The Founder Manual: A practical guide to building enduring Indian start-ups

Utsav Somani's The Founder Manual offers practical, India-focused guidance on building, funding, scaling and exiting startups without the hype

The Founder Manual: Insights From The Top Founders of India

By Utsav Somani

Published by Penguin

248 pages  ₹599

 

Till a few decades ago, the term “startup” was not used to refer to enterprises or companies. It is said the first time the term was used to refer to new enterprise in the electronic data processing field was by Forbes magazine in 1976. BusinessWeek  continued the practice in a 1977 article, and the term stuck. Startups were seen as companies that grew rapidly often aided by digital technology; their growth was fueled by venture capital or funds ready to take a risk. The first firm to be listed publicly — even while making a loss — was Netscape. That was in 1995 and the book The New New Thing by Michael Lewis gives a blow-by-blow description of what happened. 

As startups caught on, many books were written to offer future founders tips on what to do and not to do. Some of the books this reviewer has read and enjoyed, include The Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki, The Lean Startup by Eric Ries and The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz. A few months ago, I reviewed Starting a Startup by James Sinclair for this paper. All these books speak about the startup ecosystem and startup ventures from the US. India is emerging as a hotbed for startups and it is only now we are getting books focused on the Indian ecosystem. 

The Founder Manual by Utsav Somani is very much a book about and for Indian startups. The author is the founder of Offline – an exclusive community of scaled-up Indian tech founders. He has invested in over 100 startups and has a ring side seat on the way Indian startups begin their journey, struggle to find the right product market fit and venture funds, scale up and exit. 

The book is organised into eight sections that are almost in sequence of how a startup takes birth and flies. The first section is about building a strong foundation. An idea in a founder’s head is not a success unless it is validated. And the startup has to dig deep to find out the minimum viable product and what the potential customer will pay for it. In this section you will also get introduced to the often touted terms in the startup ecosystem: total addressable market, serviceable available market and serviceable obtainable market. 

The second section is about fundraising and its contours in India: What is the funding landscape, what are the different types of venture capital (VC) firms; when is the right time to raise funds; how to raise funds; maintaining the cap (or capitalisation) table. Often founders, in their anxiety, give away too much, or don’t do their due diligence on what the VC brings to the table other than money. 

The third section looks at finding the Product Market Fit (PMF). The first product that is launched may not find the PMF. How to understand buyer behaviour and orchestrate a pivot? Issues such as what kind of tech infrastructure needs to be built and what the go-to-market strategy should be are covered in this section. 

The fourth section is about building a strong team. It was good to see Mr Somani recommending good human resource practices and not the “hire-and-fire” approach that many startups employ. Building a system for talent acquisition and to making teams productive are covered in this section. 

The fifth section is about building partnerships across the ecosystem, for growth and more. The sixth section is about expansion across geographies, even across continents. The seventh section is on navigating regulatory changes and crises. You get to learn about how startups in the Bitcoin and online betting space got affected by sudden regulatory changes. The last, the eighth section is about exit strategies. Again, Mr Somani says something this reviewer has heard from others: Don’t start with the objective of selling. 

It is possible that readers may have come across these eight guiding principles but what was refreshing in this book is the number of startup entrepreneurs who have been quoted throughout. Startups such as Blue Tokai Coffee Roasters, Dr Vaidya, BharatPe, Fynd, GoBoult, Hubilo, Kiddopia, Olx, Park+, Rebel Foods, ShipRocket, TBOTek and so many others are featured. Often, founders of these startups have been interviewed. 

The book is a great manual for any founder who is looking for sane advice, not a motivational pep talk. The reality is presented without the smoke and mirrors. This is a valuable addition to books about the Indian startup ecosystem, and a must-read if you are in the startup game, as an entrepreneur, an angel investor, a venture capitalist or a curious bystander. 

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The reviewer is an award-winning author. His latest book, Marketing Mixology,  presents four essential skills for marketing success