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𝗔𝗱𝘃𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗴 𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗲𝘂𝗿𝘀 - 𝟲 Cash flow is underestimated by most people - the amount of cash flow. If it is possible, be a little overcapitalized. There are lot of CEOs who are good product guys, they are great operations guys. But they don't know finance at all. In times of adversities, these are the people who suffer the most. I think being financially savvy is a required part of the business. Never have equal partners. You start off as equals, but then one does more, one does less, one is the public face, the other is not, and then slowly the whole thing disintegrates. I have witnessed it happen in my family between my father and uncles, and with many other partnerships as well. So there should be a 'first among equals', who has a slightly higher equity share. That's what Mr Narayana Murthy advised us and that's what I advise my clients now. Also, there shouldn't be too many partners. When we started off, we were supposed to be five people in the company - Venkat, I and three others. But the other three did not join and I think that was a good thing to happen because five people would have been difficult to manage if the environment became hostile. These days I advise people - two or four partners is okay, but ideally not more than four. The only other thing that I would like to add is that have the staying power, the emotional staying power. Business will not be as per what you had planned, there are going to be hardships. I have seen a lot of businesses close up because after a lot of hardships, at that key point (like the third year which was the worst year), we never thought, "Oh, is it worth it?" We just kept going on. But if you are working at Hindustan Lever or any such organisation, worried about status, worried about the house in south Bombay and all that, the choice is then very tough. I think the loss of status is what really hurts. 𝘽𝙮 𝙍𝙖𝙨𝙝𝙚𝙨𝙝 𝙎𝙝𝙖𝙝 / 𝙀𝙙𝙚𝙡𝙬𝙚𝙞𝙨𝙨 𝘾𝙖𝙥𝙞𝙩𝙖𝙡