Lately, there is a heavy influx of module manufacturers getting in to system integration to ward off competitons and increase margins. These are people with a hammer who are going looking for a nail.
The role of the system integrator is to actually be manufacturer neutral and to select the best on a case by case basis. Lets see what happens in the future in the Indian rooftop solar market.
Remember everything is Sales, if you have to persuade someone to something you’d like.
But also remember this.
APPEARANCES Creates Baseline Trust: If you had to ask someone to watch your bags at the airport, would you choose the unshaven dude or the man in a business suit responding to emails on his phone? Naturally you choose the person in the suit. The reason why appearances creates trust is, if someone has a “got his stuff together approach” they have no interest in desperately taking anything from you because they don’t need to. Go find a posh neighborhood… then go find a unkempt neighborhood… then ask yourself… Do I trust the people that surround me?
For the astute reader, you’re going to realize you feel slightly uncomfortable asking the man in the suit to watch your bags compared to the questionable unshaven young man. Why? You realize his time is valuable. Similarly, people negotiate less with you if you have a ” I have my shit together ” approach and surprisingly have your way much more often than you thought possible.
This idea can be very analogously applied to Cash and wealth, from where I picked it up.
The only reason to do something is if you enjoy it . The process and the pleasure / pain it gives you .
Not the goal.
Not the outcome .
Not the result.
But the process itself and happiness / suffering it brings.
The goals and results with deadlines should serve as a marker to better gauge yourself and to know yourself better and to set your actions in the right direction but not the determinant in themselves.
If you don’t enjoy the process , then it’s just not worth it. But if you do, we can truly become outcome independent and keep working at it till we start to enjoy and revel in the expertise .
Over time we will start achieving those goals , but only as a side effect and we would be better able to gauge ourselves , strengths and weaknesses and thus set more achievable stretch goals and thus put the “happiness experience ” that we are so good at , on an ever expanding virtuous cycle.
So revel in the moment , enjoy the process , if you don’t look forward to doing something or aren’t constantly thinking about something , then you don’t enjoy the process . You should delegate it to someone who does .
I am really interested in a wide variety of industries – Renewables, ( Solar, Offshore wind, Nuclear Fusion, BIPVs ), Nuclear powered Shipping and its infrastructure, and EVs in general. But am also drawn to the entertainment industry- the convergence of Modelling, Fashion labels and luxury, Hotels , Bars and Pubs – how this industry “brands” and “creates” the perception of beauty, shapes the mass psychology and ‘awards’ value to a product as mundane as a sweater that costs $100 but is sold at $100,000 , about as much as a TESLA Roadster. It fascinates me to no end and I would love to be a part of that industry in my life time as ‘Persuasion’ is a subject very close to my heart.
But that being said, I am also fascinated by technologies that “sustain” like Terra-farming, barren terrain reclamation, floating cities, Cancer Cures, and technologies that “expand” like SpaceX’s mission , Androids and robotics, AI . But all expansion is only possible from a sustainable platform.
If I am at-least half as lucky as I would like to be, I would want to be involved in at the least half of these above mentioned industries in my lifetime.
Which in turn gives rise to my interests in how the Koreans and Japs have created Chaebols and Keiratsu, a very resilient set of diverse companies with complex cross-holdings but rendering the Chairman with great control. Very interesting.
I was engrossed in a deep conversation with a VC yesterday for some fund raising advice – who all of a sudden pointed to a newspaper cut out on a recent competitor who got funded. Apparently the highest in our industry so far.
Then he looked at me and said – ” I think the game is over. They are the Flipkart of Solar.”
I just looked at him and I didn’t know whether he was being serious with that question or just trying to stress test me. Lets hope he was only trying to stress test me harmlessly.
I believe in a unique concept. That I am aggregating zealots who will witness what monumental change looks like from the front lines , when they get on-board SolarTown and I need them to be respectful of that fact. Not towards me or the company, mind you. But towards renewables as a whole and Indian market in specific.
I needed them to have their hearts, souls and minds deep into the industry , to know the market pulse and to understand where we are, where we will be and where we are going. I need them to KNOW the basics of our terrain before engaging the frontlines.
From a prospective VC, I needed three things :
1. The ability to intuitively understand the Indian Distributed solar market , where it is, where value can be created and where not.
2. The ability to connect me or open gates. As an entrepreneur, I had like to believe that I am very very good at wedging open even the gates of heaven, once I have my foot in the door and thats what I need them to get me. Be it prospective hires, potential partners or future Series B investors.
3. Track-record. I would choose ,preferably, those Series A firms ( or at least the partners ) who can display credible track record in helping a company get to that next level like Series B participation following it up with a $10m+ round. I need money.Yes. But smart money.
But getting back to the VC gauging me , while I was gauging him, I came back to him with an answer : ” To take the performance graph vs time of the company you mentioned vs Us. We have done in 3 years what it took them double time to achieve. When you compound that rate of growth over the next decade, you can see the momentum that will make our lead in market share. Besides all this talk about market share is futile right about now, the mainstream solar market i.e. residential is not even viable till 2017 mostly. What companies should be doing now is sharpening their blades and getting to understand what will or will not work. The time to go to war will come but that is not now.”
Lets hope he does a little more leaning in on the market and he is able to check a few of those three boxes over the coming months.
Sometimes its too much to take.
All the load and all the expectations, others’ too but more importantly my own. It feels like the weight of the thousand earths on your shoulder to bear. Darkness clouds my eyes from all directions as I think about the gargantuan task that lies ahead.
I look at my decade’s goals and they appear impossible.
I plan the year ending with a scary goal.
I get scared looking at the goal and all the unforeseen obstacles that arise.
Then I plan the month. I am a little less scared.
Then the week.
Then tomorrow.
I take one step ahead of the other. I condition my mind to do the unpleasurable. I condition my mind to talk the right things that I feel are right. I condition myself to avoid social niceties – the root cause of mediocrity and the fear of embarrassment. I condition myself to just f*king execute the day’s plan , whether or not I feel like it. “Feeling like it” is irrelevant . Totally disconnected from hope, enthusiasm, motivation, fatigue and its peers.
Similarly perfection is over-rated. To violently execute rather than languish in planned hesitation. That is my everyday theme. So I force myself to get on with it. To make that last phone call. To write that last e-mail. To bullet the last slide on the tomorrow’s PPT. There is a reason its called “Entrepreneurshit” and its not all pretty.
Whether I succeed or fail, I know I stood tall for a cause I believed in . I know I didn’t let my intention to manifest a Clean powered world die and fade away inside me. I know I shall not lay down and die and will go down swinging if I have to , on my glorious burden to make sure that renewable powered world comes to life.
I know I will keep marching , regardless of whether I get to where I want to, because some causes are even worth failing for. I know I would have succeeded either way , because my place will never be among those cold and timid souls, who know neither victory nor defeat.
So I tip my hat , to those who have the courage , to Just keep marching.
Today , while hitting the weights hard , I was contemplating the reason behind why I believe what I believe and why don’t my parents believe in some of my audacious dreams.
The reason might be as simple as information disparity.
Let me explain , since the dawn of the great equaliser: the internet, this generation has access to any of the great examples that man kind has to offer. So you can witness men from history who give you a glimpse of what you can be if you try hard enough . You know its possible because you know they exist. But your parents don’t, they don’t have enough exposure or information at their disposal to challenge their limiting beliefs, which brings me to my next question.
Are we limited to achieve anything , only because we haven’t seen anyone else do it yet. What about the men pre-internet who set out to do things that no man has done before. Then it all comes down to what we internally define as ‘limits’ then , doesn’t it? What if we decide to say ‘so what?’
” so what if there are no example? I will set the first one “
I have always felt that business strategy is like chess. It’s my favourite subject in business. To frame strategy , execute it, adapt to it on the fly and win. The last part is the most fun part.
Except that here, unlike chess, you have externalities ( governments, people, markets, disruptive tech) by the truckloads, like playing chess while white-water rafting. If you enjoy both those sports, you would probably enjoy business strategy.
As I have come to meet many people in this startup journey, I have come to realise something key. Something that will stick with me, for long as I live.
The only thing that matters to succeed is to be “maniacally determined”.
There. Thats the only quality required for a founder/ cofounder/ founding team / star employee.
Everything else, and I mean every single freaking thing else, follows suit.
Too many people take too many things flippantly.
In the words of scarface ” There are only two things you shouldn’t break for anybody – your Word and your Balls”
When he said Balls , what he really means is Honour.
Your word and your honour mean a lot, the pillars/ foundations of your whole life. They set your reputation in stone for the rest of your life. But too many people do break them and thereby they fail to stand for anything at all, floating away like dustballs in deserts unable to withstand storms in their lives.
There are good reasons and bad reasons to keep your word. Rather, the spirit of your promise should be held even if not the exact same description. But breaking the spirit of the promise , just so you can save your own ass is something I am not a great fan of. We all face obstacles, but those obstacles are not good reasons to break your word. You should train to beat obstacles. It is the nature of this race called Life.
Vikram Dileepan 