New ventures and underwear

Yousaf Jan is the CEO for Mixit LLC. We met for the first time at GITEX when a combination of fate, PASHA, PSEB and GITEX organizers put us right next to each other. We liked the arrangement so much that we repeated it again at MEFTEC, PASH-ICT awards and at APICTA.

Yousaf sells a FIX compliant exchange trading solution for broker dealers and their clients. His solutions run on NYSE, CBOE, ADSM, DFM and elsewhere. While wrapping up the discussion on the PASHA forum on new venture failure Yousaf goes, "You know through out this entire debate there was only word going through my mind - underwear. When this group goes out on their own (as in startup) some of us will lose our shirts. Most of us will lose our trousers too. If ever there was a time to invest in solid under wear, it is now".

More friday club questions

Adnan since you missed the friday club session, you take a first shot at answering these questions.


1. What is the one thing that drives to take a leap from employment to start out on your own?

2. How over rated is the notion of taking risks?

3. Is there such a thing as a calculated risk?

4. What is the difference between accepting defeat an knowing when to give up?

5. How does failure in the short run translate into success in the long run?

6. Your most forgetable professional failure?

7. How does a new business survive in the jungle that is Karachi/Pakistan?

8. Does persistency help in achieving success?

9. How difficult was it adjusting to Pakistan after working abroad? Did you change or did you change the environment around you?

10. If you are good at what you do, money will follow? Has money been a motivator for you?

The friday club session

Young startup guys and gals at deja vu asked a bunch of interesting questions:

1. Do you do it for money?

Ans: No. I do it because I think I can do a better job if I do it my way.

2. How do you handle the risk of not having a paycheck or even failing?

Ans: Impulsive decisions that don't give me time to really think through things when I jump in. All I see is the promise of the idea and worry about irrelevant details like money later.

3. How do you survive?

Ans: Support system and the invisible balancing act that my friends and partners at work engage in to ensure that I don't put all of us out in the street, in jail on in bankruptcy court.

4. On fate and destiny and God?

Ans: Can't live without a belief in some higher being out there looking after me to whom I can pray at the end of the month to do something about payroll.


More later...

the PASHA forum

Spoke at the PASHA forum for 3 hours on Strategy, MIXIT. Tony (the head of biz dev at the competition) saw Yousaf's demo and said I dream about this stuff and will you build it for me the way it should be done. Yousaf stunt born out of sheer frustration and right towards what seemed to be the end of the road for him, lead to an additional 12 months of effort that lead to their first sale on NYSE floor.

I spoke about drowning in the pool, capital, what a bunch of selfish and focused bastards us entrepreneurs are, about starting small and dreaming big and did my technology is irrelevant act. The 20 strong crowd was most amused.

Lessons Learned: Launch

1) Create a buzz. Tell your network, because you never know where the leads may come from. Your company probably will not have enough cash to get placement in prime time media, and even if you do, it’s a complete waste. Create a buzz about your launch, start with your circle of friends and associates, and motivate them to "spread the virus" (Read more about the Idea Virus here)

2) Don't expect immediate success. The launch may be a big event for you, but the world still doesn't know what you've created. And those who do know are probably waiting for others to take the leap and test the product/service before they sign up for it themselves. This is a critical problem in market development, and much has been written about it (Read Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey Moore). After the launch, you've entered into a new phase of the venture, and your consistent focus and hard work at this time will make all the difference.

3) Thank people. Your team has slogged away for months to get to this stage, so make it a point to let them know that you appreciate them.

4) Team direction. In the months leading to the launch, the team knows what they're working towards; they have a clear goal and direction. After the launch however, they may feel their job is done and may lose direction. Make sure that this doesn't happen. The battle is far from won, realign the team direction, motivate them, and tell them what the company needs from them at this new stage.

Lessons Learned: Process

1) Processes start off as conceptual frameworks, and typically, real life is not as simple as some connected boxes on white paper. As soon as you believe you have the process final, be sure to iterate through it in a real life solution. Don't leave the execution of the process to others, do it yourself. You'll then know how painful or useful your creation is.

2) When the process is rolled out to the team, handholding becomes very important. Remember, you know the process because you wrote it, but others are not as motivated or excited about using it. Chances are that its perceived as a waste of time, rather than something that adds value. If the "Team" is a 2-man show and the process was defined for a grand 100-member team, then the situation is downright comical. The best thing is to candidly discuss with the team why the process is important, and how it will later help them when they're managing people.