Kartik Joshi - Failure Is Directly Proportional to Success


The more your ability to accept rejection, neglect and failure, the more is your hunger and digestion for success. If you don’t fail, then you won't be able to handle success.

1. Tell us more about your company and your journey. 

The Startup is known by the name Techsamvaad Private Limited. It’s an officially registered company under the Startup India programme and approved by the DPIIT (Department for Promotion of Industries and Internal Trade) and funded primarily by the Government of Gujarat.

The company came into formation on 27-07-2017 under the Incubation Centre at Gujarat Law Society (GLS) Incubation Centre, LEAF. 

2. How did you come up with this idea and go about executing it? 

It’s a funny story actually. We gifted our Grandpa his first-ever Smartphone when he turned 80 in August 2016 as he wanted to keep up with us and have a taste of popular applications. So we explained the way his phone works.

Due to age, his hands tremble a lot, so he asked, “Is there a way that I speak and the phone works just like you guys do?”. So we showed him the Google Assistant and explained how it works with long press and “OK Google” Voice command. 

The next question he asked was the actual foundation seed of the primary product, “Does it understand Gujarati?”, I replied “No”. I realised we can buy a taste of technology quite easily, but we haven’t focused on making products on a vernacular level or regional entity.

So after that, I did a lot of R&D to learn about how Voice recognition works and how to execute it. Thanks to the help of my family, teachers and friends, it wasn’t that difficult as expected.

I spent 6 months into R&D behind the idea and even met a few people working in the industry using business networks (Never underestimate the power of LinkedIn and well connected Indian businessmen). Once I had a prototype ready with me, like a small scale application, I was totally lost about the next course of action.

Nobody in my family has a business background, so it was quite difficult for me to manage everything and on top of that my educational background was only technical (M.Sc.I.T.) hence no actual knowledge of Resource Management or Fund allocation or any other management skills.

I went online and found out that the Government was promoting new small scale innovation-based businesses by giving them spaces to operate, mentoring, legal help, funding in some cases and escalating too. Call it destiny, my very own college campus, the GLS University had one such business Incubation centre, LEAF.

I presented my product there and gave a small demo as well. They seemed to like my idea, but the elephant in the room was still to be addressed, WHAT NEXT?. My mentors at LEAF gave me an opportunity to showcase my product in front of the panel of Government of Gujarat for funding, and the rest is history.

We acquired seed funding from there and started making the product. I included two of friends in my idea as co-founders as they had been with me when this entire thing was just an idea. 

3. What has been your biggest challenge that you faced, and how did you overcome that? 

Initially, I used to feel Funding is the biggest challenge that a Startup possesses. But now I realise the biggest challenge is Awareness and Feedback. Making people aware of your product and creating a brand value is for more complicated for someone of non-management background.

To improve constantly and continuously if you are into making products depending upon the feedback is I think the biggest challenge we faced. We tried to overcome this by implementing ground level surveys and creating product awareness, once we had enough feedback to launch the finished entity, we entered the market. 

4. What do you think are the most important qualities of a successful entrepreneur? 

For me, its always going to be perseverance and selection. Choosing the right idea, set of people and market plays a crucial role in the life of an Entrepreneur.

Perseverance because no two days will ever be the same in the life of an entrepreneur and to bear that with optimism is not an easy job. If you can practice that, then things will be relatively easy for you.

5. What are some of the most important factors for running a successful business?

Survival is the key for Start-ups. No matter the sale or revenue or even number of customers, your business should be just able to survive the lows of the market.

Several companies such as BYJU’s have just survived all these years competing with one of the largest physical institution of India, Education and today we all know its valuation and clientele.

Also, in some cases, certain business ideas are too good but too soon such as FoodPanda if it would have survived then ordering food online would have started way back.

The above examples are a great insight to understand that every business will get its opportunity to shine, the only thing required is for you to be alive and kicking at the time when the said opportunity gives a knock on your door.

6. What are your tips for the first time and aspiring entrepreneurs?

Read a lot and Fail a lot. Reading sharpens up your mind. Case studies, journals, biographies, incidents in lives of people will make you realise that people less privileged then you have achieved tremendous feats.

We all know that great things have a very humble beginning but what matters is who stays humble after being a titan. At times in this journey, we tend to lose our hope and optimism, in such times, books come in handy.

Failure is in direct proportion to success, the more your ability to accept rejection, neglect and failure, the more is your hunger and digestion for success. If you don’t fail, then you won't be able to handle success.

Lastly, talk to people about your idea abstractly as much as you can, you will get free organic reviews and feedbacks, and that might help you to tweak your product or business plan a little bit more.
 
7. How can one overcome a hurdle of lack of funds when starting up?

There are a couple of simple ways to kick off the business or the terminology “Seed funding”. The usual way is that the co-founders of the idea can share their savings like splitting up a pizza bill but make sure in need of money you don’t incorporate too many co-founders.

Steve Jobs once said, if you can't feed your team with a pizza, then your team is too big. The best option is to look into various options given by the Government of the State as well as the Central Government.

The funding options, size, eligibility everything is now available over portals of Startup India and Make in India. However, the easiest way is to approach an Incubation centre who will help you in every manner possible and even monitor your growth in various trenches.

These are a set of industry professionals who will not run away or steal your idea (I know this fear quite well) and can be easily approached with an email consisting of your Business idea and Revenue models. 

Kartik Joshi
Founder | Techsamvaad Private Limited

Interviewed by - Soumya Jain