Last\u00a0weekend I met two of my friends, who are entrepreneurs and have their own start-ups. Each of them was in corporate jobs for over 10 years and has taken this leap\u00a0in the last 2-3 years. We had good chat\u00a0about their life as an entrepreneur, their journey from corporate world to being a founder of a\u00a0technology\u00a0start up and\u00a0challenges that an entrepreneur will face.\u00a0During these discussions they shared a couple of challenges which\u00a0they face.<\/p>\n
While big corporates have departments and experts for the diverse range of skills that\u00a0the business demands, entrepreneurs have no such luxury. Making sense of the fine print in contracts and agreements, dealing with compliances are examples of competencies that\u00a0many techie entrepreneurs are not equipped with. They improvise on such skills as they go.\u00a0They become\u00a0part of all the departments. They have to lend their thought space for wide range of issues, be it engineering,\u00a0sales, or even\u00a0legal. \u00a0Most\u00a0of the times\u00a0hiring people with such niche skills is not feasible, but sometimes the\u00a0realization to\u00a0hire them\u00a0dawns only with a\u00a0bitter experience.<\/p>\n
Time to market determines the success factor in start-up. Similar ideas are being thought out by many people in the world at the same time. The one that brings it out to the market has the advantage. A stable development team is a key factor for faster time to market. The challenge is to find and retain people with right technical skills. \u00a0On the day of the critical delivery to the customer, a fresher\u00a0that my friend had hired for his start up thought\u00a0it is appropriate to\u00a0send a chat\u00a0message telling he can’t continue any more as the MNC is offering an astronomical sum – suddenly escalating the situation to a crisis.\u00a0If filtering\u00a0through hundreds of\u00a0r\u00e9sum\u00e9s and selecting a good candidate is tough, retaining this talent and not losing them to the fat pay cheques of the corporates is next to impossible.<\/p>\n
While\u00a0thinking\u00a0about\u00a0couple of issues they mentioned,\u00a0it suddenly\u00a0occurred\u00a0to me that there are many ways in which I can help\u00a0such start-ups. I thought why don’t I use some\u00a0of my free time\u00a0to actually help my friends out? I called up one of them and offered to him to specifically work with him to do 2-3 specific activities\u00a0for his venture.\u00a0He happily welcomed it. I clarified to him it is volunteer work and all I wanted was for him to succeed. In turn I would get the experience of working for\u00a0a start-up. It felt really good.<\/p>\n
There\u00a0are lots of people working in big corporations with immense skills in niche\u00a0areas who are contemplating either to\u00a0start up a venture\u00a0or work in a start-up. There are many who feel their potential is yet to be realized in their companies. There are people who are exploring how they can do more interesting things in their careers.<\/p>\n
If you are any one of these –\u00a0Why not connect with a\u00a0start-up founder and offer to volunteer for these guys? Why not lend your skills to help solve some specific problem for them? How about making a software module work? How about fixing a couple of defects or perhaps guiding them on\u00a0certain legal matter? \u00a0If you are interested, why not update your LinkedIn profile offering your skills and see how many heads you turn?<\/p>\n
It could be an opportunity to polish those\u00a0skills that you have not used in a while.\u00a0You\u00a0have great chances of networking\u00a0with some “doers” of the industry. It will be a great chance to learn. \u00a0Your\u00a0contributions\u00a0will be the show case of your competencies\u00a0in your\u00a0r\u00e9sum\u00e9. \u00a0In short,\u00a0it will not just be a valuable help for the founders, you will be\u00a0doing yourself a big favour.<\/p>\n
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(Views are personal)<\/em><\/p>\n This article was first posted on LInkedIn<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n