Survival Tips For Start-ups: Taking A Leaf Out Of Bear Grylls’ Book

In his series titled “Man vs. Wild”, globe-trotting adventurer and wildlife enthusiast Bear Grylls demonstrates unusual techniques of survival while stranded in tough environments.

These environments are either wholly unfamiliar for people or different from the ones they operate in. People are usually unprepared to handle the challenges posed by such hostile environments. Bear Grylls provides survival tips that come in handy to tide over such unplanned scenarios.

COVID-19 has pushed the start-up world into a similar type of chaos. Start-ups at different stages of their lifecycle are facing the heat. The magnitude of this extraordinary event has brought into question the very survival of these businesses and their strategies. This event is one of its kind in the past 100 years or more and has caught the start-up world off-guard.

COVID-19 has bought the world down to its knees with almost simultaneous impact across multiple countries in the form of unprecedented lockdowns imposed by governments, numerous fatalities, disrupted businesses, and job losses. The fact that global economies are no longer disconnected has added to the strain.

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Also sadly, to battle this chaos, start-ups have no precedence to follow and no book they can refer to. All they have are some words of wisdom from experts that further add to the commotion. For the start-up world, these challenging times can have a massive impact on their businesses and ultimately, their survival. Let us draw some parallels from Bear Grylls’ advice on survival in tough conditions.

Preserve your supplies: Preserve cash and push the run-way further

In times of crisis, Bear makes the most of his limited supplies and preserves them for the unforeseen future. In this time where start-ups do not know when the tide will recede, they should take note of the following pointers:

Preserve cash; liquidity will be at a premium in the short to medium term;

Put any extravagant expenses like moving into a new office on hold;

Go slow on hiring and recruit employees who can multi-task—a finance person, for example, who understands marketing;

Push the run-way to at least 2x times (3 months to 6 months, from 6 to 12 months, and so on);

Re-negotiate your contracts with suppliers and vendors because your customers are bound to re-negotiate with you!

Tread cautiously on cash-backs and points-based rewards, among others;

Drop the idea of launching products that need substantial research and incur high costs of development. Go for products that need only incremental spends, instead;

Go with the adage “equity for Capex, debt for opex and working capital.” However, for smaller start-ups, equity may be the only option. Besides, many start-ups lack clear rules around equity or debt, since money is anyways fungible;

Do not stock up on inventory as this locks up capital. Re-orient processes to reduce the working capital gap;

Build strategies based on the analysis of risk-based scenarios.

 Any water is better than no water: Look for funding from any source—institutional or individual

You would have seen Bear looking for all possible sources of potable water, which is a life-saving element in times of distress. Similarly, start-ups need to keep an eye out for any possible source of funding. It is common knowledge that funding sources will dry up, at least in the short term, since most investors are worried about their portfolios and will prefer to wait and watch. Moreover, first loss default guarantees (FLDGs) from banks or NBFCs would be nearing the 100% mark, which would make lives tough for lending start-ups. Here are some ways to keep hydrated:

Look for impact investors;

Try to secure small amounts from multiple sources;

Explore crowdfunding opportunities—mainly for social sector start-ups;

Look for individual investors – including family and friends (but be aware of the social implications of this route which may include reduced control, nepotism, buy from specific suppliers, and if all goes wrong, los