HYDERABAD: It is that time of the year when most of the IT employees begin to wind down for the holidays ahead. Not so for the start-up community, at least this year. Most of them are as occupied as ever, staring at new deadlines coming up fast as the New Year approaches. Their counterparts in the Hyderabad IT Corridor though are all immersed into Christmas-New Year partying.
Much of it has to do with funds crunch. Typically, start-ups tend to run out of cash way faster than others. Often, entrepreneurs have to perforce get back to convincing investors to raise capital, almost as if in a cycle. Says Startup Cricket League (SCL) founder Sai Kiran Gunda, “Unlike big IT companies where year-end is time to relax a bit and celebrate, start-ups have to go by their financial health and the prevailing situation. Not all start-ups have deep pockets to spend on celebrations. So they need to be cost-conscious about every rupee they spend. At SCL, we have planned a gathering where we will share food and the good vibes.”
Start-ups by intrinsic design happen to do things differently and in keeping with their strengths. They prefer to first stay low-profile, divert the earnings towards competitive salaries for members until they reach breakeven and eventually profitable. Since the teams are small, everyone knows everybody else and do not need to have extravagant office parties to network within the set-up.
Another start-up founder in the city said, “I never given much thought to year-end celebrations. It may be a bad HR strategy, but every entrepreneur has his/her own strategy to build a business. Currently, a lot of entrepreneurs are facing cash flow issues. To keep ourselves going is itself quite a feat for start-ups these days. But we like doing it, so it is also a fête, a celebration in that sense.”
Some big start-ups like DocOnline are trying to surprise their employees and keep them engaged ahead of New Year. Pranab Mishra, senior HR manager in the company, says, “We celebrate Christmas for three full days as part of an HR initiative and along the lines of the IT industry. A surprise ball announcement for our employees this year was a hike effective from January 2018.”
