Startup Bangladesh

The conversation began with Mr. Minhaz sharing his perspective about Venture Capital. He said that being in early stage in the startup community in Bangladesh that we have now, which they were building for the last 5 to 7 years, we have come quiet a long way but compared to Silicon Valley for example, we have still a lot more to go. What is happening in Silicon Valley is not happening here yet. In Silicon Valley there are investors who come and invest at a time, businesses and startups still making losses, still trying to acquire more and more customers, for example Uber still making losses, trying to acquire more and more customers, still they are getting investors after investors, but still they did not even touched the break-even point. There are investors after investors who are coming forward and supporting them. But in our country we don’t necessarily see that. And there are also other elements in the eco-system and support system of startup like ventures, partnership who can provide connection and all of this make a conducive eco-system for entrepreneurs to start, grow and thrive. We have different perspectives from government, academia and corporates and also from the global leaders, global experiences about how all this are happening across the world.

At first Mr. Minhaz started with Mr. Chris asking him about his perspective on what it takes to be a conducive eco-system, what Mr. Chris thinks that we are doing right, what he thinks we are doing better, giving his experience about several countries. And what we shouldn’t be upset about because we are still have many miles to go. Mr. Chris at first expressed his pleasure to be here in Bangladesh and he also said that it’s his first visit in Bangladesh. He said that, there are numbers of successful VC ecosystems around the world, he can address some of the characteristics of them though he don’t know about the VC ecosystem here in Bangladesh. At first, it needs a mind set for venture investing, cause you can’t make a spread sheet to predict the future of a startup, no one knows after five years how many customers he is going to have, how many deals he is going to have. So venture investors should have a very different mindset, which is a mindset of possibility, tempered by risks, better to have a mindset of risk, tempered by possibility. The best venture ecosystems, like Silicone Valley, have investors who are ready to say yes, they are looking for a reason to engage with your company, they are looking for reason to give you money. They do look at the risk, but they also do look at the opportunity. The second thing is, the best venture investors look at their role as being an active participant at the startup, not necessarily an active participant in the decision making but an active participant in the success of the startup. Examples of this can be, they can open doors for the startups, they help you to connect with the people of the ecosystem locally, regionally, globally that you need in order to be successful.

Mr. Minhaz then turned to Mr. Mahmood Hossain. Mr. Mahmood Hossain is a Bangladeshi American and he is also in Silicon Valley so he has a view from the both perspectives. He has an insight about how things are working in the government. He was asked that what exactly ICT division wants to do, are they going to do the right thing, are the entrepreneurs and eco-system designers who were present there if they going to be able to work with it. Together how government is going to make that conducive eco-system for the entrepreneurs. Mr. Mahmood started by saying that he is involved with startup Bangladesh since its inception last year. He first addressed what kind of challenges and problems entrepreneurs face in the emerging economy. The one important problem they face lack of access to institutional capital. Lack of access to attractive market, what should be the plan to access, what experience is needed, lack of marketing and branding knowledge, inadequate planning, lack of business management skills and abilities this also are some challenges. Entrepreneurial work means you are entering a highly productive and highly risky industry. Planning and training for all this has been already started but it should be increased. GP Accelerator and startup Bangladesh are already started to work for this but collaboration with universities is also needed. Government should also facilitate this things. Without involving educational institutions in it, new ideas cannot be generated, new entrepreneurs cannot be made. For example, Stanford University of California has its own entrepreneurial cell. Policies should be made so that universities can get incentives to do so. In developed and developing countries, lack of ongoing support is found, this should be eliminated. The experienced elderly business personnel should be encouraged to share their thoughts with the younger generation entrepreneurs who have skills, blending this two experiences and skills, good result can be found. Also government personnel should be encouraged to work with entrepreneurs.

Next Mr. Minhaz asked to with Mr. Kazi that why GP thought to open GP Accelerator, what GP is doing or can do that other companies also follow to do to create a conducive eco-system for the entrepreneurs in Bangladesh. Mr. Minhaz started with throwing a question that how many of us have a startup or working on an idea to start with. More than half of the people in the audience raised their hand, audiences kept their hands up and Mr. Kazi asked his next question how many of us are looking for fund or want to know how to get that fund, none of them made their hand down. Mr. Kazi said when people think about GP they think that only as a mobile telecommunication company, but GP is also the largest technology company in Bangladesh. For the lot of innovation, for the lot of access that they ensure, they try to make sure the innovations happen across the country. Even being a telecom company GP needed to change, wherever they operate as part of Telenor they want to ensure the local technology ecosystem is well supported that is GP’s commitment to the local economy. GP is doing so because they see all as a nation of moon shock thinkers. In a much summarized way Moon Shock Thinking is, if you try to address a problem and if you try to get a solution for that which gives you a 10% - 20% efficiency, that’s not incremental thinking. With one gallon of fuel you think about to run 50-500 miles, that is moon shock thinking. In Bangladesh, every single one of us, every moment is finding a solution to our problem. Addressing Uber Mr. Kazi said that it is bothering that we do not yet have a billion dollar company from Bangladesh, but GP see’s potential of that in this country’s entrepreneurs, that’s what they are trying to create through GP Accelerator. If someone has a plan for a viable product, GP Accelerator will train him, help him in any way possible to make sure about his success. If someone have an idea GP Accelerator will help to micro funding of the ideas, to make sure that in a very minimal way someone gets his products tested to see if among those if there is the next big thing. GP Accelerator is for all the innovators and inventers giving them chance to taste their ideas so they can create the next big thing.

Then Mr. Kazi turned to the last speaker Mr. Dorien. He asked him to share with us what he do, what he thinks universities should do more of, what role he sees for the VC’s and investors in that relationship. Educational academies should emphasize in building entrepreneurs doing startups. In Berkley under graduates spend most of their time in the laboratories, doing research so that they can used to work on new problems. In school it’s very easy to work by only solving problems, if there’s a problem a student knows there is a solution at the back of the book, he remembers the equation to use. But doing research at the lab or trying to be around the lab, you get to have look at new problems, things that have not been solved, you learn that, you try things but they don’t work, you keep trying and it gives you an attitude to want to do new things. And it is important because the center of the ecosystem is about to creating a thing. To also enable people to think higher than startups. If government take things seriously, if government funds the bio-medical sections. Academics should start working with students to find out new problems to solve. Industry mentorship is also needed who will help the inventors not expressing “adult supervisions”. Government developing a software, he addressed it something as “cute” and that will not benefit us too much, but if government provides health care in better way in different locations with lest work by the doctors but more efficient technologies than that would be more interesting.

That’s how the panel discussion ended. And after that there was a Q&A session.