Our obsession with ‘billion’ has made us lose touch with reality.
If you are building a startup, it HAS to be a unicorn. If you are an entrepreneur, you have to be a billionaire.
Gentle reminder: A billion dollars is more than Rs 7,000 crores. The benchmark for success has to be that high? Really?
Building world-changing companies is an amazing aspiration. And in the process, if someone builds a huge company and becomes a billionaire, all power to them — it is fantastic.
But a lot of the time, it is the valuation that is solely driving the whole thing.
At HabitStrong, my aspiration is to build a great company that helps customers live happier and more meaningful lives. In that process, we will hopefully build a profitable company that takes care of the team members and generates a good return to investors.
I am not building an elusive unicorn. I would rather build a real company that does not need to do valuation-circus to stay alive.
– Rajan