God creates startups

This is what happens when we start thinking too loud. So loud that the decibel levels go beyond our sensible range and happened to end up plagiarizing even the title for this post from Stephen Hawking best seller "God Created Integers"

So, what has God to do with startups? Well, it is the Angels who guided me to this. Of course, i came to know of angels through venture capitalists. One leading to the other.

I am not alone. Most of us get ideas. Since it is our idea, we always feel it is got to be ground breaking and the greatest ever. Its only natural. As per cosmic intelligence theory, the same idea would have occurred to many of us at the same instance. We generally like to, rather choose to ignore this theory. After all, it is just a theory. Against common wisdom, against human nature, at least at this moment, we would like to be alone. All alone. From this state of being all alone, we would like to go and be every where. what a contrary?

The idea or concept has to take the shape of a service or a product. Now the real game starts.To play this game, it takes time, effort and money. The last of these; the money, comes first and is MOST valued. Yes. in capitals.

As one leads to other, to realize the idea, we need money; the most important ingredient. Where does the money come from?

This brings us to the landscape of venture capitalists, Angels, Impact Investors and God. We have not considered banks here as they look for collateral's; just that you have money in another form, and you see, you end up paying interest on the money you already possess. The game gets interesting.

Go to a VC. Well. I hear you screaming, "come on. grow up man". Yes. I think I understand what you mean. Money begets money. If you have enough money, you have access to more money. if you have commercialized your idea and looking to expand or rake up more money, then go to a VC. There is a rule of thumb here. "go to a venture capitalist when you don't want money".This is my interpretation. You may refer to a book "Entrepedia" by Professor Nandini Vaidyanathan.

Go to an Angel Investor. Literally they are angels. They offer a helping hand. They share the risk.  You have a working model and there are a few early adopters, Angels are there for help.

There are also a rare breed of Investors. The impact investors. They are rare because, the moment they come in, they don't ask for an exit. It is very difficult that you can go to them. They will have to find you and come to you. They will find their way through your family, friends and well wishers. Impact investment does not need to be in the form of money alone. They can be in terms of time, effort, early adopter or just a reference.

Now coming to the end of our story, you are at the very beginning, you just have an idea. We already agreed and added adjectives to your idea like ground breaking, disruptive, innovative etc. What do we do? Where do we go? This is when God comes in. You see, you don't have to go anywhere. God comes in. I am not joking. Just got to believe. It is only you; all alone. It is you who made a choice to be all alone.

Since we are alone, only thing to do now is to look within and there we will find God. Hence the title "God Creates Startups". As much as we began with plagiarism, we shall also end with plagiarism. The end being picked from "Anbae Sivam" Movie.

"When people don't laugh at your goal, Your goal may be too small"

                                                                              - Mr.Azim Premji

The Studentpreneur

Is engineering education still relevant?

One of our friends raised this fundamental question.

Why are people trying to improve the quality of something that is irrelevant? Wow, this gets interesting.

I had been toying with the idea of Studentpreneur for a loooong time; 3 years is a pretty long time to me.

So, we had Entrepreneurs, Intrapreneurs and now it is time or era of  Studentpreneurs.

So what is the concept of Studentpreneur?

Simple. Just start a bit early in your life. how early? May be in school or college.

Oh. that sounds studpid.

Yes. What makes an entrepreneur? An idea that is related to a service or product. Added with time, money and more importantly belief and commitment, an entrepreneur is in the making.

An Intrapreneur is someone having every other element of an entrepreneur sans the idea. Treating the organization working for as his/her own organization. It is like this. Let us say the salary is 50000INR per month. If we treat this as a profit out of business, which is 10% net on the higher side, then the turnover required is 5,00,000 per month. As a rule of thumb, this would require a minimum of 30,00,000 in capital investments.

Now, the case for studentpreneur, Information, study and research material are available at the click of a button. no more dependency on a teacher (poor teacher!!!). Market is global and not confined. parents foot the bill. Bill for tuitions, boarding and also entertainment.

A student can try to figure out his passion, try out an idea. Time, money, resource, lab. All are available. A typical bootstrap model. Support from family and friends. If the idea succeeds, you become an entrepreneur. in case the idea fails, you end up an Intrapreneur. A typical win-win.

As a student you can offered to fail. Fail any number of times. The world says, "Failure is the stepping stone to success". But the moment we loose the student tag, become an entrepreneur and happen to fail, the earlier quote is no more valid and the world will step on us. We become stones literally.

Industries actually do interviews for elimination and not for selection. The criteria for selection is just the hope that, people who are not eliminated may perform. But if you are a Studentpreneur, there is no need for an interview. It will be only a discussion. How does that sound? Ridiculous you think.

Welcome to the world of Studentpreneurs and micro-entrepreneurs. Thats the future. The future in the hands of younger generation.

Teacher should not teach

Being a Mechanical Engineering graduate (?), having spent almost 20 years in the industry; manufacturing and Software Engineering, realized that i was educated but have not learned.

The realization came when attempting to design a flywheel for a cutting tool and on another instance, trying to write an algorithm based on planetary positions. Though one is from manufacturing and other from IT, the former required an understanding of force, torque, inertia and the later required knowledge of multi-body dynamics. Excuse me, what are these words by the way? seems like some thing in physics.

Having hit the cross-roads, the grand plan was to start from scratch and get into academics to learn the basics and get back to industry. After a few year in academics, the reality sunk in. The plan was great, but it was a strategic blunder.

To make the journey more painful; just a few days as an academician (Lecturer), happened to read this quote by the great Bernard Shaw - "People who knew how do do anything went and did it; while those who did not know how to do anything were obliged to earn a living by teaching" (refer pg 22, Mathematicians Delight, W W Sawyer). The lines were devastating at its best.

The question was nagging in the back and some raised this question about education and teaching. Actually education is about learning and not about teaching.

1. Education is about LEARNING

2. The next question is what do you mean by activity?

Activity could be

a) solving application problems 

b) identify application areas for the concepts learned

c) Experience the concept by conducting an experiment or creating a project

3. How do we motivate students and get them to participate in the activity?

This is the most challenging part.

a) Demonstrate models/experiments where applicable

b) Explain a few applications where the concept is used

c) A vivid explanation of discovery/evolution of the concept

In our experience, "The Teacher" makes a subject; rather any subject, interesting. More a facilitator.

What ever Bernard Shaw had to mean (may be he thought education is about teaching), I am proud to be a teacher. I did not come to teach. I am here to learn. Happily Learning; for life.  Experiment, Learn, Innovate with peers from different disciplines and the ever energetic younger generation.

Teacher + facilitator = Facilitacher

I strongly believe learning should be a continuous and enjoyable process. according to me flipped classroom is class room where A leaner should teach (explain). Teacher should listen and guide the learner towards better and better explanations road to discovery.

I my honest opinion, a teacher should understand the learner. the learners IQ, memory retention, motivation levels, current interests and of course the gap.

A teacher should bear in mind that there are 2 types of tests. A competitive test (JEE, GATE etc), where the assessment relies on whether we know or not. Just a yes or no. On the contrary, the purpose of tests conducted by a teacher should be to assess the gaps of a learner. the gaps in concepts, presentation, logical thinking etc. Instead of using score card as a means of threat, a learner would be more forthcoming to share ideas.

Let there be classroom where learners teach and teachers listen.

"If a student has to become a genius, a teacher has to become a student"

I am working on a framework for assessment. you may write to me for more details.