But, for every new venture that made it, there are numerous others that didn't. The untold story of the successes is that every one of them almost didn't make it. Each one had a near-death experience, almost shut down, almost sold itself too short-in short, almost 'blew it'.
How I Almost Blew It talks to some of India's biggest entrepreneurs-Sanjeev Bikhchandani (Info Edge and Naukri.com). Deep Kalra (MakeMyTrip), Deepinder Goyal (Zomato). Ashish Hemrajani (BookMyShow), Sahil Barua (Delhivery). Girish Mathrubootham (Freshworks) and others-to tell stories that shock, reveal and inspire. Quick thinking, astute decision-making and-occasionally-sheer dumb luck is what stood between them and the abyss. These heart-stopping stories of near-fiascos are industry wisdom, yes, but also critical life lessons.
I've known Sid now for more than twenty years, and he is among the handful of very, very close personal friends I have made in my professional life. We've had long chats at Toto's in Bombay and TCs in Delhi about work, books, investing and Jaggu Dada's latest utterances. Our running joke was that most companies we co-invested in went under, so to save the founder, one of us should say no to investing. Over the years, Sid has hosted me and many other friends and colleagues at his pad in Bandra. Each evening with Sid was special. I was happiest when Shweta and Sid told me they were seeing each other and I continued to enjoy their hospitality, along with their brood of dogs and cats.
Much like dungarees, the internet has been in and out of fashion at least three times in the last two decades. Each time, it suffered because of excesses from investors, markets and entrepreneurs. The first one, in 1994, was rightfully called the dot-com bubble. After slowly recovering over eight years from 2001 to 2008, the second internet wave was sweeping the world again when it was stopped dead in its tracks by the Lehman Brothers' bankruptcy in 2008. The third moment, in 2016, mostly impacted India.
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