Rupesh Kumar Shah started his educational technology startup InOpen in 2009 while he was 23 years old. InOpen develops high-quality academic content for computer science education and provides solutions to over 200 schools, reaching 500,000 students. The startup has faced many challenges common to young companies, such as delayed revenue, cash flow issues, and difficulties with assumptions about customers, partnerships, and operations. Shah has learned that passion and perseverance are key to success as an entrepreneur, and that problems diminish with time if one remains focused on their goals and fundamentals.

1. STRUGGLE OF A CHICKEN
ENTREPRENEUR
RUPESH KUMAR SHAH

2. WHY CHICKEN
ENTREPRENEUR ?

3. “I was once invited to speak at SP Jain (a
MBA college in Andheri, Mumbai). The
gentleman speaking ahead of me was stating
that how entrepreneurs who start at 23- 24
years of age loose steam and chicken out. He
named them chicken entrepreneurs. The next
turn to speak was me. I was 23. I happily
embraced this tag since then.”

4. A B O U T T H E S TA R T U P A N D J O U R N E Y
-
InOpen started in 2009 by Rupesh and Prof.
Sridhar. Incubated in IIT Bombay. InOpen is an
educational startup with focus on
developing high quality academic content
through intense research.
-
InOpen provides tailor-made solutions for
teaching Computer Science to 200+
schools, thus reaching out to 500,000+
students. InOpen aims to touch the lives of
1,000,000 students by 2014.
- International Presence. #USA #JAPAN
#Middle East
- Backed by strong VC Funding.

5. H A P P Y A S S U M P T I O N S F O R A S TA R T U P
-
Product Launch and First Customer Shipment are
the same thing
-
Business Plan is just another document
-
Job and startup can go hand in hand.
Technology is superior than content (read :
fundamentals)
Friends are best partners/employees

6. SUDDEN CHALLENGES
-
Customer Service is just not good intent.
-
Raising Funds is not a PPT.
Delayed Revenue. Cash Flow Crunch
Too much time spending managing resources (read
HR). Assumptions with Friends fall flat.
Too much Murphy’s law. Unheard Challenges

7. WHY BUT ? BECAUSE
WE ASS-U-ME A
HELL LOT

8. K E Y M I S TA K E S T O B E A V O I D E D ( 1 / 2 )
-
Don’t get too much attached to original vision.
Accept changes and market feedback.
-
Don’t Mix Product Shipment and Cash Inflow.
-
Cash Flow is no magic. ‘Work out’ the metrics
Don’t assume anything (ANYTHING in ‘friends-inbusiness’, product testing (validation), customer
demands, overheads, blah blah)

9. K E Y M I S TA K E S T O B E A V O I D E D ( 2 / 2 )
-
Aggressive Pricing to attract customers and then
compromise on quality (or burn cash). Its a death spiral.
Create your own value add.
-
Don’t create overheads which you can’t sustain.
#Kingfisher
-
Don’t attempt to be perfect. from Day 1. Its okay to
be embarrassed at your first release. #gmail
-
Don’t Manage HR dept. yourself. Hire a HR as soon
as you are 10 employees. (Have zero assumptions in
rewards, compensation, etc)

10. SIMPLE MANTRA :
S TAY C A L M , M O V E O N
(sounds familiar)

11. MY TOP 5 LEARNING IN LIFE
1. Enthusiasm and Passion is the only key. A
enthusiastic person with good intent somehow
manages to do good and land on the correct path.
When I started in my college I didn't knew that a word
called startup existed and till date I get spelling of
entrepreneurship wrong. Thanks to Auto correct
2. We all face problems. But I observe a common pattern.
A ‘Big’ problem of the past seems to be ordinary in
the present. So your’s ‘Big’ problem today will also
become ordinary issue tomorrow. Just Hang on !

12. MY TOP 5 LEARNING IN LIFE
3. I failed many times and faced challenges. I am no
super man but I just managed to stick. My
failures taught me one thing; I don't have
anything to loose from this point but only
gain.
4. Find Your Interest. Treat this exercise as seriously
as a Board or an Entrance Exam. One should
develop Clarity of thoughts and be patiently
passionate in following one’s interest. Rest Everything
will follow.

13. MY TOP 5 LEARNING IN LIFE
5. An Opportunity used is an opportunity lost. Focus
on your objectives and fundamentals (rather
than the end goal). Everything else will
automatically get attached (out of nowhere).

14. W H AT N O W
-
Take a Walk
Get yourself a Calendar
Start a Blog and every fortnight
Stay out of Debt
Be Grateful. Be Nice. The world is a small place

15. Imagine
Create
Deliver
Thank You
Rupesh Shah | Co-Founder & CEO | rupesh@inopen.in | rupeshkumarshah.com
info@inopen.in | www.inopen.in

16. ABOUT ME
Hey I am Rupesh ! 20 something. I am the CEO &
Co-Founder at InOpen . Also a Computer Science
Engineer. Now teaching Computers to School
Students. My passion lies in leveraging quality
content and technology for Education. Love for
Open Source. My background helps me to lead
InOpen’s efforts towards creating educational
solutions that focus on creating content which has
universally acceptability. I love my Startup and live
every moment of it. Hobbies include fiddling with
my piano and my gadgets. I Love cooking to core
and lover for street food. More about my start-up
can be seen here .
Official Bio can be downloaded from here
rupesh@inopen.in | rupeshkumarshah.com |
@rupeshkumarshah | facebook.com/rupeshkumarshah