Happy to note that there has been an improvement in reception to this blog and the ideas of yours truly. You may have noticed an E-mail feed on this page - you can subscribe to this feed should you wish to make life easier for yourself. Was also able to get quite a few ideas during the vccircle conference in Chennai.
Cutting to the chase, I guess anyone and everyone these days has had experience of people who do not pick up phone calls (nor return them) and are always blowing hot/blowing cold about key decisions. Had a recent experience last week that got me thinking on some of the things that kill the trust and respect in a relationship.
Btb, I do not mean to be hypo-critical - I know I may have done a few of this myself :(- . This is as much a lesson to me.
Communication: How many times have we come across people who do not pick up calls or return phone calls ? One phone call not returned might be a case of poor memory or a tight schedule but consistently skirting calls does not send the right message to the counter party. Is this a company/entrepreneur you want to work with at all ? If he/she behaves like this now, how would you deal with him post money exchanging hands ? A honourable exception to this breed seems to be i-bankers who have made this incommunicado posturing into an art !
Clarity of thought: I have personally met a lot of promoters who are happy to say that "a lot of investors/confidantes/advisors/bankers feel that my business model needs to be tweaked because it can unlock better value for me " (read that as higher valuation). I, for one is from an old school of thought and believe that an entrepreneur has to believe in himself more than everyone else and should eliminate all noise (investors are noise too !!) unless there is a fundamentally strong rationale underlying the change. If you do not believe in the idea, who else will ?
Lack of humility: My favourite put-offs are those who humiliate their sub-ordinates in front of everyone, treat office boys with contempt and their guests guests with indifference (how about throwing the visiting card on the table for you to pick up, dearie ?!) ,. Other pet peeves include people who ascribe all success to themselves, speaking ill of all of their competitors ("that guy is a crook and knows the minister", "he does not know how to run a viable business"). Subtle as these might seem, these are signs hard not to miss. An investor of course has to remember that these are guys who have to keep thousands of analysts happy at a later date.
Managing expectations: Right from the time of meeting to the order pipeline (that perpetually seems to be on the way!) to revenue to profit numbers, the smart guys are those who think long term. They tend to avoid evasive/overoptimistic replies that often damage their credibility in the long term. A deal takes 3-6 months to consummate, so why overstate numbers today if the truth will be out soon ?
I guess dealing with simpler, easy to understand people makes investors' (or an entrepreneur's ) lives easier than having to double guess the intent on the other side all the time. Doesn't it ?
~Varadha
(varadha.r1@gmail.com)
+91 9940670064
Cutting to the chase, I guess anyone and everyone these days has had experience of people who do not pick up phone calls (nor return them) and are always blowing hot/blowing cold about key decisions. Had a recent experience last week that got me thinking on some of the things that kill the trust and respect in a relationship.
Btb, I do not mean to be hypo-critical - I know I may have done a few of this myself :(- . This is as much a lesson to me.
Communication: How many times have we come across people who do not pick up calls or return phone calls ? One phone call not returned might be a case of poor memory or a tight schedule but consistently skirting calls does not send the right message to the counter party. Is this a company/entrepreneur you want to work with at all ? If he/she behaves like this now, how would you deal with him post money exchanging hands ? A honourable exception to this breed seems to be i-bankers who have made this incommunicado posturing into an art !
Clarity of thought: I have personally met a lot of promoters who are happy to say that "a lot of investors/confidantes/advisors/bankers feel that my business model needs to be tweaked because it can unlock better value for me " (read that as higher valuation). I, for one is from an old school of thought and believe that an entrepreneur has to believe in himself more than everyone else and should eliminate all noise (investors are noise too !!) unless there is a fundamentally strong rationale underlying the change. If you do not believe in the idea, who else will ?
Lack of humility: My favourite put-offs are those who humiliate their sub-ordinates in front of everyone, treat office boys with contempt and their guests guests with indifference (how about throwing the visiting card on the table for you to pick up, dearie ?!) ,. Other pet peeves include people who ascribe all success to themselves, speaking ill of all of their competitors ("that guy is a crook and knows the minister", "he does not know how to run a viable business"). Subtle as these might seem, these are signs hard not to miss. An investor of course has to remember that these are guys who have to keep thousands of analysts happy at a later date.
Managing expectations: Right from the time of meeting to the order pipeline (that perpetually seems to be on the way!) to revenue to profit numbers, the smart guys are those who think long term. They tend to avoid evasive/overoptimistic replies that often damage their credibility in the long term. A deal takes 3-6 months to consummate, so why overstate numbers today if the truth will be out soon ?
I guess dealing with simpler, easy to understand people makes investors' (or an entrepreneur's ) lives easier than having to double guess the intent on the other side all the time. Doesn't it ?
~Varadha
(varadha.r1@gmail.com)
+91 9940670064
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