We appreciate your patience!
Even as we continue with, what often feels like an almost insurmountable mountain, there are always voices of encouragement that work as a massive shot in the arm. Every founder of a startup will tell you that every minute shot of that nature is worth its weight in gold.
Yesterday, I had a rather satisfactory conversation with a senior professional working with India’s biggest software company – both in terms of the sheer employee size and the revenue generated. He was quite emphatic in his approval of our idea, and the venture as a whole. He, without any shred of make-believe, told me that our forthcoming human care marketplace does indeed solve a critical customer problem and is a promising business too. Over the period of conversation, we seemed to agree on many points about the venture in particular and the process of launching a new venture in general.
One of the easy agreements, unfortunately, was about the need to not divulge too much of the idea of a new venture to ‘outsiders’.
There are two things that stand out for me in that agreement: First, I have had the misfortune of experiencing the ‘folly’ of sharing or discussing an evolving idea – actually the complete blueprint of the idea – with ‘leading lights’ of that particular idea’s domain. Twice; I’ve experienced twice – in different domains – the pain of an idea being hijacked by strangers with whom I had discussed the ideas about new ventures. So, there is absolutely no doubt why I would agree to be extremely wary – if not suspicious – of my idea changing clothes.
Second, I still believe there’s no other way out! How can you, just one individual, sit tight with an idea sans resources? Eventually, as the old Hindi saying goes ‘Jungle Mein Mor Naacha Kisne Dekha’ (What’s the worth of an idea not seen/heard/known by people outside its home).
Hence, and displaying faith in fellow professionals again, every startup founder goes out and meets hundreds of people to discuss his/her idea. I do that too. And so do my worthy team members – many of who have seen more life than me.
But it takes time. It takes time to identify the most appropriate people to validate your idea. It takes time to identify the most honourable – out of those appropriate – people to validate your idea. And when those guiding souls, who can be anyone, from an old uncle to a college drop-out business wiz in early 20s, the idea finally starts taking a better shape.
Sometimes, the idea continues to evolve to a point where it becomes (ever so) slightly different from the original idea. And then, the cycle repeats.
In other words, again, it takes time. We wish to give a good idea to you. We hope you’ll be patient with us. #everycare, the #humancaremarketplace, eventually, is about both of us.
Sincerely,
Anshuman
[The series shares with you the ‘behind the scenes’ world of #humancarecentral and shall continue till the launch day]