During
Diwali 2006, a young electronics engineer working for Texas Instruments in
Bangalore, India, wanted to take a bus and go home to be with his family.
Destiny did not let him go home. Instead it provoked him to create a business
that let millions of Indians book ‘bus tickets’ online. Phanindra Sama created
Redbus (http://www.redbus.in/) which is now one of the most
successful ventures in India. Redbus was nominated one of the 50 most
innovative companies in the world and was recently acquired by Naspers. (http://www.naspers.com/)
A couple
of articles:
I
recently had the privilege of conversing with Phani and it was definitely an
enlightening experience. The following is a summary of the Q & A we had.
Q. If you had to ‘startup’ again
with a similar idea (like Redbus), would you be doing anything differently?
What was a special learning you had during the growth of Redbus?
Phani
had a couple of interesting things to share here. He stressed the importance of
front end hiring. Generally, when it is a new business, people get so caught up
and busy that they tend to give hiring less priority. But a good keen eye for
the right people always pays off. It would also get you the A-team senior
management in place faster and effectively.
Another
lesson during the process of entrepreneurship has been about leadership. You
can find a number of videos with Phani giving some very cool tips on leadership.
One of the key things to note about leadership is knowing when to put your foot
down and knowing when to be open to ideas. Good leaders strike a balance
between kind heartedness and decisiveness.
Q. Being an electronics engineer,
were you able to apply any of your skills from electronics in your company?
While
Phani might not have been able to put exact electronics engineering material to
work in Redbus, he definitely could identify some key transferrable skills.
Certain attributes like problem solving, getting to the depths of subjects to
clearly understand the world around you, realizing the importance of
sophisticated technology and simple concepts help you greatly in a business.
Moreover, an aptitude for such learning would give you more confidence in
yourself.
Q. I hear that you are thinking
of turning into an investor. If you were investing in a new venture, what would
you be looking for?
People.
The team that initiates and executes the venture is the crux and soul of the
startup. Though a certain amount of diversity in the team is good for everyone,
a team without the right chemistry will not be able to pivot success. Phani
also reflected that this was one of the main reasons why they were not only
able to survive but also be in a competitive position.
Q. A personal question. You have
a reputation of being very humble and simple. How do you stay so grounded? What
is your approach towards people?
To this
question Phani laughed and said “I actually don’t know. I was told that I am
humble and I even asked my wife about it. I guess I just am the way I am.”
In one
of his interviews, Phani had mentioned why he leads a simple life. He says that
if you lead a simple and natural life, irrespective of the turns your life
takes, you will sustain yourself and not find it traumatic. “You should let
life be unfair to you sometimes”
What a
novel, profound thought!
