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‘When we started out, the limit for us was to manufacture only 50 computers and if you made more, your excise duty went up.’

T he biggest step forward that entrepreneurship has taken in our system is that we now see a steady stream of entrepreneurs. In only the last 20 years we can see a steady stream of entrepreneurs with a big burst around the tech bubble. I feel it is the IT industry that made it fashionable. You suddenly had an industry, which went from $60 million to $60 billion. When we were growing up we had no role models.

Entrepreneurship was not a career option for most, but today the scenario is different.

Coming from my background, if you chose not be in the IAS, the next choice was to join some big multinational company. Around the age of 40, when I was heading Tata Unisys, which comprised a third of the Indian IT industry, I asked myself if I wanted to do the same work for the next 20 years. There was no other company to join in my sector. So, to do something different I decided to work for myself. Of course, the experience of working in big corporates helped.

During 1989 when I was starting up the situation was very different and difficult. The biggest pain point for me was to get permissions. It took a year to register, create an entity. Telephone lines did not exist. I remember if you did not make a phone call to Mumbai before 7 in the morning you could only do it at night.

When I got my first big order of about $1 million, to deliver we needed to import an IBM mainframe. We had started with Rs.11 lakh and did not have the money to acquire the mainframe. We did not even have the money to rent a place to accommodate the mainframe. So we ended, out of necessity, hooking up to the systems rather than shipping them to us. We sold IBM the idea by citing security issues and convincing them that the additional expense on shipping was not needed and they merely needed to recreate the environment that they partially had.

IBM agreed but we did not realize how difficult it would be. You only had the normal 9.6k telephone lines that worked at half the speed of about 4.8k and for only half the time. So we had to setup a bank of 6-8 lines to do that job. Today that is not the pain point. You have high-speed lines, bandwidth is not a problem and permissions are easier to come by.

I also remember another incident vividly. When I was in New York, I made a number of cold calls and one person agreed to meet me to discuss business. Over the meeting I pitched how we could help him and he listened to me patiently. On finishing he asked me not to leave while he called two of his friends. When they arrived he told them, “This is the funniest thing I have seen in a long time. This guy from India wants to solve our problems. We have to take him out for lunch.” He actually did go on to become one of our first customers.

However, as I’ve said earlier, things are different today. For the first time, we have a budget speech which talks of the importance of entrepreneurship. It may be 10 years too late but the government has woken up to its importance at last.

Tips for aspiring entrepreneurs:
1. There may be many in the sector you want to jump into, so it is very important that you ask yourself why you will succeed.
2. Do not stop at merely having a great idea that will excite everyone.
3. Do not fear to try over and over again.

SAURABH SRIVASTAVA is the Founder of the Indian Angel Network (IAN) and the Chairman of the Indian Venture Capital Association. One of India’s pioneering IT entrepreneurs, he founded IIS Infotech back in 1989 and, in just four years, turned it into one of the top 20 companies in India.

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IAN, Indian Angel Network, Saurabh Srivastava