14 Startup Lessons from my time as a Teenage Bartender

I was fresh behind the ears and had an empty wallet.

Nay! I had no wallet.

My first few months at IHM Pusa were spent day dreaming about how kick-ass my future in the hotels is going to be.

As freshers, we all knew that life was going to be physically and mentally demanding. We all knew it wasn’t going to pay well. But somehow we all felt it was going to be epic.

During this time I was introduced to a bunch of seniors, looked upon with a mix of mystery & intrigue, due to a dark art practiced by them after college. This dark art is known as mixology… popularly called Bartending.

Delhi laws prohibit the consumption of hard liquor till the age of 25 and I went along for my first Bartending gig at 18. (Yes I was breaking a few laws) 

These gigs were almost always part of events & parties at farmhouses and lavish houses.

I was paid a sum of Rs. 300 per day, money which I really needed, in 2003 for 8-10 hours of work, which started after 6 p.m. and would go on till dawn. 

It was gruelling work, fast paced and intense. We (Me and another friend) would work against sleep deprivation knowing well that there was no place to go to after the gig, since the hostel was too far off from where we were. We routinely fell short on attendance, had no social lives and practically gave up college for those few intense winter ‘party’ months of October to February.

What this gave me, were indelible lessons on Work, Wealth and being Wasted. 

And while I don’t think this blog is the right place to talk about lessons on Wealth or on being Wasted, I would really love to write about what it taught me about work… and as an extension… about how to run a Startup. 

I did that gig for a year. But the sights, sounds and experiences of all those fat weddings, decked up women, cigar smoking men, alcohol frenzied dance floors, coke snorting teens, farmhouses gone crazy, DJ driven environments and glitter that glittered more than gold, taught me the same amount as the stuff happening on the other side of the Bar… our side of the Bar. 

 

Here are 13 Startup Lessons from my time as a Teenage Bartender

1. Backend operations matter – It was my first day at the Bar and I remember walking up just behind the main counter (Like a stud). The main boss, the owner of the company, walks up behind me and taps me on the shoulder. He asks me what I planned on doing, so I told him I was there to become a bartender. He then points me towards the back of the bar, near the waste bins and asks me to start from there. Once I was able to recover from crushed dreams, I realised that there was a lot of work that went on in the background, to which most customers we oblivious. Every good bar will have a number of people cleaning, stacking, wiping, lifting etc to make sure that the back-end operations are able to support the guys working up front. Every entrepreneur realises something similar with startups. Its usually the stuff that isn’t glamorous which is the most important. 

2. Substance before Style – Most people, when they hear of my brief experience as an amateur bartender, always ask me if I know how to flip bottles. Thats when I usually feel like flipping a bottle at them. It’s like asking a chef if he knows how to juggle knives. Movies, pop culture and perceptions make bartenders out be jugglers who also pour drinks. In reality, great bartenders always work on making great drinks, fulfilling orders, upselling alcohol and generally controlling waves of wasted people without using a stun gun. The DJ, the bartender and the Host are the Gods of ‘Have-A-Great-Time’. I learnt that no amount of flipping bottles and tricks can ever endear a customer if he doesn’t gets his drink well made and on-time. Substance always wins over style. (Yes, I did flip a lot of bottles, but never behind the bar. And I wasn’t a good bartender, I was an amateur at best)

3. The Value of incentives – Bartenders are like high performance athletes who can turn the sales of a place on its head. They are also the most highly incentivised set of people in F&B. But most of them don’t just do it for the money. A number of factors like the music, people, reputation, style etc come into play. The best guys can handle it all, including the stress and the long hours. Organizations, with high performance employees would do well to understand that financial incentives can only drive behavior to a certain extent. You will usually be surprised what works for them.

4. Listen to your customers! – Bartenders are great at listening to customers. Over thumping music, chiming voices, a  bar which is almost always on the verge of collapse, a constantly ringing phone and general chaos, they make and serve hundreds of drinks with little margin for error. How? I was taught long back, how to cut out the noise, when I am taking an order at the bar. For a bartender it is essential that he be aware of whats going on, but when a customer starts to move him mouth and you lock eyes with him and zone out for a few seconds to everything else, including the tens of others waiting to be heard. This really helps in getting things done. To be able to focus on one thing, when everything else is in motion, is the mark of an effective entrepreneur. 

5. Success is where the pain starts – It almost always cold, wet and stuffy behind the bar. To do it day after day, for all those long hours, especially when we were serving hundreds of people, with fingers numb from picking ice and opening bottles in the middle of the December cold in Delhi, was not easy at all. It was painful at a physical level and many of us would be sick long cold nights as sweaters would damp up due to all that water, leaving us feeling wrapped up in a cold blanket. But after we were able to get through those days, we really learnt what it meant to run a bar. Startups, though started by nice fluffy things like love &  passion, almost always have a period of intense pain. If you read ‘The Dip’ by Malcolm Gladwell, you will know why its important to take stuff like this, head on.

6. Develop relationships with those at the Top and the Bottom – Yup, we always shook hands with the owners of those farmhouses, the hosts and the important guests. It was important to be connected, known and respected for our work. But we always met the kitchen staff, the cleaners and the helpers. We were always nice to them, because we knew that when the shit hits the fan and we have to run around of ice, lemons, salt, dry wiping cloths, fruits, water, cleaning solution etc, it was the guys at the bottom who mattered most. The fact that you belong to a certain social strata should never blind you from realising the worth of every man & woman, you have to work with.

7. Understand Context to understand People – Most bartenders will never judge people based on what they see of them at a party. Especially when they are drunk. They develop a sense of judgement, which most others don’t because bartenders know how to understand context. Be fair and understanding of people and situations. It has always helped me make good decisions. 

8. Discipline exists for every art – Whatever you might think of bartenders, it is probably disconnected from reality. There is a lot of effort, discipline and time that goes into perfecting the art of mixology. Speak to a great bartender, not just any, and you will find a deeply focused, centered, character driven person rather than the trash talking, fake, drunk looney we all think he is. No matter what you do, discipline exists as a prerequisite for anything we wish to achieve.

9. The Basics matter – In my limited time at the bar I realised that knowing how to pour a drink, clean a glass, keeping the bar in order, stocking juices, prep, billing and listening are far more important than knowing how to flame a Vodka Shot by breathing fire like a circus act. First make your basics solid, then worry about the rest.

10. Differentiate yourself… always – A long pony tail, a great cocktail, a powerful network, an amazing collection of jokes, lots of good stories, a photographic memory, great service, a personal touch, inimitable style, attitude etc. All these go a long way in differentiating you for the others in the market. But a look at the lesson before this one, should let you know that I really believe in getting the basics right first.

11. Do something for “The Flow’ – Bartenders usually talk about getting into the ‘Zone’, when the crowd really picks up. Its when they cant keep track of time or think about anything else but the order at hand… and they feel satisfied in that moment without any external motivation egging them on or any feedback from a superior. That’s usually what software programmers, artists, athletes experience when they say that they love what they do. This condition is called a state of ‘Flow’ by  Mihály Csíkszentmihályi. I believe that if your Startup lets you get into that state of ‘Flow’, then you will probably do it with greater conviction and perseverance.

12. Know the law, the makers and the enforcers – Its amazing how this comes naturally to most guys at the Bar. In India, a bar is usually the scene of a crackdown by the cops and other authorities. Hence the guys make it a point to know most of the authorities and those who are in a position to effect their decision making. A Startup would do well to know people who make policy and legal decisions which effect them, rather than embracing the Head-In-Sand attitude, which unfortunately, is usually the norm.

13. Shit Happens! – Yes it does. And it is your business to be prepared for it, one way or another. And more importantly to empower people at your startup to deal with it, whenever and wherever possible. A broken mixer, a bleeding hand, a violent customer, a fight at the bar, crackdown by the cops, shortage of alcohol, a jammed bill printer, a broken draught beer machine etc are events that really can not be solved over a board meeting. Your bet is then to have an employee take initiative and solve the situation. 

Enjoy this! An amazing True Originals video by Bacardi. Really captures the essence of what it means to be a kick-ass bartender.

Lessons from E-Cigs (Electronic Cigarettes)

This one if for all those entrepreneurs who smoke. The lessons from this recently successful product will be easier to connect with.

It’s meant for others too, but just like me, you will have to put yourself into a smoker’s shoes.

Cigarette consumption is an irrational choice and as per the understanding of classical economists, any normal person should not be consuming it. But as we know, their concept of rationality is based on prejudice and a ‘mental model’ of the world.

Every smoker will tell you that cigarettes are harmful. They blow up your lungs, give a high, increase risk of heart diseases, cancer and generally screw up your system. Thanks to new tax laws, they are also expensive. Add newly minted social norms and laws, with restrictions on smoking and you are looking at a major well-to-do section (they can afford branded cigarettes) of the middle classes feeling rather shifty.

So why would people still smoke. Habit is part of the reason but that does not explain why hundreds and thousands take it up every day.

By most accounts it is a combination of ‘the Mental’, ‘the Social’, ‘the Physical’ and ‘the Habitual’.

E-Cigs is just one of those amazing new age products which disrupt present paradigms by offering benefits relevant to today’s environment.

 

E-Cigs is basically an electronic cigarette with a battery, which looks and works like a cigarette, without the parts that make it socially and judicially unacceptable.

It doesn’t lead to second hand smoke since there is no smoke for outsiders to inhale (they claim), nicotine liquid doesn’t cause any health harm (they claim again), it still makes you carry on your oral fixation and lets you go on with life as before

Now to be sure, there are a number of states and countries who are considering, if not already enacted, a ban on these products since they are considered a drug and it is still not clear whether they do any harm to your body and mind.

 

So what are the lessons here?

1. Work on the intrinsic, physcological needs. Patches, medicines, chewing gum, will power – all of these have been tried but just like every person, we all need a crutch. For some it is smoking, others it is chocolate, tea, muffins, coffee etc. Some people just need to get over the guilt but don’t want to make that drastic shift yet… or ever. Products that are made to fulfil intrinsic rather than extrinsic needs and are hence pitched as such, are known to do better. It’s not for nothing that every pitch made by Steve Jobs about his products included the ‘sex’ they brought to that category.

2. Make it Social. Not only is this product socially acceptable, but some brands of E-Cigs vibrate when other users are around. Smokers are known to connect to other smokers. And in this small exclusive group of E-Cigs user, this can be a real conversation starter. Make sure you product can be shared in one way or another. If not the product in itself, then the benefit and if not the benefit then the information. If the information isn’t appropriate to share, just create a hook for starting conversations.

3. Play to the environment, rather than fighting it. The social/political/judicial environment created around smoking has become highly restrictive for many smokers. Many entrepreneurs find similar conditions for their products in terms of licenses and approvals. A thought process which looks at legally circumventing this environment to bring similar or better benefits to your customers is the need of the day. For E-Cigs this meant that retailers no longer had to have tobacco licenses to sell cigarettes, FDA approvals weren’t required, taxation was lower and people keep coming back to retailers for refills.  Suddenly no law applicable to smoking mattered.

4. Use your opposition to your advantage. Manufacturers have been very smart by using various articles, activists and court cases against them to publicize the positive effects of smoking E-Cigs. It’s the best free publicity possible and it made a small industry, a national phenomena. Be happy if you have people/organizations/competitors resisting your developments. Just learn how to play your shots well.

5. Managing Image. Celebrities light up all the time. Especially in Hollywood. Some manufacturers used them to start promoting these cigarettes simply by handing them out. Using Ex-Marines, War Veterans and other tough men to promote this product shed its image of being a fluffy substitute for the real thing.

6. Play the higher Goals. Don’t just sell personal benefits. Your pitch should include how the product is going to make the world a better place aka Higher Goals. e-Cigs does that by letting people know how they are making the world a healthier place and helping people kick addiction.

7. Keep innovating. When the first few variations of the e-Cigs came out, they did really badly. No one wanted them. But they kept taking customer feedback to make the product better because they knew the need existed. Our first products might be well meaning, but they almost are never perfect.

8. Roll out variants. Demand of the e-Cigs really ramped up when manufacturers came up with other flavours and concentrates. It also came out with non-nicotine variants, variants for men and women. This led to a product which was true to its core but was also broadly accepted.

9. Make Substitution Easy. The most important of all points. Cars had to do it when they wanted people to get rid of their carriages by making cars look exactly like them. So if your Target Group uses a product and you know the time for change has come, then make it easy for them.