Startupwala: Building entrepreneurs

THE STARTUPWALA FAMILY

Getting people on board was a task in the age where people wanted to work with established brands only. However, Bala feels that he was able to overcome that challenge too by not just finding but retaining the right talents and making them feel accountable for actions and results just like a company CEO. Along with a chauffeur-driven family-car, for any employee’s use for personal and family events, an initiative called ‘Who Am I’ and tools like DISC evaluation are used to identify the unique strengths and weaknesses of each employee and ways to work around the same. Starting with just two, the company today boasts of a squad of legal professionals, company secretaries, chartered accountants, business consultants, engineers and associates counting to 107.

“According to me entrepreneurs never take risk, what looks like a risk to others is a well thought of risk free option for an entrepreneur. It is only while executing it, certain things may go awry. Getting on and investing in cloud technology a decade ago when it hadn’t been tested from the Indian context, was a bit risky; however, it turned out to be the best decision which fuelled our growth

manifold. Now, the entire service is technology driven and built on world-class SAAS and PAAS infrastructure. No physical meetings with consultants or legal authorities make it simple and affordable for startups with every legal solution being just a few clicks away,” says Bala.

AN INSPIRATIONAL ODYSSEY

“Shivaji Maharaj and Mahatma Gandhi have influenced me profoundly, in that they both had mobilised marginal people and turned them into strong forces against erstwhile global powers. Their strategies and processes are valid for all disciplines, including business and economics,” said Bala acknowledging his sources of inspiration.

THE BIG MISSION

To make India the entrepreneurial capital of the world by empowering the entrepreneurial ecosystem; Bala wants entrepreneurship to be part of every school’s curriculum because as a child exposure to entrepreneurship changed the course of his life, and believes that such exposure can revolutionise the next generation and the society in turn.

To turn his dream into reality, he is empowering the entrepreneurial ecosystem and has launched:

• Startupwala Foundation for Employability and Entrepreneurship, a non-profit organisation to promote entrepreneurship among the youth and rural population

• India Institute of Startups and SMEs (IISS), a registered company to work with graduate colleges and to impart web-based training and coaching to existing small and emerging businesses and entrepreneurs so as to reduce early startup failures and focus on sustainable scaling up of businesses.

THE ‘PRINCIPLE OF EXTREME POSITION’

Through his varied exposure and study, Bala has derived the ‘Principle of Extreme Position’. The name of the principle is inspired from the Physics Theory of Mean and Extreme Position. Its about finding a Status Quo (Mean Position) in an Industry, Market or Society and identifying an exactly Opposite Approach (Extreme Position) and finding a Single Most Denominator (SMD) to focus upon

and carving a scheme or campaign to attract the end users or prospects so as to bypass the Efforts, Investment & Time (EIT) required to achieve the desired Result with whatever is available in hand at present.

Formula: Finding Status Quo, then Identify Extreme Position + SMD + Scheme/Process/Campaign to bypass EIT = Desired Result

There is a detailed presentation on the Principle published on Youtube titled ‘How to Make India a Developed Nation in 10 Years by Bala Nadar’.

A believer of trust being the only commodity that sells, Bala said, “If we are committed as a nation to shift our focus from employment to entrepreneurship and introduce an Entrepreneurs Pension Scheme (EPS) for those who have been in the business for a minimum of 10 years, employing a minimum of 10 people, then India shall become the entrepreneurial capital of the world in 5 years and a Developed Nation with high per capita income in 10 years, also the problem of unemployment will be permanently resolved.”

Disclaimer: The views, suggestions and opinions expressed here are the sole responsibility of the experts. No Forbes India journalist was involved in the writing and production of this article.