Saplings are challenging to grow, can be grown in a pot with utmost care --- But what when we want to see it to grow like a giant tree. The transition is critical from pot to the land!
Similar is the startup! The story of many entrepreneurs is similar in India , The concept of Seed Funding is roaring , the new funding startups are maturing , But its not penetrating , Not of much help currently. Out of 10,000 their might be 1 startup getting seed funding and that too a startup started by some ex employees of bigger firm , A startup started by an IIM , IITian etc. Rare are the chances of a layman - An entrepreneur. Many may disagree , but it is the reality. I am ready with my facts and figures and some real time examples , But I am not in favor of mentioning names in my articles. I would like to write always a general experience of mine.
Many people just live with the idea forever , they could never take out time and courage of risk taking. They just think and become co-founder for a name! The others start looking for seed funding with rough draft of their idea and still remain in comfort zone. The entrepreneurial start up , especially in India needs social and comfort zone sacrifices. Its not easy for many to realize what we think. We cannot play safe and win , whereas many try it and fail and get disappointed.
A few entrepreneurs , I too fall in the category believe their idea is more than anything. Rather than growing richer in monetary terms they prefer to grow rich in knowledge first.They are so desperate and serious that they bootstrap their dreams and themselves do seed funding. They do not let their dreams to wait. Time is precious for them.Â
Entrepreneurs who bootstrap are damn serious of what they are doing. They know each penny going to the business is going from their savings and investments are huge. It is important to understand that there is big difference between developing a business idea , framing blue prints , and The Actual Implementation! The patience is important. The entrepreneurs who bootstrap and loose patience get disappointed badly , many times leads to depressing deadly stages and finally they quit - that is  not the trait of true entrepreneur , He is a fighter always.
Entrepreneurs who preferred learning , bootstrapped their dream and remained consistent along with focused approach on Actual Implementations - are the real fighters. They have seen themselves growing and achieving numbers. Many of them get successful in developing the business model which ultimately becomes their trade secret. I learnt in my entrepreneurial journey "Your ultimate trade secret is how you work" i.e in general terms - The process oriented firms.
When the business model is ready - The sapling is ready in pot and is healthy. We look for specialist for transition. Please remember - We have only one sapling! We are a only one sapling ! We cannot afford trails and errors! Many times association with wrong people leads to trails and errors , which are very dangerous at the stage of Gap between your business model establishment and scaling up. Your overheads are at par , you might be at loss or no profit no loss stage  or even some profit but one association with a wrong partner or angel in greed of scaling up business faster , can prove as a big disaster leading to disturbing your overall effort till date.
Scaling up is a big issue in India. Because for many investors even you generated millions of revenue , we are still small  i.e we still have to wait for a better timing. But it is important to be consistent and self belief is important. I can understand very genuinely that how tough and painful it is for  a bootstrapped project to wait for scaling up! It ultimate leads to financial overheads , if not done on time , A situation the founder really do not deserve to face.
It never means to quit! It means to keep innovating , keep trusting , keep pushing and wait for the right time. The Gap is critical - Howe ever you never know when things turn upside down for you :-)
With my sincere efforts! My fellow entrepreneurs !
Mandeep