Starting a Successful Business can be hard. There are so many factors that can go wrong and so many things that need to be done to make a startup successful. There are many reasons why startups fail, like lack of capital, lack of expertise, and lack of vision. But there is another reason that is often overlooked: the entrepreneur’s startup idea is not viable.
Startup Enabling Platforms are a great place for entrepreneurs to find support and guidance. They can help you with your business plan, marketing strategies, and even funding. Chatur Ideas, led by Devesh Chawla, provides Guidance and Funds to help Entrepreneurs become successful in their Businesses.
Devesh Chawla is B.E. (Comps) & M.B.A. in Finance. He has been a seasoned wealth manager managing ultra HNI clients, including some of the most reputed CXO’s and wealthy family business owners in India and overseas. He is also on the Mentor Panel of Eureka, which is Asia’s largest Business Model Competition held at IIT. His excellence has been rewarded with various awards, and he stands successfully as the Best Advisor and Most Efficient Leader. He is committed to adding value to the start-up segment and revolutionizing the entrepreneurship picture in India.
Establishing the right Ecosystem
Before starting Chatur Ideas back in 2009, Devesh was always intrigued by entrepreneurship and always had this unique idea of starting with a taxi-hailing service. Although he was quite enthusiastic about the idea, he wanted to execute it. He was discouraged by a lot of people around him and asked to bag a cushy job. While he did the same, in 2013-14, another unique idea resonated with him.
He realized that some people in a similar space are doing exceptionally well while others, in spite of great potential, are unable to reach their desired goals. This made him think that maybe we lack the right Ecosystem where there are mentors, entrepreneurs, and investors together, and that made him think about starting something where he can create the Ecosystem.
At that time, he did not have the courage to start it right away, so he did a lot of groundwork and research to make sure he was on the right path or not. Once he gained confidence, Devesh left the job and started Chatur Ideas. It was a slow and shaky start, and he often wondered if he made the right call or not, but they eventually started picking up momentum and received a lot of love and compassion from a lot of start-ups by connecting them to the right investors and mentors.
Today they have surpassed their own benchmarks in helping startups, have scaled up rapidly in India, and are expanding their reach overseas.
Distinctive Services
Chatur Ideas offers a wide range of services:
- Fundraising: Chatur Ideas raises funds through its network of 1500 investors from India, Singapore, UAE, Israel, and the US. To name a few of the startups that they have raised funds for; are Catapooolt, Hubilo, Market Pulse, Cloudrino, Strike, and many more.
- Mentoring: Whether it is a start-up in Mumbai or India, Chatur Ideas not only helps you with funding but also mentors you to transform your startup into a global giant. It boasts one of India’s strongest mentors panel, which helps small to medium-scale businesses in Mumbai and all over India scale up by giving them robust organizational structuring, mentoring, and possible funding.
Because of their huge community and network of mentors and investors comprising from top brands of the world, including Google, JP Morgan, KPMG, Silicon Valley accelerator, etc., they are able to open a lot of doors for their startups and at the same time ensure that these mentors spend enough time with the startups to guide them and open doors through their network.
- Go to Market Assistance: They have an in-house team of experts for digital marketing for generating leads, creating a brand, and various go-to-market strategies for their clients. They have a strong team for offline and online go-to-market support for their startups. It also includes increasing the sales and revenues of these startups with their market expertise and building a strong network. They also help with Business Negotiations, Building Sales Teams & Client Acquisitions, Go to Market, Legal & Compliance, Pitch-deck, Valuations & Due Diligence.
- Entrepreneurship Training Programs: Chatur Ideas have acquired Nurture Talent Academy (NTA), which has trained over 34,000 entrepreneurs across 450 colleges. After acquiring them, today Chatur Ideas works with over 900 colleges all over India, where they run entrepreneurship training programs with senior trainers all across India. They also provide joint certification with IIT Bombay Ecell for their Illuminate series of workshops all over India. Their training programs have benefitted thousands of young talents.
As for competitors, any industry today cannot function without them, as they make our own business stand out from the rest. Clients also understand the value they provide.
“Chatur Ideas is better because we give customized service to each client, and the value given is purely in terms of capability and efficiency of startups which is directly proportional to current market demand and expectations,” he says
A number of announcements will be made by Chatur Ideas in 2023, including further expanding their presence in Silicon Valley, Singapore, UAE, Qatar, Israel, and many more countries.
Key to Leadership
Devesh says, “The key to being a good leader is to be empathetic. As leaders and employees, we are often taught to keep a distance and project a certain image. An image of confidence, competence, and authority. We may disclose our vulnerability to a spouse or close friend behind closed doors at night, but we would never show it elsewhere during the day, let alone at work.
However, this image is primarily the main reason why there exists a certain distance between employers and employees.
He believes “sometimes being vulnerable and empathetic reflects humanity and develops a connection or a bond between the employee and employer. If the employee has a positive bond with the company, he is less likely to leave the company or be disinterested in working on his projects in the future.”
“When I feel stuck, confused, or angry, I take some time out to introspect and analyze the situation from all angles. This allows me to gain some perspective and clarity on what the problem is. Secondly, I reach out to my mentors, colleagues, or friends for their opinion. I believe that they are always our biggest cheerleaders. And thirdly, I believe in taking a walk. A walk has the power to clear your head and help you think more clearly.” he asserts
Ahead of the Competitors
We have come to an age where organizations catch up to each other within a few months. The only way to keep your competition at bay is to innovate and change. Change your product offering, its price, service quality, etc. but do not change the core identity. In business, it is vital to realize that when you are a market leader, you have to be at least six months ahead of your competition and when you are a market follower, you should aim to catch up with the market leader within three months.”
“As a company, we believe in nurturing creativity. People who see closed doors before an open window do not think out of the box. We firmly believe that ‘One should always paint a new story,’ as there is no point in following what others do. We at Chatur Ideas will always seek disruptive thinking because we understand that the only thing, which will be constant in this world, would be the change; change in the way people live, think, hear and understand.” he notes
Goals and Vision for Chatur Ideas
“Obtaining unicorn status for 50 startups is the most important goal we aim for. Staying true to our mission will always be our utmost priority. In order to achieve this, we need to understand not only what we want for our people but what people want from us. We believe in what our esteemed users believe in.” he says
“People often say the right team can take you a long way. I believe it’s the people and my team that have made my challenges easier and my success better. I would like to majorly give credit to their ‘Chatur Ideas’ and their optimism.”
As one of India’s largest startup enabling platforms, their goal is to grow globally further. The USA, Israel, UAE, and Qatar are just a few of the countries that have an international presence in. Chatur Ideas aims to expand its presence internationally as they continue to grow.
Advice for aspiring Entrepreneurs
Most first-time entrepreneurs first find the solution and then look for the problem. This should be the other way around, and they should look for the problem first and then find the solution. Just finding the solution is not enough; the solution should be very enticing and should have the potential to create money and solve problems at the same time. These are the pointers that first-time and aspiring entrepreneurs should keep in mind. So, the first tip would be to conduct an empathy study and in-depth market survey to figure out and answer one major question, “what problem is an entrepreneur solving?”
Every entrepreneur is different, but what makes them successful is their hard work and dedication. When I meet a startup, I ask about only two things, the business plan and the P.D.F.
P.D.F stands for Perseverance, Discipline, and Focus.
For example, Colonel Sanders, the founder of K.F.C., knocked on 1,009 doors before he became successful. That’s perseverance, persistence in doing something despite difficulty or delay.
Often entrepreneurs use investor money like college passes outs getting their first salary. So, discipline plays a key role for an entrepreneur to be successful.
The third part is the focus, which we have been learning since the era of Mahabharata, how Arjun’s laser-sharp focus made him the best Archer of his time as his focus was only on his aim and nowhere else.
So according to me, these are the most important qualities for an entrepreneur to be successful.