Learning to be positive about failure

Tell us about your entrepreneurial pursuits.

While still in university, I started a dry fish business with a few of my friends. I come from Cox's Bazar where there are fishermen who produce dry fish but don't have much access to the market here in Dhaka. So we were trying to solve that problem.

After graduating, I worked for Bangladesh Brand Forum and later New Vision Group. In between everything, I was working on Future Startup. But back then it was only a blog without a business plan that aimed at giving people better information on business and entrepreneurship. 

So how successful has Future Startup been?

Future Startup is more of an online media startup and as we didn't have a business plan on it at the start, we are redesigning it with a defined business plan this year. So I would say we still have a long way to go in terms of success. Last year we started to raise funds to take Future Startup to the next level and since the beginning of this year we've been working on it to make it a successful business.

What is your business model to generate revenue?

Firstly, we produce paid content, also called content marketing. We are trying to understand the young people of Bangladesh and their taste for content and give that to them.

In addition, we're looking to generate content for brands and startups. For instance, we are currently working with Ispahani Mirzapore Tea. They support our interview series and are credited on our website.

Other than that we hold events where we connect entrepreneurs, investors and different companies. We are not generating revenue from them at the moment, but we have plans to do so.

You wrote a book named Rethinking Failure, which came out last February. Tell us about it.

It's an anthology of interviews of entrepreneurs of our country. There are 12 interviews and the last part is about failure and understanding. The reason I thought we need a book on failure is because there are lots of book on failure, but there aren't many from the perspective of our country.

We have the perception that once you've failed, you're done for. Failure isn't an essential, but if you're going to start a business, or a company or a non-profit, you're going to fail at different points. So we need to have the mindset to take it as something positive. At the same time, we need to give people role models from our country to look up to and take lessons from. I wanted to contribute to changing the mindset of this society.

Who are the content writers and contributors in your website and how do you recruit them?

At Future Startup, we always try to put up quality content. So hiring the right people is one of the pains you have to take, especially when you are a startup like us and can't pay employees as much. Right now we have a team of five people who write for us, made up of interns and full-timers. Our internship is open all year. We take in write-ups from a entrepreneurs and contributors as well.

Entrepreneurs have a very busy life. During the growth phase of their startups, they need to put in a lot of time and thought, which makes their relationships suffer. How do you manage these ups and downs?

Well a lot of people think that entrepreneurship is a "cool thing to do". In reality, it's a tough job. You don't only pay yourself, but others as well. I work almost all the time. So the truth is there is no balance. You need to make it work any way you can. Somehow you need to manage time for your family and time for them and work on your business at the same time.