This week we invited yet another passionate young entrepreneur Anirban Chatterjee for an interview with us to understand more about his exciting entrepreneurial journey. Anirban is the Founder at Tweak Skills And Buzzbricks Tweak Skills is an IIM Bangalore Incubated venture which provides educational and recruitment solution for Electrical, Mechanical & Civil Engineers. It also offers skills on demand solutions for colleges & companies. Buzzbricks.com is India’s first home buying consulting firm with honest, transparent & hassle-free end to end real estate service. Let’s learn more about his journey!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Anirban:
Tell us a little bit about yourself (background) and your journey as an entrepreneur, please;
Well, I am an entrepreneur at heart and an educationalist by demeanour. Successfully co-founded 3 profitable ventures & 1 educational foundation. When I look back, all these accolades seem impossible. I was born in a middle-class Bengali family at Calcutta but brought up in a remote part of northeast India in a place called Dimapur, a small district in Nagaland.
I spent my entire childhood in hills so when I came down to Calcutta (big metro city) for my engineering it was a nightmare, I was bullied and it was very difficult for me to adjust in the metropolitan culture.”
Later when I left my high paying job to start something of my own it was a task altogether to convince my conservative parents to support me in my entrepreneurial journey as no one in my family has ever been in business. It was a roller coaster ride filled with struggle, agony, and hardship but in the end, all seems worth it.
Why did you choose entrepreneurship over a job?
I can see a bunch of motivational gurus minting money preaching about following your passion. I feel it is the most overrated concept of our generation. “Follow your heart, follow your passion” has become a well-worn phrase. I would be honest, doing business was not my passion. Since childhood, I always aspired to be an engineer. I am an engineer by choice and entrepreneur by accident. As far as entrepreneurship is concern one thing played a pivotal role in my transition process (from Job to business) by being a problem solver & always seek for opportunities (over passion), instead of wondering if it is my true calling or not!
How do you find the industry/niche that you’re in?
All my startups are the result of having a “Problem-solving mindset” be it Tweak Skills, Buzzbricks or Buddy4Study. I strongly believe every opportunity comes with a “mask” called “problem”. Where there is a problem, there is an opportunity!
The funny part is people who don’t know how to recognize opportunity, complain about “problems” when it knocks their door. And 90% of people recognized opportunities when they are gone rather than when they are coming.
What gets you out of bed in the morning i.e. what’s your source of motivation?
My source of motivation is having a “clear defined purpose”. I believe motivation doesn’t last long but a person having a clear purpose with good habits does!
I have told this in many other interviews as well that when someone’s motivation is dripping; the issue is not of lack of sincerity or enthusiasm. Many times we start something with a lot of passion or interest, but when our purpose is not clear, we falter.
The idea here is when your purpose is clear, you will figure out how to do things. A lot of people start something without having a 100% clarity of why they are doing something.”
What challenges/obstacles did you face in your journey so far?
There are many challenges that I have faced and overcome. But one challenge which every startup or business faces every year is hiring the “right talent”. It is the most critical aspect while building an organization as a company is nothing but a group of “people” working together for a common cause. My hiring strategy: I look for people with the right attitude more than a “degree” or “talent”. As a person with the right attitude can be trained.
How do you handle the pressure and manage stress?
A situation becomes a problem when you don’t address it for a long time. So as soon as I encounter such a situation I commit, act, resolve and most importantly learn from it. Crime is not doing a mistake, crime is repeating the same.
Attack a problem before it turns out to be stress. The root cause of “stress” is unable to take “decision” at the “right time”. So to increase your decision-making power you need to have a calm mind. For that, I do a 20-minute meditation every day!
What is one strategy that you believe has helped you grow as a person/startup?
In the initial days of my entrepreneurship, the one strategy which has helped me grow is my “quick execution mindset”. As Theodore Roosevelt has correctly said
“Dreams are a dime a dozen. it’s their execution that counts”
But now after tasting entrepreneurial success, I feel being humble and having a learning attitude is the key to continuous growth. As success breeds arrogance and arrogance & learning attitude cannot co-exist among us.
In your opinion what are the keys to success?
I strongly believe the secret of success is continuous progress. It’s like, even if you keep clean mineral water in a glass for more than 2 weeks it becomes stale. (not drinkable).
What advice would you give to someone starting out as an aspiring entrepreneur?
To help aspiring & budding entrepreneurs I have created a platform called www.anirbanchatterjee.in where I share all my experiences, tips and strategies which has helped me to build the business from scratch. But in a nutshell, my advice would be don’t start a business just to do business & make money ( it’s not a get rich quick scheme), but to solve a real-life problem. Do not rush for funding; initially focus on customers. Focus on creating brand value not deal value. The best way to create a great product or service is to make something you want to use. If you are solving someone else’s problem, you are constantly stabbing in the dark. One of my favourite 6 letter words in the English dictionary “Action”. Once you have taken the decision to work on a specific product do not waste any further time in thinking and procrastinating. Do not paralyze yourself by over-analysis. Last but not least if you are ignoring your health, you won’t be able to sustain your success. Good health is the foundation of a good life. A healthy mind resides in a healthy body. Invest a minimum of 15-minutes in some physical activity.
What’s your take on Coronavirus Pandemic? and its impact on the startup ecosystem?
Some of my very close people (staying in India & abroad) have been affected by the deadly virus. For the last few weeks, there is panic across the globe as there is a complete LOCKDOWN. Across the globe, people are depressed, worried, many dying, some losing jobs, all across media there is the news of agony & pain. It’s a testing time for all of us, I strongly believe the world economy is not affected by Virus, rather it’s been affected by FEAR mongering. So being an optimist I am trying my best to bring the community together with a positive perspective, hope & faith (not fear) in people’s life. As faith and fear cannot co-exist among us. Positive attitude & faith will determine how we bounce-back from this crisis. As we say “A smooth sea never made a skilled mariner”
I feel there will be following impact on start-up ecosystem: Funding in start-ups will substantially reduce in 2020 across the globe. I even know many investors are pulling out of deals after giving “Term-sheets” or further negotiating on valuations. The business world will see lots of M&A. The era of “cheap money (the party)” is over, if you were planning to raise funds based on the “growth matrix” go back to the basics find “revenue model”. Investors will look for sustainable & profitable ventures only. Sectors that will grow healthcare, attention economy (Netflix, Prime, Youtube, etc), gig economy, companies building productivity tools (like dropbox, zoom, Basecamp, etc), computer security companies.
My suggestion to all the founders “first survive, then thrive”
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