Post a 10-Yr Stint as a VC, Here's how Entrepreneurship Makes You Work Differently VCs are more used to manage CEOs which is very different from managing a clerk
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Having donned the role of an investor for close to a decade, it takes a lot of courage and enthusiasm for someone to make a switch to entrepreneurship. But Subramanya SV did not shy away from taking this leap of faith.
Subramanya SV who is the founder of Fisdom.He has also been in the board of directors of Snapdeal and bharatmatrimony.com. Besides he is also the former managing director of venture capital firm Bessemer Ventures. Additionally he is also an angel investor in several companies like Cartisan, Goodbox, Fundamentor, Healthians, EZmove, Dailyninja, Parentlane and Vyomo.
Today, Subramanya is the founder of Fisdom, a wealth management app that helps make investments easier for the common man. The company, which was launched in April 2016, also ties up with national banks, who select Fisdom as their investment partner that gives the company access to more than 70 million customers.
If not now, then when!
In 2014-15 I wanted to start something on my own and started to work on different ideas. Initially when things weren't going anywhere, I was almost close to accepting a job offer from another venture capital firm. But around 2015 I the idea of Fisdom struck me and I realized that if I don't startup now, I will never be able to start something on my own, Subramanya said.
Having measured the invasion of technology in day-to-day financial activities in India, Subramanya decided to opt for this domain.
A VC is used to managing CEOs
Having been on the investment side of the business, Subramanya says that entrepreneurship came with its own perks and disadvantages. Investors are deep thinkers, they analyse a lot of data and are more on the intellectual side. The operational work of building a company is a lot more challenging than figuring out what to do. One has to do a lot of things as an entrepreneur that he has never done, be it a first time entrepreneur or a VC turned entrepreneur, he adds.
"When you are VC you are only hiring senior management, but you start up you will have to hire across the board – your admin, tech guy, security person and co-workers. You not only have to hire them, but you also need to keep motivating them and instil the same vision in them. The level of people management skills involved is of a completely different level, something that no VC is used to doing," Subramanya adds.
"VCs are more used to manage CEOs which is very different from managing a clerk," he adds. Subramanya also added that as an entrepreneur one has to continuously keep experimenting with customer acquisition strategies and there is not one single, correct formula.
Subramanya had dealt with a number of entrepreneurs across sectors as an entrepreneur. Today, he draws inspiration from all of them.
Fisdom currently facilitates investments into various types of mutual funds, however the vision is to be a complete personal finance manager with bespoke advising capabilities for all investment and other financial products over the medium term. In July 2016, Fisdom made a significant break-through when Bank of Baroda appointed Fisdom as its wealth management partners for their entire retail customer base. Fisdom recently raised its first institutional capital of 1.1 million USD from Saama Capital.
