It has been a while. I hope that you all brought the new year in with great style and hope 2010 is going to be a great year for all of us.

Today I want to write a little bit about setbacks. The entrepreneurial journey is like taking a sail boat and crossing the atlantic. Some parts of the journey are likely to be smooth and stress free, while other parts are full of rough seas affecting our ability to get to our final destination.

Recently my business partner and I hit some rough seas! We lost two strategic partners who had competing priorities and decided to leave Vispeo.com (The name of our business). Now one of those folks was a developer who we were hoping would build our prototype model website. That piece is soo pivotal to the success of our business..it’s as if we hit rough seas and lost our sails!!!

Now there are two ways to deal with a set back. Firstly you can lose your spirit,concede your plans, surrender and give up. Perhaps cutting your losses and saying “It just was not mean’t to be”. Or secondly you can try to find alternative solutions to the problem and ride out the rough seas or perhaps take an alternate route where the seas are calmer.Ultimately reaching your final destination.

Well, I’m not a quitter and I have always believed that when one door closes…another one opens. My partner and I have looked at this with a view to the glass is half full. We are working to solicit quotes from developers, talking to some potential developers who would build vispeo in return for an equity stake vs cash.

And while we still have not found a final solution yet…all of a sudden we have created options, hope and potentially an even better route to get to where we want to be

Don’t let the threat of rough seas deter you from following your passion and reaching your final destination. Perhaps take another route, or ride out the storm, because the seas will get smoother again.

Ok folks that is it for now. Take care and watch out for more. I would welcome your comments and thoughts about my blog and any insight you have on the entrepreneurial voyage.

Equity allocation is the process of dividing up the company’s shares among the key stakeholders of the business. It may not be a one time process as more people are brought on board in a startup company equity might allocation might be revised.

So in the case of my business, I have 3 other partners…who have joined me in the pursuit of the entrepreneurial dream. Our project is right at the initial phase and as such the company has no real tangible $ value. So in essence we are dividing $0 among 4 people. I know you are probably asking why allocate?

Well my reasons are as follows:

- Remove early the obstacles that most start ups face and never resolve, thereby risking startup failure
- Get people focused on the execution vs focusing on hypotheticals
- This avoids undue speculation and helps level set expectations
- Create transparency and build trust

The allocation of equity can be based on many factors. Some founders have divided equity equally, others have used more of a scientific and analytical approach. Every article I have read so far does not push equal distribution because doing so, especially initially can have devastating consequences for your business.

In my case I have adopted the following approach:

- Assess the value each founder/partner has brought to the point of initial allocation
- Define their roles, responsibilities and value that they are expected to bring during the stages pf prototyping, refining and beta launch
- Assess skill set and ability to help execute the project
- Set initial allocation so that the original founder has at least 51%
- Employ an equity comp team to re assess allocation based on performance and value each person has brought to the table before commercialization
- Remember to allocate equity for future employees and advisors
- Most importantly, let your team know that if they perform well, they should not worry about equity allocation as in the end the independent committee will make adjustments
- Have a defined vesting period to avoid short timers
- Ensure everyone has an equal vote on all issues except hiring and termination

Dividing equity equally can create a lot of problems and slow down a company’s progress initially. Leadership is required from day 1 and retaining some level of control in the company will avoid the risk of not making solid progress.

Well there you go…this was my way of handling a very important issue that now removes a major initial hurdle.

As I start to make a little traction down the entrepreneurial path, part of what comes into play is working with a team. In life no man/woman is an island. Good teams build great businesses.

So what makes a good team. Well there are many articles that cover this very topic. One I picked out is at:

http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Seven-Characteristics-of-a-High-Performing-Team&id=413346

Its a bit early to gauge the effectiveness and dynamic of our team on VISPEO, but so far everyone is having some fun (I think:), we are able to have dialogue and agree at a high level our planned approach to developing the concept and building, testing and refining a prototype.

At Vispeo, the dream team must remain focussed, comitted, motivated, creative and flexible. The next three months will really tell the story. As the overall lead for my project I will have to make some interim assessment of how effective the team is. I must ensure that this venture succeeds and be objective about whether I have the right resources to make the idea be a tremendous success.

Well that is it for now, back to work! Take care and I’ll be blogging soon.

Many people who have ideas are often so insecure about sharing them for fear their idea will be stolen. Well while there may be some element of truth in that I would like to share some thoughts about why I would not worry too much about this issue:

1) Whoever does have that intent must have the same level of passion you have to execute the idea
2) They must also develop a plan and build a team
3) Competition is good! It helps build efficiency, create a market for the idea and stimulates a strategic approach to building your business
4) If your business idea is good, people, companies will try to emulate that anyway, it is just a question of timing
5) There is always an alternative way to do something or build something, so dont worry if someone builds a similar concept or idea. You can make it better!!!!

Sharing your idea with TRUSTED people who will give you candid, honest and sincere feedback is the best way to validate and refine your thoughts so that you can go on to building something great!

Now today I hosted my first call with three very close and trusted friends. I shared my idea with them via a 6 page business document and set up a call with an agenda of questions that I wanted their responses to. I have to say it was a very productive call! Dominic, Tim and Crystal all shared great insight and brought some fabulous ideas to the table. Ideas that I really had not considered.

My whole point here is that I was able to bring some people together and cultivate a great brainstorming session that I can leverage feedback from and hopefully build a better business model with. This will be an ongoing iterative process but the fact is its an important piece in the entrepreneurial path. My dad has used this comment many times…”1+1 is 11!” I could not agree more

I am now in the process of developing a high level business plan. A 5-6 page high level summary discussing my idea. The content of this document includes:

1) The business need
2) The size of the market
3) The competitive landscape
4) Monetization potential
5) The competitive landscape
6) The operating model
7) Marketing and PR
8) The future roll out plan and some high level timelines

While this is not a comprehensive list it certainly will help me think about this business idea at a 10,000ft level. Being able to communicate my vision with partners and stakeholders is key.

I remember going to B School back in 2000 and attending those entrepreneurial classes taught you how to write a comprehensive business plan were so inspiring. However we are living in an age of speed and I don’t want to bog myself down on a documentary path. Some articulation of what I want to do is necessary in order to leverage the benefits of thought partners who can help me refine and fine tune my ideas. I think business planning is a great discipline, but how detailed and the timming are important considerations. Soo many people spend forever and a day planning and developing a robust document which in the end can collect dust sitting on a shelf, risking the threat of being outdated by the time execution is carried out. The best way to test your ideas is build some basic prototypes, test, learn and refine. Potential customers are the key validators of your ideas.

Ok I’m signing off for now….but you will be hearing from me soon:)

Today marks the start of my blog in which I plan to update you all on my entrepreneurial adventures. But before we start let me give you the backdrop on who I am and how I ended up here.

My name is Niten Luthra and I have been living the corporate life since I was 19 years old. I have had 8 years experience in the US banking industry both in strategic and finance roles. I voluntarily ended my career with Wells Fargo in July of 2009, having spent 2 years in Strategy. I got to a point where I felt I was not growing at a fast enough pace, my highly versatile skill set was not being utilized and I was not feeling passionate about what I was doing. Most of my colleagues thought I was crazy to leave during very tough market conditions. I took a contrarian stance. Life is too short and its time to take back control of my future:)

Truth be told it was a liberating feeling leaving the bank and all the political and bureaucratic nonsense most of us are willing to live with. 

Over the past few months I have been thinking about my life and my passions. Two things have recently surfaced.

Firstly my talent and interest in Emceeing and public speaking. It all started out at a wedding that I was attending where I was a Master of Ceremonies. The wedding event was a huge success and opened up an opportunity to host a fashion show fundraiser for JJ Valaya’s Magic Foundation in San Francisco. The event was another success and now I have decided to get some formal training and try to find some other gigs to catapult my career.

About two weeks ago I had the pleasure of attending startup weekend in Mountainview where aspiring entrepreneurs pitch ideas and the top 10 pitches are worked and developed during the weekend. At the event I met some people who were working on an idea revolving around phone interviews and having people upload their responses to pre selected questions. They would then have people provide feedback to their responses from friends and perfect their responses before the actual interview.

I realized that there may be a compelling opportunity to help all types of people with a variety of oral communications by having them upload their material onto a website. Their friends and other folks could proivde feedback. This feedback could then be used to perfect their delivery at the actual venue.

Ok watch out for more soon. Have a good one until then.