TRES 06 (May 09, 2024): DOGLAPAN - Ashneer Grover's story

Once I decided not to be in job and do something on my own, lot of things have changed and one of the most prominent things is my reading list. I brought the book 'Rework' from the bookshelf to my work table. I ordered books like 'Doglapan' 'Paltform Revolution' etc. And, I have a few more books like 'The $100 Startup', 'The Pumpkin Plan' etc., lying there in the bookshelf for a long time, waiting for my time.  

The experience I am going through is something like this... anything that does not align with the goal seems to be uninteresting. When I heard about political leaders, movie stars and high achievers in the business world say that they regretted not giving enough attention to their families and health and all, I thought, "What nonsense? How can people lose themselves so much in the flow?" Now, I appreciate whatever they said.  

Coming to the book and the man behind it, I saw an interview of Ahsneer Grover and was impressed by his no non-nonsense approach to life and I ordered his book. The title of his book 'Doglapan', which means hypocrisy, and the tagline 'The hard truth about life and start-ups' were even more impressive.

Small book written in a very lucid language and to the point. I am no one to judge the truth behind whatever is written in the book, but Ashneer did not hesitate even a bit to pull the punches on the people who brought his career down at 'BharatPe', his first startup as a founder and a unicorn and a sensation in the fintech world. His journey of getting into IIT Delhi, followed by IIM Ahmedabad, and then as an investment banker, and at Grofers before he started BharatPe, interspersed with anecdotes from his personal life... overall, an interesting read. I liked his summary of learnings from his life at the end of the book.  

The book is a wonderful read for anyone who is interested in knowing how startups and funding work. The prevalent opinion in the market that the funding ecosystem is rigged in favor of the IIT and IIM grads seems to be true thought that's not what Ashneer said. To be fair, nothing wrong in leveraging the network and the brand value of their alma mater. And, naturally it becomes challenging for outsiders to crack the system.   

Two important learnings from Ashneer's story are -

1. His is not a typical rags to riches story. He did not fall to the rock bottom before to he rose to stardom again. No. He started his career as an investment banker, did well in his career for about 9 years and then jumped into the entrepreneurial venture, from a reasonably strong base both in terms of personal finances and network. 
2. He picked up something to build as an entrepreneur that closely matched his skillset. 

I would recommend this book as a must read for anyone who has anything to do with the startup world. 

Cheers :)