Sumedha Koche, entrepreneur in Singapour

•English• "Start-ups are almost like, I have this 50 feet scale, and there are no safety nets"

Sumedha Koche is an Indian entrepreneur in Singapour. She worked at Pepsi and P&G before starting her own company: Kinder Pass. We met her to understand her vision of the corporate world and taking risks.

There is not a right time and a wrong time. When you have to do it, you have to do it.

I did my MBA from IIM Indore (India) and before that I graduated in commerce from Delhi university. And then I got placed with Pepsi in the world of sales, the big bad world of sales, and sales is very hard core, going out on the street, getting on and off that Pepsi truck 50 times a day when you are doing a route call with a sales executive. Just to learn the route and the trails. You realise a lot more, and it is completely out of what you have learned in your textbooks, because sales is people, people interacting on a daily basis, and a lot of things can go right and a lot of things can go wrong... A lot of things happen. And people also try to outsmart each other, and you’re new, so it’s an environment that is not your natural habitat, you’re a girl who’s barely out of college, in her early early twenties… a man dominated environment, everything is so different and you have to kind of meet at a common point... That was one of the biggest challenges with sales.

So you had to earn their respect. Because you had to literally learn from them and at the same time, not be a novice in front of them.

You’re coming from a very different background, but when you’re coming to the harsh reality of everyday, it’s a very very different world, especially the kind of sales I’m describing. This is high frequency stores. Small stores... but with very big demand. They would say things like "why are you not paying celebrity endorsers, pay us a little more and we’ll increase your sales", you know? So things like that, you couldn’t really counter it with a logical argument. This is not your left brain. This is not reasoning. This is not MBA. So you have to kind of de-layer your sensibilities and get down to what will really influence those people. What was also very challenging was a team, that was senior and they had to report to me, so I had to earn their respect. Because you had to literally learn from them and at the same time, not be a novice in front of them. So it was a tight rope. You’re dependent on them for learning what they know but at the same time you had to give them guidance and direction. The prejudice is " 22-year-old- girl- what does she know?" - she hasn’t seen the world that we have. You counter yourself against that and you learn. It’s challenging but you learn. So that was Pepsi.

The business challenges are easier to solve. It’s the people challenge that always take time and always cause stress

(Then Miss Koche joined P&G)

In P&G, it was a very different world. A diverse world with different nationalities. In Pepsi it was only with Indian. Whereas in my Singapore office (at P&G), it was French, Germans, Pilipinos, Singaporeans, Indians. Different nationalities working together.

I was not only in the marketing team. The marketing team, finance, supply, all is in like one team. So all decision are taken team based. It’s nice, but it also takes unbelievable amount of time to get consensus. So different challenges at different stages, but you learn!

The business challenges are easier to solve, solving problems for an MBA are relatively easy. It’s the people challenge that always take time and always cause stress. Each situation is so different.

And now, I have my own company, it’s like, I am the HR, I am the finance, I am the one that does print outs...

And now, I have my own company, suddenly, from managing teams and working in marketing, it’s like, I am the HR, I am the finance, I am the one that does print outs... So it’s very very different to start out on your own. It’s also a very humbling experience to start all over again but it’s also incredibly fulfilling. The last one year, I have learnt so much, just so much. You get to know different things. You start again, it’s like a rewind, me back at the Pepsi days. It almost feels like that. I have a team of 10 now, but when I started out it was just me right? You have people to come support you, but I put in my funds to start out. At that point it was really … There was just an idea and me. And we got people who funded the project later on. But that happened much much later. I started from scratch. I’m not from the tech field at all. I work with soaps (at P&G) so going into something tech I had to learn a lot of things myself, different languages and frameworks. Do I need to learn how to code? No that’s not a good use of my time right now. So I will at least get a basic level knowledge. Even when I was doing P&G I did have a knowledge of the product, enzymes and whatever, what do those things do, because I need to take decisions related to those. So same things here, if I am building something, which language should I build it in. Why should I go for Pythons or not, I need to know those things. I also need to recruit for these assignments.

You’ve seen an indoor playground? Where you scale wall but there’s a rope with you. So, there’s only so much that you can go to, the height is defined for you. It’s six feet, not more. Start-ups are almost like, I have this …feet scale, and there are no safety nets

You know I have seen my share of ups and downs. You know, the biggest difference with the corporate environment is that in a corporate environment, your risk… is buffered, there is only so much that can go wrong, and there is a team surrounding you. You’ve seen an indoor playground? Where you scale wall but there’s a rope with you. So, there’s only so much that you can go to, the height is defined for you. It’s six feet, not more. Start-ups are almost like, I have this …feet scale, and there are no safety nets and I’m climbing and there are other people that I have managed to convince to climb with me and I have to constantly tell them that “hey, the view from the top is fantastic”. I have to motivate them because they can’t see anything else, they can just see, you know, here. I have vision to go to the top. But there is no safety net, so I have to make sure that they are also climbing together with me for that view. And when you get there, you realise, okay, that’s only step one. There are 500 more steps to go. So this constant motivation for the other as well as knowing that there is huge risk because there is my life’s savings into this, there’s other people’s money into this. Yeah, it is scary, but it is also fun! That’s why we’re doing it right?

The higher the risk, the higher the reward.

Any uncertainty is a risk. The higher the uncertainty gets, that’s risk, right? The higher the risk, the higher the reward. That’s the usual relationship. …There is no such thing as bad weather, it’s only bad clothing. So there is no such thing as unforeseen risk, if you’re aware of what the risks are – I know what the risks are in this business, I know the barriers to entry and... I know hat the risks are, and I have told my investors as well: these are the risks, this is the way we’ll mitigate them and this is how we’ll manage them. So as long as I can manage these risks, as long as I can anticipate them… I know that things will go wrong, I have budgeted for it. I will not lose sleep over it. A few hours maybe, but not the whole night at least!. You cannot control things … but if you can understand what you’re getting into, you will have a plan to manage those risks. Be aware of what will go wrong. Things will go wrong. 110%. Every day, I know that something will come out as a fire, I will need to put it out. I have that mind-set already. Right? Each day, there is something terrible which we hadn’t foreseen, which … So yesterday we discovered that the security of the API that we had written is really really bad. So we need somebody to come and help us out with our security because otherwise somebody can come and mess with the site. I know that something will keep happening every day, I need to budget a certain portion of my day to just deal with it, and be ok with it. Had I been the same way 10 years back? No. I would have been like “Oh my god, oh my god, what do I do!” Now, I know, something or the other will keep coming up, keep walking, it’s okay.

If you’re unsure of something then try and test it, and in the digital world it’s so easy. Test it out. If you don’t know the answer, know.

Don’t be afraid of taking risks. The organisations are scared of taking risks. Again, what are risks? Things you haven’t done before. If you can find a way to do small…. In P&G there was a small budget allocated for test and…. Projects. I would say, that is the way to go. If you’re unsure of something then try and test it, and in the digital world it’s so easy. Test it out. If you don’t know the answer, know. Have hypothesis, you know? This is the way the situation could plan out. If you can think through those situations. You will feel more in control. If it’s option A, I will to x, y, z; option B, this is what I will do. At least, you will be clear in your mind. Often, why do people go for experienced people? Because they have seen certain situations, they will not panic, they will know what to do. Experience is about pattern recognising. I have encountered this situation before, this is what had worked, let’s try this approach. It’s simply just that, nothing more. So, for the young people: first gain some experience, try and understand what has been done before. Don’t dismiss it all. First understand the current dynamic, then if you want to go ahead and completely demolish it. And you have to gain a little bit of credibility in the organisation to be able to say “this is not the right way", you can’t just say “I feel so, I dreamt of it this way”. People won’t give in to that. In organisations, people will allow you to take risks once they have seen you deliver certain things, you have, say, a little bit of track record and you have done you’re due diligence. You’re not just coming on day one, saying okay change this. You have to have a little bit of credibility. But yes, for sure, take risks. If you don’t take risks while you’re young and you have little to lose, how will you take risks when you have a lot to lose? It’s like getting married, at what point to you say that: I’m ready? You just know. It’s literally just that, there is no perfect time (to start your company), there won’t be a bell in your brain that goes “bing”. When I quit, I quit because I don’t think I was learning as much as I was 5 years back. Every aspects of the jobs will have effects on you, some things that you’ll manage, some things that you’ll love, that will get you out of bed every morning and some things that you'll hate. It’s like a pie chart, when that the positive isn't big enough, you change because, "yeah it’s paying me a good salary but at the end of the day, I want more". The reason I could also take that huge risk (quit and start my own company) was that we’re a two career couple. My husband could say: "okay fine, let me soldier on for the next few years, because your salary will be inexistent". You need to have a financial net. So if you’ve worked for a few years, you have some savings so on and so forth. But if you just go foolishly into something, within a year you would have burnt out everything. You need to have some sense of the real world: you have to eat, to sleep somewhere. Financial considerations. Would I have done this five-years back? In hindsight, I should have. Because that is when I had the idea, but I let it be because certain situations where not right. Even when I quit in 2015, things were not all right, I was expecting my second child. So then I was working on this with a baby. There is not a right time and a wrong time. When you have to do it, you have to do it.

Yes, for sure, take risks. If you don’t take risks while you’re young and you have little to lose, how will you take risks when you have a lot to lose?

Discover Sumedha Koche's start-up: https://mykinderpass.com/

Next interview: Edith Keller, CEO of Carlin Creative