Mr. Praveen Sinha, Co Founder, Jabong.com

1.What motivated you to take up entrepreneurship?

Ans: I have always believed in that one should create things and make a difference in the society. I was involved in some or the other start ups at various points of time. Entrepreneurship excited me as the idea of creating something from scratch to of size is highly motivating.

2. What initial challenges you faced while taking up entrepreneurship?

Ans: Building the right team was the biggest challenge. Getting smart, passionate, high- energy people to join when we were just building the organization – I had only one thing to them “There is a lots to do, but all I can promise is journey would be great fun. Having a vision of building the best in class infrastructure helped us sail smoothly when most start-ups struggle to scale up.

3. What you think are the essential qualities required for successful entrepreneurs? Entrepreneurship in India is still confined to students of premier institutes like IIM’s, IIT’s. How this culture may be extended to students of two tier and three tier colleges?

Ans: Perseverance, patience, passion and action orientation. You don’t have to be from the premier institutes, but just possess 3 main attributes: First, Smart or Out of box thinking. Second, being open to ideas that have never been tested. Third, being comfortable in breaking assumptions and courageous in making decisions maintaining the delicate balance between logic and creativity. The candidate should be a self-driven soul who doesn't shy away in taking the ownership of their areas' works. One thing that is common in all entrepreneurs is their belief in going out and trying and not limiting their ideas and hypothesis to only planning and strategizing. Most successful entrepreneurs started before they were ready. The truth is you are never fully ready but you get ready while you are executing. It's okay to make mistakes as long as you learn from them and keep correcting yourself direction-ally. As the start up grows, the challenges increase. There is a need to continue to nurture a conducive yet challenging work environment, to lead the team by motivation and to give timely guidance to stay focused and achieve the vision.

4. Please mention few barriers in front of entrepreneurs in India? Rate of failures of entrepreneurs in India is slightly high in comparison to other countries, why so?

Ans: The Indian economy needs to grow on a sustainable basis. The risks to India’s continued growth are terrorism, corruption(responsible for a slow paced economic reforms), non-inclusive growth that focuses only on the urban rich, and stalled reforms. Due to slow pace of our regulations reform and clarity, India is seen as one of the difficult places to do business in, in comparison to the other developing economies, thereby impacting Investor funds.

5. Please suggest how entrepreneur environment may be created in India? What support you expect from the government to be extended to entrepreneurs?

Ans: We need to continue to maintain the growth trajectory, the market for inputs needs to be liberalized. Good and stable Government is an important factor that impacts the investment cycle. Economic reforms must not stop. Economic progress will change India’s political landscape for the better and further improve political stability. It is essential that the Indian Government creates the right infrastructure availability of fund for the start ups. There should be hnadholding mechanism provided by government for the start ups in a transparent and accountable way. Government needs to continue to address and repair old infrastructure through public private partnerships at a steady pace.

6. What you think students have to take up entrepreneurship direct after their studies or after few years of experience in Industry?

Ans: There are engineers fresh out of the top colleges of the world who are fascinated with the idea of working in a start-up (at times without realizing what it entails). Then there are MBAs who have spent 5-10 years in large corporates and want to play a larger role or be a part of building something grounds up. There are people from premier institutes, people from consulting, IT and banking background and people looking to add few start-up years to their resume before applying to Ivy Leagues for MBA. Youth with passion if provided with equal opportunities to grow, are picked up regardless of their education background I would say it's mixed but there is a common thread; people who are self-motivated and put substance over money.

7. Can entrepreneurs be created by training and mentoring? What you think, entrepreneurship course should be inculcated in school education?

Ans: Probably nothing works better than 'on the job' training or learning by doing. However I think there is always a need for prior educational base especially for technical profiles which can be taken care of by organizing expert workshops, but the skills acquired through the experience of planning and execution is unmatchable and creates much more aware and professionally well rounded individuals than mere trainings. Role of mentoring in making of a successful entrepreneur is immense. I believe it is a leader's responsibility to add value to his team members by mentoring them at each stage, helping in developing both hard and soft skills.

8. Please share few interesting lessons which you learnt while taking up entrepreneurship?

Ans: The entire journey has been filled with multiple lessons. I firmly believe each success and mistake is an opportunity to learn something more about yourself, your people and business. However, if I were to name one learning it will be to always have conservative estimate of time and money required for your idea to be successful.

9. What’s your message to aspirant entrepreneurs?

Ans: My advice to your entrepreneurs and students looking to join a start-up environment would be to set the right expectations from the onset. Graduates who join startups should be passionate about their work, have a deep hunger for accountability and real responsibility that has a direct impact on business and customers. They should be willing to hone their own skills while simultaneously developing new expertise. Fresh graduates should work on acquiring a skill set that would help them getting hired by start-up organizations. Start-ups look for people who are self-motivated and bring a certain level of functional expertise to the table.