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Startup Compass : How Iconic Entrepreneurs Got It Right
ABOUT THE BOOK
The idea of starting a company has never been more popular in India. A new breed of entrepreneurs is rising in the country, inspired by homegrown heroes, driven to pursue extraordinary outcomes, and supported by an ecosystem that is willing to back audacious ideas.
Startup Compass amalgamates advice on starting and growing a company, shared in a lecture series at IIM Ahmedabad and over extensive interviews, from 15 iconic members of India's startup ecosystem including Sanjeev Bikhchandani (Naukri), Deep Kalra (MakeMyTrip), Sachin Bansal (Flipkart), Falguni Nayar (Nykaa), Kunal Shah (CRED), Sahil Barua (Delhivery), and Raghunandan G (TaxiForSure). It brings together their varied experiences to offer invaluable insights across ten stages in the lifecycle of a company, beginning from the decision to start a company, to critically examining an idea, building a team, launching a product, raising money, all the way to an eventual exit. It offers rich stories of grit, of vision being transformed into tangible reality, and of outstanding founders building remarkable companies.
If you are looking to begin your own startup journey, are interested in the Indian startup ecosystem, or are simply a student of business, this book is for you.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Ujwal Kalra is a serial entrepreneur, currently serving as the co-founder and CEO of NAKAD, a supply chain startup that makes credit and commerce easily available to small and medium businesses. Earlier he worked at Boston Consulting Group where he was a founding member of Growth Tech India, a BCG initiative to work with startups. At IIM Ahmedabad, Ujwal co-founded and headed the ‘How to Start a Startup’ series on which this book is based. He was an Institute Merit scholar at IIMA, graduating in the top 5 per cent of his batch. An alumnus of IIT Guwahati and DPS Vasant Kunj, Ujwal has been awarded numerous awards in his young career, including The Economic Times Young Leader, O.P. Jindal Scholarship, Dun & Bradstreet Award and Dunia Scholarship, UAE. He also represented India at Kairos, a USA-based entrepreneurship society.
Shobhit Shubhankar is a consultant at Boston Consulting Group. He has worked across South-East Asia with project experience in private equity, technology, telecommunications, and industrial goods practice areas. He has also worked at B Capital Group, a multi-stage global investment firm investing in technology companies. He is an alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad where he was a founding member of the ‘How to Start a Startup’ series, and graduated in the top 5 per cent of his batch. He has a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from IIT BHU Varanasi, and serves on the board of the IIT BHU Global Alumni Association.
The idea of starting a company has never been more popular in India. A new breed of entrepreneurs is rising in the country, inspired by homegrown heroes, driven to pursue extraordinary outcomes, and supported by an ecosystem that is willing to back audacious ideas.
Startup Compass amalgamates advice on starting and growing a company, shared in a lecture series at IIM Ahmedabad and over extensive interviews, from 15 iconic members of India's startup ecosystem including Sanjeev Bikhchandani (Naukri), Deep Kalra (MakeMyTrip), Sachin Bansal (Flipkart), Falguni Nayar (Nykaa), Kunal Shah (CRED), Sahil Barua (Delhivery), and Raghunandan G (TaxiForSure). It brings together their varied experiences to offer invaluable insights across ten stages in the lifecycle of a company, beginning from the decision to start a company, to critically examining an idea, building a team, launching a product, raising money, all the way to an eventual exit. It offers rich stories of grit, of vision being transformed into tangible reality, and of outstanding founders building remarkable companies.
If you are looking to begin your own startup journey, are interested in the Indian startup ecosystem, or are simply a student of business, this book is for you.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Ujwal Kalra is a serial entrepreneur, currently serving as the co-founder and CEO of NAKAD, a supply chain startup that makes credit and commerce easily available to small and medium businesses. Earlier he worked at Boston Consulting Group where he was a founding member of Growth Tech India, a BCG initiative to work with startups. At IIM Ahmedabad, Ujwal co-founded and headed the ‘How to Start a Startup’ series on which this book is based. He was an Institute Merit scholar at IIMA, graduating in the top 5 per cent of his batch. An alumnus of IIT Guwahati and DPS Vasant Kunj, Ujwal has been awarded numerous awards in his young career, including The Economic Times Young Leader, O.P. Jindal Scholarship, Dun & Bradstreet Award and Dunia Scholarship, UAE. He also represented India at Kairos, a USA-based entrepreneurship society.
Shobhit Shubhankar is a consultant at Boston Consulting Group. He has worked across South-East Asia with project experience in private equity, technology, telecommunications, and industrial goods practice areas. He has also worked at B Capital Group, a multi-stage global investment firm investing in technology companies. He is an alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad where he was a founding member of the ‘How to Start a Startup’ series, and graduated in the top 5 per cent of his batch. He has a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from IIT BHU Varanasi, and serves on the board of the IIT BHU Global Alumni Association.
312 pages, Paperback
Published May 30, 2022
23 people are currently reading
113 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
June 13, 2022
Starting with the very inspiring and insightful foreword by @narayanamurthy.official, co-founder of Infosys, this book is a compendium of the experiences of some of the most illustrious members of the startup ecosystem in India. In the foreword itself, you will find nine very important lessons by Mr. Murthy which were a total game-changer for him! With the very inspiring stories of 15 iconic Indian entrepreneurs, this book is not just limited to 'what did they do right' but also covers all their setbacks and 'what to avoid'.
I enjoyed reading the in-depth analysis of some of the most successful Indian startups, like Policybazaar, Naukri, Nykaa, Freshworks, MakeMyTrip, CRED, and Delhivery. I found this book to be full of wisdom! Containing numerous pointers, dos & don'ts, and some amazing advice for all aspiring entrepreneurs, this book is a perfect guide for anyone and everyone interested in the startup space. I found this book to be super insightful and inspiring!☺️
I enjoyed reading the in-depth analysis of some of the most successful Indian startups, like Policybazaar, Naukri, Nykaa, Freshworks, MakeMyTrip, CRED, and Delhivery. I found this book to be full of wisdom! Containing numerous pointers, dos & don'ts, and some amazing advice for all aspiring entrepreneurs, this book is a perfect guide for anyone and everyone interested in the startup space. I found this book to be super insightful and inspiring!☺️
June 27, 2022
This book deserves a lot more attention than it's getting. Saves me the effort of reading a dozen autobiographies in the future. Super distilled wisdom, not one word is wasted.
Instead of stacking up glorified stories of startup founders, the book takes a sequential journey of a startup and plugs in insights from various founders at each stage of the journey. The stories from the founders are frank, humble, often credit luck and even provide polar opposite perspectives to each other.
My favorites were:
- Deep's story of MakeMyTrip- how close they came to failure, what kept them going. And the importance of luck- being at the right place at the right time. It was a gut-wrenching, raw read.
- Kunal Shah's Delta 4 framework to validate the potential of an idea
- Zoho's 90-10 principle: Offer 90% of features of the market leaders at 10% of the price
- The chapter on "Setting up for Success" highlighting the Importance of HR: this is so tricky in real life. MBA courses grossly underestimate this issue of hiring, attrition, team dynamics.
Instead of stacking up glorified stories of startup founders, the book takes a sequential journey of a startup and plugs in insights from various founders at each stage of the journey. The stories from the founders are frank, humble, often credit luck and even provide polar opposite perspectives to each other.
My favorites were:
- Deep's story of MakeMyTrip- how close they came to failure, what kept them going. And the importance of luck- being at the right place at the right time. It was a gut-wrenching, raw read.
- Kunal Shah's Delta 4 framework to validate the potential of an idea
- Zoho's 90-10 principle: Offer 90% of features of the market leaders at 10% of the price
- The chapter on "Setting up for Success" highlighting the Importance of HR: this is so tricky in real life. MBA courses grossly underestimate this issue of hiring, attrition, team dynamics.
November 7, 2022
A comprehensive guide for entrepreneurship that summarized nuggets of wisdom from leading entrepreneurs across the globe.
A must read for anyone looking to start-up!
A must read for anyone looking to start-up!
Read
June 12, 2022Published by HarperCollins India
Genre: Non Fiction/Business
MRP: Rs. 499/-
Thank you @harpercollinsin for the media copy.
Backed by the CIIE.CO at IIM Ahmedabad, the book brings together the knowledge and insights from the various contributors of the book , after a lecture series and various interviews conducted by the authors. The foreward by Mr. NR Narayana Murthy is so on point. He writes 00down his journey from being a hardcore socialist-leftist to a compassionate capitalist. His logical reasons for his change of heart and some strong and stern advice for the entrepreneurs.
The book is divided into 10 chapters , about the startup’s journey’s , from the Before the startup to the highly sought out “exit”. According to the author’s it is ideal if the book is read chronologically but each chapter is self contained and may be read on its own. Each chapter also has a summary at the end of it , with the important points pointed out.
Ujwal Kalra is the co-founder and CEO of NAKAD, a supply chain startup that makes credit and commerce easily available to small and medium businesses. At IIM Ahmedabad, Ujwal co-founded and headed the ‘How to Start a Startup’ series on which this book is based. Shobhit Shubhankar is a consultant at Boston Consulting Group. He is an alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad where he was a founding member of the ‘How to Start a Startup’ series, and graduated in the top 5 per cent of his batch.
CONTRIBUTORS IN THE BOOK
Abhiraj Bhal, Urban Company
Anand Daniel, Accel Partners
Anu Hariharan, Y Combinator Continuity Fund
Deep Kalra, MakeMyTrip
Falguni Nayar, Nykaa
Girish Mathrubootham, Freshworks
Kunal Shah, FreeCharge, CRED
Raghunandan G, TaxiForSure
Rajan Anandan, Sequoia Capital
Ritesh Agarwal, OYO
Sachin Bansal, Flipkart, Navi
Sanjeev Bikhchandani, Info Edge
Sahil Barua, Delhivery
Tarun Mehta, Ather Energy
Yashish Dahiya, Policybazaar
Many people in India are fasinated by entrepreneurship. Today its not like the situation a few decades ago, where all one wanted was to secure a good government job and then one’s life was considered to be settled. Many of you must have watched the Shark Tank show which aired late last year in India. The drive in entrepreneurship as a career is a lot these days. And if you are one of the people who wants to pursue it, i believe this book can help you a lot. You get to know about the do’s and dont’s and the if’s and but’s that these entrepreneurs have already faced and you can learn from them.
Genre: Non Fiction/Business
MRP: Rs. 499/-
Thank you @harpercollinsin for the media copy.
Backed by the CIIE.CO at IIM Ahmedabad, the book brings together the knowledge and insights from the various contributors of the book , after a lecture series and various interviews conducted by the authors. The foreward by Mr. NR Narayana Murthy is so on point. He writes 00down his journey from being a hardcore socialist-leftist to a compassionate capitalist. His logical reasons for his change of heart and some strong and stern advice for the entrepreneurs.
The book is divided into 10 chapters , about the startup’s journey’s , from the Before the startup to the highly sought out “exit”. According to the author’s it is ideal if the book is read chronologically but each chapter is self contained and may be read on its own. Each chapter also has a summary at the end of it , with the important points pointed out.
Ujwal Kalra is the co-founder and CEO of NAKAD, a supply chain startup that makes credit and commerce easily available to small and medium businesses. At IIM Ahmedabad, Ujwal co-founded and headed the ‘How to Start a Startup’ series on which this book is based. Shobhit Shubhankar is a consultant at Boston Consulting Group. He is an alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad where he was a founding member of the ‘How to Start a Startup’ series, and graduated in the top 5 per cent of his batch.
CONTRIBUTORS IN THE BOOK
Abhiraj Bhal, Urban Company
Anand Daniel, Accel Partners
Anu Hariharan, Y Combinator Continuity Fund
Deep Kalra, MakeMyTrip
Falguni Nayar, Nykaa
Girish Mathrubootham, Freshworks
Kunal Shah, FreeCharge, CRED
Raghunandan G, TaxiForSure
Rajan Anandan, Sequoia Capital
Ritesh Agarwal, OYO
Sachin Bansal, Flipkart, Navi
Sanjeev Bikhchandani, Info Edge
Sahil Barua, Delhivery
Tarun Mehta, Ather Energy
Yashish Dahiya, Policybazaar
Many people in India are fasinated by entrepreneurship. Today its not like the situation a few decades ago, where all one wanted was to secure a good government job and then one’s life was considered to be settled. Many of you must have watched the Shark Tank show which aired late last year in India. The drive in entrepreneurship as a career is a lot these days. And if you are one of the people who wants to pursue it, i believe this book can help you a lot. You get to know about the do’s and dont’s and the if’s and but’s that these entrepreneurs have already faced and you can learn from them.
June 16, 2022
It’s not easy to overcome every obstacle in our way, but we can always learn from the mistakes of others and trying to fathom the reason behind their failure is beneficial. This logic applies to any journey we take.
Startup Compass is a book that discusses the journey of entrepreneurs. This book takes inspiration from the journey of Indian entrepreneurs. The book is a complete guide- starting from clarifying the reason to be an entrepreneur, looking for an idea, and moving ahead with it. The authors have also discussed the exit strategy and going public through the IPO.
The authors have researched well on the subject and have mentioned the resources on the footer. Their writing style is quite formal. As the title suggests, they discuss the experiences of other entrepreneurs, and I believe the book is optimal for a documentary on any OTT platform. Anyway, the chronological approach makes this book worth your time. However, in my humble opinion, the repetitiveness could have been avoided. Reading the same thing under different topics in a few chapters made it monotonous. Notwithstanding the typing errors and the repetitiveness, I recommend this book to anyone planning to start a business or has entrepreneurial instincts or is curious about that journey.
Startup Compass is a book that discusses the journey of entrepreneurs. This book takes inspiration from the journey of Indian entrepreneurs. The book is a complete guide- starting from clarifying the reason to be an entrepreneur, looking for an idea, and moving ahead with it. The authors have also discussed the exit strategy and going public through the IPO.
The authors have researched well on the subject and have mentioned the resources on the footer. Their writing style is quite formal. As the title suggests, they discuss the experiences of other entrepreneurs, and I believe the book is optimal for a documentary on any OTT platform. Anyway, the chronological approach makes this book worth your time. However, in my humble opinion, the repetitiveness could have been avoided. Reading the same thing under different topics in a few chapters made it monotonous. Notwithstanding the typing errors and the repetitiveness, I recommend this book to anyone planning to start a business or has entrepreneurial instincts or is curious about that journey.
June 28, 2022
It’s inspiring to read something that not only helps you understand the point of view of so many aspirational people but also reading about their thought process while they were building their own companies. This book has given me a fair understanding of what a startup journey might looks like and has also inspired a bit to embark on a similar journey myself. Hope we get to read more about the authors’ own startup as a sequel to this fascinating read.
November 14, 2022
I was a staunch believer that Entrepreneurship is something that simply cannot be taught. Books like this effectively challenge that belief.
The book reads lucid and clean. The structure is well thought out - each chapter centers around an entrepreneurial stage of a business and is fleshed out with anecdotes from India's most successful business entrepreneurs.
Engrossing and thoroughly enjoyable.
The book reads lucid and clean. The structure is well thought out - each chapter centers around an entrepreneurial stage of a business and is fleshed out with anecdotes from India's most successful business entrepreneurs.
Engrossing and thoroughly enjoyable.
June 11, 2022
Exceptional writing based on verified research and analysis. Found it to be extremely insightful. Highly recommend for someone part of (like myself) or wanting to be a part of the massive Indian startup ecosystem.
June 12, 2022
Very well written and makes an interesting read. A must for all entrepreneurs
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 10, 2023
Nice intro by narayan murthy sir and nicely written book
December 16, 2024
First hand experiences of the struggles and mistakes that some of the so-called bigwigs made. Has many things in common with the Feld book but the personal experiences and the Indian context almost make it surpass any other books in this field
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews