Recently, Indian Institute of Technology, Patna hosted the Patna chapter of Entrepreneurship Awareness Drive, EAD 2014. We had among us two guest speakers, Mr. Rahul Narvekar, CEO and Co-founder NDTV Ethnic Retail Ltd. and Mr. Abhishek Chakraborty, CEO and founder Whiz Mantra. They interacted with the press sharing their views on starting a venture, hurdles existing in the Indian e-commerce space and the general societal pressure that they had faced when they moved out of their fat paying jobs to enter in the domain of uncertainties and incertitude. Here, we present you few excerpts from the press conference.
Question: What do you think of being an entrepreneur?
Mr. Narvekar: (Sighs), Well I would rather say myself as an accidental entrepreneur. He added, after completing graduation from one of the top B-schools of the country, nobody would like to fuzz with this entrepreneurial activity rather people want to have a fat salary and they are satisfied. I tried to study entrepreneurship but then to be an entrepreneur one should be shameless enough to follow his dreams. The satisfaction one gets while working for his own purpose is unparalled.
Mr. Chakraborty: To me there was a sense of craziness, while I started by journey in the field. I left my job without planning out anything concretely. I just stepped out to try what I felt needed to be tried at that time. There was no sense of sagaciousness at that point of time. But yes, I would say to be determined enough to stand by your decision.
Ques. How to stand up and start fresh in an e-commerce space which is presently having a fierce battle among various competitors?
Mr. Narvekar: There are two factors which decides one’s fate in this market and they are speed and scale. This is what happened with Sachin and Binny Bansal (quoting fipkart example). He explained that it is neither possible and nor viable to create another Flipkart or Amazon today. What is required is “flipkart+something” and that something is defined by the market and the target.
Ques. How do you see the policy level challenges of entrepreneurship?
Mr. Chakraborty: Since, I am working in education sector, I would like to critically analyze the Mid Day Meal programme or Sarva Siksha Abhiyaan. Sarva Siksha Abhiyaan have the provision for everything except power and electricity and if that is the case, how can we achieve the model of ICT (Information and Communication Technology). And in fact no model in a power deficit country like India, can impart ICT model education to remote areas. Same case goes for mid-day meal, there is no way to measure the tangible output of the learning level out this scheme.
Mr. Narvekar: One policy level challenge which I can sense is of lack of one click payment. Every time user has to enter his information to make payment through that gateway.
Ques. What is the best time for an individual to begin with his own venture or work for his own ideas?
Mr. Narvekar: According to me, the best time for anyone to look for opportunity to work on his own idea is just after his undergraduate (college) studies. The reason being that the person doesn’t have challenges and isn’t occupied to the combo pack of 9-5 job, 6 figures salary with a car and a wife in near future. Moreover, even if a person fails during this period has much more valuable experience than a fresher graduate of how the process works for a company. I even emphasize on deferred placement programmes as they give a security to the individual to do his own thing.
Compiled by: Media and Public Relation Team, Entrepreneurship Club, IIT Patna
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