EMERGING THEMES
The selected entrepreneurs have interdisciplinary interests and backgrounds. All entrepreneurs are technology driven for scalability. One major similarity among the selected entrepreneurs is their use of entrepreneurship to benefit the world for positive impact. Some major themes that characterize the data generated from the interviews about the entrepreneurial process and theory can be summarized into the following key areas:
THEME 1: MOTIVATION AND VIEWS ABOUT ENTREPRENEURSHIP
A recurring theme in all interviews was the primary motivation for choosing entrepreneurship as a career choice.
All of the interviewed entrepreneurs have had varying degrees of experience being members of larger organizations, prior to their own ventures. According to the data, a primary driver for starting a business was a seeming lack of efficiency associated with bigger organizations and personal preferences for wanting to work on own terms. Previously, multiple literature has investigated psychosocial traits and their influence on the entrepreneurial process.
A common element that arose from my research is the comparison drawn between a traditional corporate structure versus an entrepreneurial structure. The interviews suggest that in corporate settings, there is less flexibility and efficiency. From these statements, it is likely that the personal preference of working for oneself is not the only factor that contributes to being a successful entrepreneur. This correlates with the statistic that 26% of entrepreneurs say their biggest motivation for starting their own business was the idea of being their own boss (Guidant Financial, 2019)
Additionally, a sub-theme was that all four entrepreneurs were not primarily driven by money. This is in line with previous literature that has examined the role of wealth as the motive for the decision to start a new venture. According to previous results, money is not the most important motivator for entrepreneurs’ decisions to start new ventures (Amit, MacCrimmon, Zietsma and Oeschh, 2001).
According to Franziska Iseli, “Successful entrepreneurs are not really driven by the money. It's about making an impact through the product or service.” Similarly, Pankaj Agarwal stated that “money is one part of entrepreneurship. But money is really more a validation of your ideas. So, money is more a byproduct than the actual aim.”
This leads to further discussion on where motivations lie and how they potentially impact business. Romain Diaz noted that “It's getting more and more important to have focus driven companies and the role of businesses isn’t just to make money but actually have a better purpose.”
THEME 2: FROM IDEAS TO SOLUTIONS
In The Importance of the Business Idea for New Venture Creation in the Software Industry, Hess et al. (2013) highlight the importance of idea generation in entrepreneurship. Ideas are a constant necessity as an entrepreneur, since they act as either as the primary foundation of the business or are required to grow and solve problems.
Franziska Iseli states “Ideas are one of the best currencies. What’s almost more powerful than having a ton of money, is to have a brain that can generate ideas. So I am actually pretty serious about ideas.” She mentions a practice she uses solely for idea generation, popularized by entrepreneur James Altucher, which is to exercise the idea muscle by generating a list of ten ideas about any object or problem every day.
A key theme discussed in the interviews was solving problems as a tool to generate ideas and as a strategy for growth. In the paper Towards a Theory of Entrepreneurial Teams, Harper (2008) argues that entrepreneurship is best defined as a dynamic problem-solving process where entrepreneurs learn through experience and feedback from the market. This aligns with my findings. For example, Deep Kalra is highly driven by understanding people's problems. “To understand problems better I love to sit into organized consumer labs or focus group discussions. For me those sessions are very valuable. I learn more there than anywhere else.”
In describing their inspirations for starting ventures, a commonality between all entrepreneurs was identifying a problem as addressing it directly. Franziska Iseli noted that for her business ideas, “It's either a gap in the market or someone’s not doing a good job (i.e. a lack of quality), but the commonality is that as a business owner, you're always solving a problem.”
The commonality between the interviews is the emphasis on the value driven ideas. It is important to note that some entrepreneurs may place more emphasis on the demand depending on risk averseness and industries, since the quality of the idea or product is irrelevant if there is no demand.
For example, Pankaj Agarwal’s strategy for developing ideas for growth in the technology industry. He states “Our common theme for generating new ideas is looking at a big trend. Once we pick a trend, we try to be early in that specific market. So we look at the opportunities with organizations that are moving into that market, and check if we can ride that wave?”. He follows a strategic process and spends a lot of time on the market research for ideas. According to him, “I have a slightly unconventional way of looking at starting new projects. I always ask if we can build a million dollar business in the first 12 months. If that’s possible, it means that there's some scope and value to that idea.”
According to Romain Diaz, “I think technology could be really harmful. I want to place more emphasis on sticking to potential customers and speaking to the customers to really understand their needs.”
While both entrepreneurs are involved in the technology industry, it is interesting to observe the difference in their stances on identifying and assessing opportunities. While Pankaj Agarwal places an emphasis on analyzing upcoming trends, Romain Diaz places an emphasis on analyzing market segments.
THEME 3: GROWTH MINDSET AND CURIOSITY
Another emerging theme from the data was the significance, and various aspects of the growth mindset. A growth mindset can be defined as placing an emphasis on learning and perceiving challenges as opportunities for growth. According to Franziska Iseli, “People will only be successful if they have the right mindset. I see this everyday - I can give people the best strategy, but if their mindset isn't right, it isn't going to help them.”
The significance of the ability to develop a growth mindset was evident throughout all interviews. A primary factor of a growth mindset that stood out was the constant curiosity. Pankaj Agarwal emphasized that “You need to be very humble in terms of knowing what you don’t know. Flexibility is super important. And being humble enough to change the path as you learn”. Similarly, Deep Kalra noted that “As an entrepreneur you’ve got to be nimble and humble enough to change for good ideas. But yet, you have to be very fixated on your biggest driver.”
Further, Romain Diaz noted that “ some key activities that have helped me are self education and self inquiry. These are really important, to grow and shape my future.”
According to Franziska Iseli, “Failure is one of the best things we can have because we're learning every time we fail a little bit we're learning something new. If one business doesn't work out, it’s okay because you can start something else.”
Baron (2000) indicated that entrepreneurs tended to partake in less counterfactual thinking than other people. Unhealthy counterfactual thinking patterns often deter from reality and cause people to dwell on an alternative past that never came into existence. I observed that when asked about what they may have done differently in past circumstances, all entrepreneurs were opposed to dwelling on the past obsessively and did not hold major regrets. Three entrepreneurs stated how they would do things differently, while one entrepreneur stated that he wouldn't have done anything differently, because the failures were vital. It is important to note that healthy counterfactual thinking can be an important learning tool to grow from past mistakes.
THEME 4: PERSEVERANCE, TRUST AND INTUITION
The importance of intuition and trust was also a common sub-theme in three out of the four interviews. “Usually, my biggest and most powerful decisions are based on trust”. Romain Diaz consciously placed an emphasis on not focusing on fears too much. He notes that “When you first have a new business idea for example, people always have different thoughts. A lot of times people tell you negative things about why it wont work. But, a crucial thing I have learnt is to trust your intuition especially for people saying ‘it’s not going to work’”.
Previous literature suggests that entrepreneurs who perceive an internal locus of control are often more satisfied with the results of their businesses because they feel that they can credit successful endeavors to their own efforts and abilities (Dong et al, 2015).
When describing his experience facing challenges with trying to bring visas online, Deep Kalra mentioned that he tries to not get deterred by negative thoughts and wants to find out why the problems cannot be solved.
Deep Kalra stated that “ I think the entrepreneur's job is to make really realistic scenarios. We’re all optimistic if we’re entrepreneurs. Highly optimistic, but we have got to temper it down. Because things don't typically happen as fast as we want.” As Von Bergen and Bressler (2011) note that many entrepreneurs approach opportunities with a mindset of being inevitably successful. This potential over-optimism can be detrimental to the long term success of a business.
According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, only 50% of businesses with employees survive past the first five years. Pankaj Agarwal highlighted the importance of perseverance: “Basically, a lot of people just give up. So, entrepreneurship is more like a marathon. It's not a 100 meter sprint.” Deep Kalra has a firm belief that “ Many good businesses don't see the light of day because someone gave up too early. People just give up too early. Because either nothing’s happening, or opportunity costs are too high.” He noted that his biggest learning has been to stay persistent.
4.1: PERCEPTIONS ON BIAS
In the context of potential biases faced, two entrepreneurs had similar stances. According to Pankaj Agarwal, “There's always a bias. And this is not just for business but it’s mainly an advantage. So for Indian first generation immigrants, I think our work ethic is much stronger compared to many other people. So just working harder, smarter et cetera itself is a competitive advantage. Obviously, everyone needs to prove themselves but in all areas. Sometimes I also think people use it as an excuse. So, I don’t think it's a huge issue at all.” Franziska Iseli stated that “I’ve never seen being a woman a weakness. I've always thought, you know what, I'm a woman. And that's a strength because I have different strengths than a guy. So I'm going to use my strengths as a woman, which, you know, empathy, compassion, intuition, rather than trying to compete with the guys. And so I've actually never really been bothered by it or faced a gender bias.” In both cases, the entrepreneurs viewed stereotypical biases as strengths. This shed light on the significance of perception.
There is a plethora of research on the role historically disenfranchised groups have on the entrepreneurial process. For example, a case study in South Asia concluded that women face sociocultural barriers affecting their ability to maximize economic success (Kantor, 2002). However, in assessing the roles of disenfranchisement, it is important to consider different contextual environments and time. The focus of this theme acknowledges how perception may affect entrepreneurial behaviors and outcomes.
THEME 5: COLLABORATION AND DIVERSITY
In Staffing an entrepreneurial team: diversity breeds success, Maria Kakarika (2013) states that “ In the 1980s, IBM was advertising, ‘Great minds think alike,’ which soon changed to: ‘Great minds think unalike’.” Diversity and different perspectives act as a catalyst for growth. Entrepreneurial team diversity is one of the primary issues modern entrepreneurs face. (Kakaria, 2013) The significance of people was highly prevalent in all the interviews.
Pankaj Agarwal states that his biggest challenge was “building a team that is equally committed, equally passionate and focused on learning”.
Deep Kalra emphasized the importance of balance in collaboration: “In hindsight, if I started from scratch, I would start with one co-founder with complementary skills. So if I'm the business guy, the other person would be the technology guy or girl or vice versa.”
Similarly Romain Diaz also pointed out, “First I thought I should find people that are like me to to work with. But now, I don’t think that's the best strategy. I think it's important to work with people that have the same values, but different genders, ethnicities, skills et cetera.”
Additionally, supply chain management and collaboration in the context of small businesses is of critical importance because it impacts the company’s long-term performance and growth. While strategies heavily depend on business environment contexts, there is evidence that many small businesses choose outsourcing to strategically build and maintain their supply chain (Baron and Markman, 2001). My results show evidence for this finding.