Entrepreneur of Dhonuk.com
PGSEM 2008-11
1. What was your background before you started the venture?
I was a software engineer (total experience of 7 years) who
had worked for 2 years in public sector – Bharat Electronics Limited, and just
above 5 years in Honeywell in avionics embedded/real-time software and business
development, marketing (about 9 months).
2. Who/What was your biggest influence that made u
interested in entrepreneurship? Any role model?
A creative endeavour is what I sought to bring forth. It
is this creative urge to create a platform for young and budding artists that
made me create a forum of this sort that would also make business sense. It was
also my urge to showcase my own art works. It was also the love of art and the
feeling that just coding/development in the IT industry not being my calling
that added to the urgency in creation of Dhonuk along with a supportive IIMB
culture – the professors and students. A unique course by Prof Balasubramaniam
Shekar at IIM Bangalore also paved the way to create something unique in the
management space related to the arts.
3. Did your educational/professional/social background
helped u in starting the venture?
Yes and no. Yes in terms of some technology aspects. No
as the area was niche and there was a lot to learn and that was really fruitful
(the learning). I was quite initiative driven and had conducted events and been
an active volunteer having managed (being the editor-in-chief of Xpressions)
and enjoyed the experience having worked with creative people in house magazine
in Honeywell - Xpressions. Social yes I was always a volunteer with the local
Durga Puja activities and this always helps – volunteering is a very important
if I may say so ‘feature’ of an entrepreneur/potential entrepreneur.
4. Was this your 1st venture?
Yes.
5. If no, please let us know the details of the previous
venture(s) and did it(they) help in any way for the current venture?
I was quite initiative driven and had conducted events
and been an active volunteer having managed (being the editor-in-chief of
Xpressions) and enjoyed the experience having worked with creative people in
house magazine in Honeywell - Xpressions.
6. How did you spot the opportunity for Dhonuk? How did it
surface?
It was this rise in the middle class’s disposable income
and the growth of social networks and internet usage that combined to signal a
possible market opportunity. It was also as I mentioned a love for arts and
Indian art formats and artists that propelled the idea and pure profit motive
was not always the objective.
7. How did you evaluate the opportunity in terms of the
critical elements of success? The competition and the potential market?
We did several projects both at PGSEM level and in my
personal capacity. I along with others in the team also created studies and
research at IIMB to drive the study of the business of art – which was
indirectly related to Dhonuk and I feel has added to the overall increase in
knowledge of the arts and also its appreciation/feasibility as a business
venture. It was a way for introducing art in the management studies beyond just
elite organizations such as Saffronart etc. A case on Dhonuk has also been
created with Prof Ramesh Kumar of Marketing and Consumer Behaviour.
A business case study on Dhonuk titled 'www.dhonuk.com – Marketing Art in an Emerging Market' written by Prof S Ramesh Kumar,
Marketing area, IIM Bangalore and Shamit Bagchi was published by the Richard
Ivey School of Business , Western Ontario, Canada (known worldwide for its
business case studies) in its case collection.
8. Can you please share any specifics of the business plan
you had.
I can share the entire plan – I see Dhonuk as a means of
management/entrepreneurial learning and will be ready to share all aspects of it
with you! I will send the plan, as a document.
9. Was it a one-man show or did you have partners?How did
the financing come in for the venture?
Self financed and largely a one man show except some
branding and promo material by Anshuman Majumdar. The idea also was to create a
social organization wherein content and ideas would be from members of Dhonuk
(online) acting as pseudo employees. During exhibitions this actually worked. The
open innovation concept (P&G) was also an inspiration for this.
10. What all were the external sources of help (if any) u
got for Dhonuk to start and float? Any one who stands out in your mind.
Some very excited and talented volunteer’s whose works
were showcased in specific Anshuman Majumdar from Bangalore, Pritesh
Ananthakrishnan from Sweden. Towards the initial stage Parashar Shah helped
with some technology aspects and later stage Adarsh Natarajan also helped out
to think on reviving certain areas.
11. Any specific "aha" moment in the venture you
would like to share?The most challenging moment you have faced till date in the
venture.
A research project was seed funded by IIM Bangalore on
these aspects although not directly related to Dhonuk it was on the area of
business of art. A related paper was also created and was just published
recently as it was selected as part of a recently concluded conference
COGNITIVE 2011 at Rome, Italy. The paper 'A Framework
for Creativity-oriented Autonomy based on Online Social Networks' can be found
here: http://www.thinkmind.org/index.php?view=article&articleid=cognitive_2011_6_20_40077
Another was being the creative partner with IIM
Bangalore’s Unmaad 2011 fest. See this page: http://www.unmaad.com/dhonuk.php. Not being able to get a solid team going as it was a
niche field is/was the most challenging and daunting aspect. Part time
interests don’t always work out and at least one more person needs to be there
all the time. By the time someone wanted to join in as a genuinely interested
partner I was already in the process of moving into a corporate role. We met
Sarnath Banerjee the graphic novelist and wanted to create a graphic novel wing
to Dhonuk. It didn’t take place. Some testimonial are
here: http://www.dhonuk.com/page/testimonials-1 This will give you an idea of how value is being generated as part of this
online ecosystem (art buyers, art sellers and art enthusiasts predominantly
visual arts). So that is in itself a very encouraging!
12. Now that you are back into corporate world, do u feel
its going to affect the dedication level to Dhonuk?
Yes ofcourse! The forum is running as an online social
network and with minimal intervention from my end. Let me see how I can revive
other plans on generating revenues and ROI etc. It is in a non-revenue
generating state now! Plan to reposition it as a creativity hub – was
discussing this with a former co-founder Anshuman Majumdar.
13. Being in a niche business, what are your future growth
plans for Dhonuk?
Who knows what the future holds!
14. As you look back, what do u find personally rewarding
and satisfying as an entrepreneur?
Yes a rewarding learning experience that also helps me
identify my own strengths and weaknesses both personal and interpersonal. I
could have done better and let us see what the future has in store, there is
always scope to improve once you know. Also it was a experience that made me
that much more strong - mentally.
15. Any specific learnings you would like to share with the
budding entrepreneurs.
I think to get a strong team going is very important. This
would be something in my view, I didn’t do very well as my idea was to get a
loosely fit team going and I did get carried away with assuming interest from
many others. Assumptions don’t work when building the team, they may mean good,
and may give ideas but they will not be able to contribute in any big way for
the enterprise, be it your friends even close ones – doesn’t work out that way!
In some aspects they can help and ultimately it is left to a few of us (what
I’d call the core team). They need to have a solid interest and belief in the
idea. Part-time members can rarely fulfill this long term need for a strong
team.
Trust factor has to be slowly built and people with
different values from the core team can and should not be allowed to hijack –
that said I reiterate ‘trust’ is the cornerstone in my view in setting up and
growing an endeavour such as an enterprise. Genuine sincerity and interest in
the idea also plays a role. Being solo can sap a lot of energy out of you! My
thought was to have each artist as an entrepreneur and then get them to create
value for potential customers and not have an in-house team per se (even if it
is 2 strong). This did succeed to some extent as the forum itself and the few
exhibitions we did was running purely due to talented artists and their works.
So my strength was in getting the social system going – of course my frequent
interventions were needed. But a core team is very important to have –
collocation of the team may be secondary.
Also although starting up is an emotional journey the
practical aspects of planning is very, very important. You can always improvise
on the go but have a basic plan and keep building on it as a form of guidance.
The firm’s Value Proposition is very important to hone
into. I always had this conflict regarding Dhonuk’s value proposition i.e. was
it for the artist (as a community) vs the customer (as an ecommerce portal)
orientation. Although you can try to cater to different types of people, it is
better to focus and build later after you get a strong foundation or build
strengths in one area.
I think entrepreneurship calls for perseverance – a great
deal of patience and this is repeated all the time yet is absolutely true.
