In the current set up we are witnessing the rise of entrepreneurship and that includes venture funding mostly in promising start-up businesses.
Managing business involves lot of financial risk along while promoting a company and creating possibilities for stake holders. This requires a new level of craftsmanship and comes from decades of hands-on experience in understanding the pulse of business. A sign to create how to draw a growth strategy.
Founder Labs got in touch with Santosh Kotnis, CEO and Tech entrepreneur, who is also Founder of SpringUp Labs, is a mentor who believes in building the ecosystem for Start Up buddies.
Santosh takes keen interest in VC/Angel activities and is a firm believer that AI based technology will take over and transform all areas of business venture efficiently. As per Santosh Kotnis multiple assignments abroad and in India helped in building business and proved great learning as an entrepreneur.
When Santosh started his career as IT Analyst, he says “immediately after my college and had a great run through my mentors and seniors, who made sure that I learnt on every day. My important goal was to build something but I never discussed this openly. I was fortunate enough to get multiple international experiences which really shaped me in to who I am today”.
“These assignments gave me a world perspective and taught me as how to build the business. Great Learning; These learning’s are my great learning’s and with that came along friendships, network and connections came handy when I started my own”.
For the Indian market his views are India is skewed market where the income is concentrated at top of the pyramid, but none-the-less sheer size of the market provides great opportunity, coupled with data penetration, tech-savvy communities play a huge role towards unlocking the large potential.
India is the market to watch for next decade or so, with economy booming this presents spectacular opportunities to the global companies.
FounderLabs: What is your view on India to World Growth Story and World to India Growth story?
Santosh Kotnis: India to world story is picking up and it will continue to blossom in the next decade; we had large talent available in the past who went out of India because of lack of conducive environment and excelled.
But now, the ecosystem is changing, entrepreneurship is becoming mainstreamed, its being celebrated and hence there is a large enthusiasm about building ideas and solving problems; which will only continue to scale in the next decade. So, India to world story will evolve and scale.
World to India story on the other hand is a massive opportunity; what global companies needs to align is the price point and creating a much needed narrative about the product/service clearly articulating the value proposition as Indian consumer behaves differently.
FounderLabs: Could you outline your investment thesis and the types of ventures you’re inclined to support?
Santosh Kotnis: We are a small investment fund and that’s why we look at early stage, B2B companies. We enter at pre-seed level, which is different challenge by itself as we might not have PMF by then an that’s why we largely depend on the founding team and take a bet on that. While we want to participate in large number of deals, we want to be carefully choose those companies where we can add value through our ecosystem and global network.
FounderLabs: What are your 5 key learning’s from your experience as a venture investor?
Santosh: As a venture investor it is important to have long term vision for a sustainable and profitable business.
*Learning 1: There is massive talent available and entrepreneurs are solving mind-blogging problems. This gives great amount of hope and assurance. Sometimes I wondered how on this earth they thought about this great idea!
* Learning 2: Being entrepreneur and running a successful business is not easy as it appears. Perhaps I have learnt a lot in this journey from this point.
* Learning 3: Build the network through trust. This is huge gain.
* Learning 4: Can’t make all the right choices. You can miss some great ideas and might invest in some bad ideas. It’s ok by end of the day. Its learning.
* Learning 5: I have become more emphatically towards everyone who is solving a problem, through my own entrepreneurial journey, I respect to all founders who have multi-folded approach to to grow the new venture and make it a sustainable, profitable business
FounderLabs: The technology trends and specifically digital technology and now the AI boom, how do you see this as a game changer in the investments mapping that is happening India and globally?
Santosh Kotnis: While I want to warn myself about the sheer boom around AI; I also want to settle with the thought that there were technology booms in the past and each one of them have transformed the way in which we operate. PCs, Internet, SaaS, Data Penetration are few examples.
However, I do believe the AI will transform all the sectors and will bring sheer amount of efficiency in which we operate, it will boost our productivity, and our decision making. This presents a great opportunity.
While AI across all the segments would be a huge thing, I want to remind myself about the fundamentals of running the business and lets not just go ahead with any company which has AI component.
FounderLabs: What advice would you offer to aspiring startup founders and few tips they should follow to have a successful venture?
Santosh Kotnis: I am building my own company as well; so I understand the sheer amount of hard work it needed. I will say, I am super proud of each and every founder out there and lets work towards our goal with sheer grit, passion, conviction and energy! If you have a dream, start on that immediately, don’t wait.
FounderLabs: What inspires you in life and what is your favorite book.
Santosh Kotnis: Any story about someone who builds something out of nothing inspires me. Scale inspires me. Relentless effort and passion of certain individuals Inspires me. Exhibition of sheer grit and never-say-die attitude inspires me.
For Santosh inspiration comes from books and he mentions few of his all-time favorite Books would be BhagavatGita, Biography of Steve Jobs and The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari.
