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Right after an entrepreneur has thought about the idea, the next step is to find the right people to put on the bus. This step could be a make-or-break for the startup. Every entrepreneur can’t do everything alone and needs people to bring in their unique skills and energy that shape an early startup.
After Sangeeta decided to start her own venture in 2015 at the age of 50, she was drifting towards her comfort zone – print media. Having worked for so many years in journalism, she was quite confident with the core aspect of the profession. While she could research and write stories, getting them out to the world is something this venture was about to teach her. It was at this point that her son advised her that this was the time of digital media; today’s generation did not read print and any media house worth its salt had its own website and social media sites. Print readership was limited but access to digital content was growing rapidly. The shelf life of online stories was longer, too, and the reach was vast. Here came Sangeeta’s Eureka moment – if she was to run a startup, it should be through digital means.
Sangeeta soon came to the realisation that she could network, follow stories, take interviews, write stories and publish them. But she had no clue on how a website was created. This was when she reached out to an ex-colleague for help. The ex-colleague helped her connect with his network of UI designers and website developers. He recommended a good team and asked if she was willing to invest in the team. She put together some of her own money and jumped at the opportunity as she knew a good tech team is what would define success for her new venture.
The new team had an average age of 20s working with a founder in her 50s. We were amazed to see she had no qualms stating that she leveraged her grey hair and called her colleagues beta [son] so she could connect and make things happen. Sangeeta did not just delegate the tasks to the “tech” team alone, but in her mid-fifties, learnt to upload stories on the website herself, past her team’s working hours. This was a true example of the new talent coming to the rescue of old wisdom to create the Aviation and Defence Universe (ADU). The young Turks worked with Sangeeta to brainstorm on various names, set up Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and buy domain names. Gradually, she built a team who is making a dent in the world of defence journalism even today.
Building the capability of the team was important, too. She had to train photojournalists on how to take pictures of a plane with the logo or what angle to take a picture of a General on stage. No work is limited for a founder as one has to coach and guide their team towards success, leading from the front.
She also reached out to her ex-students and former colleagues, who were journalists in Europe, the Middle East and Southeast Asia, who agreed to collaborate. This way, she not only gave a global workforce to the organisation but also was able to save costs using the power of her networks. As an entrepreneur, you need to be able to lead and inspire others. Building a strong network of contacts is crucial. Networking skills involve the ability to establish and maintain relationships with people from various backgrounds, industries and levels of expertise. Effective networking allows you to access resources, gather insights and find potential partners, investors or customers. Even in this case, she encouraged her students who were not from the defence field to learn for themselves, make questionnaires and run interviews instead of spoon-feeding them. Teaching a journalist how to fish meant they would go out and fish for the best stories with the right bait.
Sangeeta leveraged the power of her professional networks to build her startup brick by brick. She thought of an ex-colleague of her father and husband, a Brigadier, to be the managing editor of the venture as she set out to be the founder–editor. He agreed and brought with him the legitimacy and experience of his life experiences. She also reached out to ambassadors, generals, admirals, air marshals, mid-level expert veterans and defence and aerospace industry professionals to be members of the board of advisors.
Entrepreneurs often need to collaborate with others to bring their ideas to life. Collaboration skills involve being open to different perspectives, respecting and valuing the contributions of others. Your network will not be used optimally until you ask for help. Experts are keen to share their guidance but only if you leave shyness at the door and go forth boldly with what you want to achieve. Effective collaboration enhances creativity, problem-solving and overall productivity. With the varied experiences that a diverse board brought in, she was able to write stories not just from a third-person perspective, but from the horse’s mouth. This gave the content that ADU was putting out the depth it needed in a world of fast media.
With the right people on the bus, Sangeeta set out to conquer the universe of aviation and defence journalism.
Excerpted with permission from The Storypreneur’s Playbook: Fifteen Inspiring Stories to Unleash the Entrepreneur in You, Prateek Roy Chowdhury and Nitin Babel, Penguin India.
This article first appeared on Scroll.in
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