Youpid has been one and a half years in the making. The biggest hurdle I’ve faced in this time is taking the decision to go forth with the idea.
I didn’t really seek out to be an entrepreneur. In fact, even now it feels too romantic a term when compared to the hard reality that Youpid faces each day. I guess, having spent time in the valley (Silicon), and being part of the dot com generation, playing with concepts and ideas seemed exciting. Post moving back to India, seeing the nascent stage of Internet services in India and the encouragement that VC’s and Angel funds seem to give to Indian entrepreneurs was very exciting. The possibility that ideas could come to fruition seemed much higher.
Fueled with such thoughts, I went through many ideas/projects that I would have liked to work on. Each one as promising as the other. For a couple that I really believed in, I put in time to research the market, had business plans written out, got in touch with friends who knew VC’s, to comment on the plans. I got really good feedback and learned quite a bit, however, so far, they are just ideas.
Youpid, when I first thought of it, I did the same, research, business plan; I even sent in the idea to a certain angel investor in India. Not hearing anything back from them, even a “No” was big dampener. So here I was, with no funding and in a niche where the biggest players of the Internet space of India existed. One question kept nagging at me, how would I manage to make the entry?
I knew that if I kept at it, the proverbial, keep knocking on doors till one opens, and sooner or later, I would probably get a VC/Angel fund to hear me out. Or, I could just use that time to build a product.
This is when I made the most important decision, I decided to just start working on it and take each thing as it comes. One thing that I was sure of was, that there was a gap in the solution Matrimonial sites provided to the consumer, and Youpid could fill this gap.
So I started, and since then at every junction I’ve had to take decisions which have helped make Youpid go from an idea to a product, hiring, technology, bootstrapping, the name, but nothing as difficult. Even now the same concerns exist, I still have to put my feet in the biggest market of online services in India, Matrimony, and completely self funded. However, I am so glad I went ahead with the idea, because now I have a product and not just an idea! These are exciting times as Youpid draws to a beta release and although I’m anxious, in hindsight, taking the leap was the best decision I’ve made in Youpid’s journey thus far!