A 6 month Journey – Startup Leadership Program

By Hardik Shah on July 31, 2014 1 Comment / 3557 views

When I jumped into the much hyped “entrepreneurial circuit” in late 2012, I had no clue how big actually the startup community is. This is what I felt then (read here) and I continue to stand by it even now.

But obviously, over time I have gradually got sucked into the system and become one amongst many. And as an aspiring billion dollar entrepreneurs claim to fame, we started becoming a part of various groups and startup families. It included the TRHS OH in June 2013 (read here). Then there was the NASSCOM 10000 startups, Google Business Group – Mumbai and several other such events.

Business was good and picking up but we were not sure if we were on the right track. Pressure was building on us to achieve our monthly targets. But none of our team members had any relevant experience in the industry we decided to venture into. We had ventured onto the high seas without an experienced captain. We were contemplating taking up an incubator or accelerator programme.

When we were juggling among these thoughts, somewhere around this time last year we came across Startup Leadership Program (Read here more about it).

In the excitement of being part of another community, I randomly applied for the Program and as usual forgot about it till I got a call from the Program Leader. That’s when I got all the more inquisitive about SLP and started researching a bit more.

And a month later we were on board i.e. inducted to the SLP Journey. 25 new friends from different backgrounds, different industries, different stages of their ventures – but woven by a common thread – to make a difference to ourselves and each other i.e. a close knit family of entrepreneurs.

But unfortunately around the time when we passed through the initial few weeks of SLP, my dream of a successful venture came crashing down (Read here). However that did not stop me from spending every Saturday among the viral crowd at SLP. The enthusiasm, commitment and dedication were so infectious that it helped me not to sway away into the corporate world.

Each day at SLP was something new, something different. Every fellow, program leader, mentors, speakers, investors had a different story to tell and you would just awe to listen more. We used to spend atleast 8 hours at the closed doors of Avendus Capital but nobody dared yawn. Every week on a rotational basis we would head the team and set the agenda and events for the day.

The agenda, speakers and content was totally fellow driven which added great value to our time spent there. We got what we wanted. Nothing was forced into us to absorb. It was all simple and easily graspable by people who have been there and done that.

Fellows had to regularly update the group on their progress and we had milestones to achieve before every session.

Agenda’s revolved around lean startup, developing a product, business pitch, term sheets, customer development, valuations and exits, co-founder conflict and leadership, venture funds and legal compliances amongst others.

Bunking any session was considered a sin. But once you join, you may never want to skip any session.

And you think it just revolved around talks and speeches, then I think I forgot to mention about the awesome after session parties, offsite trip and the Graduation party.