Start-up owners are now pragmatic about their failures, here's why

Bangalore is the city of start ups. In fact, it is the second fastest growing start-up hub in the world! If you are looking for a job today, you’ll find that most of the companies that are hiring in Bangalore are start-ups. There are so many of them, that there cannot be a 100% success rate for all. In fact, most start-ups in Bangalore close down or move to another business model within 2 years of operations.

Source: Modesto Bee

BEYOND MONEY HONEY

Its not always about money. Yes, for venture capitalists and angel investors, it is about money, but for the founder of the start-up, it is more about the dream. The dream and the possibilities that once fuelled their very enthusiasm. It is like heart break. You put in all your hours and your hard work into something, and it just doesn’t work out. So how do you deal with a situation like this?

Also Watch: Entrepreneur To Entrepreneur with Sakshi Talwar and Shveta Raina

First of all, you try and channel your energy into something productive, rather than drowning in negativity. If this start-up fails, maybe another will work. When founders have the experience to run a start-up for a year or two, getting funding for their second or third start-up is much easier. It is because they know the process in and out, and also that the investors trust their experience. Rohan Prabhu, the co-founder of the short-lived travel start-up called Nomadly, in Bangalore, told us, “At some point there just wasn't enough money to reach a break-even point with Nomadly, so we started our next venture to solve the common and excruciating problems generally faced with messaging-oriented applications, which we ourselves faced when building the assistant app at Nomadly.”

IT'S ALWAYS A POSITIVE START

Manjushri Shenoy, founder of two start-ups, Izra and Chronos says "having started and failed two startups in the last three years, I've definitely learnt that there is nothing like real failure, failure is a stepping stone towards something bright, towards success."

Having the tag of starting a new company on your resume is always a positive thing. Potential employers will know that you are a hard-working person. They will also know that you are most definitely passionate about what you do. Ivy Manohara Benjamin, the founder of Filmapia and Athena academy puts it quite simply, "Psychologically, its good to understand that failure is inevitable. However when failure strikes, there is still an invaluable lesson to be gleaned, since they have come out of a test of fire. They have now gone through every part of the process cycle of building a business! This makes them an experienced asset in any other business or a corporate job."

I have learnt that there is nothing like real failure, failure is a stepping stone towards something bright, towards success- Manjushri

Losing your dream can be a hard hitting reality, but it is also something that start-up owners expect before they start. “Our entire team has taken this pivot very positively and that is possibly because as a startup, of all things, failure was a very possible reality that we never shied away from”, Rohan told SheThePeople.TV, when we asked him about the impact on his team.

MOVING FORWARD

Manjushri told us that her failures impacted her in many ways, but instead of dwelling over it, she decided to move on with life. "You can get up, brush off the dust from your fall and tread along towards your next venture, and when you do, you will have the lesson you learned to guide you."

All in all, accepting the reality and moving on is pretty much what one can do when failure strikes, but keeping your head up high, and your passion strong can take you a long way. As Rohan puts it perfectly, “While we always strive to be pragmatic about things, we are still driven primarily by passion and as long as that is still alive, it allows us to dream just a little bit longer.”