One fine evening the following email was shot to the Precimark team
by Paras Chopra, Founder of Precimark
Date: 26 June 2007, barely a month after Precimark
was started
Subject: See Ya Precimark
Body:
Hey Folks,
It seems to me that no body among us is serious about Precimark.
Nobody has a fire burning inside him/her to carry on the business, our
present approach is flawed, and everyone is taking this as a part-time
job. Startups do not work this way. Freelancing work this way and we
don’t see our future as freelancers, do we?
So, Aakanksha and me have decided to take a few realistic decisions…..
One fine evening the following email was shot to the Precimark team
by Paras Chopra, Founder of Precimark
Date: 26 June 2007, barely a month after Precimark
was started
Subject: See Ya Precimark
Body:
Hey Folks,
It seems to me that no body among us is serious about Precimark.
Nobody has a fire burning inside him/her to carry on the business, our
present approach is flawed, and everyone is taking this as a part-time
job. Startups do not work this way. Freelancing work this way and we
don’t see our future as freelancers, do we?
So, Aakanksha and me have decided to take a few realistic decisions.
We see the future of Precimark taking one of the following states:
1. Being shut-off completely
2. Being in hibernation mode till the right times
3. Being sold to someone
Sorry guys, but we had to take this decision for the benefit of
all. Nobody among us is serious about this venture and we shouldn’t
fool ourselves.
Drop in your comments.
Regards,
Paras Chopra
PS: I also plan to put this email on www.precimark.com and send
this email to all clients whose work we are (supposedly) doing.
PPS: We won’t see Precimark as a faliure. We will see Precimark
as a successful experiment.
So, as you can see, Precimark was put into an inactive mode beginning
26th June 2007 due to reasons obvious in the email. Paras is summarizing
the lessons learned by him during his beautiful journey called Precimark.
Lessons in Entrepreneurship as taught by Precimark
1. Startup is not a summer project. You cannot be
involved in a startup on a part-time basis. Either give your 100% to
a startup or just don’t do it. Especially, do not consider a startup
as a summer project. It is not.
2. Communication gaps are inevitable. No matter how
hard you try to keep communication smoothly flowing, someone will either
miss an important piece of information or he will mis-interpret it.
This is a fact and cannot be eliminated.
3. Online collaboration does not happen. It is next
to impossible. Either the team should work at a same physical location
or there should not be a team altogether.
4. Respond to clients at the earliest. You are in
need of business, not they.
5. Be professional in your dealings. Check your grammar
usage in emails and keep your writing style contemporary and to-the-point.
Abstruse text adds death the point.
6. Choose your team with EXTREME care. They should
be as passionate about the idea as you are.
7. Decide on early who does what and in how much time (deadlines,
that is). If not, irresponsibility and blame-storming may take
over.
8. Before starting, take an objective and fair assessment of
the idea. People have biases of being too rosy of their ideas.
Avoid this bias. Moreover, focus on flaws of the ideas. Try to eliminate
or minimize those flaws.
9. Do not be afraid of folding up when you see the
idea/execution is fundamentally flawed and/or things have gone wrong
beyond correction.
10. Do not be too emotionally attached to your startup and
ideologies. Try to be as objective as possible. Observe that
earlier in the article it was said that you should be passionate about
your startup. Be very clear of the idea that one can be passionate about
something while being objective about it at the same time.
11. If you think you have a brilliant and unique idea, chances
are that someone already is executing that idea. So, the key
to success is execution. Everybody has ideas and they are dime a dozen.
12. Never reveal important details (such as IPs, passwords,
etc.) to all people who join the startup or to clients. If
you, however, reveal, make sure they sign NDAs (Non Disclosure Agreements).
13. Never hire a part-timer but use free lancers as
much as possible.
14. Refrain from sharing equity as much as possible.
Try using debt.
Those were the important results discovered from the Precimark journey.
Next time, each and every person involved with Precimark will hopefuly
start another venture and it won’t be an experiment then, it will be
a full-time job instead. Wish them success!
Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.
Paras Chopra
Founder of Precimark
Note: A copy of this article has also been posted here and here
PS: The following points refer to the reactions from people
and self after the above article was posted. Points will be
added as new and new reactions get noticed.
1. Being a maverick is not at all bad unless someone
gets hurt by it.
2. Everyone will be asking how you are feeling. Tell
them that you are feeling fantsatic and wise.
3. People will want to buy your business or help you rise from
the ashes (as if you have burnt the company down).
Listen to them carefully but do not get emotional.
4. Respect your decision and maintain your personal integrity.
Never trade your integrity for anything.
good decision , very mature move for your age . good luck for your next venture