It was April 4, 2014. We were all
excited of having our last examination of 3rd term. It meant no regular
classes, no more assignments for next two months. But the bigger challenge was
still waiting ahead of us. The uncertainty of working in a start-up, not so
known company was prevailing over my head. I headed to Bangalore on the same
day. When most of my friends were enjoying the weekend after the end term, our
first meeting was being scheduled with the CEO of the company on the very
Sunday of 6th April. To my utter surprise we met in a CCD instead of
any office. It was both a surprise and a latent happiness. Because we were
meeting for the first time which is not in any office setting, secondly it
meant more informal situation and better interaction. We were briefed about the
project we were going to work. In my project, we were meeting the CEO directly once or
twice in a week and rest of the time we were working from home. We were always
connected with the CEO, who was our mentor, via e-mails, calls or any other way
of online communication. The first lesson I learnt by working in a start-up is
you can directly interact with the higher management and can understand the
basics of business and the core of it. It’s like listening directly from the
horse’s mouth.
The project was going smoothly
with rough patches here and there. The project idea was ready in the brain but
the feasibility and the acceptability of the idea was still a big question
mark. I tried to verify the feasibility of idea, which well tested my technical
knowledge. Having worked in technical field for three years came to my rescue.
I somehow managed to recall my technical stuff and able to find out that
project is feasible after testing it. The second learning I got here is that I was
given enough freedom by my mentor to try different stuffs, make mistakes and
learn. This is the best thing to be worked in a new company.
Still there was a big question
was pondering us. Whether the idea will be acceptable in the market or not, if
it is implemented? So we need to do a pilot testing of a rough prototype of the
product. When all the shortcuts to create a faster and dirty prototype were
closed, we chose the path to develop it ourselves and then take it for market
testing. Development started with the help of a third party developer. After
clearly understanding the project and how it should be implemented, I was able
to clearly coordinate with the developer to develop the prototype with all the
basic functionality of the product. I got a chance to develop the web page
template and the database model. The third learning I got here is that, we can
work in different roles being in a start-up company. I really tasted the work of
business analyst, market analyst, client etc. along with how to promote a
product and collect prospects.
Things were not as smooth as I
described above. We were running behind schedules. My internship was almost
going to be over but the product was still not open for market tasting. So I
agreed to continue the work after joining back to college. It was because; I
was also as excited about the product as my mentor and was hoping for its success.
We started the product and wanted to feel its path of success or failure also.
So after joining the college I continued the work till one more month and the
product was launched. The product was market-tested for two weeks after which
my excited journey came to an end. The last but not the least lesson I got here
is when the work is exciting you, the excitement and the anxiety prevails over
the pressure and the hurdles. The taste of working in a start-up with direct
mentoring from the top of the company and working from end-to-end in a project
is really worthy.
