Divyank Turakhia is no more an anonymous name. Today his name reeks inspiration with millions of entrepreneurs vying for his entrepreneurial stories for seeking guidance. Although Divyank had achieved entrepreneurial success long time back to emerge as a successful entrepreneur, the real glory fell into his lap after his global advertising company Media.net was sold to Chinese consortium for $900 Mn.
This acquisition was no ordinary deal by any sense. It was one of the most expensive acquisition deals in the history of ad tech space. Today the deal certainly shines as the biggest milestone in Divyank’s two-decade old entrepreneurial journey that was started when he was as young as 14 years old. Not to mention the deal made him one of the youngest billionaires of the country.
And least if we forget that Divyank is only 35 years old. He touched the pinnacle of success at an age when either most people are forced to endure midlife crises or are still busy wondering whether they should embark on the entrepreneurial journey or not.
This young man unarguably can be called as the encyclopedia of entrepreneurship. The rich entrepreneurial wisdom that he brings on the table can be truly matched by only few young entrepreneurs. Hence I didn’t have think twice for bringing some important extracts from Divyank Turakhia’s recent interview with a popular online startup publication.
This interview was conducted barely hours after Divyank quit Media.net, which leaves this young entrepreneur with a new road to chart and probably script another memorable entrepreneurial success. Below are some of the important excerpts from this interview.
Entrepreneurs ought to think about the long term
Divyank minces no words to firmly perpetuate the already strong perception that startups or for that matter any business is a long run affair. He claims that if any entrepreneur starts a business with an assumption that success will somehow filter in within few years then he is pursuing a self-defeated quest
“As you run the business, you have to think in terms of running it perpetually and, along the way, certain options may come which may or may not make sense, but you evaluate them as they come and focus on running the business,” he says.
And, of course, this young entrepreneur can’t overstate enough the importance of ‘failure.’ He unequivocally says that it is not only important to keep failing fast, but also learn from them to keep charting ahead to achieve success.
“I have made several mistakes and I also learned a lot from other people’s mistakes so that I don’t repeat them,” Divyank claims. He further adds that it was only through series of mistakes that he learnt the importance of taking tough decisions, especially decisions pertaining to firing someone.
Divyank has also learnt a great deal about entrepreneurship and also day-to-day life because of his voracious reading habit. A habit that he has still manages to practice despite his extremely busy schedule. To give an idea about how much importance Divyank attaches to reading then he spends nearly 800-1,000 hours a year in reading books.
He, however, doesn’t read only entrepreneurship related books. His books hail from diverse background – from fiction & non-fiction to autobiographical books.
On Indian startup Ecosystem
Divyank has a blunt answer as to whether Indian startup ecosystem can be really as big as its Chinese counterpart in next 5 years. And his blunt answer is ‘no.’ He specifically blames India’s macroeconomics for this. He justifies his assumption on the basis that even though today India is among top 10 countries in economic size, but the country still lags behind in per captia income.
Divyank argues that Indians have only so much money to spend. He, however, says that the limitation in the domestic market should propel Indian startups to have global dream.
“We can build from India, but don’t necessarily have to focus only here.”
He argues that if American and Chinese companies can come here then why Indian companies can’t do the same. Not only is their market size larger but even their per capita income is much higher.
Additional note: The interview was originally published on Inc42
