Entrepreneurship can be both rewarding and frustrating

Meet Muthu Singaram, Founder, VibaZone, and the author of ‘Entrepreneurship: A hands-on guide to starting your business,’ a new book published by Vijay Nicole Imprints.

‘Viba,’ as his card explains, is ‘Virtual International Business Accelerator,’ and Muthu describes himself as the Chief VibaZoner. “We have operations in Malaysia, Singapore, Canada, and India and we are in the process of expanding to the US and Eastern Europe,” announces www.vibazone.com. And, it poses a series of questions: “Are you a researcher with patents you would like to commercialise? Are you an entrepreneur looking to work on innovative solutions? Are you a venture capitalist looking for the next big idea to invest in? Are you an expert in the commercialisation processes and would like to provide your services?”

During my interaction with Muthu, however, it is my turn to ask him a few questions, over a cup of coffee. So, here we go.

First, what is your new book about, Muthu?

The book is a practical approach given by a practising entrepreneur. It is divided into six parts. The first part identifies how entrepreneurs are made, the second demonstrates how to build the venture, the third explains what drives an entrepreneur, the fourth helps you to plan and move your venture, and the fifth tells how entrepreneurs can benefit from technology, and the sixth, essential tools.

This book can be read as a whole or the reader can choose to read just several chapters depending on the requirement. The whole book can be read within a few days as it is written in a way to enable the reader to understand and remember to apply the learning.

Entrepreneurship is both rewarding and frustrating. This book takes the reader through the different stages the entrepreneur will need to travel in the journey of entrepreneurship.

The purpose of putting this in writing is to give other budding entrepreneurs a head start which many of us did not have when we started our journey. If you find this a useful book, please share with others and also give us your feedback so we can improve on this.

What is the story of VibaZone?

VibaZone focuses on commercialisation and innovation services and support. It provides on-the-ground consulting for a wide range of companies, organisations, and governments seeking to increase their commercialisation and innovation activities. We are also building a web portal, VibaZone.com, which will provide services, knowledge, and opportunities for innovators of all sizes, from major multinational corporations to lone “garage” innovators.

In a rapidly interconnected and modernising world, intense competition from various countries and companies is creating an environment in which innovation is becoming essential for prosperity, if not survival. Now, more than ever before, companies must produce innovative products and services with winners, such as Apple, reaping massive profits, while losers, such as Motorola, are being increasingly pushed from the market.

Public policymakers have also taken notice, with numerous national governments around the world now working to build national innovation ecosystems. These various developments are creating a huge demand for services to support and empower innovation, and VibaZone is stepping into the gap to fill this demand.

While there are a few clear leaders in the field of innovation, every country has its own innovation and commercialisation ecosystem. Our long-term goal is to be established as the worldwide leader in innovation and commercialisation management, with offices in every key region. Further, via our online web platform we will aim to connect innovators, funders, companies, governments, universities, angel investors and other stakeholders across the globe.

The vision is to help and guide entrepreneurs, or anyone who wishes to participate in, build, or grow a sustainable business in any part of the world or industry. And the mission is to serve the many innovators, entrepreneurs and budding inventors, and to provide a new game-changing dynamic support to sustain the business growth.

The India opportunity, as you see it.

I am a third-generation Indian living in Malaysia but have always found India a fascinating place. So I have been coming to India since I was eleven every year to visit my grandmother. I used to get sick almost the day I landed, and would be sick for the entire period, but that did not stop me from coming. Both my parents and grandmother were delighted because I was the only one from our family who would do this every year.

I got married in Chennai. My visits to Chennai continued, because my wife’s family was here. I started to teach entrepreneurs in India and by doing this I started to get to know a lot people. About 6 years ago, we decided to move to India as we have many things going on in India. We find India a great place for doing new startups, and hence both my wife and I are involved in several startups in India.

We would encourage young Indians to start in India, make India a greater place to live in; it has so much to offer. Our kids now do not even want to move out; our eldest son is now ready to go to college in India next summer.