Rudrajeet Desai - Breaking Out and Making Big: A No-Nonsense Book on New Age Start-Ups and Entrepreneurship

BREAKING OUT AND
MAKING BIG

A NO-NONSENSE BOOK ON NEW AGE START-UPS
AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP

RUDRAJEET DESAI

FOREWORD BY
ALOK KEJRIWAL

COLLINS
BUSINESS

Rudrajeet Desai is a thirty-four-year-old, first-generation entrepreneur in the consumer internet and mobile industry space. He is the co-founder and CEO of Ideacts Innovations, an internet media and technology product company that operates the worlds largest cyber caf advertising network under the brandiCafeManager. Ideacts is funded by Sequoia Capital and Saama Capital; it operates in eighteen countries and has partnered with over 30,000 cyber cafs.

Rudrajeet started his entrepreneurial journey in the year 2006, when he quit his dream job as a business manager in the mobile marketing team of Group M India. Since then his entrepreneurial experience includes bootstrapping Ideacts for two years, building a team of 220 people, taking the company through three large strategic business evolutions and two downturns, raising three rounds of funding, one round of cost cutting, doing active sales, product management, operations, alliances, assisting the finance team, cracking deals with clients and partners, fighting and working hand-in-hand with co-founders, team members, clients, investors and helping a new CEO settle in, take charge and exit while remaining an active chairman in the company.

A poet and philanthropist otherwise, Rudrajeet was rated among the 5 hottest entrepreneurs in a survey done by Businessworld in 2010. Prior to taking the jump, Rudrajeet has worked in Cadbury India, BPL Mobile, Mobile2win and Group M.

Introduction

Thank you for buying the book or for borrowing it from someone. I hope you will find it worth the time you spend on it.

I strongly believe that it is very important for a reader to know who the author is, what his background is and what makes him qualified to write what he has written. Especially if it is what is described as a self-help book, or presumes to give any kind of advice. The true value of any advice or suggestion can be gauged only after knowing the person who is giving it. Hence, I thought it best to present my credentials and then get on with the rest.

My name is Rudrajeet Siddharth Desai. I was born in an Indian army officers family in Chandigarh Cantonment. Like any other fauji kid, I had an awesome upbringing in towns like Delhi, Mhow, Udhampur, Chandigarh, Jalandhar, Rangia, Leh and Pune. Schooling was in Kendriya Vidyalayas across the country and college in Pune University.

I am a thirty-four-year-old entrepreneur and have been in the internet, technology and mobile industry in India for the last eight years. Almost every day, since I was sixteen years old, I had dreamt of being an entrepreneur and building a large company. It all started when I read Business Maharajas by Gita Piramal around that time. My entrepreneurial journey started back in 19992000 when, with two friends, I worked on the idea of building an advertising network in cybercafs. We succeeded in getting the idea off the ground with over thirty-five cafs in Pune and four advertisers. But we soon realized that nineteen-year-olds are not taken very seriously in the market and we had to shut shop and move on to gain more experience. So, I went on to work in sales and business development in Cadbury India, BPL Mobile (Loop Mobile), mobile2win and GroupM in Pune, Mumbai and Bengaluru.

But although, by job experience I am a sales, advertising and marketing man, by passion I am a techie/product guy. And so, in September 2006, I quit my last job as a business manager in the Mobile Team of GroupM India and went on to start Ideacts Innovations.

About Ideacts Innovations

Ideacts runs Indias largest cyber caf management application and advertising network under the brand icaf Manager. It works in the domain of the internet, software product technology and advertising. It has over a hundred employees in four offices, business operations in 300 cities and advertising relationships with over 250 companies, including the biggest global names in the internet, such as Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo, Naukri, Pepsi, Aircel and Vodafone. Ideacts is funded by Sequoia Capital and Saama Capital and has a founding team of five members.

Why I feel qualified to write this book

In the process of building and leading an organization like Ideacts, I have gained immense knowledge and understanding in diverse areas, such as operations, technology, product management, sales, finance, human resource, facilities, people management, advertising and venture capital. I started at the age of twenty-six, when I quit my last job and have been CEO of Ideacts for a full five years. I bootstrapped the company for two years, built a team of 220 people, have gone through three large strategic business evolutions, seen two downturns, raised three rounds of funding and one round of cost cutting. I have done active sales, been the product manager of the company since its inception till date, managed and assisted my finance team in financial analyses, hired people more experienced than me, hired people smarter than me, actively cracked deals with clients and partners, fought and worked hand-in-hand with co-founders, team members, clients, investors and helped a new CEO settle in and take charge.

This book is based on what I learnt from all my experience. Every line of code written, every paisa earned or spent, every deal signed, every employee hired and every meeting organized has contributed to it. A mind constantly flooded with questions and a determined pursuit of self-realization have helped me look at my business from different perspectives. A lot of what I share with my readers are ideas I may not have implemented or acted upon because I did not have the time then, or I lost the opportunity when it came. Sometimes, its the situation in which you find yourself that teaches you the most.

I am certainly no guru or preacher, and I wont be termed one of the most successful entrepreneurs of my time either. But knowledge comes through experience, which could be of success or of failure. I have tried to share my experience of entrepreneurship and start-ups which I acquired through the successes and the failures I have been through. Some of the suggestions I have made have been inspired by a few people whom I met on this journey and who have taught me things I wished to put down on paper.

I believe implicitly in everything I have written and not a single word has been put there just to make it a good read.

I hope you find this book useful in your journey.

Entrepreneurship cannot be taught or learnt from someone else. The very essence of entrepreneurship is that it needs one individual to start something from scratch and run it with his own philosophy and ideology. But one can draw inspiration from others and take ones own decisions and create ones own philosophy based on others experiences.

It is with your best interest at heart that I have written this book, so that you will know how to use it on your journey to becoming an entrepreneur. It is not a description of my entrepreneurial journey or of my start-up. It is about the learning I acquired from my six years which, I believe, will be extremely useful for any budding entrepreneur to have.

There are many facets to entrepreneurship that are unique to each journey and which, time and again, can lead the entrepreneur in several different directions. It helps to pick up a few suggestions from someone elses experiencesuggestions that might not drive your decisions, but are useful to keep in mind. And should you come across similar situations, you would have some prior knowledge which would help you as you navigate through your own problems and arrive at your own solutions. It is necessary to customize these experiences and suggestions to your own circumstances and start-uptaking something at face value is not a good idea. So, try and learn the lessons behind the experience and see if and how it can relate to your game plan.