Why Dell is so inspiring for Entrepreneurs!

I first read about Michael Dell in a Reader’s Digest article around the time I was just out of college (1992) and was thinking of doing something new. His amazing story of ‘assembling’ a computer sitting in his room in the University of Texas completely fired me up. It made me believe that there was nothing cast in stone in business and that innovation belonged to anyone who had a dream.

[This is a file photo of Michael Dell, taken in 1999, at his old dorm room where he launched his enterprise as a college freshman. image source ]

The business model of Dell itself was revolutionary and it inspired me to think completely out of the box. In 1998, I broke out of my father’s business (socks manufacturing) and started up an Internet business called contests2win.com. My life also changed after that. 

Almost twenty years later, when TheRodinhoods.com – a pro-bono social network for entrepreneurs  that I have founded, had the opportunity to partner with Dell India, it became a very sweet moment for me. This was the same Company that had inspired me to become an entrepreneur when I was just getting started. 

There is a very strong, cohesive synergy between TheRodinhoods.com and Dell: 

– Each entrepreneur who visits or registers at TheRodinhoods is a potential Michael Dell in the making. Hungry, restless, agile, adaptive and excited about doing something. Having Dell on the site as a partner reinforces that connect very strongly.

–  Dell is a Fortune 500 Company that has had its own share of massive challenges. The Company has reinvented itself multiple times to stay relevant and meaningful. That metaphor is a very strong reminder for the entrepreneurs at TheRodinhoods to be ready for massive chaos, unpredictability and change. The message I read is, “If Dell can change, why can’t I?”

–  The Dell website is rich with case studies of success stories of new age and classic businesses that have benefited while partnering with Dell. These are extremely relevant to TheRodinhoods community who need to learn as much as they can from the business lessons of others before writing their own.

– The Dell India team we are working with has promised to play an active, engaged and supportive role in dialoging with our entrepreneurs, extending to them business support and helping them scope and plan scale that only Dell Ventures (which supports startups and entrepreneurs), understands best.

More than anything else, TheRodinhoods and Dell India partnership is an irreversible signal that the time for entrepreneurs has come. We hope that we together can understand, serve and guide entrepreneurs in their single minded purpose and mission to succeed.

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