Resilience is the ability to recover quickly and successfully from difficult or challenging situations. It involves mental, emotional, and behavioral flexibility that allows individuals or systems to adapt and bounce back after setbacks or stressors.
Persisting in tasks despite difficulties, such as trying multiple times without giving up or continuing to apply for jobs after rejections.
Now lets understand from real life experiences in the world of Startups.…
This was the year 2020, a promoter (and not founder) who had an entity which was in the OS (Operating System) space was hustling and had managed to raise a friends & family round – was not able to take it forward in the current space. Pivoted to another technology venture, within the same entity – that also did not find success. Then pivoted to a product space, with one of the promoters also leaving in the interim. So what all can go south, had gone south. All through this, the promoter was hustling. His demeanor was always positive. Continued to network and pitch to angels, family offices, VC firms.
And today in Circa 2025 – the promoter has found success (touchwood), raised multiple rounds of capital, attracted talent also – so the juggernaut rolls ….
This could have been a case , where the entity could have been what Freddie Mercury sang – “Another One bites the Dust“. This did not happen, but in fact, also enriched the early investors.
What was the secret sauce? – Adapt and adopt, having an entrepreneurial mind, staying the course, meeting the folks in the eco-system, not being in love with a product.
Easy to say, but difficult to follow.
Also, the entity also had emotional support from the family and also the core group of early investors.
We are able to understand more and relate more when you have real life instances. Why?
Stories resonate and enable us to link and connect .
Many of the success stories today would have had similar experiences .
The startup scene is a melting pot of passion, grit, innovation and drive.
Be it a Tier 2 & Tier 3 city promoter or from a Tier 1 city , the desire to create disruption, upset the status quo and create an impact. But it’s not a walk in the park –
- Funding crunch
- operational bottlenecks
- talent woes
- pressure to scale/grow rapidly
- new lexicons coming into play – CM1, CM2 & CM3
Today, entrepreneurship is accepted as a way of life and as a profession. Till about 3-5 years ago, there was familial pressure, societal outlook, cultural nuances etc. in play, when entrepreneurship was mentioned. A conventional career path was more the norm.
So, for an entrepreneur, when everything around is not going north and you see your peers driving their new cars or going to fancy vacations and restaurants, to maintain the vision and the conviction is a task. And that’s where belief in self, belief in the product/service kicks in.
On top of it, we need to innovate and the constraints in play, in terms of resources, infrastructure, capital… the less said the better. So being creative and finding ingenious solutions and approaches is the only way.
In all of this, the governance has found to be the Achilles heel and enough and more cases are out in the open. This needs to be fixed . Sooner the better.
Today, there is another instance of a promoter who has raised less than INR 4 million in capital and has had a till date revenue of close to INR 100 million, not able to raise fresh capital . The promoter believes in the product and is not willing to bite the dust. The promoter is looking to adapt, adopt and convince others.
Will history repeat (look at the instance shared in the beginning!)
Resilience – thy word.
Author
Brijesh Damodaran
