Startup Compass : How Iconic Entrepreneurs Got It Right
Ujwal Kalra, Shobhit Shubhankar
ABOUT THE BOOK
The idea of starting a company has never been more popular in India. A new breed of entrepreneurs is rising in the country, inspired by homegrown heroes, driven to pursue extraordinary outcomes, and supported by an ecosystem that is willing to back audacious ideas.
Startup Compass amalgamates advice on starting and growing a company, shared in a lecture series at IIM Ahmedabad and over extensive interviews, from 15 iconic members of India`s startup ecosystem including Sanjeev Bikhchandani (Naukri), Deep Kalra (MakeMyTrip), Sachin Bansal (Flipkart), Falguni Nayar (Nykaa), Kunal Shah (CRED), Sahil Barua (Delhivery), and Raghunandan G (TaxiForSure). It brings together their varied experiences to offer invaluable insights across ten stages in the lifecycle of a company, beginning from the decision to start a company, to critically examining an idea, building a team, launching a product, raising money, all the way to an eventual exit. It offers rich stories of grit, of vision being transformed into tangible reality, and of outstanding founders building remarkable companies.
If you are looking to begin your own startup journey, are interested in the Indian startup ecosystem, or are simply a student of business, this book is for you.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Ujwal Kalra is a serial entrepreneur, currently serving as the co-founder and CEO of NAKAD, a supply chain startup that makes credit and commerce easily available to small and medium businesses. Earlier he worked at Boston Consulting Group where he was a founding member of Growth Tech India, a BCG initiative to work with startups. At IIM Ahmedabad, Ujwal co-founded and headed the ‘How to Start a Startup’ series on which this book is based. He was an Institute Merit scholar at IIMA, graduating in the top 5 per cent of his batch. An alumnus of IIT Guwahati and DPS Vasant Kunj, Ujwal has been awarded numerous awards in his young career, including The Economic Times Young Leader, O.P. Jindal Scholarship, Dun & Bradstreet Award and Dunia Scholarship, UAE. He also represented India at Kairos, a USA-based entrepreneurship society.
Shobhit Shubhankar is a consultant at Boston Consulting Group. He has worked across South-East Asia with project experience in private equity, technology, telecommunications, and industrial goods practice areas. He has also worked at B Capital Group, a multi-stage global investment firm investing in technology companies. He is an alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad where he was a founding member of the ‘How to Start a Startup’ series, and graduated in the top 5 per cent of his batch. He has a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from IIT BHU Varanasi, and serves on the board of the IIT BHU Global Alumni Association.