Why I Stopped Wearing My Socks by Alok Kejriwal

Author:Alok Kejriwal [Kejriwal, Alok]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789387578708
Publisher: Westland
Published: 2018-09-25T05:00:00+00:00

Beauty Lies in the Eyes of the Financier

After I had signed on the term sheets to obtain funding by eVentures and ICICI, exhaustive due diligence began on my business and its operations. Beyond studying my company documents and auditing my accounts (there was hardly anything to examine), the diligence was on my leadership capabilities and my vision to build the business.

At the eVentures office at Khetan Bhavan at Churchgate, I met Neeraj Bhargava again, this time in a stately boardroom. Neeraj was very focused and unnerved me with his penetrating stare. I was nervous, to say the least.

Without pleasantries, Neeraj said, ‘Alok, we have been thinking of the contests2win business and have two major issues to discuss. If we cannot resolve these, we may not be able to fund you.’ My heart began to beat very fast. This was a meeting I did not want to mess up.

Neeraj said, ‘My first question is about revenue. You have not charged your clients for any of the work you have done for them, despite partnering with some of the biggest and most reputed marketers in India. The second issue is about your team and the lack of anyone credible in there, other than yourself. How do you propose to tackle these issues?’

Having experienced several meetings that did not go well, I had learned a hard lesson that mumbling stupid answers was worse than keeping quiet. I remained silent for a few seconds, gathered my thoughts and said, ‘Neeraj, I am building an amazing new business that has never existed in the world before. It’s helping brands and consumers in an unprecedented way. A value will be derived from it.’

Neeraj nodded and sternly asked me, ‘How many people do you have in contests2win? What are their qualifications?’

I meekly replied, ‘I have two web designers and a marketing and sales guy from a not so well-known B-School in the team.’

Neeraj scowled a bit and then said something that took me by complete surprise. He said, ‘Let me put your brand connections to the test. Write down your top ten brand contacts with their phone numbers on a sheet of paper, and let me call them right now and ask them about you and your team. Make sure to list the brand owners who have given you repeat business; not just single-deal clients who may have been swayed by your sweet talk.’

I was cornered and meekly did what I was asked to do. I wrote down the names of the clients who were doing the most amount of contests with contests2win. These included Paramount Pictures, Hindustan Lever, MTV, etc. After a moment’s hesitation, I also wrote down the name of Thota Ranganath (Ranga) of Pepsi who had given me lots of business but was my most challenging client. His demands would make my team and me literally tear our hair out. I was not sure if he would say good things about me, but he was undoubtedly a massive volume client.

Neeraj glanced at the list very carefully and as luck would have it, chose to call Ranga.

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