India’s Startup Communities need to be concatenated
// October 18th, 2008 // 11 Comments » // Business, Entrepreneurship, India, Life, Startups, The Ecosystem
I write this post in response to the post “The Startup WorkForce : A Proposal to the Community” by Vijay Anand which he has published here & here and the comments on the post by various people on both the blogs.
This post is going to have two aspects to it.
- Addressing the point of discussion, i.e. growing the Startup workforce in quantity & quality.
- The other facet basically is about the bigger picture, viz. the need of a well-knit ecosystem that needs to exist in the country, which is the universal set containing the problem under the scanner.
Who to hire?
Now, if you’ve read, Vijay’s post talks about how to go about building up a flow of skilled workforce which can join startups and give them some fruitful returns. Now, what is the kind of employees that a startup looks for. Startups should definitely be aversive towards candidates who require spoon-feeding. The reason behind this is that a startup needs people who can think and act, rather than those who need to be instructed and taken from one step to another carefully. I would list out a few characteristics of a candidate who could be a prospective employee for a startup:
- Initiative-taker & go-getter
The candidate should have the keeda in him to take the unusual or unconventional path/approach to solve a problem. - Enthusiastic
Not to mention, this is something even conglomerates or bigger established firms would look out for, but is like a basic requirement for a startup employee. - Multi-faceted multitasker
This is important. A startup generally has lack of resources. If you hire a programmer who can also do some decent Photoshop or make a sales pitch or handle a logistical issue, when required, it is always going to be a boon for you.
Freshers or Experienced?
Let us consider the employment of freshers. Like Vijay mentioned in his comment, around 20% freshers in a college are smart enough to learn. The question is not whether they are smart enough to learn. The question is whether they are smart enough and have a will to learn on their own, which I would estimate to be around 3-4%(this again depends on the institute they are in). I do not say the remaining segment of the 20% are unemployable, but a employee-crunched startup that is doing some first stage recruitment, I would estimate these 3-4% go-getters to be the most prospective candidates. What Rajesh mentioned, may be vaguely matched to what I just said.
Deepak adds to this here, that with the recessions and the economic downslide, there is going to be a lot of experienced folks flocking out, who would be game towards working with a startup; then why do we need freshers?? My answer to this would be:
- Demand-Supply Mismatch
Experience is really valuable to a startup, but one thing that needs to be noticed is that like the experienced folks are growing, even the number of startups are exponentially growing. I bet there are hordes of startups who are not part of any of the various communities and hence untapped of when we sit down to count all of them, and they very much exceed the number of those who are present in the communities. So, there is a demand-supply mismatch heavier on the demands side, which needs to be met. So along with some experienced Einstiens we need loads of young energetic Wright Brothers as well. - Thriving in a cash-crunch
Also, a majority of the startups are generally in a cash-crunch; some waiting to be funded and some against the idea of it. So cost of employment is a very determining factor in the startup’s hiring policy. And hiring able freshers after they’ve got the top-brass/core team, is undeniably the approach to meet their requirements at costs they can afford.
The problem at bay
- Like Alok mentioned, Vyaas mentioned & Krish mentioned time is a very highly constrained resource for an entrepreneur or a startup employee. In such a case, sustaining with this method of creating the training system doesn’t seem to be a very possible prospect, unless there are high monetary returns to it, which I shall write about in detail not sooner than the end of this bullet list.
- A very complex problem pointed out by Deepak is the internal disharmony that will exist even if the community-based solution is pulled off. This internal harmony will be born due to a competition among the startups to hire the best. Which is something that indicates short lifespan for such a community. We don’t want to build a community which we know is not going to sustain cohesively.
In Alok’s above mentioned comment, he has pointed out the possibility of doing this with a business model. Taking this up as a business model is not a bad option actually, and if well improvised, its a highly untapped opportunity. But, I feel the business would only thrive and grow if it strikes chord with the community and invokes healthy community engagement. One problem the business might face is the unwillingness of college students that fall in the said 20% (i.e. the majority of the trainees which the business or rather, the whole concept is going to target) to get trained by this new unknown organisation. The business primarily needs to focus on breaking this barrier while in its early stages.
The Gulf
Vijay has very rightly said in one of his comments the need to create a gulf between startups and the workforce. I am completely game with this concept because this, very importantly, ensures that only the enthusiastic go-getters would be able to get to you. So creating the gulf may even be looked at as an elimination process. The best thing about creating the gulf is it would increase the value of the jobs created in the startup ecosystem and also ensure that they are taken up by people who have had the sustainability to cross the gulf. The only thing that needs to be ensured is that this gulf doesn’t become too large or doesn’t contain too many obstacles. There has to exist a perfect blend of layoffs which should only shoo away the incritical mass and attracts the critical mass.
An Alternate Solution(my 2 dimes)
The communities existing in various forms in India to complement Startups & Entrepreneurship are well-scattered and unevenly concentrated. Some of the communities that exist are highly engaging and valued and some of the others are shaping up pretty well while the others have just taken their babysteps. This may be termed as the beginning of formation of very nascent & decentralised Startup Ecosystems across the country. In my observation, some of the places where we can say dependable ecosystems have started forming (in lowering order) are Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Delhi, Ahmedabad, apart from others which like I said are taking babysteps. If we want something to really happen, it should be the introduction of solubility of the communities among each other. They need to be gelled up, so that they can grow together. According to me, the training solution is supposed to be a subset of the larger problem of effectively connecting the community over the country.
What I propose is that instead of setting up a training community offline, grow a budding community online. Mind it, by growing the community online I don’t mean setting up just another Google/Yahoo group & asking everyone to join it. This approach will give you just another discussion group where people will thrive to ask questions that would land in the inboxes of people. And unless you have a gmail account, it will get flooded. What I am talking about is a custom web application that we can create for the community in India, which can streamline processes by implementing known and tested solutions like Q&A and Professional Networking, and develop a very simplicised job application that can help connect employers to prospective employees. I know on the surface of it, it looks like ‘just-another’ type of an idea. But I have a lot in mind, which could actually be a step towards improvising an amazing network in India. I am not asking for another job site to be created. It is rather an online ecosystem I have in mind for the country, which I expect to not only take care of workforce, but other aspects like connecting other relevant dots, letting people know of events happening all over India, etc. I know there are sites that exist to do some of this, but I want to make something different. Something that eases out stuff for all members of the ecosystem. Puts things on platter and serves it to them.
The crux of the whole thing doesn’t lie in making the online solution. That should just act as a support system to what the actual solution is. What is more important, is the necessity to grow the various communities in India, to do which I have lots of ideas cluttered in mind, which I want to refine myself. And not only grow them, but connect relevant dots and create a larger community that is more reliable and reflects a high level of cohesiveness from within. This refinement of ideas can happen only with your participation and discussion. I expect some of the experienced guys around to participate and maybe we can pull off a step that can create an amazing platform.
I expect comments about the whole lot of words I have posted above and about what you think can be done on an online community building website for the startup ecosystem.
Notes:
- Due to my impatience to post this and the growing length of the post, the post might have missed out on some quality and proper conveying of ideas. I urge the experienced guys and the veteran players to evolve over my idea. Let us discuss this over, refine it and streamline it.
- I am game towards building this application, but before that I shall wait for the various inputs. People interested in helping with development, UI, process refinement, ideas are welcome to contact me.
