book review

Sramana Mitra: How To Test, Validate and Bring Your Idea To Market

Late last week, I sat down with Sramana Mitra to discuss the latest book in her Entrepreneur Journeys series: How To Test, Validate and Bring Your Idea To Market. In this third volume, Mitra confirms that clarity is the ultimate tool in building a successful business. But such clarity cannot be purchased or assumed – it requires asking the right questions. The book is available on Amazon for purchase – read the details of our chat below.

[Manoj]: How does this book, transition from your earlier book: “Bootstrapping: Weapon of Mass Destruction”:

[Sramana Mitra]: Positioning: How To Test, Validate and Bring Your Idea To Market is a strategy book, and focuses on precisely what the title states. It helps entrepreneurs understand the nuances of a clear and concise go to market strategy, a due diligence exercise so to speak.

[Manoj]: What are the major benefits of entrepreneurship using the bootstrap route vs. the venture capital route?

[Sramana Mitra]: Bootstrapping allows you to keep control of your equity, while venture capital is designed for investors to gradually take control of more and more of your company’s equity. Also, bootstrapping is appropriate for businesses that don’t necessarily have to be going after very large market opportunities, whereas, venture capital is only appropriate for businesses that have the potential to get very large.

[Manoj]: What are a couple of strong methods of testing the viability of your idea?

[Sramana Mitra]: Speak with 100 prospective customers. And use the appendix of the Positioning book, which gives a thorough due diligence framework.

[Manoj]: How important are relationships during the entrepreneur’s journey – being able to bounce ideas off of colleagues/mentors and to validate your thoughts?

[Sramana Mitra]: Mentors, the right ones, can be extremely valuable. Especially for first time entrepreneurs, mentors can make a huge difference. But note that I said the “right” mentors. The wrong mentors can also screw things up in a big way. So what’s a right mentor? Greg Gianforte discusses that in the Bootstrapping volume.

[Manoj]: At the end of your book you have an appendix which is a detailed list of questions to help “clarify your story” tell us the importance of being able to answer any one of those questions before you take an idea to market?

[Sramana Mitra]: I cannot over-emphasize the importance of addressing those detailed questions. In entrepreneurship, the proverbial devil lies entirely in those details. Gaining clarity of those issues, pain, value proposition, TAM, channel, messaging, buying cycle, sales cycle that’s what will determine whether you can build a scalable business or not. Otherwise, you end up with a spray and pray situation which is entirely undesirable.

Bootstrapping: Weapon of Mass Reconstruction – Interview of Sramana Mitra

Sramana Mitra is a technology entrepreneur and strategy consultant in Silicon Valley. She has founded three companies, writes a weekly column for Forbes, the business blog Sramana Mitra on Strategy, and is the author of the Entrepreneur Journeys book series. Recently, I caught up with Sramana to chat with her in regards to her latest book – Bootstrapping: Weapon of Mass Reconstruction. Check out our conversation below.

[Manoj:] What was the inspiration behind writing this book?

[Sramana Mitra]: I have been observing the dysfunctions of the venture capital industry for years, and in parallel, I notice that in America and elsewhere (especially India), entrepreneurs are quite hung up on raising money, without fully understanding the pros and cons. I felt that if entrepreneurs understood the financing options better, they would bootstrap a lot more, eliminating one of the primary mental blocks to entrepreneurship.

[Manoj:] Tell us how you came up with the title: BootStrapping: Weapon of Mass Destruction

[Sramana Mitra]: Capital markets have slowed, there is a draught in credit and equity financing. Yet, we need entrepreneurship more than ever to jumpstart the job creation engine. Bootstrapping is the only way to do that in this environment. I have recommended policies to support bootstrapped entrepreneurship.

[Manoj:] Why did you choose to interview the individuals you did: Rafat Ali, Wayne Krause, Ramu Yalamanchi, etc…

[Sramana Mitra]: I have interviewed hundreds of entrepreneurs in the last 3 years. I included Rafat’s story because he managed to “create a job” amidst a recession, a story that I felt would be inspiring for others. Wayne, Ramu, Greg, and others are tremendously resourceful people with enormous resilience. They are great role models with much wisdom to share. That’s why I included them in this volume on bootstrapping. They represent the key virtues I wanted to celebrate in this book, including frugality.

[Manoj:] I personally liked the interview with Om Malik (as I read his blog regularly) – what was it like hearing is story and how he achieved success

[Sramana Mitra]: I have known Om quite well for almost a decade. I knew a lot of his story, and I invited him to tell the story to a broader audience because I knew that it was a good, inspiring story, and one that many journalists and writers could draw energy from.

[Manoj:] What would be 3 big things you would want new entrepreneurs to walk away with after reading your book?

[Sramana Mitra]: Inspiration. Confidence. Resolve.