The rise of student entrepreneurship in India is an extremely interesting phenomenon. There is a lot of eagerness in students and in other youngsters, to start their own businesses. What’s more, they want to do it as soon as they pass out of college. They don’t want to wait till they are 30 or 40 years old.
But at the same time, they are not sure how to go about it, what to expect, how to prepare themselves, how to build an organization, how to scale up, etc. They don’t have an idea about the life of an entrepreneur. In short, they need some clarity on how to startup and grow a company. Also, some inspiration to get them off the blocks.
Bhaag! a book by Ganesh V tries to address this need by providing an overview of student entrepreneurship in India and then narrating the stories/journeys of 11 highly motivated student entrepreneurs.
Each story takes the reader through the twists and turns in the life of the entrepreneur, the mistakes he/she made, how he/she hit upon the business idea, the struggles and successes thereon, the current status of the company and plans for the future.
Ganesh V has chosen the entrepreneurs in the book according to the following framework:
1. A mix of ventures based in big cities and in small towns
2. A mix of men and women
3. A good mix of industries/business domains, including some which are unusual / neglected / sunrise industries in India
4. All of them are early-stage ventures; they were set up within the last four years; the entrepreneurs. This makes it all the more relevant for the college students of today.
“The entrepreneurs I have written about come from small/unknown colleges, not the IITs and IIMs. I want to make the point to the reader that if these youngsters are doing it, so can he/she! After reading up about several student start-ups and speaking to their promoters, I finally selected the 11 best ventures and wrote about them. I looked for purity of purpose, a strong vision and an effort on the part of the entrepreneur to build a proper organization. Revenue and size of the venture were not considerations in selecting the ventures for the book, because to me, the big story in the book is the fact that these people have taken the plunge at such a young age!,” said Ganesh V.
The book is targeted towards all youngsters who want to start their own businesses, and need a dose of inspiration and guidance.
Speaking over choosing the book title as ‘BHAAG!’, Ganesh said that the title is to convey the sense of restlessness, drive and urgency that he find in student entrepreneurs. “In choosing the name, I wanted to look beyond passion and courage, which have been written about extensively. I wanted the name to be edgy, yet simple, so that it could be understood everywhere in India,” he added.
A few of the entrepreneurs whose stories have been narrated in the book include: Arpit Mohan and Abhishek Nayak of GharPay – A door delivery and cash payments collection service for ecommerce businesses; Ayush Varshney and Sahil Baghla of Bluegape – Conceptualizing, designing and selling fan merchandise; Vijith Padmanabhan: Dolojo Labs Internet applications, with a focus on social networking; Aditya Gupta and Karan Kumar: iGenero Web Solutions Pvt. Ltd.,Web & mobile technology services; branding & communication design services; digital Marketing and others.
The book is out and available at Amazon, Flipkart.com and notionpress.com. The ebook will be released in a few days.
