Larry Glaeser, CEO of Whatif Innovations, reveals the secret sauce of great companies

Larry Glaeser, CEO, Whatif Innovations, a financial technology provider, has worn many hats in the eight years he has spent in India’s venture and technology arenas. At Star TV, he was responsible for rolling out the first pilot in India for interactive television - now TataSky. He built a development center in Bengaluru for French sports goods retailer Decathlon.

Between 2006-2008, he was a venture partner at Footprint Ventures and in 2012 he co-founded Kyron, a startup accelerator. As Founder and CEO at his previous venture, The Venture Bay, a consultancy, he worked closely with startups. He talks to Shonali Advani about entrepreneurship and the way it works both in India and abroad. Edited excerpts:

Q: You’ve had experience as a corporate leader and an investor advising entrepreneurs. Different skill sets for different roles?
A: Absolutely. When you’re working as part of a large organization you’re dealing with politics. There are different agendas. You have to start networking within those spheres to understand the politics that could affect your business, something you don’t have to do as an entrepreneur. You have to network, understand corporate agenda, and buffer employees with what’s going on at the headquarters.

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The role of a buffer is what you play if you have an intra-preneurial role. You want to isolate employees from all battles so that they can focus on their job. There has to be a political animal in you if you’re an intra-preneur, but not when you are an entrepreneur.

As far as building a team goes, I bring it back to culture. If you were not a good fit in your parent company as far as culture goes, then they made a mistake hiring you. If you have that fit, then you need to transmit those values to the team. If you inherit people, you will need to train them. Your role is more of a mentor.

Q: What are the common mistakes entrepreneurs or leaders at organizations make when hiring talent? How many match personality to a role?
A: Maybe they look a little too much at a resume which is tailored to what they want to see and the kind of person they think they want.

When I was at Decathalon, I wanted a project manager. I had a lot of guys from Wipro, Infosys, et al come with 12-15 years experience. I hired a guy with five years experience and he turned out to be the best hire! He had what it took. I think in India this issomething that’s different from US - the notion of transferable skills.

Understanding this is important and so is the chemistry of people. It is difficult to find people who work well together. The Emotional Intelligence or EQ required here is tremendous. You need to understand your own emotions first, and as an entrepreneur they are plenty - you can’t start projecting. You need to be self-aware to be accountable and responsible.

You have to spend time mentoring and teaching…so self-skills are important.

In a large organization, you don’t have time for this - you’re hardened and battle ready.

It’s a soft thing, but so important in my opinion because the culture will determine your values, which will determine your priorities which in turn determine decisions you take. You need to take care of employees and how they resolve conflict.

Negotiation 101 should be taught as part of any induction program of a company, because you are always negotiating. The principles of valuebased negotiation are amazing. There is a lot of working around, the soft, interpersonal skills.

Right people with right talent, they are out there - but just hiring them does not make the company.

Q: When it comes to building the culture of a company, do you see any gaps with the current model of incubation for startups?
A: There has not been a single pitch I’ve seen in my career where someone has mentioned the culture of the company they want to build. That’s a little scary in my opinion. Great companies have great cultures and that is part of their secret sauce.

As a CEO, you need to remember that when you pitch to an investor, he is interviewing you for your role as a CEO. So, if you think that branding, culture, public relations is secondary, it won’t carry the company through the bad times and in the good times, you won’tget the best from your people.

They seem secondary because the pay offs are not immediate. But just as you need to have a balanced portfolio with short and long term investments, you need to develop a strategy withshort term and long term measures when building a company.

As an entrepreneur, you have to invest in the short term a lot more. But it does not mean you don’t spend any time building the culture. There will be a culture de-facto whether you build it consciously or not.

What kind of culture do you intend to build? That is the fundamental question people need to ask. Subcultures grow harmoniously in India. How do you translate that into a company?Culture is taken for granted like air…but you need to make your own air in a company.

Q: You’re a big fan of the lean startup. Tell us more. It has been talked about a lot but we wonder on its relevance.
A: The lean startup works on the fundamental principle that a startup is an organization in search of a business model. The Holy Grail is the product market fit. To get there, you have to go out and talk to your customers. Its scenography and experimentation, that’s the most important part. It’s difficult to fail an experiment, it has a purpose…you discover and make mistakes. To use a Marxist metaphor to describe a capitalist drive, in many cases delusion of grandeur is the opiate of an entrepreneur. You have to think really big.

Q: In your experience where do Indian startups, or even startups internationally,
typically stumble?
A: Companies have three kinds of issues. First order issues - even the best team will have a hard time overcoming them such as the Broadcast Services Regulation Bill of 2006. There are some things that are just out of your control.

Second order issues are issues which a good team will crack-tough business decisions, people management, product decisions, market strategy, et al.

Third order issues are all the rest. If you have an average team, your second order issues become first order issues and that is where your problem is. Valuation is a seventh order issue! It should never be a stumbling block. You will get the money. Just make sure youchoose right partners. Investors are part of your team too, so choosing them carefully ismore important than getting the right valuation or what you think is the right valuation, because they are going to be there on the journey with you. Don’t get into the rut of greed.

If your investors are right, they’re going to help you get to the jackpot! Around 70 percent of startups fail because of co-founder issues. It’s like marriage, so take your time.

This article first appeared in Entrepreneur India magazine.