Ganesha's Global Startup

By Prachi Garg

A foodie at heart, Ganesha always looked for ways to make life worth living. In his entrepreneurial journey so far, he had seen it all – starting from a failed startup to bagging the ‘entrepreneur of the year’ award.
With the achievement came the urge to expand the business with Series-B funding and beyond. Weaving Indian mythology with entrepreneurship lessons for newbie entrepreneurs, this book charts the journey of going over and beyond in the startup game with the right learnings.
Ganesha's Global Startup is a gripping tale of an entrepreneur's challenges when he wishes to expand and ways in which he beats all odds.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Srishti Publishers
• Release date: May 31, 2021
• ISBN: 9789390441303

Book preview

About the author

Prachi Garg is an author, motivational speaker, and entrepreneur. She started www.ghoomophiro.com, helping organize customised corporate tours. Recently, Ghoomophiro expanded its portfolio for women solo travel across India and Southeast Asia.

She has delivered workshops on entrepreneurship at major B schools across India, like FMS, IIMs, Miranda House, IMT, among others. Her startup has been covered by CNN and other leading media.

She has also authored the ‘Super’ series, with three books charting startups by women, siblings and couples – Superwomen, Supercouples and Supersiblings.

Her fiction titles – The Legends of a Startup Guy and Startup Secrets from the Ramayana – weave mythology with entrepreneurship to give the readers essential lessons by way of an engaging narrative.

Apart from being an MBA graduate from Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai, she is a distinguished alumna from Miranda House.

Twitter @prachimadri

Instagram @Prachi1905

Facebook: /Authorprachigarg

Praise for the author and her works

"...handpicked success mantras... [Startup Secrets from the Ramayana] must read for budding entrepreneurs."

—The Times of India

" ...[Superwomen] unleashes the secret of achieving your passion… perfect combination of emotion and intelligence."

—Women’s Era

...[for] youngsters looking for inspiration, this might be the one.

—Hindustan Times

Interesting journey of how 20 women played fantastic roles towards perfection…

—Millennium Post

This book encourages entrepreneurship in the youth…

—Hindustan

Prachi Garg

Srishti Publishers & Distributors

A unit of AJR Publishing LLP

212A, Peacock Lane

Shahpur Jat, New Delhi – 110 049

[e-mail]

First published by

Srishti Publishers & Distributors in 2021

Copyright © Prachi Garg, 2021

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

This is a work of fiction. The characters, places, organisations and events described in this book are either a work of the author’s imagination or have been used fictitiously. Any resemblance to people, living or dead, places, events, communities or organisations is purely coincidental.

The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the Publishers.

Printed and bound in India

Dedicated to

my father Brejesh Garg,

and mother Neeru Garg.

Acknowledgements

This book has been possible due to the enormous love and support that people have given to me. It was their constant support that kept me going and ensured that I should be able to deliver it on time. I would like to thank everyone for making the journey smooth for me.

Family members play a great role to make such accomplishments possible. In my case as well, this holds true. Each one of them has been instrumental and has been there when required.

Mr Arup Bose from Srishti Publishers for his faith in my concept and agreeing to publish the same.

Stuti, my editor, who undertook the tedious task of going through my manuscript, editing it and coming out with exciting ideas.

All my friends who provided me with constant moral support to make this happen.

All the readers of Superwomen, SuperCouples, Supersiblings, The Legends of a Startup Guy and Startup Secrets from the Ramayana, whose love inspired me to pen down Ganesha’s Global Startup.

ONE

It’s Time to Grow

This happened right after the night of the award ceremony. I was in a trance. Everything felt surreal. There had been a lot of media; I had put on my best suit. The team had been cheering all night. Every time I was handed the mike to speak, the crowd would go crazy, as though I was some sort of a celebrity. My team was on an all-time high! The celebrations were still on, long after the ceremony had concluded.

After long months of slogging, the team had finally put together a grand expo – bringing ‘Sweet Post’ to a massive platform of popularity. I had received an award, albeit on their behalf, knowing very well how much the background work had cost them in their personal lives. And not just the seniors, it was incredible to see how motivated and dedicated the juniors had been too, given their completely different priorities.

Sweet Post, was my dream project that I started a few years back after a failed virtual reality startup. These failures taught me a lot and the journey to Sweet Post, delivering sweetness online, was definitely not an easy one. The support from friends, family – especially mother Parvati – has been immense. I still recall the days when I opted for a food enterprise, given that I was a foodie. The icing on the cake was having a sweet tooth. Sometimes, going down memory lane is so refreshing.

And now, the celebrations were still on. We had moved from the award ceremony to the after-party venue, before graduating to some outdoor fun. Now we had finally tapered at someone’s house.

You have to go and celebrate, Ganesha. You have accomplished so much! Riddhi was sitting outside her house, watching the commotion, as my fun-filled team members dropped me home, at the same time insisting that I go along with them for some more fun.

Riddhi was watching and smiling, I noticed from the corner of my eyes. It was not like this was any of her business. But she was a good neighbour and often checked in on me, offering to water the plants and even bring me food when she knew I would be travelling or be super busy to look after myself. She was very perceptive that way.

She must have heard the news of my recognition. Often, when I would walk back home or bid goodbye to my teammates, I would run into her sitting outside, reading a book or working on some painting. She had definitely seen me politely refuse invitations to parties on multiple occasions. I guess when she saw my team members requesting so sincerely, she couldn’t resist egging me on!

I knew where she was coming from. I guess she had seen me work very hard over the last few months. In the last stage, when funding and expanding with Sweet Post had been tough, I barely had time for anything else in life. But in the rare instances of free time, I had often found Ridhhi sticking around, helping in any way she could. Gradually, our equation had grown from being polite neighbours to people often exchanging smiles. As I watched her insist I go and party, I am recalling all those little moments I have subtly exchanged with her. While I acknowledge the accomplishments, my mind is telling me that I have to set my priorities. Having set up our business model to profit and having established enough profit to break the trend of food delivery not being profitable, we had managed to find the perfect balance of cost and quality; enough to make sure that our product remained sustainable.

Ganesha, the National Business Forum has just released their list of top ten entrepreneurs to watch out for. You are in it! Lakshmi had called me about a month ago.

That’s great to hear. Sounds fancy, but what does that change for us? was my reply.

Don’t get me wrong. I was not being cynical. It is not like I did not value the recognition. I just did not know what change some fancy list would bring to us on a more practical level. Well, it changed everything! Within a week, we had become the spotlight of not just the local but national media. Our social media presence was off the charts, and that is just one part of it. My phone had not stopped ringing from callers of different brands, trying to market with us and advertise on our portal. I can’t even get to the whole sales aspect that had boomed; it felt like we were turning into a factory.

Our products were being sought after and tested by all and sundry.

Ganesha, it feels like everyone wants a taste of the celebrity! one of our branches in Maharashtra had called. With the sudden popularity, what had hit me even more drastically was how many venture capitalists had now started reaching out to us.

Ganesha, there’s so much we have to offer. Why don’t you come down to our Australian head office so we can have a chat at length? one had said.

The Sweet Post is at a sweet spot right now. And we have the capital as well as the capacity to take you to the right heights, another had said on a video conference call. There was so much going on all at once that I had to take a break and calm my head to get a grip.

Whenever things went crazy, I preferred to walk home. I liked drowning myself in the environment around me and enjoyed looking at the lives of others. After having exhausted myself with a long walk, when I reached home that day, I had a clear head, and felt relatively calm. What made things better for me was a smiling face at the neighboring front porch.

Riddhi was standing there with her cup of tea, playing with the little roadside puppies. She probably had no idea what a big deal I was becoming, and how I was being drowned by the pressure of success from all sides. I realised this because when she lifted her head to look at me, there was a sense of pure joy. The puppies seemed to occupy all of her attention. I was not the centre of her attention and I was allowed to be a humble bystander.

I can’t tell you what a relief that was for me – to hang out with someone who was not making a big deal about everything going on. When I said bye to her and started to unlock my door,

my phone brought me back to the sense of being overwhelmed by the upcoming spotlights.

There’s no rush, Ganesha, my mother Parvati had sat down with me when I had gone to Kailash, the only true place that always brought me solace. The first step is to accept the situation, child. Do not be intimidated by the sheer potential of what you have built. I know it can be a little overwhelming. But this is all you – your hard work and your intelligence. You will continue to make things work!

You know, I could hear my mother talk. I knew she was trying to pacify me, but it only made me feel even more intimidated. It was almost as though a label had been put on me – ‘remover of obstacles’. I was everyone’s magic wand.

What people did not seem to understand was that I was carrying the weight of a lot of expectations on my shoulders. And I wasn’t quite sure if I was ready to live up to it! My mother knew this when she had looked into my eyes. She always did. And who says you have to do this alone? You have a strong and capable team on your side. You have skills that have brought you this far, and you have a family that supports you unconditionally. It would be quite silly not to make the most of this opportunity! Right, Ganesha? I mulled over that last sentence for a while as I walked back home. It indeed would be silly to not look ahead and think about all the amazing things that we can do.

While still hung over with the celebrations, my team was a little curious to see what could possibly be brewing, to be called so soon after the party. The truth is, I had not been able