When India’s startup crowd – the brogrammers and wantrepreneurs – talk about their pet projects (they don’t have business cards, grandma!), they all sound smugly the same. But spare us your love for Uber and Elon Musk, and banish these seven entrepreneurial clichés already:
1. The origin: Someone quit the rat race. Someone else believed they’re more than a cog in the wheel. And no one’s parents understand what they really do.
2. The office: No money for commercial rent. So work out of a friend’s couch, a local Starbucks or a cool co-working space.
3. The lingo: Employees are change agents, glorified treasurers are CFOs and everyone’s a growth hacker – because, duh, growth is in their startup DNA.
4. The local connect: They’re aimed at India’s young economy, they have stats about smartphone penetration among SEC A-1, and they warn that the tech bubble is going to burst.
5. The product: Have you seen their animated video? Or their killer app? Or the new strategy to conquer world hunger? How about that latest food truck on your block?
6. The strategy: They’re going to align with Amazon, tap into content creators, generate social media buzz and hope to dovetail their message out for free.
{{/usCountry}}6. The strategy: They’re going to align with Amazon, tap into content creators, generate social media buzz and hope to dovetail their message out for free.
{{/usCountry}}7. Their motto: “If it doesn’t work out, we’ll just pivot.”
From HT Brunch, July 24, 2016
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