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Dave Lukas Chats with Dinesh K

29: Secrets of a Serial Investor with Dinesh K

In this episode, Dave is excited to welcome Dinesh Kandanchatha . Dinesh is a serial entrepreneur, consultant, and investor. He has built over 13 businesses and exited 3 of them – one for over $200 million, and has built an extensive global network that he uses to help entrepreneurs grow their businesses.

As Dinesh will tell you, he initially went to university for sciences, which lead him to a career in software. It wasn’t long before he realized that his pay would hit a ceiling. You might say that the reason he got into business was the money. He saw the sales guys driving Porsche's and Jaguars—and wanted in. Little did he know that his passions were in unlocking a business' potential, which goes far beyond the sale.

A big lesson he learned in the early days is that money is a measure of the value you create for customers, not an outcome. An MBA later, and after PHD from the school of “hard knocks,” Dinesh has been able to create a ton of value with some amazing entrepreneurs throughout the world.

www.dineshk.com

Connect with Dinesh on LinkedIn

Clarity.fm/dineshkatwork

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Show Notes

Dinesh started out in the sciences following a typical route of going to be a doctor. But decided to do something that no one in his family had done which is go into business and entrepreneurship. As he says, he was blessed to be able to live his passion as his job.

His first business was huge success that was quickly built into 7 figures and he was able to exit through a purchase. He then had a few startups that did not pan out before starting his most successful business which was bought by a larger competitor for over $200 million in 2010.

Since 2010 he has been doing investments and advisory to early stage companies helping them scale and position themselves for success.

Biggest challenges small and mid-size businesses have?

Biggest challenge is the business being centered around the founder and being the “Chief, Cook, and Bottle Washer” which gets owners into a habit of crisis management that consumes their time – this presents a problem in trying to scale.
Business owners not strategically buying themselves the time because that time is critical to being able to scale and grow.

As Dinesh says’ there is no magic bullet in changing the role of a founder to give them the time they need, but he does discuss how important it is to have a schedule and daily plan that allows for that time. He suggested asking “why?” Asking why you do things the way you do. Asking why things are working the ways they are. The key is to not provide the solution at this time, but to ask the open question and then figure out how you can leverage those around you to help create the solution. Dinesh recommends just an hour a day 5 days a week, but the results can be massive.

Dinesh’s Advice for Growth Hacking and Growing Sales:

Everyone uses a “playbook” for sales and the industry uses the same one. Your prospects have seen that time and time again.
You have to decide what is your business and what is your value – where are you truly unique?
Triple digit growth comes from really identifying your value and shrinking your market to focus on being the only solution to bring the value to the clients that are really focused on that need. (Blue Ocean Strategy)
Once you find this…go all in focused and dominate

As the 18 min mark, Dinesh gives his thoughts on how to get off the fast start and good start to the year as an entrepreneur:

Start doing a quarterly report card
- Do a spend analysis of your expenses for the previous year and each quarter
- Look for things that you may not need or that you are spending too much on. Dinesh specifically has a rule to scrutinize anything that is 5% or more of your expenses.
- Grade these expenses as A, B, or C.
  - Did the expense generate an A, B, or C result? Did it generate the result intended?
  - Anything that is a C, you need to ask if there is something you can do about it or just stop doing it. Most often, C’s need to be stopped and you need the discipline to do it
  - B’s – give yourself 90 days to make it an A and plan (Why, what, how)
  - A’s – invest more in. Take the money saved from getting rid of the C’s and use it toward the A’s.
- This exercise will give you a clear view going into any year or quarter with what you need to do.

At the 24 min mark, Dinesh talks about raising capital, busts a lot of myths you may have been taught, and what entrepreneurs should know.

At the 28 min mark, Dinesh talks about what entrepreneurs should know when exiting a business.

“Exiting is the translation of value that you have created over the life of the business”
You need to think about exiting during the life of business and start with the end in mind. Who would the asset be valuable to? And at what time in the lifecycle of the business?
Run the business like you are never going to sell it, but always build it to be sold.

At the 33 min mark, Dinesh talks about how to manage a fast growing business and cashflow to keep it growing.
“Cash is king. And if you have to sacrifice growth for cash, sacrifice it.”

At the 36 min mark, Dinesh gives advice for those just starting out and great general advice for anyone

Best Quote

Tweet This: “Run the business like you are never going to sell it, but always build it to be sold.”

Just because someone tells you something is true, doesn’t mean it is or true for you. You are going to hear a lot of things in your journey – don’t just take them for granted and ask for what you want

It will always take longer than what you think. Embrace this.

As long as believe in it, it is possible. It may not happen the way you thought it would, but it is possible. Be prepared to pivot, but don’t pivot on your core idea.

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