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‘Be prepared to fail—unless you are willing to fail, you will not take the risks that entrepreneurship demands.’

Entrepreneurship is a tough road to travel but the sheer joy of seeing results at every step is like bringing up your little one—let me share a few of my experiences…

Starting a venture in a foreign country.
I was educated in India and moved to the U.S. in 1990 to work for an Indian company as its regional manager. Starting a venture in a familiar locale itself is very challenging and the added complexity of foreign culture, lack of your ecosystem and financing added significant challenges.

The way I overcame that obstacle was by tying up with people networks like TiE which gave an opportunity to find business contacts and recruit employees.

The right partnership.
When you are already employed and looking to jump full-time to start your venture, you realize this is a big move and many times initially it feels very lonely. Starting a venture with one other co-founder is a very good idea as each can lean on the other.

But the aligned goals and chemistry of the partnership is of paramount importance as this helps you go through the ups and downs of the entrepreneurship together. I was very fortunate that my partner B.V. Jagadeesh and I hit it off well and we had shared goals and were willing to risk everything that we had and we were also not afraid of failure.

Getting started.
Everything, from naming the company to choosing the logo, is a big decision. In 1992 I had started my little entrepreneurship venture in Silicon Valley with no money in my hand. Subroto Bagchi of Mindtree acted as a friend and mentor to put together the company name, logo etc.

Getting the first deal.
The first deal is probably the most exciting moment of entrepreneurship. My first deal was for $5,000 from a software company that was looking for a software engineer for a short period of time. Giving the customer the warm and fuzzy feeling and trust are keys to winning the first deal.

Hiring the first non-Indian employee. For me, this was a great challenge as I had to overcome cultural bias and convince a foreigner why he should work for me. We had our office in a shared office center where we could mingle with several professionals. In fact, we convinced our non-Indian employees to join us in the course of casual meetings in the lunch room.

The first million.
This is like high-school graduation—you know you are not yet that big but this is the first step towards reaching your own kind of nirvana. This is also the time when you decide whether to stay small or try and make it big. Fortunately Jagadeesh, I and our families were aligned that we wanted to take the next big step and not settle for just being another niche company.

Tips for aspiring entrepreneurs:
1. Take small steps to fulfill your big dreams.
2. Surround yourself with passionate people who share your vision.
3. Be an evangelist, both internally and externally, to spread your message.
4. Enjoy the ups and downs of the journey.

K.B. CHANDRASEKHAR founded Exodus Communications the mid-’90s and grew it into the leading enterprise hosting services provider. The company went public in March 1998 in one of the most successful IPOs of the late ‘90s. He co-founded Jamcracker in 1999 and, a year later, co-founded e4e Inc.

©Entrepreneur September 2010

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Exodus Communications, K.B. Chandrasekhar