Choirs, Oxford and leadership (probably)!

Leadership perspective from the Humanities. As an MBA student this subject seemed like a very fluffy one to me, where you would probably not learn anything tangible. I realized that considering our 800 year old University's core strength in Arts, Literature and Humanities - this elective is as close as I can get to studying any of these core topics and took it up.

The class started with a brief introduction and jokes about the bureaucracy of the 800 year old university and its constant battle with the word change. During the class, I saw a few unfamiliar faces and had no idea who these people were. Considering the fact, that someone literally holds your hand and teaches you networking right from day one in the MBA - everyone knows everyone. There was no way these guys were part of the MBA. My apprehension was cleared when the professor asked us if we wanted to listen to a choir and requested all our guests to stand up and sing. It was beautiful. Sitting inside a classroom and enjoying one of the best choirs performed for you - such things only happen at Oxford :)

Then, the most terrible thing happened. One of us had to come and direct these set of fantastic musicians. We had no idea about the beats, the music, or who these people were. It was hilarious. I wonder how many bottles of red wine would it have taken to convince these people to come and be tortured. Centuries ago, apparently a student at Oxford was convinced to paint one of the ceilings at Oxford Union - world's oldest debating society for a bottle of gin. Too many stories are hidden in this beautiful student town of ours. But yeah, it was terrible. We completely killed their music, and talent. 

As the class progressed, and other volunteers came in to direct this group, things got better. They asked more questions, did not talk a lot, tried to keep it simple and let these guys do the rest. That was super cool to see some of us not failing miserably in directing a fricking orchestra. A beautiful analogy drawn here was how CEO's of multinationals step in and start performing right away without having mastered the industry or every job function. Because they do not try and micromanage every function and act as a facilitator for everyone on the team. Its super important to ask a lot of questions so that one understands the depth of the situation but at the same time trying to get into the technicalities of for example - a pharmaceutical company when one is not a scientist is probably not the best idea. No point asking for the script from the musicians if one can't read the script, no?

Also, when we weren't directing the orchestra well, we could see each artist looking at each other for directions/ beats and wondering what to do next. Everyone was lost. 

Similarly, if the leader is not the focal point for all the employees they would lose faith in the leader and look at their colleagues for direction, which is not an ideal situation.

The class ended with another brilliant performance where the person who is trained to lead the orchestra, did so ! I absolutely enjoyed my class. Probably the most musical class I have and will attend in my life. I have a feeling that I might take back more from this class than others, because in the end its the stories and moments that stick with you for life, than the case studies.    

Techfugees - Do we have a product market fit?

Refugee crisis is arguably one of the biggest problem that we currently face in the world. It is incredible to see that not only have we acknowledged the problem, but many of us are working towards improving the situation. We do not have an answer or any one solution to the problem, but we are trying.

I attended a diversity summit this week at the Factory, Berlin hosted by 500 startups, where one of the panel discussion was called Techfugees. What made the panel discussion really interesting was that we not only had people who are trying to solve the problem but also had Akram Alfawakheeri, student at ReDI, school of digital integration, who after coming to Berlin from Syria has actually lived the problem himself. It seems like as entrepreneurs, we are making the classic mistake of building our solutions in silos, sitting in the comfort of our countries, where we cannot possibly understand the depth and breadth of the refugee problem. To speak in a startup term - could we ever achieve product-market fit, if we don't understand the problem well?

Akram mentioned that he would often go to startup meetups, in Berlin where people would confidently talk about their solutions without having ever lived the problem or talking to people, who have lived the problem. Will these solutions ever be effective? Probably. Probably NOT. I have a feeling that if someone is passionate enough to find a solution to this problem and to build a company around it, it might be worthwhile to go work in one of the refugee camps and spend time with people in these camps, to understand the problem better. Live the problem :)

P.s. For some people who are working in this space, a tip from Akram was that people in these camps have a lot of free time. A LOT. Can we put this time to any good use? 

Berlin - Tale of two cities ?

I have never heard anyone praise a city so much as Berlin, before I decided to visit it. Everyone I spoke to before I came to Berlin were in love with the city and had wonderful things to say about it. All this definitely raised my hopes considerably. I normally don't do any research before I go to a new city or country, as I love the fact of landing up and being completely surprised by the place. Also, the fact that I was traveling with Josh, I knew that he would do his research. Josh booked our flight tickets, hostel, train tickets and I literally followed him to Berlin with high hopes. 

We spent the next 3 days walking around the city and visiting different parts - extremely rich in history, culture and of course - beer. It is incredible to think of the number of stories from history that are buried in this city. We liked Berlin but were super hesitant to say that we loved Berlin. After 3 days of traveling around, we could not get a sense or feel of the city. Every locality was so different from the other - there was no uniformity in the city. It felt like different cities being integrated into one and there was no gradual transition from one area on to another. With that thought and some wonderful beers, Josh left for Oxford, while I continued to explore Berlin and meet people. 

I was having coffee with a gentleman from Berlin today morning, and I shared our thoughts about Berlin with him and he said may be its because Berlin was two different city for 50 years, till we decided to take down the Berlin wall in 1989. If you have been to Berlin, you would know that there is no clear demarcation between the east and west Berlin and the wall ran pretty much through the city. It made so much sense and answered all our questions about the stark difference within the city - helping me to like Berlin more than I did in the first few days. I dont know what were the steps taken to integrate the people from both sides into one city, but if one goes a level deeper the differences are visible. No part is particularly better from the other, but its different - non- uniform. But that's just my perception after being in Berlin for 5 days and I am curious to find out more during the rest of my stay.   

Democratize fund raising - equity crowdfunding

Startups in the UK are growing at a phenomenal rate especially in fintech, AI and lifesciences because of its proximity to London and the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. This growth needs to be fueled by appropriate amount of financial backing. Unfortunately, UK doesn't have large numbers of entrepreneurs such as the US who have made massive exits on their startups and are funding this growth.

From another different perspective - the interest rates offered by the banks in the UK is almost zilch so there is very little incentive for financially healthy people to put their money a savings account. Governments, at this point made a very strategic move in channelizing this money to fund startups. They offered tax subsidies upto 50% to anyone investing in early stage startups. Gradually, there was a huge incentive for rich people to invest in startups.

This led to the rise of a movement in the UK - Equity crowdfunding. Some of the top equity crowdfunding platforms in the UK are Seedrs, Crowdcube, Syndicate Room and Angellist. The first three are focused around UK, while Angellist is an US corporate and moved to Europe recently. Around 150 million pounds were raised in 2015 through equity crowdfunding in the UK.

Seedrs and Crowdcube have a very similar model, where the platform curates the startups, which are then listed on the platform and anyone can participate in the fundraising. Startups only receive funding if they have been able to raise the total amount they wanted to raise - its an all or nothing model.

Syndicate Room has tweaked its model where every startup who needs to raise funding needs to have a lead investor, willing to invest at least 25% of the ask. Syndicate Room claims to have 80% success rate - it is also an all or nothing model. The fact that they already have 25% of the ask before they start, definitely gives them an edge and is also an automatic filter for the platform in selecting the startups it wants to showcase. Having a lead investor on board also reduces the level of due diligence on the platform as the lead investor would have done a thorough due diligence before committing.

Angellist - although has many similarities to Syndicate Room is not truly an equity crowdfunding platform. It does not allow unaccredited investors to participate in the fundraising process - thus, not truly democratizing. Only accredited investors can invest through the formation of a special purpose vehicle. A syndicate is formed by a lead investor, who decides which company to invest in or not to invest in, The lead investor can then reach out to his investor friends who have decided to back him/ her in the syndicate or open it to other accredited investors on the platform. The concept of Special Purpose Vehicle means that the money enters the Balance Sheet of the startup through one entity, which makes future fund raising much simpler.

These are the three models that exist in the equity crowdfunding space and it would be interesting to see which model will dominate the UK market and what is the future of equity crowdfunding. Are any of these platforms going to be big enough to reach an IPO stage? If not, would anyone have an interest in buying these platforms or would they continue to be run independently by the founders?