Working with a start up

Working with a start up
As an aspiring MBA, I had always dreamt that as a MBA grad my first job would be in a big MNC, a plush office, a laptop, a blackberry, onsite visits, a P.A(Ok! That might have been over imagination) but rest all was well within my limits and capabilities. But as destiny would have it, the final placements in my college coincided with the global meltdown resulting in cancellation/ reluctance on the part of recruiters/firms to come for campus placements. Although banks across the world collapsed and became evanescent they still formed the major chunk on companies that came and the IT sector which was my sector of choice remained quite elusive till the end keeping me high and dry till the very end of placement season.
Being stubborn bastard (comes naturally to Leo’s) and my aversion to BFSI I finally landed in a situation when just one month of college was left and I had no job in hand. This is when I decided to take a plunge, lower my expectations about a big firm and a big fat cheque and decided to join a any firm that came my way, although I still didn’t want to compromise on the sector.
So I joined a small company which was primarily into Engineering services (CAD, CAM, CAE etc) and a little bit into software domain also. After my interview in the company my mind was in quite a dubious state, due to lack of infrastructure and professionalism in the part of my future employer. Well what I mean by lack of infrastructure is – a rented bungalow, 10 PC’(with an inch of dust on each,2 dessert cooler, 10 employees,people removing their footwear outside the door etcetera, I guess have conveyed a fairly good picture in the readers mind.
It was nothing like the company of my dreams and nor of my nightmares. At the same time after the talks with the directors who were employed with a TATA motors my imagination was running amok, they had explained me what the company did and also about some of the big projects they had done for a couple of OEM’s and had offered me the post of Marketing Head. So I would be the one who would be responsible for entire marketing/sales related activities (lead generation, presales, sales, account management, marketing communication etc etc!) and in turn was indirectly responsible for running the company. Also I also had a stake in terms of percentage in whatever revenue I got for the company.
A normal person in my state would after considering the dilapidated state of the company would have made up his mind instantly as to not join the company. But that night my mind was thinking in the entirely different direction it was filled with thoughts of how I would transform the company, changes I would incorporate, this and that, I already had imagined that once I get the company up and running smoothly, I’ll invest my capital in it and take up a stake in it ask them to shift to a better location and blah blah., I could see myself meeting with CIO’s across US and Europe. So basically without even moving a muscle I had imagined myself to be a CEO/MD in an upcoming IT firm. Wow so much for the efforts of Narayan Mutrhy, I would be the next big CEO in IT. Talk about fool’s paradise, I was actually settled in that paradise with my imagination giving me food for thoughts. When I think about that night and the subsequent one’s I think of hat a big fool I was and actually: what the hell was I thinking? I have only just shared few of the thoughts running around my mind that night as to what all I was thinking till 4 in the morning even I do not recollect, all I know is that was pretty fool hardy.
With this beautiful picture in mind I sent a confirmation mail to the HR stating my willingness to join “my future” company. Little did I know things aren’t that easy in life and that the reality is way different from day dreams and a fool’s imaginative thoughts.
Well I was with this firm for exactly 2.5 months (Cough! Cough!), so much for the Rembrandt in my mind. In the initial month I actually thought that I could make a difference and did work diligently with whole honesty. It must be kept in mind I had absolutely no guidance from any one else what so ever and whatever efforts I made were my own, be it approaching other people who had knowledge in this matter, blogging heavily on LinkedIn, attending conferences on start ups and much more things. When I look back at what all means I used to get the business it actually embarrasses me, to have done so many menial things during the course of my stay there.
I totally accept that I failed in that job big time and I actually didn’t work much after the initial month. I didn’t use to go to office, use to say I am on filed and use to cut corners in whatever way I could, didn’t use report to my superiors at all. And finally it happened, they had to let me go as a company of their size and in dire states could not afford to keep a non performing asset.
The question is, why did I fail? I know it is always easier to blame others but in my case I actually had others the blame that’s the founders of my company.
1. One day they wanted me to sell one of their software products which in all terms was a cheap rip from an open source code without actually giving me a proper training on the same. They had no marketing plan, cost plan, feature plan, or any god dam things. They made a brochure after I gave them the material. They thought that with their “wonderful” product I will just approach the clients and they will hug me saying “we were waiting for you for so long”. Sorry that is not how the market was, it was filled with competitors with better products better strategy and better everything.
2. The next day they wanted me to run around the auto ancillaries and get some projects from them.
3. The third day they wanted me to find buyers for one of the products whose reseller ship they had taken.
4. The fourth day they wanted mw to get some web development or application development software projects. When they did not have a single person in their team who had a little bit knowledge of how a code is written, most of them just worked here as the company was near their home and they were so bad that no one else would have wanted them.
5. The company didn’t even have a god damm decent functional website, a 10’th grade with a knowledge of HTML could build a better website than theirs. I had to actually give them the links of some reference websites to develop a better website for the company.
To summarize they had no strategy, no technological expertise, no functional expertise no infrastructure no plan no nothing and on the top of that they did not wish to spend a single penny on anything to boost their sales or to explore some new horizons. So heir motto was “No investment, only returns”.
I know I am cribbing a lot here but every word of what I wrote above is true and theses are only few of the things highlighting their in competencies. Twice it happened when some how I had got them a project and these losers could not even deliver. When I had a requirement for an immediate proposal to be send to client they took their merry time to respond to it. There was a big gap in my strategy/outlook for the company and that of the founders. You can imagine for yourself as I met with them only 5-6 times in 2.5 months.
So, to end it all my experience with a start up was so pathetic that I vowed that I would not work with one if I could avoid it. I know the independence and responsibilities look lucrative in a start up but you have to compensate for that with more work and less pay. I guess it all boils down to an individual as to what he/she want form their life. For an engineer/techie I would say start up is a decent option as they get to learn a lot, they get a good exposure and there is no bench time. But for MBA’s a no no, trust me on that.