It is a quite interesting fact that a person keeps on venturing with full vigour and energy, with new ideas every time and due to this he gains experience to that extent that he can correctly identify a particular venture as successful.
But he never stops, like waves keep coming in a sea, flow of ideas comes to these types of entrepreneurs, he moves to next set of ideas and start venturing into it. That is the sporting spirit of a Serial Entrepreneur.
The main rationale behind the serial entrepreneur is to build number of start-ups in different domains may be in manufacturing or service sector monitor them by arranging funding and all other matters.
Then he moves to next set of people with different domain but pursue them to do their best since he knows the success rate of the venture due to his or her experience.
Basic Qualities
Serial Entrepreneurs constantly think, think positively, optimistically, elevate their thoughts, fully energetic, maintains time management with specific milestones, expect quality and high standards as he or she demonstrates and shows results in all the ventures undertaken.
In the global scenario, Serial Entrepreneurs are few in numbers but their success rate is tremendous. They exhibit persistence and clearly knows the future in a particular industry. They will venture on it.
Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Andy Bech, Mukesh Bansal, Radhakrishna, Ganesh are few examples of Serial Entrepreneurs.
The fact is many may not know that they are serial entrepreneurs until they are identified by others. They keep on venturing and many a time successful in all ventures.
They adopt a policy not to stop with one but to venture more and when the tough gets tougher, they persist and keep moving.
Takeaways from a Serial Entrepreneur
- Keep venturing on a positive mood.
- Energize yourself and others to start new ventures.
- Never stop attitude.
- Try different ventures at different times.
- Do good industry and market research and stay updated with current developments.
- Motivate others to start and continuously do that day in and day out.
- Start number of ventures at the same time.
Warren Buffet was successful in developing many businesses from one successful venture, Berkshire Hathway.
The way of Thinking
Sometimes it will make us to wonder whether developing one business and sustaining in it is a thing of the past, may not be. We can see number of instances in which people have started investing their time, effort and money in one firm but ultimately did start a serial of firms either related or unrelated to the main business.
Meena Ganesh and her husband are the best example in India, as early as 2003, they started tutor vista, then big basket, and half dozen firms which made them to venture into different arena, all successful, of-course with a gentle touch by Tata, PWC and some big wigs.
Pratik Gauri, started his first venture at age of 16 and now in 29 years have helped dozen start-ups with cumulative investment of 200cr.Many are venturing not only in one domain but in many, and helping start-ups in all areas which make them feel that they are contributing to a big industrial revolution.
Krishnan Ganesh, a successful Serial Entrepreneur, has started five ventures in a short span and attracted maximum venture capitalists.
Research made earlier, shows that 50% of the entrepreneurs fail but compared to novice entrepreneurs, serial entrepreneurs could also be coined as habitual entrepreneurs, exit one enterprise and start another.
They do like this continuously and succeed also, since they learn from their failures more than their successes. It is true to the statement, Good Experience comes from Bad Judgements, and Good Judgement comes from Bad Experiences.
The Ramifications of Serial Entrepreneurs:
The first one started by them may be a failure, but they exit by selling or simply closing down, without bothering about the investment by stakeholders including bankers. This is one of the reason banks are reluctant to fund start-ups and also bank’s NPA's are mounted up.
The serial entrepreneur fails to assess themselves and keep on experimenting, in many cases with others’ money, sometimes are successful. These entrepreneurs have an urge for achieving success faster by venturing in different and varied sectors, but industry doesn’t work that way. While they are successful but on the long, the enterprise they have started fails after they exit, leaving behind a major loss in all types of resources.
Research also states that a person cannot be master of everything and naturally a time frame is required to evolve with the ecosystem.
This is possible only with a standalone entrepreneur rather than serial entrepreneurs
There is also a factor which investors, VCs, and bankers insist on the quality delivery of the project as well as the sustainability. This will take a back seat in the case of serial entrepreneurs.
To sum up, in macro sense, serial entrepreneurs have to train and discipline themselves and match their thinking with the entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Ventures become successful in ten years’ span and when Serial Entrepreneurs who establish different companies, at a short time due to their experience, achieve greater success in a given point in time. But they have to move with caution or else they will be viewed as rolling stone gathers no mass.
But undoubtedly the growth of serial entrepreneurs and the way they start ventures will lead to more start-ups coming up, more employment opportunities and better economic growth. There will be a series of serial entrepreneurial growth in future and as a favoured destination, India will reach its planned growth much faster.
About the Author
Dr. R.Subramanian is the Founder & CEO of MIND BIZ PROJECTS & TRAINING Pvt. Ltd., Chennai. His company focuses on preparing business plans, project reports, facilitating project finance through equity, VC and angel investors and debt financing from banks. He has been the mentor and adviser for startups since 1991 and for MSME since 2011. Mentor and board member - BYST, a CII initiative. The author can be reached at subramanian@mindbiz.co.in