It is a fact that most entrepreneurs (read graduate/post graduate urban aspirational Indians) are engineers by education.
Why?
1. Most schoolchildren (boys) take sciences in their last 2 years.
2. Most schoolchildren (boys) think that aiming for arts, commerce etc is for loosers. Especially after taking up sciences.
3. Those who don’t do B.Tech usually end up taking other sciences as their pick for graduation. (boys)
4. Since most ‘hot’ startups are based in the Silicon Valley, hence there are a number of tech heroes for our engineers to follow. (Again boys… and men)
5. Engineers, travel a lot onsite (Thank You Infy, CTS, Wipro, TCS etc) and this gives them enough money and exposure to start something (Mostly staffed with men)
Tech startups, due to low capital requirements in the beginning, have lesser intrinsic risk. (Hence started by men)
[Disclaimer – I took up sciences in school (11th and 12th). 2 of the worst years of my life, made liveable only by cute girls in my tuitions and basketball practice in the morning. I felt that taking up any graduation unrelated to sciences, after slogging your ass over thick books of physics, makes no sense. So I did B.Sc in…er…Hotel Management.]
I know of a lot of people who want to start a ‘non-tech’ company. These may include Restaurants, Cafes, Consulting firms, HR services, Educational Institutes, Service Centres, and Franchisees etc. And most of them have this sense of disgust for ‘those’ engineers who’s Business Plan Statements usually include only 2 – 3 words comprehensible by the non-tech janta.
To those hardworking, diligent, intelligent, socially aware and resentful set of entrepreneurs, I would like to say… I hear you. And you are morons.
If you ever happen to read the history of warfare over the last say 2000 years, you will notice that numbers and valour don’t always win battles. As human civilization approached the 19th century, it became obvious to most historians, that superior technology played an important part human warfare. Mongols brought the entire empire of china to its knees, despite starting off as hordes of nomads. Prussians and then the Germans consistently leveraged their prowess in technology on the battlefield.
Trade too, was beneficial to those economies who could keep up with the science of mathematics, finance, warehousing and transportation. The colonial powers are a case in point.
The point that I am trying to make is that many of us (non-tech people) intrinsically feel inferior in our ability to understand and straddle technology because we haven’t been around its basics for too long. And that is ok, as long as one does not let this feeling mutate into a general dislike and hence perpetual lag of tech understanding. Our issues with the geeks will destroy our own chances of having a great startup.
Let’s be very clear, understanding technology is not an option. It’s a pre-requisite to running a great startup because it makes your resources work far more efficiently than otherwise.
And I can’t stress enough the importance of technology when we are hyper-bootstrapping our startups.
What can I do, to understand technology, relevant to my startup?
- Read up. There are tons of really cool, easy to understand, blogs, magazines, websites etc. Read a couple of articles every day
- YouTube. Helped me pass more exams than I care to remember. Video is far easier to digest for many than the written word.
- Phone a friend. Every engineer loves to be called up and asked technology questions. After all, it proves to them that their 4 years weren’t in vain.
- Hire a Techie. Keep this on your list at all times. You will one day need to hire someone who can work and execute technology for your business.
- Start asking Why? How? So What? Be stupid and keep asking these questions. Wiki them. Google them, send out questions on Facebook… search them on Adult Friend Finder if you have to. But keep asking.
- Finally, get a techie co-founder. This is one point most would not agree with me on. But I really feel that a bright guy who has devoted his 4 + x years (work ex) in technology, will be the best complement to the human side of business, you intend on bringing in.
Startup Yapper 