Startups: Vai-Thee-Fuss?. Chasing the most meaningful outcome of entrepreneurship

Sometime ago, I came across a lovely post by Marc Randolph, co-founder and first CEO of Netflix, on what success means to him. Randolph stressed that despite being an entrepreneur for a long time, he was proud that he never missed his weekly family time, whatever the pressures. Randolph defined this as his success. A few years ago, on author Pankaj Mishra’s popular podcast Outliers, I recall stating that, for me, my startup is the second most important thing in my life. Family always comes first.

Several years ago, at a startup event in Mumbai, late in the evening, after all sessions were done, some of the entrepreneurs walked into a bar and, as the conversation meandered, one of them congratulated a well known entrepreneur for his success (he had just raised a large round of funding). The founder downed a large gulp of his poison and then confided to us in a loud whisper: “You think I am successful? I am actually in a big mess!” 

This begs an important question: Who is a successful entrepreneur? What defines success, and are there metrics to decide if a founder is successful or not? A pleasant financial outcome for founders through secondaries, acquisitions or an initial public offering (IPO) is the most popular because it provides a nice reward for the hours, days, months and years of hard work. But I have met founders who are quite unhappy even after a good financial conclusion. 

Many founders mention boredom with their corporate jobs and the excitement of being one’s own boss as a key success metric. Passionately building solutions for specific problems that customers are willing to pay for is another yardstick of success. Some founders get into entrepreneurship because they want to create a social impact, but this can go nowhere if not executed properly. Many entrepreneurs are proud that they are creating jobs, which is a critical need in India. Job creation is probably the most meaningful outcome of entrepreneurship, but it makes sense only in profitable companies. We regularly hear of storied and well funded startups letting go of thousands of employees due to losses and inability to secure fresh funding. In the startup world, profits are undervalued and revenues are worshipped.

Over two decades of entrepreneurship, I have my own theory of success. The mortality rate of startups is a high 99 per cent, and doing your own thing in India is very hard. Millions want to start up but only thousands make the leap. This decision to start up is itself a success. All other outcome is academic. As I wrote in my book Failing to Succeed, “99% of startups may fail but 100% of entrepreneurs will succeed”.

Also read

The unfortunate truth about ‘pedigree’ and the founder ecosystem

When talent becomes unaffordable for startups

A budget that chose to be on the side of the angels

(The writer is a serial entrepreneur and best-selling author of the book ‘Failing to Succeed’; posts on X @vaitheek)