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5 screw-ups, 5 learnings, 5 things right
Suresh Sambandam, founder and CEO of OrangeScape, a cloud service platform talks about the most important lessons he's learned from his entrepreneurial journey. Illustration by Dominic Xavier
A few years ago, I had listened to Suresh Sambandam, founder and CEO of OrangeScape, speak about 5-5-5, that is, '5 Screw-ups, 5 Learnings, 5 Things Right'.
"Can you please send me the 5-5-5 PowerPoint you used at SiliconIndia? Wanted to do a telephonic interview on that," I messaged Suresh, last week.
Little did I expect Suresh to engage wholeheartedly in those slides and come back with a whole new set; but that is what he did, in right earnest.
"It was a learning experience," Suresh said, when we got to talking about 5-5-5, on a Sunday morning.
Here he unveils the lessons he's learned from his career journey for aspiring entrepreneurs to read and take notice.
5 Screw-ups
- Misjudging ramp up of new geography.
- Engaging 'experts' doesn't help always
- Health equity is worth more than sweat equity.
- Personal wealth -- Putting all eggs in the 'start-up' basket.
- Tell bad news early -- easier said than done.
5 Learnings
- Sales is intuitive, marketing is not.
- Platforms need an application façade.
- Money comes in different shades of green.
- Networking doesn't help beyond a point.
- Mentors > Advisors > BoD -- less vested, more value.
5 Things right
- First learn, then delegate, make them successful.
- Keep cool at all times, live the present.
- Roll up the sleeves, growth changes only the task.
- Spot and hire good talent -- team is all.
- My wife, son, and dog still love me.
