Nitin Konde
1 February, 2016, Mumbai: One of the most famous faces of the Indian startup industry, Rahul Yadav, made another bold statement during the IIT Bombay’s ‘The Entrepreneur Summit 2016’. While addressing a full house Yadav said, “For me, IIT means the best of minds put together and bad infrastructure in hostels.” He was accompanied by another ecommerce personality Sachin Bansal, who needs no introduction. Yadav and Bansal visited IIT Bombay to be a part of ‘The Entrepreneur Summit 2016’.
“I felt invincible thanks to being an IITian like we could create, design, sell anything without any outside help. We aced at everything, creating products and designing them etc. Going in, I thought, that was it, that’s all we needed. Marketing, HR, and media relations were all BS. How I was proved wrong. Having a great product will not sell itself; marketing, field sales, communications and media are equally important, HR, administration are crucial, and you must build a team good at each if you want to succeed,” adds Yadav.
Speaking to the young IITians, Sachin Bansal, shared his views, “Right from seven years ago to even a year ago, almost on a daily basis I had been doing something new. Change is the only constant. People who are nimble are the ones who will get ahead.”
Commenting on the startup ecosystem, Bansal opined, “We had Flipkart’s blueprint ready within 10 weeks of quitting our jobs, but the biggest challenge is that it still takes 45 days to make (officially register) a company. But even as I think those challenges continue, what’s great is that there are people who are thinking fearlessly of starting up, people are willing to start up, and the investor-scene has changed drastically as entrepreneurs receive investments for their big ideas. Hiring has undergone change, and people are willing to join startups rather than the conventional big corporates, and with good reason, for startups are able to offer wealth creation opportunities.”