As part of our Journey to identify and share some of the meaningful stories from India and around the world, this time we invited yet another passionate entrepreneur Ravi Challu, Founder of BulletproofYourStartup to share his story with us.
- Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey as an entrepreneur
My journey as an entrepreneur started way back in 1990 when I set up a niche banking software company in an area no one was addressing with a disruptive strategy on team creation. Even though then the term startup had not been coined but it was a startup. The venture was funded and finally sold it in 2005. Post that after playing leading roles in IT services, I finally became a business coach form SME and startups in 2013.
I have coached 10 plus SME ( 10Crore to 300 Crore turnover) to achieve 50% plus CAGR and
I played a pivotal role in 2 startups – one engaged in creating a brand offers and promotions marketing platform and the second in building embedded systems for niche market segments. Through Bulletproof Your Startup, a venture I set up in Sept 2016 to coach startups, we have coached 2000+ startups through workshops and 200+ startups through 1 on 1 coaching.
- Why did you choose entrepreneurship over a job?
Entrepreneurship gives you the freedom to follow what you are most passionate about. It gives me an opportunity to maximize the impact that I can create. There are no boundaries left except that set by my own mind.
- What was the vision behind it?
The vision behind setting up Bulletproof Your Startup is based on 3 very fundamental premises. Indian culture
- Encourages being an employee over an entrepreneur.
- Culture focuses more on ‘Doing’ than on ‘Thinking’
- De-emphasizes being in touch with one’s emotions and following your passion and stresses on choosing predictable future options
Key to startup entrepreneurship is being in touch with your emotions and following your passion. It requires an entrepreneur to observe what is broken in the world or needs improvement and find innovative solutions to address them. And that requires the ability to think through complex issues in a structured manner. And there is no clearly defined process or education available that trains an entrepreneur to address the complex task of setting up and growing a business.
Our vision has been to develop a business evolution process that leverages established business frameworks for different stages of business that help an entrepreneur to examine the problem he is addressing and guides him in a structured manner till his startup becomes an established company.
- Describe the services that you offer to your customers and in what way they are unique?
We have identified 5 critical stages in a startup’s evolution journey till it becomes a company. We coach entrepreneurs through different stages of business using a proprietary business evolution process, known as Five Chasms Framework. This framework covers 5 critical stages of the business. For each stage, we have either adapted existing well-established frameworks or developed our own frameworks where none existed. Entrepreneurs have 3 options for coaching. They can attend a workshop on a specific stage of business or an aspect of business or frameworks and learn to adapt them and apply them in their own business. Or they can opt for a Coach Insight session to help analyze and find a solution for a specific problem he is facing or opt for our long term coaching program, Deep Coaching, wherein we work the startup till it becomes a company.
- What difficulties which you have faced or you are facing?
I believe the biggest difficulty we face is the entrepreneur’s unawareness of his cultural challenge. He does not know what he does not know. So unless he is in a serious situation he does not seek help. Our experience so far has been where an entrepreneur has attended our workshops and has opted for at least a coach insight session before even starting he has gone on to set up a business successfully. Those who have used these services in the early stages of their startup have either refined the solution or pivoted or dropped the idea.
- How do you handle the pressure and manage stress?
Today’s life guarantees you one experience- stress and pressure. There is no escaping from it. I recall a story of a farmer who used to hang an imaginary coat on a bush outside his house before he entered his house every evening. When asked he explained that he leaves his worries outside before he enters his house. And this has become my north star. I compartmentalize very effectively and do not let challenges of one compartment flow into the other.
- What is one strategy that you believe has helped you grow as a person/startup?
Continuous self-examination is so essential for growth, unfortunately, we do not teach our children to do that as a habit. You will very seldom see Indian parents ask their child “What is he thinking or feeling”. But you will hear most of them say “Why are you just sitting around? Why don’t you get up and do something?” Our culture has a very strong focus on “doing” rather than “feeling and thinking”. Introspection helps me stay in touch with who I am and who I want to be.
- How your company is helping India to grow?
Our goal is to train youth who is college going to learn to become an entrepreneur. We believe that they are the future SME entrepreneurs and unless they pick up the mantle the SME sector in India will not grow. And the SME sector is the growth driver in any economy.
- In your opinion what are the keys to success?
Passion, Perseverance, Focus, Hard work and Humility
- What advice would you give to someone starting out as an aspiring entrepreneur?
Think who you are and who you want to be. Examine what you are passionate about and would give up everything for it.
You can Follow Ravi Challu at,
Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/ravichallu/
Website BulletproofYourStartup: www.bulletproofyourstartup.com/
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