Book Review: VUCA In Startups

The two waves of Covid-19 have taken a heavy toll on the emerging startup ecosystem in India. Many of the startups are staring at closure as the markets as well as funding had collapsed. The impact of Covid-19 brought out one significant fact that most entrepreneurs were unprepared to face large scale uncertainty. However, still six startups turned unicorns during this period of extreme uncertainty. The British banker and financier Nathan Rothschild noted that “great fortunes are made when cannonballs fall in the harbour”. For the first time, a book, VUCA in Start-ups, has been published, which charts the growth of 10 Indian successful startups through periods of great uncertainty such as global banking crisis of 2008, demonetization and other upheavals. Even today, as we near the end of Covid-19, other uncertainties such as global supply chain disruptions remain. VUCA, which is an acronym for Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity. Even one of these states is distressful to the entrepreneur but all four together can bring a state of panic and business paralysis.

Those who succeed in this environment must have an explorer’s mindset. Complete information about the future will never be available. The entrepreneur has to start on his journey and learn as he goes along. The cases dealt in this book are all entrepreneurs who ventured out below the age of 30. However, as the introduction mentions, a recent study of thousands of startups conclude that the average age of a successful startup is mid-40s and not young people as conventional wisdom suggest. Therefore, age should not deter the entrepreneur to have a go at a startup. However, as the cases suggest that the younger entrepreneurs are more likely to go for new and disruptive technologies, probably they do not carry the baggage of experience. 

Some of the take home from the analysis presented in the book are culture building should start on day 1 when the organization is still small; value learning over experience and build culture on a foundation of learning. Everybody fails. The founders must plan for failures: fail early, fail fast and rebound. 

This is the first study of Indian startups, which has succeeded in the marketplace. Learning from others may shorten your journey by making fewer mistakes. Every prospective entrepreneur must read this book before embarking on his Start-up journey.