Unbelievable Comebacks of 7 Great Startup Personalities

By SiliconIndia  | 

 

Bangalore: We would have come across lots of failure but in such scenarios loosing heart is not the option, especially for startups or people who have faced trials and losses during their expedition on creating something new.

 

As quoted by Napoleon Hill an American author "Before success comes in any man's life, he's sure to meet with much temporary defeat and, perhaps some failures. When defeat overtakes a man, the easiest and the most logical thing to do is to quit. That's exactly what the majority of men do." 

 

Generally the society does not understand the importance of startups and its business cycle, and it has always been the tradition to point fingers on the failures instead of planning on how to overcome these problems and help the startups. 

 

Now let us look at some of the great personalities who have overcome difficulties early in their lives to become one among the most successful people today, and to have created a benchmark for early ventures, as complied by ET.

 

#7 N R Narayana Murthy

 

He is reputed Indian entrepreneur who started an IT services industry Infosys, but this was not his first venture. Earlier in year 1970 he had set up Softronics which provided software services to the domestic market.

 

But Narayana Murthy had to shut down the company in a year after he sensed that the Indian market was not yet ready for software entrepreneurs and hence he joined Patni Computer Systems.

 

#6 Brij Bhasin

Bhasin says, Failure is just a 'stepping stone', He started Boost Tech last September and within 14 months he had to shut down his startup.

 

He funded his savings $15,000 and started Boost, the company was into customer relation management and provided analytical solutions for the retail sectors, the company had to close as there was no source for additional capital.

 

According to Bhasin  "when the idea is not working out, there should be a planned and informed shutdown, Managing cash is key to the long-term success of a new venture, Entrepreneurs should think about viable models and build up revenue early on."

 

Later he joined GSF Accelerator, having network of over 20 investors, and is dedicated in helping startups to provide seed fund. Bhasin added “In the U.S. there is great demand for people who have failed. Venture Capitalists have more trust in failed entrepreneurs than in freshers."

#5 Sanjay Swamy

 

He was the CEO of mobile payment company mChek, and later stepped from his position as there were too many operational challenges.

 

Not dejected by this, he later volunteered for the Unique Identification Authority to ponder on more his options. He co-founded ZipDial, a mobile marketing company and within two years it had a portfolio of more than 400 clients.

 

Also teaming up with volunteers in UIDAI, Shripati Acharya and Bala Parthasarathy, went on to setup Angel Prime, a startup incubator. According to Swamy, "There is no shame in failing at something big - the only shame is in not trying."

 

#4 Rutvik Doshi

He was the product manager for Google, later he quit his position and joined a founding team of a young online group buying startup Taggle.

But the company had to close down within two years, even though they tried changing its business model to an online electronics retailer.

After the company closed down he spent nearly two months meeting industry peers until he found a new role at Inventus, Now Doshi is an investor with Inventus Capital Partners.

Doshi comes from a family of businessmen, According to him, "But even in a business family, shutting down a business is not acceptable, we were making about Rs 1 crore in revenue each month but we were also burning a lot of cash." He also added "It is the venture that fails, not the individual."

#3 Kiran Gopinath

He launched Webshastra, an online advertising firm. Dotcom euphoria and private equity major Warburg Pincus invested in this company which gave it a quick start, but the success lasted only until the dotcom bubble burst.

Webshastra after facing years of struggle was acquired by Position2 in 2006, an US-based search engine marketing agency.

However, Gopinath started Ozone Media in the advertising space in the same year; this time he palnned   planned with proper back up and tight financial management. Citibank, Airtel, and Unilever are among his clients.

According to Gopinath "Cash is king, ensure you have enough and know how to manage it."

 

#2 Bill Gates

Bill Gates needs no introduction as he went on to become world's richest man. I In the year 1972, Bill Gates with his partners Paul Allen and Paul Gibert had launched Traf-O-Data, this invention could analyze road traffic, but the company had to be closed as there was no real clients and low revenue.

Later Gates and Allen carried on their research and went on to launch Microsoft. Bill Gates is recognized for his good qualities and today he is a well known philanthropist around the globe.  

#1 Steve Jobs

 

As the Apple's CEO and the soul of the company, he has always attracted everybody’s attention; he is also the co-founder of Apple. During his early twenties he was stripped of his managerial duties as head of Macintosh division.

 

After he quit Apple he launched NeXT Computer and invested in Pixar. In the year 1996 Apple acquired NeXT, and after a year Steve Job was named the CEO.

 

The launch of iPod in 2001 was a huge success for Apple which revolutionized Apple's brand around the globe.

 

Source: http://www.siliconindia.com/news/startups/Unbelievable-Comebacks-of-7-Great-Startup-Personalities-nid-145944-cid-100.html?utm_campaign=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_source=r1