Now, this post is no more true than any of my posts before. It is no more false than any of them either. So, how true is it? My friends, who have been with and around me knows, the rest of you, keep guessing.
The story starts in 2011, November. A cold night. It must have been half past 12. I was dropping off a friend after a movie. We were talking as usual. But, for a change, instead of our meaningless, fruitless, purposeless conversations, we were actually talking about something that is worthwhile. We were talking about starting our own business. Well, what business was the primary question. My brief yet eventful time as a technology and business journalist have given me enough insights (or so I thought) into the internet arena to tell my friend that it is the right path. Then, the next question was, what in the internet space. Neither I, nor him, had any background in technology. The best we could do was play games and send sms, and that ain't a business. So, what shall we do?
Ecommerce!!! I do not remember which one of us came up with the "brilliant idea", any way it was out there. Once it came out there, we never thought about another field. We could have easily started a content writing firm or a news portal, that was our forte, but no, ecommerce it has to be. Well then, ecommerce it is, we went ahead. Then came the next question, what in ecommerce? There are already many sites, (around 20 - 25 was our estimate. Later, much later, we realized it is more like 200 - 250 in India alone) so what can we start that will stand us apart from the rest? Discussions went on, in the mean time we roped in another one of our friends. So, there are three of us, thinking about what to start. "Brilliant Ideas" started flowing. It was like 'Dumb and Dumber' bouncing business ideas. The ideas were so irrational and insane that they seemed like a castle floating upside down in a freaking orange cloud. Yea, that didn't make any sense, but that pretty much says it.
Any way, at this point a forth friend of ours jumped in and gave us an idea which, we felt, was excellent. An ecommerce clothing portal. So, we went with it. Then another friend joined us in the venture. For those of you who have lost count, there are five of us now. The plan was to start the company in 2 - 3 months. We did some research and came to the conclusion that 2 - 3 months, ie. 60 - 90 days is a reasonable amount of time to start our business. It was not a bad estimation, theoretically it is apt time, I even put in some buffer time in the estimate so that we will finish the pre-launch work on time, if not with time to spare. So, how good was my estimation?
In a project management class, or on a piece of paper, the estimation and plan looked spot on and absolutely spectacular. But not in the real world. In the real world I was off by a mile and a half, so to speak. Well, let us put it this way, today is the 17th of October 2012 and I am at least a good month and a half away from the launch. And the best part is I have been a month and a half from the launch for last 8 months. Oh yea, this is not the first rescheduled launch date, it will more be like the gazillionth rescheduled launch date.
It is not like we were lazy and have not tried hard enough to start it. It is more like, no matter what we do, something or the other always goes wrong. That is why I said, 'Murphy at his best.' Anything even with a minuscule chance to go wrong, went wrong, and went wrong big time. Where shall I begin? Got a friend of a relative to do the registration process (idea was to save money), and ended up spending a good amount and taking about 3 months more than it should have taken. Gave website designing to a very close friend (again financial motivation), three months and seven thousand rupees later, he gave us one page, one single page and said he cannot do it. Now, I am no professional designer, but I can, for sure, tell you, that page will not take 3 months, nor will it cost seven thousand rupees. And the best part is, we never used that page. Re-did the entire stuff again. Then there is the product, which, instead of a promised 20 days, took about 145 days. Shall I continue? No need, right? You get the idea?
It was less like starting a business and more like experimenting and learning what not to do when you are starting a business. Learning from ones mistake is fun when that 'one' is someone else. This experience is not fun. We struggled, and struggled, and struggled, still we are not there yet. As usual, we think we will be there in a month or so. The only thing that is certain now is that giving up is not an option anymore. So, let us see who wins, Murphy or us!!!
Murphy... Damn Youuuuuuuuu!!!!
