Entrepreneurship juices flow amid a booming job market

After working with consulting firm McKinsey for two years, Stanford graduate Prashant Tandon, quit his well paying job to start his own venture, Health Chakra, which provides technology tools for better healthcare delivery, in January this year.

Tandon was influenced by the entrepreneurial atmosphere at the Silicon Valley and wanted to do something on his own.

Likewise, Bangalore-based Rajesh Kamra also quit his job as a strategy analyst with HSBC some time ago, to start his e-commerce venture, Koovs.com, in November last year.

Like Kamra and Tandon, Nikhil Vohra (name changed) is another professional out to make a transition from a stable career with multinationals like Microsoft and Yahoo by joining a start-up.

This trend of professionals quitting jobs with MNCs to either start something on their own or join a start-up is gaining momentum in the last few months, say human resource consulting experts.

“With the economy taking a turn for the better, the risk taking ability among professionals has been rekindled. Since December-January, this trend has increased,” says Bhupesh Gupta, director, Krizalis Management Consulting, an executive search firm in Bangalore, adding that in 2008-09, people were only concentrating on how to hold onto their existing jobs.

As the job market is booming again, it provides the much needed emotional succour in case the start-up falters, says Gaurav Singh Kushwaha, co-founder of Chakpak Media, an entertainment website, which he started sometime ago, after quitting his job with Amazon.

“Suppose a venture fails to take off as expected, professionals who have prior experience of working with MNCs will surely find good jobs, now that hiring is back on track,” says Kushwaha.

The market and consumers are also now more ready to accept new business ideas, says Kamra.

When the advantages of working with a start-up are just too many to ignore, professionals can’t help but be a part of them, says Vohra. “Unlike working for an MNC, which brings with it a relatively stable career, long-term growth, etc, with start-ups you can learn more and get faster growth opportunity.”

Furthermore, with a start-up, not only is there more exposure, but an individual starts understanding the pulse of the entire market, customer base, complete product profile, etc, says Kushwaha.

“With an MNC, you tend to concentrate only on your area of operation. But in a newly formed venture, you have to keep track of everything and this makes you a whole lot confident.”

Moreover, after reaching a certain stage in a career, there emerges a need for self-actualisation and doing things the person is passionate about, thereby giving shape to entrepreneurial ideas, says Ronesh Puri, managing director of Executive Access, an executive search firm in New Delhi.