Hyderabad
My career has taken me from Hyderabad to Bangalore and back. Back in the 2012-2015 when I was in Hyderabad, it was a relatively quiet city. I’m from Bombay. So, if I’m not being crushed inside a local train or wading through a sea of humanity during my commute, I start feeling deserted and lonely. And Hyderabad was a deserted little hamlet. Apart from the Madhapur area, there hardly was any bustling part of the city. There were a handful of pubs, restaurants, cafe’s, etc. that you could go to . Barely any meetup groups or active communities. Even Tinder offered a limited stock of options. This came as a shocker as Hyderabad did have some of largest Indian and foreign IT companies present here, and a sizable population overall . What were all these people doing?
Then I moved to Bangalore and things turned 180 degrees. Bangalore is blessed with beautiful weather, an order of magnitude more companies, thousands of startups, a decent music scene, a plethora of travel destinations around it and now most characteristically, lots of traffic . I lived in Koramangala, the startup capital of the startup capital. At one point, we were 4 dudes staying in a 3 BHK, all working for startups, two of them running their own . In places like Costa Coffee, you can’t help but overhear discussions of every stage of an entrepreneurs life, getting funded, not getting funded, thinking of starting up, you name it . Bangalore was hella more vibrant. If you wanted to build connections, there was always an event or 3 happening around. There were plentiful events around product management, design and also a range of meetups groups . Some met up to discuss the python language, some rode bikes together. Not only was Tinder wildly active, there were people on the edgier dating apps like OkCupid too.
So when I moved to Hyderabad in June 2019, I was prepped for a return to the snoozefest. But it’s been mixed. Hyderabad has developed by leaps and bounds. The entire area from Madhapur to Gachibowli which was rocks and dust is now transformed into a sea of glass structures and new residential complexes . The metro is now ready. There are loads of pubs, breweries, clubs and more. A good food scene now exists. I hear Tinder is starting to roar, and people are getting matched on Bumble too . And in final proof that Hyderabad has developed, there are the first signs of standstill traffic too!
Now for sad part. I have seen autos plastered with posters of a few odd startups but beyond that I haven’t felt the presence of an active ecosystem. There are hardly any meetups that happen on anything . I enjoyed going to community events, listening and learning from people; and on occasion sharing my knowledge too. Which is why I was thrilled when I found one product-focused event happening yesterday . Ah! Signs of life.
Courage
The final part of the yesterdays event was a task. The overall problem statement was “Reduce paper-based invoices for offline electronics retailers”. My group was tasked with the most fun component, creating the core product idea . YAY! Brainstorming!
We wen’t through process diligently. First understanding why retailers might want to eliminate retailers, then picking a particular class of retailers to target with our solution . And only then starting to think of solutions.
We had two possible approaches:
- Be incremental: Build software that integrates into the existing systems of retailers and generates invoice PDFs, sends it to customers and store it for later access
- Be revolutionary: In complete Amazon-Go style, replace the cashier and checkout altogether, eliminating a lot of things with the paper. Our choices were
- Present the incremental
- Present the revolutionary
- Present both: A combo of Invoice Basic & Invoice Pro. Our target customer (mid to large electronics chains) didn’t seem focused on appearing cutting edge. Electronic retail margins aren’t high, so a capital investment can’t be justified unless huge savings (or new profits) ensue . Our middleware solution seemed much more saleable. So we ultimately went with Option 1, it felt sensible to me.
What I was happiest about was that we had avoided Option 3. We flirted with it for a bit, discussing how we can present two options for different retailers but internally I was screaming . Because that would be such a weak decision. The decision of a PM who lacks the courage to make a choice. Instead of picking a problem to solve, we would’ve left that choice to the customer . Which is terrible; at least in the initial stages of a company.