Vivek Kumar
Deliotte & Touche
______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Re: Elaboration of my insight in response to someone's ?
Author: [email protected] at Internet-USA
Date: 11/17/1999 11:40 AM
In response to the many people who asked how much experience I had...
Got a BA in Accounting, minored in Marketing, and earned my CPA. I had 3 years
of
Auditing and Consulting at Arthur Andersen, 1 year at a major advertising firm,
and then started an importing/exporting business from India which was fairly
successful (sold 10,000 products in first 6 months to national retailers).
Then I switched to doing an Internet portal. I was 26 when I did
this, 27 now, so I'm not an "expert" or anything...
Its not so much the experience that I missed, since I believe young people
can be very smart too - its more the network of contacts that you can recruit
team members from or ask questions to...the CEO on my current project is a
Harvard MBA, and anytime he has a question on term sheets, valuation, etc. he
just calls up his network of friends, who are all starting companies or part
of startups...also, he was referred to many VCs through his Harvard
colleagues...an IVY league MBA definitely opens doors...
Also, when you go through a startup as a team member, you learn about all the HR
issues, fundraising issues, etc. and can then apply it to a business you start,
which will make the process much smoother. Even a year at a new startup helps
tremendously...not to mention you get 1 year of shares that vest, that may be
worth something some day...
TIE, SIPA, Netip, etc. do help in forming these networks as well...but tread
carefully since every Ramu, Baboo, or Harichand wants to become an
entrepreneur, and you can't be sure of their caliber...
Hope this helps...