Popular reality shows like Dragon’s Den Canada and its American franchise Shark Tank feature budding entrepreneurs who deliver pitches in the hopes of securing investment from a panel of venture capitalists interested in the development of the featured company or product. These TV shows highlight the N. American dream of becoming rich and successful. That a person who is able to acquire capital, sell their products and develop jobs is not far off. While to some extent these shows do romanticize this idea, I learned from successful business entrepreneurs that it all begins with an idea.
Anupam Mittal, founder and CEO of People Group who owns popular websites such as Shaadi.com globally known to the South Asian community replied to the question, “What the first step an entrepreneur (in the making) should take?” with the tweeted answer, “Find an idea that you are willing to spend all your waking hours on.” The e-commerce website revolutionized the way marriages were conducted in India forever. Now, a household name among the South Asian community worldwide, the company according to his welcome letter began with the simple idea to “provide a superior matchmaking experience by expanding opportunities available to meet potential life partners.”
Mittal also owns Makaan.com, Mauj Mobile, and People Pictures. Launched in 1997, Shaadi.com’s Facebook page has more 1 million fans and is now known as the world’s largest matrimonial website. In an interview Mittal gave to Indian digital in 2011, he recalls that the idea came to him when he had met a professional matchmaker when he went door to door carrying marriage “bio-datas” or “resumes” with him. Mittal wondered, “I wondered what would happen if we took away the spatial and geographical limitations away by putting up profiles on the Internet.” Thus shaadi.com came into being.
When asked the same question, Gary C. Bizzo who is known as a business startup specialist and an experienced CEO of Hired Vancouver tweeted, “analyze it, do a SWOT analysis followed by a conservative business plan.” SWOT analysis is taught at training classes in many corporate businesses and essentially means determining the idea or business model’s Strength, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats. Well-known and famous app known as WhatsApp, Inc. was recently acquired by Facebook for a total of $16 billion dollars. Whatsapp today has more than 200-300 million users worldwide. Their story too began with humble beginnings. According to their about page, the company began when two guys wanted to “build a better SMS alternatives…because someday very soon everyone will have a smart phone.” Lo and behold, their ideas like that of Mittal came to light and today they are billionaires!
So, all you folks out there – if you have an idea, a solution to a common problem, or even something unique or as the business men call it “proprietary” – start developing it and become entrepreneurs. You never know when you could be the next CEO or owner of a multi-million dollar business. As they say, all it takes is an idea.
Featured Image: Daniel Forero & Jeon Phang/ Jeon Von Matt Stockholm
Nidhi Shrivastava
Author
Nidhi Shrivastava (@shnidhi) is a Ph.D. candidate in the English department at Western University and works as an adjunct professor in at Sacred Heart University. She holds double masters in South Asian Studies and Women's Studies. Her research focuses on Hindi film cinema, censorship, the figure o...
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