I had an opportunity to be a part of a wonderful event ‘Startup Camp 2’ during my recent trip to Bay Area, USA. One of the delegates during the break out session who recognized me as a ‘Start2Lead’ author asked me a question. “In your professional life you have worked for startups and also for established large organizations. What according to you are the compelling reasons that someone should start their career in a startup”.

My 10 Cents contributions:

Startups provide unlimited opportunities.

“En-cashing Opportunities shape up careers” – Naveen Lakkur

$ Open Management: Easy accessibility to senior management and an opportunity to witness their action and learn from them directly. This is an opportunity to get mentored.

$ Creativity Boost: An opportunity to present creative ideas and if it’s worth, participate and watch them being implemented.

$ Founding-Building–Scaling: An opportunity to start from the scratch and go through the entire life cycle. Ask a mother if giving birth to a child is pain or pleasure.

$ Multitasking: An opportunity to own and play multiple roles. “A variety of dishes makes a meal interesting; A variety of roles makes life interesting”.

$ Growth: An opportunity to go through the pressure of creating and surviving. “Survival is the mother of all inventions”. Even by learning how to survive, one experiences growth in terms of their skills, knowledge and position. Instant recognition for achievements is granted in a good startup anyways.

“Working for a startup cannot be expressed; the best is to experience it!” – Naveen Lakkur

‘Beg, Borrow or Steal’ is the most popular saying which rings in the mind when there’s need for funds for an initiative. No question that funds is one of the most important ingredients for an initiative to sustain. It’s also known that every initiative should reach the phase of sustenance quickly to survive and to keep the initiative going and also to set a stage for the growth too. (Reference to one of our earlier article: Business Maturity Model).

You have a choice for your initiatives to either Beg or Borrow or To Steal. I think these are exceptions; there’s another option which is never spoken about much because it’s the rule. The best way to sustain any venture is to follow the “Earnings Model”. This model guarantees sustenance as it makes an organization self-sufficient by generating cash flow through earnings. This is the most critical model for any startup. This ensures momentum and assures sustenance on a long run.

This model not only is applicable to startups, it can be applied to any small initiative in an organization. We recently had an application of this concept for the COACH program in our organization. The COACH program is the employee social responsibility initiative at Compassites. Funds for COACH were available only through donations earlier. Now the earnings model has been followed. The COACH team sells snacks at premium, they organize events, they organize movie shows, create and sell paintings, and many more activities thus making the COACH program a more sustainable venture within the organization.

“Earn to Spend, Your spending becomes more meaningful” – Naveen Lakkur