Startup Shenanigans in China
Sometime in October 2018, when I was just 2 months into freshman year we had a huge crowd at our otherwise very quiet university. Since on any given day, there was no one other than the 260 undergrads and a couple of professors in the Academic Building, this sudden arrival of about 200 parents was very inconvenient. Why? Because the cafeteria ran out of mini chocolate croissants. You won’t understand the appeal unless you’ve had them, especially on your way to class that you’re late for.
So, like any rational person who was grumpy that their go-to snack was gone, I found a group of like-minded equally pissed off people to go to and make the best of the situation: vent. The venting session merged into us making plans for a luxurious holiday in Sanya, a beautiful island located in the South of China. But like most plans you make enthusiastically in your freshman year it didn’t happen.
Look how DELICIOUS these look!
Mini chocolate rolls that the café didn’t have that day, that I’m still craving even though I’m writing this from Pakistan.
But that same day we made another plan which did happen and this is the story of exactly that. Three college freshmen, who just dived into the world of entrepreneurship with a staggering $0 of investment. Here’s what I learnt:
Entrepreneurship is hard and you need to detach the glamor from it if you’re thinking of pursuing it.
Your team will make or break the experience. I was so fortunate to actually have ended the company (more on why later) and have been VERY good friends with every person that ever came on board. But despite this, our personal relationships got into a rough patch and navigating that was difficult. Choose your partners wisely. You’ll basically be married to them. Running a business together with someone is very different than working a job, and despite warnings from my advisors, I made rash decisions while dealing with my partners and had to undo the damage that was so easily preventable.
Running a business is like raising a baby. It requires attention ALL the time. The company (or client) doesn’t know and doesn’t care that you’re a college student who is in the middle of finals week. So be very very careful with running a business while being a full time student. It WILL take a toll on your academics, mental health, social life, or all of the above. You have to choose what you’re ready to sacrifice.
Always have an exit strategy. This might be obvious, but when you have the adrenaline high of all the great things you and the company will do, you should keep your feet on the ground and write down how you will exit the company and how you will dissolve it if needed.
Religiously self reflect. This is critical especially if you’re young, but even if you have a lot of life experience, understand and believe from the bottom of your heart that you will make a ton of mistakes. You MUST be big enough to a. accept them, b. ask for forgiveness, and c. be willing and able to change. I made several mistakes both when it came to business decisions and when it came to interpersonal relationships with the people around me. The biggest leadership lesson I learnt was that I was not that great of a leader and I had to unlearn and relearn so many big and small things.
Be careful with money. It sounds silly right? The whole point of a business is to make money, but money comes with strings attached and that changes the equation of whatever you’re doing. Ideally your company shouldn’t solely exist to make money - you don’t buy a car just to put fuel in it, right? But life isn’t a bed of roses and money is important because bills need to be paid. Even so, if you’re fortunate enough, try to do what you want without asking for any money in return. This will allow you to perfect your craft and prevent the stress of dealing with a client that paid you and now won’t get off your back.
Invest in yourself too. One of the company’s assets is the entrepreneurial skillset you have. Invest in yourself, learn new things and don’t hesitate to take risks where you can.
Embrace failure. We had to kill our company after a year despite the fact that it was VERY profitable, and was projected to continue to be so if we continued. But within the year that the company grew, so did we. Individual priorities changed, we realized we didn’t enjoy the work we were doing and our geographical location wasn’t where any of us wanted to be in within the next 5 years. So what did we do? We talked and over 3 very nice meals decided to end the company and part ways professionally.
Shanghai - a city that made me feel like I was both on top of the world and a tiny tiny part of the universe at the same time. I loved it and it inspired me so much. Especially at night with all the city lights and their magic.