Memoirs of a (Startup) Sales Guy
Sometime in May 2015, the 10th employee of Blowhorn had joined the team. It was a scary feeling for me as I had left a structured organization (the French railways), and joined a startup into intra city logistics.
Friends and relatives played devil’s advocate and came up with questions like — What if they fail, what if salaries don’t get paid on time, and many more similar questions were poised. Undoubtedly, it was a scary thought, and the pressure of EMI’s was like a dark cloud looming.
Had to be true to myself, I am a sales guy and more so a go-getter, so it removes the fear of whether I could deliver the goods, I knew I could, and I knew over time I will recruit similar folks who will work with me to deliver these numbers. That made me take the plunge! I had joined the company when we were already a force to reckon within the C2C segment, people would ‘Just Blowhorn’ when they had to move houses, we were at a late-6 digit figure of revenue per month. The CEO and by then friend, Mithun had told me about the vision and what he hopes to achieve over a piping hot cup of coffee, having said all this he handed me the reins of the company — His Baby.
Just a couple of days later, I was woken up by a few pings, around 1.30 am, and wondered what the urgency was. I was in a group called BH CORE TEAM (on Whatsapp); wow things just got real. I was loving the pace at which these blokes were working and I knew I am going to love this place. I knew the company had a whole lot entrusted on my team’s shoulders and we had to deliver. Thanked all the ‘welcome to the team’ messages and went back to catch up on my sleep.
Next morning I had my game face on, I knew we needed to build this empire and at that pace, it was a feeling anyone would love waking up to. The rest like they say is history.
As I go back today on the 3 years that I worked with the enterprise team, I take pride in saying that we have achieved a great feat. The BH team is now 190 members, we are present in 5 cities, we run 1000’s of trucks daily and we have been associated with a lot of big names in e-commerce, grocery, furniture, logistics market, etc. We took baby steps then, and now we are taking massive leaps. There is a sense of satisfaction to hear customers calling us and asking us to deploy vehicles.
We went from the 6-digit to the 8-digit revenue figures per month (in just over 3 years), we had seen it all. We have seen rejections, hardships, the moment of fame, being recognized by a regular truck vendor when the boys said that they represent Blowhorn. This is what all of us had planned to achieve for the company and this is what we wanted to build. Today, Blowhorn is a force to reckon with, and I can proudly go back to my friends and relatives, and ask them, if they still have those fears! Take the plunge if you believe in yourself and the rest will be what fables are written about.
As we communicate now, I have decided to hang in my boots and work on new things, new ventures and look at adding value to someplace else. I am leaving behind my legacy and, I am proud of what my team and I have achieved. We helped when no one knew about the company, we sold the company’s value proposition when nobody heard about us, or even wanted to try us. I am leaving behind a stable company and I can handover the reins to someone who is as passionate and as hungry as I am to achieve the next wave. I am taking memories with me — of hiring folks, hunting for vehicles, managing the Diwali Sale, sleeping at 3 am and waking up at 6 am to ensure that vehicles report on time, making connections with an UBER/OLA driver to find if any of his contacts drove or owned a TATA Ace.
I leave as the first class of Blowhorn, I will be remembered as the risk taker and the man who set the foundations for years to come. If anyone asks me whether I will join a start up again, HELL YES!
Signing off by “tweaking” what I recently read somewhere:
“I don’t regret giving all I had and in a way bidding adieu is my last contribution. I’ll be cheering for BLOWHORN on knowing I did my part. Thanks for the years of memories!”
Sumith Koshy
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