Criticspace: Welcome to Criticspace Journals, Samyak. First of all, I would like to congratulate you on the release of your book “TAKE OFF YOUR STARTUP”. The book is being loved by all; how do you enjoy this success?
Samyak Kumar: The writing process was really lengthy and painstaking but even if 2 lives are changed by my book, I would say my 12 months of efforts would be written off. The reviews I am seeing is the certificate of my efforts and I am grateful to all the readers. I would like to urge all readers to recommend this startup book to all startup enthusiasts, it would help them cut down their years of struggle and frustrations.
Criticspace: As I felt, the book is one of the best business plan collections ever I have read. This seems to be real as well. It will be great if you can tell us the inspiration behind writing these stories.
Samyak Kumar: Yes you heard it right. Every year thousands of businesses start and fail. Many of the startups keep pumping personal and family cash, which turns out to be a disaster. In other words, we create a monster, a monster who gobbles up the creator. While I was studying and surveying about the survival of businesses, I heard the news of CCD owner doing suicide which touched me. I decided I should write a book, which would explain practical steps for businessmen, specifically for the first 5 years. Everyone loves stories, so I surveyed many of my friends in business and wrote small stories of them to explain the concepts.
Criticspace: How did you decide the title, “TAKE OFF YOUR STARTUP”. Please define it in your words.
Samyak Kumar: That’s a very interesting question. Previously we had named it “How to crunch the first 5 years of your business”, then we decided to make it shorter as it was not visible in thumbnail size. We came up with names like “Startup Sutra” but it was sounding too generic, as many people were using it. At last in a café, while having Vada-Pav with a friend we came up with the name “Take Off Your Startup”.
Criticspace: What do you think of the book’s cover? How well does it convey if the book has been published with different covers, which one do you like best?
Samyak Kumar: We initially had a cover where a person in the suit is pole vaulting over a mountain. But after finishing the over it was looking too crowded and confusing. We wanted a small image which was clear in message, the startup was always portrayed with rocket, so we decided to show it in the form of process, so we drew images of paper plane and rocket. We landed in the creation of an image where a paper plane has a shadow of a rocket.
Criticspace: Besides being an author and all the fame around it, how is your personal life? What are the things you like to do? And what are the causes that you like to be associated with? People will certainly like to know where Samyak is after 3-4 years from now!
Samyak loves to work around Business and Marketing; all day long he is working on various business ideas and brainstorming them. He in his free time is watching some quality content on youtube, reading some books or discussing some business strategy with a business friend. He supports the cause of creating an economically strong Bharat. In the next 3-4 years, he sees himself as an owner of 5-10 big businesses.
Criticspace: Is there any message which you would like to convey to your readers? Or any piece of advice, which you would like to give to the readers out there!
Samyak Kumar: I would like to advise the startup readers, follow proven techniques that don’t try new techniques. Take risks but using proven formulas.
Criticspace: What was an early experience where you learned that language had power? What period of your life do you find you write about most often? (Child, teenager, young adult)
Samyak Kumar: While doing the college level business plan competitions and presentations I realized that I have some strong relations with words.
Criticspace: What do you think about the author’s research? Was it easy to see where the author got his or her information? Were the sources credible?
Samyak Kumar: It wasn’t easy to get the information at times I used to get stuck and wanted to delete the entire chapter or concept. But then I used to feel if this part is deleted the reader would miss an important part of business understanding and would lead him to a problem or huge loss. Regarding sources, yes they are authentic sources of businessmen and friends real-life case studies.
Criticspace: Thanks for your valuable time, Samyak! Since TAKE OFF YOUR STARTUP is already a huge success, we wish you more and more with this book and more with the books to come!
Samyak Kumar: Thank You very much for giving this platform for interacting, my immediate next book is Aatm Nirbhar Bharat which would be on creating a sustainable nation. This book would be for Businessmen, Politicians, Bureaucrats, and Citizens. Again a story packed systematic explanation of concepts.
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