion, of the key milestone that will justify a significant increase in valuation. Valuations of early-stage companies do not increase in a linear fashion over time, but instead in a "stair-stepping" fashion, jumping upon a key accomplishment such as a product release, a certain level of customer traction, a big deal, or a technical milestone and then more or less flattening again until the next milestone. Taking an illustration, a INR 5L seed investment to be able to raise "Series A" at a higher valuation makes sense, but only if that key milestone can be reached with the IINR 5L funding.

Very few entrepreneurs have ever regretted taking additional funding when it is offered. At the end of the day, start-up businesses fail for one reason: because they run out of money. Raising money opportunistically helps to weather the storm caused by external factors such as market or economic conditions.

VC Myth 02: Board of Control

Myth: While it is imperative from a fund-raising perspective and can be considered as one of the ten important pillars of early-stage fundraising activities, there is some deep-diving and understanding required of it. Entrepreneurs who are overly concerned about control will need to find a path to success other than venture capital. A glance at the typical ownership percentages as understood previously shows that even after a single round of financing, the founders no longer have "control," while also the VCs would have special veto rights over key matters such as acquisitions, the next round of financing, et all.

The terms of venture capital financings are structured around alignment of incentives, and not control, which is unlike many other routes of corporate financing methodologies. VCs appreciate the fact that the founders must have a sufficient incentive and bandwidth to create value for the benefit of all. Hence, the terms of a typical venture capital financing provide that, after a return of capital invested, the investors do not profit unless and until the management does. Likewise, management does not profit unless and until the investors do. This circular dependency and co-habitation create a mutually beneficial and conducive corporate structure.